Quote
what is said and what is done
you can’t trust a stranger with your truth
you get fed up of speaking so much
and listening to so little. you can ask
a question and it turns into an accusation.
you can guess his name, but he changes
the letters on you. you can tell him
i love you
he’ll stare at you
as if you should not have said that
and when you turn your back
he’ll respond
i love you
years later, and you will wonder
does he even mean it
is he saying that to shut me up?
you can love him
so much the ache keeps you up at night.
you can stare at his photo all you want
but his sunglasses are always on
he won’t look you in the eye,
he won’t fight for you, he won’t
make you pick. he wants you
sitting tight, never asking
where he goes, or why he only
shows you what he wants
you to know. he is happy
not having all of you.
he only wants you for an hour
not eight.
don’t take it personal
he told you so
but he refuse to listen
when you should.
it’s fine now, after seven years
you finally realized
he has been telling you
the truth all along
you just didn’t pay attention.
Mountain Daisy
Ariel Poets on Twitter
Ariel Poets is a Twitter Poetry and writing account that was created by Alexandra Meehan and myself. We run the account and help writers and poets around the world by inspiring them with our tweets. Twitter has sone phenomenal poets and writers. We have writing prompts that we are featuring on a monthly basis. Use the hashtag #arielpoets and write a poem about betrayal. For the month of January, betrayal is the theme. Follow us on Twitter @ArielPoets to read our daily inspirational writing tweets. Our inspirations are Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton.
This tweet on Ariel Poets is our most popular one yet. Take a look https
You can also find Ariel Poets on Instagram.
Take a look at what we are doing there too.
Thank you,
Ariel Poets
The exciting part about social media is networking and meeting like-minded people, especially if you are a writer or poet. A writer is a poet.
I first met Alexandra Meehan on Twitter. We have never met in real life, but our souls have probably met before. We became friends and we have come to appreciate each other’s poetic styles. I approached her a few weeks ago with the idea to open an account for lovers of poetry. We are both immensely inspired by Anne Sexton and Syliva Plath, who are two women who wrote about their turmoil life experiences. Men and women appreciate reading these two poets because through these women’s tough eyes the shape of humanity and relationships unfold in unique, female, poetic voices.
The pursuit of writing is an on-going struggle for writers and poets, especially women. Since Sappho, women have come a long way in poetry, but still struggling along. Emily Dickenson and Christina Rosetti are female poets who are world-reknowned and admired, but Sexton and Plath are still not a household name. In America they are. Just pushed aside for contemporary crap. The dark side and mental illness that haunts their literature takes too much of a front seat. Deconstruct it. Their brilliance shined among all. It seems there is so much more to their writing– to being women– that continues to fascinate us.
We created The Ariel Poets account on Twitter to further explore the inspiration that Sexton and Plath have given us throughout our studies of English literature. To be honest, when I was a young graduate studying English literature, in downtown Montreal; at Concordia University, my professor of modern literature did not even have them on our reading list. I discovered them on my own, like a deep secret you could not contain. That was the early 90’s. Ironically, Alexandra’s college experience has been similar, whereas the only poem ever covered was “Daddy”, which according to her, was not even taught properly.
Alexandra Meehan and I hope to inspire you with this account. We want to combine our efforts in writing, and give you some inspiration so that you never stop writing or reading.
No matter how a poet dies, it is how they live that matters most.
We both admire the bravery in Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath’s writing style, and the brutal honesty.
Our Twitter account: @ArielPoets from:@ArielPoets
Thank you so much for your support,
Christina Strigas and Alexandra Meehan
http://www.alexandrameehan.com
from Love & Vodka
it’s not the way
you leave
it’s the way
you come back
it’s how you
remember
when i forget.
–it’s how you are
from my poetry book Love & Vodka, available on-line or through me you could get signed copies, visit my Twitter page or Instagram page to message me and let me know if you are interested.
Also, if you are on Goodreads, doing a giveaway this week.
If you already read my book, please leave me a review and let me know you did so. typed poems and hand made bookmarks by moi, delivered to you. Stayed up last night and made each one with my quotes.
Much love & gratitude.
Thank you all for your amazing support.
If
If the water on the windowsill
could be your molecules
they would give me a paper
to smell
a pen to place safely away
near my utensils
think of me when it rains
how the droplets
become you and me
falling from the sky
like bullets on a battlefield
like trees in the rainforest
sometimes still
most times turbulent
aged and chopped
preserved and honoured.
From “Love & Vodka”
All my books are available at all on-line bookstores, Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, etc. Thank you for reading & your support.💞
💙💙💙
life
5 tips for Editing Poetry Books
I have recently edited a few poetry books for fellow poets. I find that most poets, find it hard to edit their own poems and a second opinion is sometimes necessary to get out of their own head. I must admit that I never hired a poetry editor for my three poetry books, but I had a particular vision and look that I knew I wanted for my poems.
If you are looking for a poetry editor or you are editing your poems yourself here are 5 tips that worked for me and how I go about editing poetry books.
- After every draft, you should put your manuscript away for over two weeks and clear your mind. As many times as you go through your manuscript, is as many times you must put it aside. This ensures that you start fresh every time and believe me, every time you read it, you will find something that you need to correct or revise. Do this up until there is nothing left to rewrite. Do not settle until you feel your book is done. Eventually, you will know.
- You can divide your poetry book into sections or parts with titles so that it flows for the reader. Also, a table of contents with the list of poems at the beginning of the book is always helpful to quickly find a poem. Lately, some poets are not using any titles or table of contents…if you choose to do so, make sure that you divide your book into sections such as loss, healing, love, death, etc. so that there is some kind of order. There are not many rules in poetry and anything may go for certain poets, but in my experience, the books that have no titles or breaks are hard to read and difficult to distinguish one poem from the next.
- Every poetry book needs a Copyright page, a Dedication page, Acknowledgements page, at the beginning of the book and an About the Author Page at the end of the book. Number your pages. Look at the poetry books in your library and see how the professionals do it.
- Format, font and presentation are an integral part of a poetry book. Pay an expert to create your file in pdf with the appropriate poetic fonts and alignments. Equally, cover art and a blurb brings the book together as a whole.
- Make sure the poetry editor you hire has experience, knowledge and a grasp of poetic terms.
Good luck in the editing process, this is the hardest part of writing. As Ernest Hemingway wrote, ” The first draft of everything is shit.”
Stay beautiful and strong
Stay beautiful and strong
when others try to break
your soul, it’s not you
they want, it’s your beauty and art.
Some people create friendships
to bully you, steal your man,
betray your wife. Some people
want to catch you weak
and vulnerable to spread it
on the evening news. The
only way to love is by blocking off
negative energy
focus on your art.
People will either love you
or hate you
and if you are really talented
if you have a gift
they hate you even more.
It’s too easy to kill a spirit these days
with group chats instead of mobs
with tweets instead of telephone wires.
It is as if people have lost the ability
to be compassionate
and only care for attention
seeking out the evil
perpetuating hatred
jealousy through harassment.
The sad part is most of these
people I have witnessed doing this
are women. If you want to get your
power back, this is not the way
to do it. It sickens me. And for this
my heart gets broken
I feel too much and I would rather
not.
