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My website is not yet complete, but I really needed to start my blog. So welcome and thank you for braving the “under construction” zone!
This is a writer’s website and as such most of my blogs will have something to do with writing.
I am a multi-genre writer, most established as a poet, but also a published novelist, short story writer, and essayist. For most of my post college life I have worked from 50 to 100% as a writer and artist in residence cobbling together an income in teaching residencies, with performances and with sales and royalties.
Some of my posts will give you my how I got over story with tips that may help any of you who are on or want to step on to that path. A word of warning, the view is beautiful but many cliffs and potholes are also to be found.
I’ve also been called a social and/or political poet. Therefore some of my posts will have to do with the politics of the written word and how it can be used or abused. I come from the position that all writing is political and the choices in what we write about, how we choose to approach the subject, and the ways we use language are all political.
Can you dig it? Or should I say, can you appreciate the point I am trying to make?
political poem
what makes a poem revolutionary
does it violently refuse the page
construct a chaos of grammar
that denies metaphor or defeats meter
is it armed and ready for prolonged struggle
is it loud and insistent assaulting your senses
full of gun powder and iron pellets
is it unavailable for canonization
despite an early death as martyr
or does it instead
find guerilla survival
hidden
underground
exploding in unexpected places
appearing once again just
when you thought it dead
(from where river meets ocean City Lights Press)
I am blessed to have some wonderful friends and acquaintances who are also writers so I will be offering reviews of books I have recently read which intrigue me for one reason or another as well as interviews. I choose to give light to books which I think are worth the read, no slams will be found here. I am also often in the position to travel so some posts will embrace the writer traveling the country or globe.
Betwixt and between I will speak to other subjects. This website has become a reality because of the constant urgings of my brilliant daughter who has convinced me that I could swim well enough for this pool. She has helped me organized the site. Please give hers a look. She is an adept Life Coach.
Because I have reached a point where I have a storehouse of knowledge and the need to work more at home I also am offering my services to help you hone your manuscript or learn more of your craft. Although I will be giving some of it away if you want an in-depth lesson you’ll need to write me and I’ll send rates.
FREE GIFT – Because who doesn’t like free stuff?
Right now if you subscribe to my mailing list (which I never ever share with others) you can get a brief primer on a way to approach haiku. I am encouraging folks to try it and post their haikus on my Facebook page. I will be featuring the best one or two each month on my blog site. If you also want to include what you learned or what challenged you, I’ll be glad to add that too.
I’ll be back in a couple of days with my next blog.
Comments or questions? Fire away!
I am yours with the word,
devorah major
PROMPT OF THE DAY
Each post I will offer a way to enter the page that flows from what I have written that day. For today: Think about how your work is or is not political. In prose or poem write your defense of why you write about what you write. Direct it to someone who finds you too political or not political enough. Consider doing this as a letter.