A Little Bit About Me

The explanation of where I am going with my writing must start with the past. I spent many an hour as a child reading poetry, and writing poetry as a teenager and young adult. So much so that my junior high English teacher would read over my shoulder as she walked around the room. She was not teaching poetry at the time. Yet she would just pat me on the shoulder and keep on teaching, I made good enough grades even without paying attention at the time.

Now however, I wish I had paid just a little more attention to the grammar lessons she taught. It would be easier to write something other than poetry now. Don't get me wrong, I love writing poetry. A pad and pen went with me every where. I would wake up in the middle of the night to jot down a few lines, and at times I would even write on paper towels.

The desire to start back writing has troubled me for a long time now; nevertheless, I spent the past twenty years with writers block. Oh, the muse would drop by on a special occasion like a wedding or a death. The last funeral that I wrote a poem for is what launched this writing spell, and I intend to make the most of it. The muse is back, and I am very grateful that I am writing again.

I have this little muse by the wings, and I'm not letting go. Now that I have her, I want very much to learn to write short stories, maybe even children's books some day. I definitely want to keep writing poems, but I want to expand my abilities. Challenge the muse to delve into other forms of writing.

Now the rest of the story, many years passed by, leaving me wondering where my muse was. I bought book after book trying to write again, always wondering why the only time I found inspiration was on a very special occasions like wedding, graduation or funerals. No matter how hard, I thought I was trying, writing was one thing in my life that I could not seem to get back.

I blamed the fact that I had gone so long with out writing, blamed spending so much time using the logical left side of my brain that stifled my creative side. I thought that the sad, unhappy, miserable way I was living was why I could no longer write. That was the only time in my life that I really was happy, when I was truly happy was when I was a child and still had an imagination, the muse.

Nine years, I have been back in the same house that the muse once lived and I still could not find her. Life was better; I was happier, most of the time. I walked the same old pecan grove that I use to write in, still I could not conger her. Spent hours searching the internet until one day, July 25, 2005, I found Writing.com. Surely, this would help me start writing again, but I never did anything with my find.

Then I attended a music conference at Christ Church in Nashville, Tennessee in July of 2006 where I met a man named Geron Davis, a singer songwriter. He wrote the song “Holy Ground” and sings with his group Geron Davis and Kindred Souls. He reminded me in his workshop that you don’t always have to be inspired to write. There is nothing wrong with taking a prompt or picking a subject out of a book and sitting down, and writing on that subject. For that reminder I will always be grateful.

In October 2006, I found that inspiration again, just before Sunday service, with the news that a good friend’s mother would not make it through the night and that she was humming an old hymn, “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder”. Geron Davis and Babby Mason both suggested the best way to get prompts (leads) was to take notes on everything that I listen to. The first Sunday morning church service in October, I took their advice and was taking notes (writing). The words started coming to me for "As She Felt the Masters Call"  and I started writing it and continued to take notes.

Later that week I did several re-writes until I was satisfied with the way the poem sounded. I then read the poem at her funeral that Wednesday for the family. The next Sunday as was becoming my custom and has been ever since, I kept taking notes. Out of those first two sermons in October came some sixteen poems just from little prompts in my notes, and I have not even gotten to most of the sermons yet.

Shortly after completing that first poem I went back to Writing.com and started to really look around and posted that poem and since many others. Many people here on Writing.com helped me to polish that first poem to what it is today, thank you. On Writing.com I have found a wealth of prompts, guidance, classes and most of all friends. I have found the muse, and yes I have her by the tail and will never let her go. She is me.