A bit of a benchmark, the first time being published in a literary magazine.
Link is here. Adelaide Independent Monthly Literary Magazine
They published three of my poems:
– Spades
– Your Turn
– Did we win
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Average
Ordinary
My extraordinary
reason to get up and go
Be better than I was
or could be without
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Simple luxury this exercise
Fitness routine, active lifestyle
Luxury of youth, exchange rate free
Paid with energy, time, responsibility
Aged into commitments
Spouse, Children, work-life routine
Upgraded available resources
Gathered a loving troupe, family
Adipose tissue gathers around
Getting the kids out in the morning
A flurry of emails and conference calls
Dinner, bedtime, evening partner chatter
Daily routine, time given, to and for
Loved ones, exchanged for ascetics
Fitness routine, Active lifestyle
Easy decision, free of guilt, full of love
Author’s Note: Before I get dragged to the high court of opinionated internet denizens. It is the responsibility of a parent to be healthy for their family, for a lot of reasons. However, the time necessary to work out for 30 minutes to an hour, as it may be recommended daily isn’t always a luxury that people have. That’s all.
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Take a seat
The launch will get a bit bumpy
Only three G’s, all we ask is
Take a seat
You may unbuckle, let loose
It will only be three days journey
Take a seat
Ascent will be quick, don’t mind
the gravity, but keep your suit on
Take a seat
Beside the ship, enjoy the view
A pale blue dot, your home
Take a seat
You know the drill, a slow trip back
Three more days, almost home
Take a seat
Buckle up, this is the hard part
Double the G’s and five thousand degrees
Take a seat
Lean back in a chair, enjoy the night air
Look up and enjoy the old gray moon
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In the interests of brevity, I’ll do my best to be short. Blogging encourages that as a format. Which I don’t mind.
A brief exchange I had with another writer, where he was quite critical of those who write for self-expression, closed the gap on my own considerations of writing. There is a quote I love attributed to Ernest Hemingway, “There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein.”
On one hand, I believe that writing for the purposes of self-expression is incredibly selfish. It is the equivalent of saying, I have problems, here they are, and I expect you to dedicate your precious time to consuming them. Also, be nice to me. I believe that.
Conversely, Hemingway is right where by right. And an author can lay themselves down as a sacrifice to their community on a topic. Which is incredibly selfless.
How to thread the needle on that, and where is the final decision on that? Readers get to decide ultimately, once a work is released it how it is consumed by the world is not up to the author. It isn’t fully your work anymore.
This is where being conscious of that thin line between selfish self-expression and deliberately serving up a piece of one’s self for public consumption matters. I’ll use the idea of crafting diamonds, not for their rarity (See Debeers intentional supply control), or their beauty, because that doesn’t matter. But because of the way a diamond is cut, and how it reflects and refracts light. How it is different depending upon the angle it is viewed at.
Read any work, and the resulting criticism. How each era will inject itself into a piece and gain new relevance. Was John Milton a feminist? is one of my favorites. When a writer presents something personal and relevant, that can be respected for its substance enjoyed from its artisanship, those works become diamonds. Relevance to the greater public, either as a piece of historical social commentary, or something that always carries new weight. Diamonds are timeliness to as an addition to the metaphor. 1984 by George Orwell as a great example of a book that always feels relevant.
Many works carry far greater weight than the author intended, The Outsiders strikes me as a book greater than the author intended. Milton’s Paradise Lost, well, he was pretty arrogant, talented but arrogant. This is all to say that the intention of the author, the care which they manage their craft, and deep consideration for their reader all matter. And with a bit of luck, a culture or institution will align itself with a work and give it greater reach.
As a final note, I’m not arrogant enough to believe I craft diamonds. Most of what I do is blindly stumbling through writing.
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What sates the hunger of children?
Decades of culinary curiosity
Draw deep from the well of experience
To satisfy their myriad tastes
Well stocked refrigerator, bountiful gift
Extrapolated options, limitless potential
Would you like ketchup with your corndog?
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Share this haunting
Does it follow, from
one room to another
Have you heard
scratching, knocking
screams or whispers
This story, of your
ghost, it speaks of
fear, pain, loss but
It is yours, reflection
of a haunted burden
put upon an old house
This haunting says
more about the haunted
then you’re myriad ghosts
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The disappointing banality
of air travel, is not a tight
seat, or sloppy drink service
A warm cookie wouldn’t hurt
The disappointment is
forgetting where we came
from, for not looking at the
clouds below, daily magic
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Ignore this prompt.
Go spend some time outside.
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Adam Fenner 