Monday Motivation: I Am Not a Failure

"Any man who keeps working is not a failure. He may not be a great writer, but if he applies the old-fashioned virtues of hard, constant labor, he’ll eventually make some kind of career for himself as writer."

Ray Bradbury

I am not a failure!
I write something everyday.
Everyday I say a prayer
and I read a store or poem.

Each day is a struggle
against the darkness
that threatens to overtake,
against the voices of self-doubt,
and against the fear
that attempts to steal
my sense of security.

I am not a failure
because each day
I march forward toward the light
that hides beyond the fog
of today.

I am not a failure
because I continue to proclaim
the name of the Lord.

I am not a failure
because I continue to write
upon the tablet of my spirit
both words and deeds.

I am not a failure! I may not always make my word count goal, but I continue to try. I continue to write poetry and stories. Sometimes I have to look closely at the grammar and the word use because I think faster then I type, but that is the reason I edit and rewrite. As long as I move forward I cannot fail because movement is progress and progress is success.

I am not a failure! Sometimes the darkness of depression overcomes and pushes me down. I will not remain depressed or down because I will rise above the depression simply by writing about the darkness. I write dark letters on a white page; I am working with the negative of light letters on a dark page.

Not for the Faint of Heart: A poem about writing

"My stories run up and bite me on the leg - I respond by writing down everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off."
Ray Bradbury

Writing
a day long journey
not for the fain of heart.

Somewhere
between morning dishes
and afternoon laundry
the muse attacks
distracts
whispering sweet plots
to my ears.

The story line
is too intriguing
to stop
for anything except
black coffee.

I sigh
knowing
I still have laundry
to lug to the laundromat,
but midnight
is not time to leave the apartment
unescorted by my muse;
who insists
that I remain
until the chapter is finished
and the protagonist
meets the antagonist
on the battle field.

Where do Writing ideas come from?

My stories run up and bite me on the leg -I respond
by writing down everything that goes on during the bite.

When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off.

Ray Bradbury

  Sometime I wish my stories or poems would bit me on the leg because lately they've been hiding from me. On February 1, I started to write a poem about spiritual liberty, it took me seven days to finally come up with the first lines. Even then, the first two lines I wrote were from a poem I started several years ago. After I got the first rhyming couple down, then the other six lines came to me. After that, I changed the lines that didn't fit in the poem.

I have the idea for a story peeking out of the back of my mind, but every time I focus on it the idea runs away and hides. I'm not sure whether it will be a fantasy or science fiction story, the only thing I'm sure about is that it has something to do with the weird noises a house or apartment make when I'm the only one living there. I got the idea when I was living in the house before I moved to this apartment.

Perhaps it's a ghost story I'm attempting to write. The sounds could suggest a ghost rather then just the house or the apartment settling. Some of the noises I hear don't sound like a building settling on its foundations. Most of the noises I can explain as water running through the pipes or the neighbors, but a few of the other noises I'm not sure what's making them. That was the problem I encountered when I was living in the house.

I know the noise of a refrigerator running or an environmental unit kicking on, but some of the knocks and bangs stump me. Especially when they come from an empty room or the three-bedroom apartment to my east. It's empty, so noises shouldn't be coming from that direction; however, they do. Maybe the noises are ideas knocking at the door of my mind asking to come in.