Inspiration

Last week, I started taking a creative writing course at a local college. This was open to the general public, so with the encouragement of my mom I registered for it. While the first session was more less introductory, I shared with my fellow budding authors some of my inspirations. I write both poetry and allegorical fiction--another term for fantasy. Most of my scenes or poems are inspired by music and art.

Some of the scenes in the current story I'm working on were inspired by music. There is a scene that was inspired by Loreena McKennitt's "The Mummer's Dance." I love the imagery in this song. Music also inspires my characters. The heroine in the story is very human, she has gained a ethereal presence. I had already written her to be like this before I had heard "Kindred Spirit" by Deuter. The song invokes images of the heavens and space in my mind with its enchanting, ethereal sound. It helped me to develop that aspect of her character. I could imagine that this would be what her theme music would sound like if the story was made into a movie.

My senior year of high school, I wrote a poem that was inspired by Claude Monet's Le Pont Japonais a Giverny. With the encouragement of my English Lit teacher, Mrs. Matthews, I submitted it to a poetry contest. That poem made the top 10 in the state amongst 10th, 11th, and 12th graders. It got published and I won a savings bond.

On Monet's Bridge

While I slept one night,
I dreamt in shades of blue and green.
Except for you and I in the midday light.
We whispered words we'll always mean.

Everyday we met together at this place
With kind words of love and enjoyment.
Greeting each other with a warm embrace.
Our laughter echoes with excitement.

On Monet's bridge began the love.
Our very first kiss the water reflected.
My heart beats like the wings of a dove.
It was nothing I ever expected.

Before graduating, I gave Mrs. Matthews the small print of that painting that I had. The very same one that inspired me. Mrs. Matthews--whether she knows it or not--had a big impact on me in the development of my passion for creative writing and English literature. The first book I can get published, I would like to dedicate it to her.



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Signs of the Time

Here we are again. Summer is winding down. It has been relatively uneventful. We took no trips any were. Well, I did have a girl friend weekend Back in May. I got to see some of my old friends and made some new ones. We mostly played games, shopped, and got our nails done. My first pedicure! It was really fun. I can't wait for our next weekend. Still, the summer was uneventful none the less.

I know there's still a little over a month left until it is officially Autumn. I can't help it. I can already feel it in the air. I can see it in the trees. In fact, I noticed a couple of weeks ago that the small maple in the front yard has already began to change. The art included in this entry is from that very tree. I had actually made this a year or two ago. The colors were good then. I'm hoping for good color this year as I won't be going the mountains this year. The weather has been hot with hardly any afternoon thunderstorms this summer. But I know when it's getting close to Fall. The rain chances start to pick up and it rains for hours. Where as with summer afternoon thunderstorms it doesn't usually last very long. You can just tell by the gloom it's the weather preparing the world for the seasonal change. It seems that every season as its own gloom as far as rain goes. Winter has a gray gloom. Spring, a clean and bright gloom. Summer has a dark and chaotic gloom. And Autumn has a dark and somber gloom. Another thing about the Autumnal rains, good movie watching weather(or book reading weather). Just this past Sunday, it rained all day and most of the evening. I watched BBC's 2006 production of Jane Eyre. It's about a four hour movie, perfect for rainy weather. Even the tones of Jane's life at Gateshead and Lowood school match the tone of the rainy weather. Perhaps even her life at Thornfield Hall has it's gloomy tones, but they are much brighter than the former.

The days are getting shorter. They actually start getting shorter at the summer equinox. I have been tracking it ever since I downloaded an app on my smartphone that tells me when dawn, sunrise, the solar noon, sunset, and dusk is. I can go forward and see the times. You can see that dawn and sunrise are getting later, almost minute by minute. Sunset and dusk are getting earlier just the same. I personally can't wait for it get closer to my time to get up. Even though I have thick curtains, I tell when it's morning due to the light that manages to come in and wake me up sometimes over an hour before I need to get up. Sometimes I just need that hour of sleep even if go to bed at my usual time. Speaking of which, I'm thinking that I'm going to head to bed here in a bit. It's actually about an hour early for me. So goodnight world.


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Now playing: Sarah McLachlan - U Want Me 2
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