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| Art by Sandra Guiloff |
“Dogs are my favorite role models. I want to work like a dog, doing what I was born to do with joy and purpose. I want to play like a dog, with total, jolly abandon.” Oprah Winfrey
Charise’s Turn:
I started a poetry blog (mix and moss poetry) the summer of 2014, to have a place to publish my work. This was before any publishers of journals, magazines, or chapbooks accepted my poetry. It was a way to share my poems and to hold myself accountable to writing. Now, on the cusp of a second chapbook publication, I have what you would call a good problem. Many of the posts on that blog need to be altered to remove the poems that will appear in Muse in a Suitcase.
As I scan through these posts and make changes, I see the devotion invested in writing over the past five years. You never know where a single inspiration will end. The lesson I’ve learned is that it’s adamant to begin, no matter what. When the impulse comes to write––to create, in whatever medium––there’s an opportunity to make something of it. A single poem joins another, then another, and so on, to coalesce into a body of work, a book. I’m over the moon about this result. It’s not easy to act on a certainty of faith when the result is completely uncertain. But how else can something amazing happen?
Get Fired Up:
Begin…the creative thing that you feel inspired to do. Then, keep at it. Take breaks to play. And keep at it.
