LIVING OUT LOUD: I featured tonight at the new Spotlights & Stools reading here in Atlanta. Also featuring was the fabulous Cherryl Floyd-Miller, who is one of the best poets I've ever heard/read and now she's got this novel cooking that is going to knock everyone's damn socks off when it's published. And it is going to get published, Blue, just hang on...I feel it. We started talking after the reading and sat in the World Trade Center dining room until they kicked us out and then went and sat in her car and talked for another half an hour. Her energy is infectious and she makes me laugh...and those are two things I value most in a friend. We dished, we commiserated and we laughed. I was kind of dreading the reading tonight after having a long day at the magazine, but getting to sit down with Cherryl and talk for two hours made the whole evening worthwhile.
I faithfully read her blog (www.cherrylfloyd-miller.blogspot.com), and she blows me away because her blog is like reading good literature,getting good advice from a friend or simply learning about people, places and things you didn't know before. Cherryl's blog educates, while mine's just a bitchy rant half the time. I'm gonna take some cues from her and start posting work here, more thoughts and more things everyone should read, hear or see.
I've always believed that part of being a writer (or an artist in general) is sharing what you know with others. On my journey with Better To Travel, I have met some selfish, stuck-up, bitter bitches who call themselves artists, but are really just indulging in their own literary masturbation. They get themselves off and fuck everyone else. Another friend asked me why I do so much in the poetry/literary community when I'm not getting paid or getting any kind of recognition. That's totally missing the point. Sure I love getting some greenbacks in my pocket, but I decided along time ago that my aim was more than just "getting the work out there."
I feel very fortunate to have had a full-time career in writing, and the poetry has been an incredible extension of that. It took me ten years to get Better To Travel to an audience. I know there are others who have things to say and a unique voice to say it with. If I can help just one of those people by giving a free workshop, or inviting them to a reading, or encouraging them to go an open mic, then I feel like I am accomplishing a bigger mission. That's how life is supposed to work. Lead by example, be curious, ask questions, go places, find the voice that makes you sing, either out loud or on the page.
I faithfully read her blog (www.cherrylfloyd-miller.blogspot.com), and she blows me away because her blog is like reading good literature,getting good advice from a friend or simply learning about people, places and things you didn't know before. Cherryl's blog educates, while mine's just a bitchy rant half the time. I'm gonna take some cues from her and start posting work here, more thoughts and more things everyone should read, hear or see.
I've always believed that part of being a writer (or an artist in general) is sharing what you know with others. On my journey with Better To Travel, I have met some selfish, stuck-up, bitter bitches who call themselves artists, but are really just indulging in their own literary masturbation. They get themselves off and fuck everyone else. Another friend asked me why I do so much in the poetry/literary community when I'm not getting paid or getting any kind of recognition. That's totally missing the point. Sure I love getting some greenbacks in my pocket, but I decided along time ago that my aim was more than just "getting the work out there."
I feel very fortunate to have had a full-time career in writing, and the poetry has been an incredible extension of that. It took me ten years to get Better To Travel to an audience. I know there are others who have things to say and a unique voice to say it with. If I can help just one of those people by giving a free workshop, or inviting them to a reading, or encouraging them to go an open mic, then I feel like I am accomplishing a bigger mission. That's how life is supposed to work. Lead by example, be curious, ask questions, go places, find the voice that makes you sing, either out loud or on the page.
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