The #DigitalDetox Poem

As part of a #DigitalDetox challenge (something that I failed at miserably), I was supposed to write a poem. Well, this is the poem I wrote.

It's not a masterpiece by no stretch of the word, but it's not a disaster either. However, there was a theme to it that sort of shows where my mental mindset is at the moment.

It was written while I was driving, using the dictation app that I discovered on my phone.

Enjoy.

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Heart in Turmoil: A Poem from 1996

In digging through some old notebooks, I came across a stack of free-form poetry that I wrote when I was in college. For an engineering student, they possess emotion that is so unusual for an engineer. (What is wrong with the world? An engineer revealing emotion?) I thought I would share just one of those poems now. I hope you like it.

The following free-form poem was written in 1996.

Heart in Turmoil

Love is funny. You sit around waiting for a dream. Yet, there's another right there.

But it's the dream you want, even though you know it won't last. You keep asking yourself, "How long must I wait?" Yet, there's another right there.

The dream you've known for years. You know his thoughts, his actions, his dreams and fantasies. You know him so intimately that you even know what he is thinking before he does. But he's only a dream, and there's another right there.

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Friendship: A Poem from 1997

I was digging through some old notebook and came across a stack of free-form poetry that I wrote when I was in college. Yes, I dabbled with the poetic verse in my youth. I'm not saying that it's any good, not by a long shot, but for a person who was studying engineering at the time, the emotion still rings through loud and clear.

(Shock horror... An engineer who actually expresses emotions. What is the world coming to?)

I thought I would share with you a piece that was written in 1997.

Friendship

Friendship is one of the most important things in the world. It forms the foundation of every lasting relationship (no matter what shape it possesses). Without friendship, you lack the trust needed to survive in this crazy world.

Your friendship is like the solid ground under my feet. It keeps me standing strong and tall.

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The Rabbit (Deleted Scene)

I started writing this epic high fantasy series back in 2008. And today, that thing is still in the metaphorical drawer. It's not that the story isn't any good, but I've been having too much fun writing thrillers. I will turn may attention back to it one day, but not anytime soon.

However, when editing the thing back in the day, I removed a scene (the one that follows) because it didn't add value to the story. It doesn't matter how well written a scene is, if it doesn't add value, it has to go. The scene itself can not be recycled (rewritten into another story). The elements of the scene and the characters associated are so intertwined with the events that happen in the first book in my high fantasy series. While the backstory behind the scene has found its way into another book, this chapter will never see the light of day again, except on this blog. It's a beloved scene, one that makes me cry every time I read it. Perhaps others who read it will understand why I love the scene so much.

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Misinformed Fathers and Aftershocks…

She sat at the dining room table staring at the laptop. The nerves were shot and she wasn't getting much sleep, but one thing was helping with her mental sanity — her writing. Ironically, the anxiety brought on by the quaky earth fueled the tension of her story.

Her cell phone chimed. It was a message from her father. "Don't worry about clean up at work. It's in the street." Her jaw dropped. Without pause, she flicked over to her web browser and brought up the University of Canterbury website, searching for signs of what her father was talking about. Her heart raced out of control with worry for her colleagues. While she had been working from home when the quake hit, she had been in email communication with those in the lab. She was afraid that one of them had died and she didn't know.

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