Separation
There is no drinking allowed on the college campus,
but the campus ends at Lincoln Way.
Good old honest Abe
trying to separate the alcohol from the students.
But Welch Avenue spearheads into Lincoln Way,
trying desperately to rip through it
to reach those kids who try so hard to stay focused
and touch them with the outside world.
The name changes at the next intersection.
Welch becomes "Union Drive"
but not before it has encroached ever so slightly
into the land of academia.
And Lincoln goes back on his word
as they swarm across at the conclusion of class
and wait in the cold (and sometimes rain)
to go in to the bars.
Poem:
I have decided to keep the exercise section to just fiction exercises, since the only poetry exercises I'm planning on doing will have poems as their direct result. I think it would be silly to have two poems in a post, especially when I have a hard enough time coming up with them as it is. So on days like today where I use one of my books' exercises, I'll just post the prompt in this section so you have some idea of how it came about. Prompt for today:Write about where you live as if you've never been there. Use specific names.
I tried to be a bit fancy, and I really don't like how it turned out. I was giving the whole "double meanings" thing a shot, with "welch" meaning to go back on one's word, and Lincoln Way as more of a principle than a street name. But I think it just got confusing. I've just always gotten a kick out of how our campus is so set apart from the rest of town, and yet the "real world" crowds right up to us and the bars are right across the street. But I think there's a better way to go about capturing that idea.
Observation:
I've frequently clicked the little button at the top of the page that says next blog. Every time I do, I get my hopes up, but I don't think they have ever been satisfied. It seems like a huge number of the blogs out there are family ventures. They write about their days now instead of calling people on the phone, I guess. It makes sense from some points of view. This way they don't have to tell each friend individually what's going on in their life. They just post it for them to see when they have time. And they get to say exactly what they want to say without having to worry about being interrupted. I know I hate it when I'm trying to tell a story about my puppy and the person I'm talking to thinks their story about their dad dying is more important. Well, this solves that problem. But probably the biggest problem it solves is the problem of having to actually care about other people at all. Every person can post what's going on with their family and never have to read about their friends' activities. It's like there is this whole blogging "community" where everyone has agreed to write down their heartfelt experiences to be mutually ignored. But at least they can say they shared. In case you haven't picked up on this, I'm against the use of blogs for the purpose of meaningful communication, in much the same way I am against the idea of Facebook as a site for friends. Both blogs and Facebook have their uses, but they're not the ones they claim when they advertise.
Which makes me wonder what my blog looks like to any people who stumble across it using that button up there. Am I only interesting to the people who already know me? Would I stop and look at my blog if it wasn't mine? I have no idea, but I sort of doubt it.
Exercise:
"Your Best Friend is a Mirror"
Make this old saying your first line--- and start writing.
Your best friend is a mirror. They are perfectly capable of showing you who you really are, but most of the time they just lie to you because you let them. It's always the lighting, if I'm not mistaken. All of the mirrors in the world are located under harsh florescent lights, and you just can't trust what they're telling you. The acne looks worse, and your body is always falling apart. But you know it's just the bad lighting. Just like when your friend looks at you and shakes their head. As long as you stop them before they say what they're thinking, as long as you squeeze in your side of the story, you can change the light they see you in. You can take the florescence and turn it into the soft light of a restaurant, or the flickering of a fireplace. You can stop them from showing you what you really look like. Just make sure you get the first word in.
Me:
I really like the idea from the exercise above. I think I'll write a poem about it. That took much less than five minutes to write, but I was happy with where it was going and didn't feel like I could do the idea justice without properly thinking about it, so I cut out a bit early. I read the prompt and was very skeptical of the metaphor. I have never considered best friends to be mirrors, nor have I heard that saying. So I took it as a bit of a challenge, and I'm really glad I did. I'm going to post this now so it's up before I leave for the rest of the morning. Nothing that interesting has happened to me anyway. I know on days like that I promised I'd fill you in a bit on my past, so here's the random fact for today: I've always plunged headfirst into things. Those things have been intangible, like sports, books, and big ideas, but in this case I mean it a bit more literally. Like open windows, metal poles, and doorways. It's a miracle I have any functioning brain cells left at all. The best was the time I got four stitches in my forehead trying to run away from a dodgeball. I dodged the ball really well. Not so much for the volleyball net-pole.
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