Toujours (ce n'est rien)

Picture taken from http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/16900000/girl-and-the-rain-sad-songs-16929572-500-706.jpg. Image depicts a girl in the rain. Whether or not she is sad is up to your interpretation.

A (long) short story written for my new Creative Writing class. It has two titles because I am indecisive. Those titles are in French because that language features rather prominently in this story. 

If you are not familiar with the French language, I have tried to make some things clear from context (except when I want it to be ambiguous for dramatic effect). If you are, c'est magnifique! Hopefully the foreign words will enhance your story-reading experience. Si vous êtes français, bienvenue! Et n'ayez pas peur de corriger mes erreurs!

Why French? ...I don't know. Maybe they're from Canada.

Toujours

(ce n'est rien)

Angels

The Presentation in the Temple by Jean-Baptiste Jouvenet, the painting in the Smith College Museum of Art that hath inspired this poem. It depicts the Biblical story of presentation of Jesus in the temple, with a mournful-looking woman in the lower left-hand corner.

 Another one from my summer at Smith, but a poem this time!

This is one of my favorites from the poetry I wrote at the Smith workshop. We took a field trip to the Smith College Museum of Art and came up with poem ideas based the paintings we saw, then went back to the classroom and wrote them. There are probably twenty other ideas that I wrote down, but this is the only one  that has actually been written (so far).

For some reason, it was ridiculously hard to find an image file on the internet of this painting. 1) Jouvenet painted two "Presentation in the Temple"s, the other of which is more well-known; 2) I had been spelling his name wrong for half of my search; and 3) those that I did find had watermarks on them. But I did find it eventually, so here it is in all its glory.

Enough of my rambling, which is probably longer than the poem itself. Enjoy!

Angels

(after The Presentation in the Temple by Jean-Baptiste Jouvenet)

Flutter By, Butterfly

From http://spiritofsage.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/dlw-reiki_butterfly_hands-9015235_std.jpg. Image depicts hands sending up a butterfly. This was the picture that accompanied To Sing to a Butterfly in the OSC Summer 2012 Reporter.

You may remember from a previous post that my "To Sing to a Butterfly" poem had inspired an in-progress piano prelude by composer Erik Gustafson. Well, that piece of music is complete, and it is absolutely stunning!

Here is the link so that you all can listen to it yourselves:

http://erikmusik.net/ToSingToAButterfly.mp3!

So, let's all have an internet round of applause for Erik Gustafson! To check out more of Erik's wonderful work, visit his website at http://erikmusik.net/.

Moment

Yes, this is me and my brother. From the back, to conceal our identities, obviously.

Make way for memoir! Make way for memoir!

Yes, I have as of recently been exploring the treacherous waters of the nonfiction genre, if by "recently" you mean "in July, at Smith," and have made a wary but definite peace treaty with personal experience writing, if only for a little while. I've actually been meaning to post this for some time, but I couldn't figure out how to get the picture in until today...

Posted to the Teen Ink website August 1st, 2012. And even featured on the front page of the entire Nonfiction section! I have a screencap as proof.

With the little VIP sticker next to my name, no less!

I hope you enjoy it!

Moment

Where the Heart Is

Picture from http://lovesagame.com/wp-content/uploads/love_poem.jpg. Image depicts a very pretty heart-shaped light pattern on a book. In case you couldn't tell.

Another one pulled from the recesses of my computer, although it was written more recently--for a summer writing program at Smith College. One of my very few pieces of realistic contemporary fiction, though I did consider an alternate version with magic involved before realizing it would betray the integrity of the story. Enjoy, and by all means, comment!

Note: contains LGBT romance. If for some reason you're uncomfortable with that, it is certainly your right to have that opinion, but please refrain from starting a flame war on my blog.

Where the Heart Is

Falling Rocks

From http://community.sparknotes.com/index.php/2009/11/24/blogging-lord-of-the-flies-chapter-5-beast-from-water/, regarding Lord of the Flies. It doesn't quite fit with the seriousness of this piece, but it's one of the few things that made reading that book bearable.

This has been hanging around on my computer for quite some time now, and I just realized today that you all might want to read it.

I don't actually like Lord of the Flies. In fact, I hate it, almost as much as I hate The Old Man and the Sea. Actually, scrap that. The Old Man and the Sea is much, much worse.

Anyway, you may be wondering why, if I hate LOTF so much, why am I writing essentially a fanfiction about it? Good question. My answer is that the book's ending simply doesn't settle it for me. Being a person who believes in the goodness of humanity as opposed to its evil, I wanted to show a more balanced view of the universe. William Golding may disagree, but then again, I'm not writing to please him.

This piece also has the honor of being tagged with both "dark" and "optimistic." I'm not sure which outweighs which. Oh, and disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Flies, nor do I want to. Also, spoilers if you haven't read the book.

Falling Rocks

Bountiful Butterfly Blessings

Picture taken from http://images.paraorkut.com/img/pics/glitters/b/butterfly_rainbow-8184.jpg. Image depicts butterflies and a rainbow. I think it's a gorgeous picture.

In May, I wrote and posted a poem called "To Sing to a Butterfly". Here's what that particular poem's been up to since:

• Posted on the Old South Church Forum
• Used by Rev. Dr. Debbie Clark in a worship service at Edwards Church in Framingham
• Inspired an in-progress piano prelude by composer Erik Gustafson
• Used by Rev. Don Remick at the opening worship service for the UCC Mass Conference
• Shared by at an Interfaith Spirituality group at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and:
• Published in the Summer 2012 edition of the Old South Reporter

So thank you Anonymous, for giving me the prompt that started it all, and all of you for your continued support!