Saturday, February 10, 2007

T.O. (and not the football player)

It’s been a while since I’ve actually focused on writing something creative; nevertheless, I’ve been waiting for the opportunity to sit down and hatch one of the ideas that have come to my mind.

As I’ve been primarily focusing on literature and pedagogical studies, it’s been hard for me to spend time writing anything else at all for myself. But, despite the fact that I still have a lot on my plate, I figure I'll allot myself some time to work on something(s) to calm my mind. So, amidst all the chaos and flux, I am going to try to post one creative piece a week, here. This will help keep me level, I suppose.

[Side Note: it’s weird when some of the things that a person is passionate about in life (for me reading and writing) are the things that you are studying. I go to school all day, reading and writing about various different cannons, gathering all sorts of personal ideas about what to write about, and then when I get home I have no brain-power left because it has all been exhausted... It's unfortunate, I assure you.]

This is something I wanted to try to experiment with for a while now, and I figure that I will guide my readers (I can say “my readers” because I know people read this blog, even though they disrespect it and don’t comment) through my personal writing process. Therefore, as I write this poem, and when this is published, I would suggest that it is far from complete. I am a firm believer in the idea that a work of writing is NEVER finished. So, here it goes:

Trip

Along Interstate 81: it’s raining-
Hard for Him to validate the gauche-
Strange monotony which buries our hopes

Wipers contrapuntal to the splashing-
Water fogging every move we’ve made-
From here it can’t be that far

“Dude, I’m not feeling like driving-
Anymore burgers left? There are fries everything-
Spilling over into the soggy brown bag”

Listen to the book-on-tape, dude-
Any dummy can understand it Makes-
Time, go faster

Off-Ramp towards NY-Rt.13: damn-
Time we’re back, 2AM awful-
Sounds as if we had no choice but to listen

I can’t believe that we have no class-
Keeps people around here looking better-
Left alone things can get pretty lonely

“Dude, wouldn’t it be bad-
Ass was so tired from sitting down four-
Hours in a car- must be low on gas”

The ride wasn’t as rough this time-
Seems to halt for a while it seems-
We’ll make this trip again, right?


There is not better time for y’all to leave a comment; it would be greatly appreciated if you did. Let me know what you think. I think I'm going to try some creative non-fiction next week. Cheers.

4 comments:

Andyconda said...

Well it's aggravating that this doesn't show me your post as I'm commenting because i'd like to quote a few parts.

Anyway. You are right about studying what you love. In my case it's a bit different, but I understand completely. I never "loved" writing. I didn't come to school intending to write. I had no major, and liked my Writing class enough that I just went with it. Now I understand that it's where I was supposed to be.

But I've written so many "How I Write" or "Why I Write" papers that I can't remember the last time I ever actually...wrote.

But then I don't have much to say anything about.

The poem: It's very disjointed. Hard to follow any sort of narrative, though i do like the brief snippets that seem like short moments recorded during a road trip. Making the trip to cortland from my house is something I've done quite a few times, though always alone. I'd maybe try to take out the obscure language (contrapulant or whatever you said, I wish I could see the god damn post).

Some people would understand it but personally I've never been a dictionary reader. It just doesn't seem to match the tone and idea. Seems a bit stilted or forced (that particular word).

Reminds me a lot of parts of Dr. Reid's snapshots poem- which I liked. Not saying you're copying him at all, just saying that from what i gather they have similar themes and imagery.

Anonymous said...

There's nothing at all wrong with any writing of fiction to be 'disjointed", if it's intentional. I loved the poem. Keep writing, and always remember: Be Yourself!

Christopherj said...

yeah keep writing...be yourself...good poem

rayhedrick said...

I guess I was going for the more disjointed feeling, but I appreciate the constructive criticism. Can you think of a word that is synonymous to contrapuntal? The meaning is perfect for what I’m trying to portray… any suggestions? Thanks for all of the feedback, folks.