Saturday, April 18, 2020

Writing in Pain | Just Know Your Pace



Kick writer's block to the curb. 
Write on your back if you have to. 
Write while in distress and agony. 
While suffering and medicated. 
Write in your sleep during torments and aches. 
Else the words will not keep. 
Lest the anguish can not wait. 


Blacked out, hit the ground
Don't wake me up, don't put me down.
Julian date 20205
4pm #IAM still alive!

Needing sustenance and rehab
To begin to get busy.
Can't eat or meditate
Without feeling dizzy

Crabmeat scramble or cereal? asks my appetite.
A mind-fuck decision every day every night.
Disgusted with almond milk right now.
But I can't do the honors with juice from a cow.

Munching it dry.
Four hours go by.
Hannibal pangs
Prickly needles in my brain.

The right side complains
The left -not a thing.
Hearing over and over
Back to Black refrains.

Determined to heal
Without too many pills.
But now! without massage
And chiropractor bills.

Eyes feeling strained.
Lips berry stained.
So! Fucking what!
Ok! I am vain.

This is insane.
How now life sways,
From love making solace
Into the throes of confinement days.     

So folks.... To write or not to write? That is the question. Especially when you're not feeling your best. Writing is soul work for me. I have written essays, lengthy letters, email tomes and blog posts on a whim. Whether I'm being paid to write, or I'm working on a personal project, once I get started, I'm a Marathoner with controlled energy to get it all out- but at a steady pace. By contrast, when I am in migraine mode, I am a Sprinter.  An idea will come to me, and I will, over a period of hours, days or create. Growing/developing the content, and sometimes blowing the commentary out of proportion. In which case, I delete... a lot.

Since my concussion, I must make an intense effort to write in brilliant and creative mini-bursts.  Editing as I go. Fine tuning every line. This method absolutely works for me!  Also, since my concussion, I'm even more happy to write about anything. Even you.

So what's your writing pace?

I'm always eager to publish right now, but, doing so, makes the art feel rushed. I never strive for perfection in writing form, except for when I am paid to, but my perfection is in my content. Is it going to make sense or not?  It will or it won't, deliberately. All I wanted you to know is there. Sometimes I tell too much when I write.

Like the poem in this article, for instance. It took me a seven days to complete. Initially, it was to be a short and sweet, one photo essay. I expected to tell the story mostly with that picture and a few rhyming words. I am an expert rhymer. And the photo was selected from my personal stock, then enhanced with PhotoFox.

I have 398 Notes on my phone. They are a collection of poems and essays and chapters to be added to books. Pain or no pain: So when Spirit says "WRITE" in all caps, I write.

Many blessings,
Jackie


 Anyone can teach you about love... but I can make you good at it!

| This original photo & prose by Jackie D. Rockwell |

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