WHAT'S YOUR IDEA OF A "DREAM" WRITER'S HOUSE?

Dream big – what’s your idea of a dream home for a writer?

Here is my short list:

1. To recharge, we need to be able to connect with nature. Ideally, I’d love to conquer writer’s block by taking a walk in the woods. Other writers might prefer a walk on the beach, a hike in the mountains, or apartment patio gardening.
2. A large tub with whirlpool jets to soak our aching backs would be great. Doesn’t that sound great after a writing marathon?
3. A room or a “suite” that is separate from the rest of the house would help us write with more focus. This could be a large den on the second floor with windows so that the writer can gaze at the setting sun on tree tops. High above the world, he can hone his craft.
4. Sell us a house with interesting designs, provenance, or ghosts. We will incorporate the house into our writing. Haunted house, anyone? What a fun writing prompt that would be!
5. Writers tend to go into hibernation at times, so if the house had a good security system, we could keep solicitors and mothers-in-law from intruding.
6. One room has to be a library, or at least one wall should be earmarked for shelves. Writers are readers.
Writers, what features would your dream house have? Does the right environment help you overcome writer’s block?  I’d love to hear your ideas.
Keep writing & keep sharing! – Cronin Detzz

POEM: ANGRY JACKET

ANGRY JACKET

photo by Cronin Detzz

wearing your jacket of anger
deploying your umbrella of denial
carrying a briefcase of shame
trudging to work with a stiffened smile

You smother your feelings
with your thermos of hatred
drinking it lustily as it burns your tongue

wondering when, exactly, life slipped sideways
This wasn't how it was supposed to be

Slip on your leaden shoes
and drag your heartache around
scream inside your head
until you are deafened to love's sound
Or
Draw the bows from your quiver
aim at your traumatic past
and finally kill your demons

Burn your angry jacket
in the bonfire of vanities

Wear rose colored glasses
and peer into tomorrow
see it embroidered with possibilities

Until at last
through heart-felt gratitude
you can freely run naked
in the satiny, silky present

-poem by Cronin Detzz, 2013

Pushing the Envelope – New Challenge to Remove Writer’s Block

Sometimes we see poets complaining via social media that they want to write but they feel wrung dry.  This is what we refer to as writer’s block.  We feel an irrepressible need to write, and when our muses are silent, we get aggravated.

Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier, would be proud of this blog.  Chuck Yeager pushed the envelope of supersonic flight and “pushing the envelope” steadily grew into popular phraseology.  Pushing the envelope does not have anything to do with the postal service, rather, it means pushing a mathematical envelope of normal possibilities.

One way that writers tackle writer’s block is through poetry writing prompts.  Personally, many writers will agree that the best poetry writing prompts are the ones that push the envelope of the traditional iambic pentameter.

Using an alchemy of mathematical structures and writing, you can create a fun poetic masterpiece. Remember back in school when you were given a writing assignment with forced structure?  (Yeah, most of us hated that.)  The type of structure we suggest here is akin to cryptology.  Could you write a poem where the first word of each line rhymes?  Could you write a poem of homonyms?

Check out this fun ABC poem, shared with the permission of poet, Eric Musse:

Crazed Word Smithery

Another banished boy
Courageously creatively
Displaying every facetious facet
Gregariously hilariously
Interpreting indiscriminate implemented juxtaposed jurisdictions

Killing lusty lascivious laminated Mesopotamian mentalities
Neutralizing obvious overt possibilities
Quarantining ridiculous responding superficial Sumerian scleras
Seeking torturous time travel tendencies
Underlying viciously vacuous violent wizard-line youthful Zohar zealots.
-          Eric Musse (c) 2013

Thank you, Eric Musse and Chuck Yeager, for reminding us to continue pushing the envelope.

Keep writing and keep sharing!
Cronin Detzz