Challenge.

Pardon the short, potentially grammatically incorrect entry- 2.5 hours of sleep greatly diminishes my writing and editing capabilities.

Yesterday, much to my surprise, a poem and a photograph of mine was published in this year's Trillium literary journal! My poem, The River, was written as an exercise earlier this semester, and the photo was taken in Koln, Germany this past summer. Check out the work below! Also, congratulations to Abi for her first place poem, as well as Trillium for taking first place in the literary journal category at the Southern Literary Festival!

Trillium Link-

Copy this link & paste it into your URL-

http://www.piedmont.edu/art/Trillium_2012.pdf

Writing poetry is one of my passions. Poetry summons, challenges, deepens knowledge and understanding, but most of all, it heals (at least for me). This weekend, I challenge you to take a break from all of the crazy end-of-semester hoopla to try to write about something that creates a beautiful image, gives you peace, or even angers you. You never know where it might lead! Find a quiet place, get in touch with your muse, and give it a shot! If you do not feel like writing, I challenge you to exercise your mind and try to memorize a poem this week! I just memorized and recited Remember by Christina Rossetti for a class on Tuesday, and I'm currently working on memorizing The Human Seasons by John Keats. Doesn't hurt to try, right?

Here are a couple of helpful links to writing/reading poetry-

http://stacienaczelnik.hubpages.com/hub/Five-Poetry-Writing-Exercises

* I do not agree with putting your first drafts in the trash. Even if it is the worst thing you have ever written, keep it! It could serve a different purpose down the road. 

 http://www.writingforward.com/writing-tips/poetry-writing-tips

*Great list of tips for writing poetry!

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/

*Browse through here to read about poets and their poems. This is my favorite website for poetry!

AND on top of that, I was perusing through various funky libraries. Check this out!

http://www.oddee.com/item_96527.aspx

Happy Writing/Reading!

-Sarah