Confluence & Ode to My Muscles

Image description: A young woman seen from behind, clutching the top of her head. The muscles of her back are strained and ridges of her spine visible. From Pixabay.

I'm taking a break from Kevarya this week to showcase some recently rediscovered poetry from 2015. It's somewhat hard to believe that three years have passed since I wrote these, but in a way, it makes sense, since they had started to fade from my memory.

Both poems deal with the relationship between mind and body, exploring both the positive and negative sides of physical awareness. Confluence contains references to characters you may recognize from other posts, while Ode to My Muscles deals with a topic I've rarely touched upon here: my experience as a disabled person.

So, without further ado, here's...

Confluence &

Ode to My Muscles

New Interview! With Jordan Villegas

Image from http://themugcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/stock-footage-microphone-stage-view-of-microphone-shallow-dof.jpg, courtesy of the Google Machine.

Hello, all! So, a lovely teen author named Jordan Villegas (whom I met at the 2015 Alpha SF/F/H Workshop for Young Writers) did an interview with me! Be sure to check it out, and stick around for the rest of the weekly interviews he'll be posting!

Learn what stories I'm working on, what books I'm reading, what I'd like my tombstone to say, and what exactly it would take to turn me into a Machiavellian mind-reading supervillain... with a conscience. (Hint: it's not much.)

So without further ado, I present to you...

teens who are awesome (and maybe also write):
Interview with Amanda Grace Shu

Listen

From http://www.cultbox.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Doctor-Who-Listen2.jpg, courtesy of the Google Machine. 'Tis a screenshot from the inspirationally well-written Doctor Who episode with which this essay shares its title.

I rarely write personal essays, and when one is assigned despite my protests, I make a conscious effort to write more about others--or, better yet, abstract concepts--than I do about myself. I don't know why, other that I'm a very private person. And yet, whenever I write about the characters I've created, or about the writing process in general, the resulting essay reveals more about me than I ever intended.

That's what ended up happening with this essay, "Listen". I wrote it as part of my college application, which I sent to six colleges, five of which accepted me. The college which I will be attending in the fall started their acceptance letter with a quote from the essay and a note on how deeply it resonated with their admissions staff. My parents' initial reaction was more along the lines of "...that's... different... very you, though." And I have to agree. "Listen" is a meditation on an integral part of my identity; it speaks to an experience that many and yet few share. And it is utterly, undeniably mine.

Enjoy.

Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

Magnetic Poetry

From http://normalteens.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/magnetic-poetry1.jpg.

 As a poet, sometimes it is hard to find the words to express an idea you barely have forming in the back of your head. But sometimes, the words are already given to you, and from there on you can create meaning through arrangement, often yielding unexpectedly beautiful results.

Summary of the above: Poetry magnets are fun.

Magnetic Poetry

"This young electric instrument," created with my Art teacher's poetry magnets.

"His Lordship Drunkard," created with my own Shakespearean poetry magnets. 

Career Goal Report: a pentametric poem in six parts

This, this is just sad. This is the page image for the Occupational Outlook Handbook's article on "How to Become A Writer or Author".  The caption? "Freelance writers may have to manage multiple assignments simultaneously." Gee, is that all?

 As a junior in high school, I get a lot of pressure about what I plan to do with my future. Usually, when the subject of college is brought up, I just pretend to have spontaneously transformed into a cat. However, a "Career Goal Report" was required for Physics class, so I grudgingly did some research about my chosen occupation, the marvelous and wonderful world of creative writing... and turned in this as my report.

Career Goal Report:

a pentametric poem in six parts

Paper Trail

Image shamelessly taken from http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/7106108800/71061088001005/7106108800100500033/6972810-spilled-trash-bin-full-of-crumpled-paper.jpg, courtesy of The Internet, as always.

This post was originally going to be titled "Failed Starts," but I decided to go for something more optimistic. You know why? Because, when I look at all these so-called "failed starts," I can see how all of them lead to each other. Ideas for one story are borrowed from previous drafts, characters and names are reused, even a phrase or repeated word can hop from one crumpled piece of paper to the next without the author even realizing it.


This leads me to the heartening conclusion that no idea ever goes to waste. It just keeps getting recycled, just like the paper that it's written on is supposed to be. Even if a certain plot is thrown completely out of the window because it just won't work, you can bet that something in that draft is perfectly usable. This is the reason why my desk is such a wasteland: that's where I dump most of my written work that hasn't made its way into a happy home yet. I never know when I might need one.


Do you want proof of this amazing recycling process? Alright, here it is.

The Journey of An Idea

Autobiographical Poems

Image taken from http://www.ourcatholicprayers.com/images/Morningsuncrop.jpg, courtesy of The Internet. The picture depicts morning sunlight, the kind that I wish I could wake up to every day.

It's time for a poetry post!

Here are two poems, both written in eighth grade, both results of school assignments, both about creating art, specifically writing, and both autobiographical. Or at least semi-autobiographical. Oddly enough, both of them also have connections to The Hunger Games (a book series which, as you can probably tell by now, I adore): the title of the first, "Mockingjay," references the third book of the series and the fictional creature that book is named after; the second, a work known only as "A pad of yellow paper," has a poetic style similar to an excellent poem, "Brokens," that is a fanfiction of The Hunger Games. I mimicked the style intentionally, and if that offends the author of the fanfiction in any way, then I humbly apologize.

"A pad of yellow paper" was published in the June issue of my middle school's school newspaper.

"Mockingjay" & "A pad of yellow paper"