I slipped outta my skin as
the fog sunk in, swirled
around the buildings, hiding
pasts and peoples. Dreams from
the night before swam
around me and I finally let go.
Tag: writer
A Writer Talks: What’s Happening? War, Politics, and More
There’s been too much going on, from the war in Ukraine to the January 6th Attack Public Hearings, the continual mass shootings, and Roe v. Wade being overturned. I’ve been walking between two worlds of observations; looking at it all play out during moments of accidental disassociation. A writer left with her thoughts and words simmering in the dark violence that thrives.
I need some tea, I need some time, I need silence.
I haven’t written anything for this blog section since April because I’ve been working through everything that’s going on and making some life changes. But I think many of us are.
COVID-19 is still around, and inflation is now the highest it’s ever been in over four decades. And it doesn’t seem to be letting up. What’s next?
Recently, I recognized that what I’ve been feeling is similar to my state of being in March 2020. I’m watching sand castles get obliterated by a raging storm. And there’s this constant feeling of something preternatural churning below the surface around us.
During long, drawn-out days, it all reverberates through me. The whole world seems to be shattering, and I’m overwhelmed by all the battles. My emotions take the wheel, and I’m a wreck of worry, wondering what’s going to happen.
A Writer Slowing Down: Centering Myself and Quitting My Job
I’ve taken time to slow down and reassess what’s important and what needs to change in my life. This past month, I quit my job and pivoted to part-time ones in different fields.
I am working a couple of freelancing gigs; for one, I’m a freelance writer for a company where I craft SEO blog content for B2B and B2C companies. For the other, I’m doing more and more freelance work via Fiverr, and the uptick in orders has been wild. On top of that, I’m prepping for a part-time assistant role to get me out of the apartment and into the city more.
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I realize I’ve been letting stress get the better of me for a few months now, and I can’t afford to let it continue. There’s no point in letting what you can’t control take control of you. But I constantly struggle with this.
All I have are my words and books to get me through this. And at the end of the day, I have to keep writing.
Read My Latest Post About Poetry: How to Come Up With Ideas for Poems in 3 Easy Ways
Chewing On My Words and My Writer’s Mind
A gestation period of some sort. I recognize what this country is going through and what’s happening elsewhere; we are living in an era that won’t be forgotten, and it may be years until there is any kind of “peace.”
Some days, I need to word vomit about it until there’s nothing left. But, the trauma of the last two years has compounded with recent events leaving me hollowed out. So I have to cope.
I’ve been pouring over books, freewriting, and just getting lost trying to keep my mind busy. I can’t ignore what’s happening or how it affects me and everyone else; that’s impossible. But, I need small moments of nothingness, of “wasted time,” to reset my mind.
Staying Sane: Reading Poetry and Listening to Music
When times get tough, I only know how to keep it together by doing what I’ve always done: reading, writing, and learning. So here’s what I’ve been absorbing lately.
I’m reading Fog and Light: San Francisco through the Eyes of the Poets Who Live Here. And I’ve already begun putting together my SF July 2022 Spotify playlist.
At the beginning of the month, I finished Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice by Janet Malcolm and wrote a short review on Goodreads. I’m still unsure if I really liked the book or if my skepticism of the couple, specifically Gertrude’s character, was being projected on the book.
These are all fine things, good things I’ve done to keep my mind busy. But there’s no denying that what’s been happening is affecting me.
Thoughts on Roe v. Wade
I’ve been worried about Roe v. Wade being overturned since Trump got into office. And when it finally happened, a numbness swept over me mixed with boiling rage.
With what’s going on, I am lucky I live in California, but I’m devastated. I can’t stop thinking about all the people whose human rights have been stripped across the country. And this is just the beginning.
Now it’s a countdown until they come after everyone who’s fought to have their voice heard, to be recognized and respected by society. If we don’t stand up for fundamental human rights, the boot will continue to smash us deeper into the ground and closer to hell.
Feeling Less Than but Going on
In this society, I’m considered less than a human being but just a tool to be used by those in power. But this isn’t new, this has always been happening, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to see my rights gradually be stripped away during my life just because I’m a woman.
Joan Didion has been on my mind. Her work in the 60s was revolutionary. Her journalism, style, and voice are still strong, and I keep looking back because now the past feels like it’s come back from the dead. How can I balance writing and having something to say while dealing with the absolute turmoil of what’s going on?
It sucks.
And there’s nothing left to do but to go on. To keep going and see it all through. What I’m writing may warble and show signs of my emotional wear, but it’s the best I can do.
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How to Come Up With Ideas for Poems in 3 Easy Ways
Writing poetry isn’t easy, but I’d say coming up with ideas for poems is even more challenging. Did you know that it can take decades for some poets to write a poem? C.K. Williams once said that writing one of his poems took him 25 years.
I’m not surprised. I have a few poems germinating in a digital file. Sometimes I imagine my poem drafts morphing into gorgeous pieces that blossom like magnolias all on their own, but this is never gonna happen.
Since I have difficulty coming up with ideas, I thought I’d share with you, my fellow poet, the three ways I come up with ideas. Continue reading to learn them and find out how I can help you write poetry.
What Kind of Ideas for Poems Makes “Good” Poetry?
Everyone has their own definition of what makes a poem “good.” I’ve spent a lot of time thinking and reading about the subject, only to find that there are varying interpretations of what “good” is.
Without getting into a cyclical debate on “good” poetry, I’ll say that I think poetry successfully does its job when it strikes an inner cord with the reader. And you’ll also feel this cord struck when ideas for poems suddenly come to you.
An emotional response, a human truth, a relatable scene or moment that digs deeper into what is happening on the surface. The point of poetry is to convey human experience with the bare bones of the language.
When you write poetry, you’re using essential communication tools to convey a profound experience (it doesn’t matter if you’re writing with an audience in mind or not). So, getting into what kind of ideas make good poetry?
We can always say the usual: life, love, and death. Breaking these three essential elements down is easy, and what could be said has been said before. But the point is to write poetry in your unique style and voice because there’s always another way to say the same thing.
The life experience that is unique to you influences your poetry. So, when you think about what kind of ideas are present in “good” poetry, what do you think of first?
3 Ways You Can Come Up With Ideas for Poems
I don’t just use these ways to develop ideas for poems. I also use them to start brainstorming about short story or novel ideas, but those processes have multiple levels. Different parts of my brain shift gears and work in various ways depending on what I’m writing.
On a side note: For me, it’s also crucial to collect words, so when I find words that I’d love to use in poems, I quickly jot them down in a tiny notebook I keep with me.
I hope you find my ways as helpful as I do!
1. Pick an Object Near You
Doesn’t matter where you are. I want you to pick something. It can be mundane, like a window, door, chair, or even a half-eaten meal or cold cup of coffee. Anything will do; the point is to pick an object and write about it.
From here, we can go in any direction we want. What I do is write a long description of the object, going into as much detail as possible. I love describing shapes and colors and will often research particular shades of colors until I find the closest match.
Freewrite, and don’t stop until you feel like you’ve wrung the object dry. Ask yourself, “if someone read my description, could they picture the [object] without seeing it in person?” Once you have that begin stripping it.
Cut out unnecessary words, and chisel the writing down to your absolute favorite parts of it. Take this piece, a very rough draft of a poem, and use this as a baseboard. Start playing with what you have as you think about an idea for your poem.
You’re waiting for pieces to click together in your mind, for connections to be made that jump instantaneously out at you. By giving yourself a starting point, you’ll be able to build the framework of a poem.
2. Using the Five Senses to Come Up With Ideas for Poems
I love using the five senses in my poetry. Mainly, I emphasize sight and sound since these senses are so strongly connected with my memories. I prefer relying heavily on the senses when coming up with ideas because I love imagery poetry.
Take a moment, close your eyes, and slowly think about what your body senses. Go over the five senses: taste, touch, smell, sight, and sound, and really think about what’s happening around you.
Now, write down your observations in detail. Put your writing away for a few minutes. I usually give it five to ten minutes, then reread it and pick out parts that stand out to you.
Take these parts and begin playing with them, put them together, rearrange them, expand or trim them, or build a scene. Once you begin playing with your words, your mind will open up, and the ideas will start coming.
Looking for a book about how to write poetry? I highly recommend Poemcrazy ?
3. Choose a Moment You Experienced This Week
Were you taking out the trash, and the bag broke right before you could put it in the bin? Did you receive a letter from a loved one out of the blue? Or how about you were out walking and saw an interaction between two people that made you pause?
There must be a moment that you have from this week that you can draw from. I love noticing the mundane things like if a product changes the color of its packaging labels or if the same three cigarette butts are in the same spot in a gutter I pass every day as I leave my apartment.
Not very exciting, I know, but there are many moments to think about. And you can write about any moment you want, from what you had for breakfast on Tuesday to how the people restlessly moved while in line at the post office.
Your goal here is to nail down a moment, write about it (you guessed it, in great detail), and then go from there. You’re looking for tiny slices of the human experience outside of yourself that you can dive into.
Write about the world around you, and don’t be afraid to write gibberish. Get all the details down so you can parse through them. I often find that ideas for poems will surface after I analyze my notes.
Ideas Are Everywhere You Just Have to Find Them
I meet a lot of flustered people that are trying to write. Whether they want to write more or get started, most of them don’t have any ideas for poems. Frustrated, they sometimes ask me for help.
Still, I can only say so much because I feel that writing poetry is a personal experience and it’s very easy to find a list of poetry prompts.
So what are the benefits of my three ways to come up with ideas? They work.
I gave up on poetry prompts a while ago because I was tired of trying to write about the same old stuff. I don’t want to write poetry about anything. I want to pinpoint my unique experiences and observations and root my poetry in them.
Your Favorite Creative Writing Mentor
I hope my ways help you come up with ideas for poems. There’s nothing I love more than helping my fellow poets and writers succeed. And I’m always looking for the best books on writing and new resources I can share.
But if you feel like you need some extra help writing poetry or any type of creative writing project you’re working on, I can help. You can book a 90-minute zoom session with me, and I’ll work with you one-on-one as your favorite creative writing mentor.
I’m always open to finding a budget and schedule that works for both of us! ?
Interested? You can learn more about how I’ll be your favorite creative writing mentor and the additional services I offer. Feel free to email me anytime at alinahappyhansenwriter@gmail.com, I can’t wait to connect with you!
Want to read some of my poetry? Check out my Poetry Archives!
Poetry: Expectations vs. Reality
Poetry: the expectations vs. reality has blown my life to bits. As a kid, I dreamed of being the complicated heroine I adored in my books. Spending hours reading and writing my own stories full of monsters and the maybe-good-maybe-not people who’d either side with a monster or kill them with a flip of a coin. Poetry never crossed my mind. Like I’ve said before, I thought it was some high-brow antiquated form of writing that was beyond my ability to understand.
From Novels to Poetry: How Expectations Changed with Reality
But I didn’t realize then that words had something else to give, that poetry would consume me and enliven my soul. Now, I gladly spend my nights pouring myself an ice-cold glass of gin so I can loosen my brain just enough to untwist the words I’ve wrung in my mind all day, hoping that if I do, a poem will tumble out like a rockslide down a mountain.
Poetry: expectations vs. reality? It dropped into my life more than a decade ago and made it even more hellish.
Read some of my poetry HERE.
Growing Up to Find Out I’m a Poet
As I got older, I still lost myself in books. Flipping back and forth between Majors in College, I was torn between music, art, and writing. The words won me over, but honestly, I think I’d still have an unhealthy obsession if I’d chosen one of the other two. And they both still thrive, resurfacing when I get the itch to express in a different medium.
But soon, the expectations I had about what I was going to do would come crashing down thanks to reality.
I used to be a kid haunted by ghost stories, urban myths, and monsters I reckoned were just undiscovered species. Naturally drawn to the darker elements, I found myself enthralled with creatures that represented so much more than just embodied nightmares; they represented society’s fears and tensions between ideologies of the repressors and the oppressed.
Now, I’m haunted by poetry, words, and the invisible threads of communication between us that make life richer and sometimes disastrous.
How Does This Relate to Poetry and My Expectations vs. Reality?
As a poet and writer who’s dabbled in everything from short creative non-fiction to writing a full-length novel, I’ve realized that my expectations were never going to match reality. It was never going to be straightforward.
I thought if I was going to be a writer, I’d either only write short stories or only write novels. I was confused when reality hit, and I knew I was also a poet.
Can I be a poet, too, on top of it all? Why not?
Why not write whatever I want and play with words inside and outside genres and forms. That’s what art is in the end; playing with tools that either create or destroy, wondering if something slightly different will slink out of the water. And sometimes fashioning your own tools that spin the bottle on its head.
Interested in browsing my blog posts about fiction writing? Go HERE.
Poetry: Expectation vs. Reality
I never thought I’d like poetry, and it never crossed my mind that someday I’d be a poet.
The Reality of Being a Poet
I’m neck-deep in poetry books and obsessed with forms. I’ve acquired too many notebooks full of collected phrases and odd words. They glow on the pages like carefully collected paint samples, glossy and matte, in thousands of different shades just waiting to be chosen.
I can’t wait to try new words and create a fresh or dark vision from the scraps I’ve collected over time. Dictionaries and thesauruses have become troves of tools. I can’t get enough of discovering a new symbol that holds a piece of human experience, ready to be reconfigured into a unique mosaic of form and meaning.
Takeaway: I guess life is pretty surprising (when you find out you’re a poet).
Poetry has taught me that words are the most powerful tools on the planet. They can help create civilizations and destroy them. They can connect people and be used as weapons to harm and kill. Following the roots, to write poetry is to be human, to desire a connection with others over shared experiences. To feel the bright burn of emotions and thrive in them.
Poetry: Expectations Dashed by Reality
I’m still not sure sometimes if I can hold my grasp on poetry and if I can keep creating and playing with words with the same fervor that I’ve had for more than ten years. But that’s okay. Because it’s not supposed to be simple or easy; it’s poetry.
Find me elsewhere ? or learn How to Come Up With Ideas for Poems in 3 Easy Ways!
Summer in San Francisco: A Writer’s Second Year
It’s my second summer in San Francisco. The cable car bell dings in a rhythmic pulse, and I hear it grinding as it treks up Powell Street and toward Fisherman’s Wharf. It’s hotter today than the usual sixty-four degrees.
I sit on a rooftop patio and type away on my relic, the AlphaSmart 3000. Three AAA batteries power this twenty-ish-year-old typewriter with a small screen that fits only four lines.
Clack clack clack, “A dream pulls away and shimmers across sunshine, fluttering off into the wind and forgotten forever.”
Another fragment of an abstract poem. Another piece of rubbish. Backspace. No, it’s not that bad for a poem written during a summer in San Francisco.
Second Summer in San Francisco: What I’m Doing
It’s my second summer in San Francisco. My nights are a mix of wandering around downtown at night, visiting the Ferry Building on the weekends for lunch at Gott’s, and aimlessly writing at as many cafes as possible in North Beach, all between the hours when I’m not working or freelancing or entertaining family who come to visit.
Feel free to check out more of my posts about San Francisco?
The middle of days is the hardest to get through when the sun’s high in the sky and I can’t make out a trace of fog near Sutro Tower.
“A body hollowed out. The soul travels across lands and floats, as a spectator, over a sleeping man nestled in a grimy corner of a closed shop.”
Reflecting on San Francisco in the Summer
A pale blue sky creates a contrasting backdrop for the various buildings packed tightly together. The monstrously tall art deco building on Sutter Street houses offices for doctors, dentists, and medical practitioners. Famous hotels (I don’t think I need to name them here) surround Union Square. And an assortment of apartment buildings with their architecture spanning over the last hundred years.
A mosaic of decades, lives, and worlds, neatly woven together in a tapestry that makes this summer day in San Francisco. I revel in the textures, the colors that span from beiges to bloody-copper reds, the light teals, and the sweet warmth of pale pink.
Writing About the City and Creative Non-Fiction
Maybe I’m romanticizing San Francisco a bit this summer. The city, its glamor, and all the history. Perhaps it’s just the ruminations of a snobby solitary writer who’s got nothing better to do than write pure gibberish and call it…writing?
I don’t know. I really don’t. I’m ready to give up tackling creative non-fiction, making parts and pieces of my life a form of reader entertainment. Isn’t it what you’re looking for? A peek inside someone else’s brain, mind, life?
A Southwest Airlines plane streaks overhead. It’s going west, or maybe it’ll make a large circle out of view and head north, south, or even east?
Car horns honk and blare. It’s getting busy down there.
A crow caws and swoops past.
This summer in San Francisco feels different; I’m more comfortable in the city. And my partner and I have our habits; the places we like to go to, the stores, shops, and routines. It felt like home from day one, but now I think we’ve really settled in.
I’ll enjoy this summer, write, read the stack of books piled by the bed, scribble out some poems, maybe a short story, and edit my novel. It’ll be a writer’s summer.
Enjoyed this post? Feel free to read Living in San Francisco: A Writer Reflects on Life or I Love Living in San Francisco: A Writer’s Reflection ? Let me know what you think! Leave a comment below and let’s chat!