Fellow poet and blogger Kellie Elmore has deemed me Exposure Worthy. I answered her interview questions late last night, and to my surprise, she notified me this morning that she already had the complete interview up at her site–with links and all! She’s amazing.
Thanks so much for suggesting we do the interview, and for
asking such great questions, Kellie. I thought it was going to be painful (I’m used to being the journalist; the one who asks all the questions) but it was actually a fun trip down memory lane.
She misses perfumed postcards,
snail mail letters;
conversations in cafés
without the words,
“hang on, I have to get this call.”
She misses eye contact:
knowing gazes and
flirty glances
that overpower
the urge to send an SMS
or answer the sound
of someone somewhere
logging into chat.
She texts and types
Tweets and Skypes,
then sleeps outside
where stars and
fireflies decorate the
infinite darkness.
"Poet's Notebook" copyright 2010 HGS
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This is about the only time I’d ever say that–as the author of a book titled, ‘Leap,’ I’d say I’m a pretty big fan of jumping in and going for it. But “Don’t Leap!” is definitely the appropriate title for the latest entry in my “By Leaps and Bounds” Photo Contest. This photo was taken by Tony Jurado on May 6, 2010, from the observation deck on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building in New York City, NY, USA. You can vote for this and other photos in the contest on my Facebook Author Page, and enter your own photo by following the rules in my previous blog post “By Leaps and Bounds Photo Contest”. Keep on leaping, everyone–I can’t wait to see what else you come up with for this contest!
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I’d love to know more about my readers –where you live, where you’ve leapt, where you’ve leapt with ‘Leap’! Here’s hoping we all have
some fun with this three-month-long photo contest.
RULES, VOTING, RED WINE AND DARK CHOCOLATE
1) Take a photo of ‘Leap’ somewhere in your home, town, or city, or someplace special you’ve traveled to–it can be as close-up as against an old tree in your backyard, or as far-away as a wide-angle of Times Square, with ‘Leap’ somewhere on the sidewalk. We just need to be able to see the book ‘Leap,’ and you need to be creative. You don’t need to be in the photo, if you’re not comfortable with that, since all entries will be published here on my blog and on my Facebook Author Page too, however, you need to think outside the box with this. You need to Leap!
2) E-mail the photo to me at writer@hgrace.com, and include the place where it was taken and the photographer’s name, so I can give the photo a credit, and get the entrant’s name. If you don’t want to use your real name on the Net, give me a pseudonym to use as the credit, that’s fine. As long as I have your e-mail to contact you if you’re the winner, it’s great.
3) Visit here as often as you can to check out and discuss the competition! Then visit my Facebook Author Page to VOTE. Every thumbs-up on that Facebook Author Page is a vote. Every positive comment or a comment with simply the word ‘VOTE’ is another vote. You may vote on your own photo. You may comment on your own photo as many times as you want –however, your vote in the comments section only counts once. You can also convince all your friends and family to join my Author Page and vote on your photo, too. They can give it a thumbs up AND make a comment (or simply the word ‘VOTE’) and that counts as 2 votes. Everyone can vote on as many photos as they wish! I will not be allowed to vote on the photographs on Facebook but I might comment on some –any comments from me under the photos will not count as votes, however.
4) You may enter up to two photographs.
5) Contest begins Wednesday, April 28th and ends Sunday, August 1st at noon. The winner will be announced some time that week.
6) Should there be a tie in the peer-voting on Facebook, I have chosen three impartial judges who, together, will choose a winner.
7) The winner will receive a very fine bottle of red wine and boxes of dark chocolate, or, if they don’t drink wine, a cheesecake delivered to their door. (Yes, this can be done, some wonderful people have done it for me, and I’ll never forget it, and want to spread the joy!) Wine, chocolate, cake–these are the finer things in life, and I want to share them with my readers, as a way of thanking you for reading and sharing my poems.
I’ve always been in love with poetry –but I loved words at a very young age, and my first experience being told to write a poem was a very positive one. My grade one teacher took us to the local arena, and when we returned, she asked us to write an “expressive limerick” about it. Then she explained that meant, “just write what you felt.” I wrote down, “I felt grand!” and away I went, titling the poem, “At the Arena.” Now an avid inline skater and a published poet, I’d like to think I was a natural at both skating and poetry (and I actually come up with a lot of my ideas for my poems while inline skating along the river.)
I also think the way poetry was first taught to me gave me such a positive experience that I didn’t ever fear it. All of my creative writing teachers let me be expressive. They didn’t force the rules. They taught me what I “should” do for a certain type of poem, but let me throw in my own style, too.
I’ve met (or cyber-met) a lot of people from many walks of life while on this journey of writing and promoting my poetry. Many tell me they didn’t think they liked poetry–feared it, even– until they came across mine –and somehow, it spoke to them, and they realized it wasn’t as intimidating or as dull as they’d imagined.
Do you remember the first time you were told to write or recite a poem? Tell me about it. Were you intrigued, or scared out of your mind? Thinking about your experience, what do you think teachers and poets need to do to excite children about poetry, so that feeling stays with them for a lifetime?
I’ll be visiting some schools this year as part of the League of Canadian Poets’ ‘Poets in the Schools’ program, and I think your stories will help me keep the children engaged.
I’m asking this question on my Facebook Author Page too–come join in the discussion!
Heather Grace, 5, "At the Arena"
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Heather Grace Stewart 