Why Love?

My fellow poet and blogger, Shai Davis, who shares a middle name, has a wonderful poem on her site Drawn 2 Words. She writes "I keep promising myself I will stop writing about love." Which led me to the question, why do we spend so much time, thought, emotion on love? Yesterday I worked twelve hours, and played Jill Scott the entire day. Two albums consumed my attention for twelve hours, about love.

What is it that captures us? Even after debating politics or the state of our people, discussing the world and life, we always come back to love. No matter how many times I have tried to draft something different, a love related poem springs to my heart, a love based story comes to mind. I am convinced that love is the purity of God, the only emotion that is shocking and comforting, affirming and overwhelming. When we suffer, it is not love, it is the human reaction to or response while in love. Love itself is always pure. And I can't ever get enough.

So I guess we will write on, and dream on, and reminisce about love. Blush, gasp, inhale, exhale and remember loves effects. See there, I feel another poem coming on.....

Friends?

I don't know about ya'll, but one thing I have learned since putting pen to pad is that I have the most unsupportive bunch of friends. Its sad. Or maybe its a reciprical thing. Did I forget to support some event, or give you a call. I am bad about returning calls. Anyway, when I started writing, I wanted to sit on my work, hide and protect it from those ever lurking copyright thieves. I didn't have $1500 for an editor at the time, nor was I going to pay someone that much just to give me an opinion. I had no contacts with the literary world. So I requested the aid of my very well educated, always reading fiction, friends.

At first, I figured my work just sucked and noone wanted to hurt my feelings. But then, I sucked it up and sent samples to agents and publishers. All very positive feedback (thought they didn't take me on-I still had some work to do). So, when I hinted around, asked a few questions, I started to realize that the friend group just hadn't bothered to read it. Huh? Something I birthed into creation wasn't worth your fifteen minutes? After I have sat at how many kids b-day parties, and bought how many graduation gifts? dang....

Solution: If I am drowning, I sure hope a stranger is nearby, cause if I have to wait on my friends, Ima goner. I began posting to Yahoo groups. I know - some one will steal it, your ideas aren't protected, yada yada yada. At the end of the day, it was worth the risk, just to get an opinion. Not only did I get opinions, but folks offered critiques, writing suggestions, reading choices, etc... I found out about writing competitions, submitted and was accepted for my first published short story. People shared similar concerns and experiences. I interacted online with published authors, who gave much needed encouragement. I gained the courage to blog - haven't yet had the gumption to post a picture, just yet- still thinkin on that-that's a whole nutha self esteem thing....

So, while my friends are still holding the first draft of a multiedited, soon to be published work, my life is moving forward. I wish I had a more supportive group, but, that has been the story of my life. In the meantime, my site has been viewed by more folks than I could ever imagine, most of whom don't know me from Adam. And the poetry posted at Ghetto Soul has over 2500 views in just over a month. I feel good. And thankful. So much so, that I won't even continue to comment on my sorry bunch of friends who will probably confront me about this post when they finally read it in, say, another 9 months.....

Pay for Poems?

I'm sick y'all. Examined and verified - its the flu. My body has been aching for the last two days, but yesterday it just shut down. Felt like I was wearing a moon suit, with every step my body felt heavier until I just had to sit down somewhere. I slept from midnight until 7. 7 until noon. Noon until 3. Haven't had this much sleep since undergrad. A bit groggy, but better. Never too sick to blog, though!!

So, a new issue has come up. My fellow writers are expressing concern that I am posting poetry on the net, for free. One respected writer said I shouldn't give away anything for free, much less my writing. I understand that point of view, but I look at it a little different. Hear me out, tell me what you think:

If writing is a God given talent, then, by the simple nature of it being from God, it is given to me to share with the world - edify and uplift (this can lead off into a different discussion about content(godly vs. worldly)-see previous post). If I take the gift, write, but do not distribute based on the condition of money, then I am placing my own barrier against what I was called to do. If it is meant for me to get paid, then I will. I have other things in the works. But I also don't want to die, and have my greatgrands finding all these works that remained barricaded because I couldn't receive payment for them.

So, I post the poems. They're fun to write. I enjoy it. Maybe I will take them down after a month or so. I don't know. They are copyrighted, but I have no problem granting license to use to anybody that requests it. Maybe I'm trippin, but at the end of this life, my measure has to be more than my pocketbook, don't you think?