Poetic Shutterbug

The Art and Craft of Poetry. You wake up in the middle of the night. It is 3:00 am and you cannot get back to sleep. Ideas, street scenes and dreams swirl around in your head activating your creative membranes with words that you know you will forget by dawn. What do you do? Always keep a pen and paper by your bed and jot down those words and ideas. No need to form those words. Those words will become meaningful as you meld them together with your ideas during daylight hours. The craft of writing poetry does not adhere to the 9 to 5 seven day week venue. Poetry comes to you when you are least expecting it and when you are open to its visit. If you treat poetry as a job it will inevitably fill your days with writer’s block. Poetry is born of the heart and soul and not the brain. The heart holds the poem and the brain forms the style. The following quote by poet Lucille Clifton most adequately describes poetry in its most raw form. “I think that we’re beginnin...

To be grateful is to recognize unconditional love.  It is very easy to say "I'm grateful" and "I love you."  Words can slip right off the tongue when you want to get your message across to someone.  However only deeds unselfishly acted upon display the true meaning of unconditional love. When you have found someone who is there for you at your darkest moments, that is a true friend.  When they instinctively know what you need and provide you with what you need without you even asking for anything, that is rare and beautiful. To be grateful we need to recognize unconditional love and hold it steadfast within the depths of our soul.