The Writers' Collective

don’t you just LOVE that title? us too! guest contributor Debbie Strange gives us the pulse of today’s blog entry right here….

The Pulse of Poetry

Words have always intrigued me. I like to think that instead of being born with a silver spoon in my mouth, I was born with a pen in my hand. I have spent countless hours perusing the dictionary and have written reams of pages noting the words that called my name. I keep them in a special file, waiting their turn to be crafted into poetry. Most of these creations were only for my eyes, but over the last ten years, I have tentatively begun to share. This is entirely due to my becoming a member of The Writers’ Collective. At one point, I dared myself to enter their annual poetry contest, and received more than just a prize. Unbeknownst to me, the winners were to read their works at the awards ceremony. Once again, I dared myself, and read aloud in public for the first time. My family and friends were there to support me, and to my own surprise and satisfaction, I realized that I had found my voice and it did not falter. That night, I won a newfound confidence in my writing and in myself. I had also requested critiques of my submissions, and these were extremely helpful. There were words of praise, constructive criticism, suggestions and encouragement. One evaluation that was particularly inspiring to me, was written by Laurie Block, whose work I admire. Though the poem in question received only an honourable mention, he wrote that he found it to be beautiful. That simple comment has remained with me over the years, and it never ceases to remind me to keep writing….

more of this piece in our Tenth Anniversary Issue of the Collective Consciousness which will be out…. sometime before 2011….hopefully…

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