Kern Carter's Blog, page 105
September 15, 2021
Premonitions as Guardian Angels
Photo by Jez Timms on Unsplash.A few days before my birthday, I wrote something on Instagram. It was nothing exceptional. It was a good text in my mind since I had spent time working on my writing, and I got some good feedback on it.
I never had a lot of followers on my account. That made me feel like a failure and a fraud. However, I kept on posting new work. I intended to keep refining my mostly self-taught craft.
This is what I wrote:
Today, I embrace all of me.
What does this mean, you may ask? Well, let me tell you… it was hard to pin down. Our programming is very noisy inside our heads. The committee was very convincing. I believed that I didn’t had what it takes for decades.
I believed that what my best friend saw when I was a kid couldn’t be real. How could she love me when I hated myself so much?
Someone told me once that things were going to come slow to me. That it might look like I was lost on the outside, but “not all who wander are lost”.
So I just wanted to say (mostly to myself) that just for today, I am glorious. And I hope you feel that way too. Because you are. We all are.
Little did I know that a week or two after that, I would make good on that promise every single minute of every day.
The heroine’s journeyTrauma. Illness. Abuse. Betrayal. Surrender. Healing. Connection. Resilience. Resistance. Recovery. Passion. Truth. Love. These were some of the themes of my journey.
I never envisioned writing about the trauma the way I’m doing it today. I thought I would use this platform for something else, but this is what I needed to do nevertheless. And I am infinitely grateful for that because I can honestly say that I don’t know if I would have made it to the other side without writing.
As a little child, writing was my coping mechanism. When I lost myself in darker parts of my journey, I wouldn’t be able to write. Therefore, I was helpless.
When I found my way back to myself, I was able to write again. I could be in my true refuge, and I intend to continue honoring my journey daily.
If this helps you…Let me know! I hope to have amazing conversations and build connections with fellow travelers.Share with others! Let’s give away what was given to us so freely.Follow me! I want to continue being of service to others in any way I can.Nah is an author hoping to bring on the anonymous/incognito revolution to the digital sphere. If you’d like to know more about this, let her know in the comments, follow her and read her stories.
Premonitions as Guardian Angels was originally published in CRY Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Call for Poetry Submissions — A Love Letter to the Tiger Inside..
Photo by Mike Marrah on UnsplashAnimals have a way of living that makes me jealous.
They’re unbothered, unburdened, by the daily qualms and pressures in life that humans often feel overwhelmed by.
When the jealousy subsides, I realize that it’s quite…admirable.
I have two cats and a dog, but tigers have always been my favorite animal.
Their demeanor reflects my values back to me:
Bold
Rare
Curiousity
Dignified
Strength
Prowess
Willpower
Whether it’s a tiger, a butterfly, a turtle, or a lizard—being around animals has a grounding effect on our mental and emotional lives.
A stressful day at work seems like it isn’t that bad after a cuddle from your dog.
A period of aimlessness in life doesn’t seem as dull, even if just for a second when we see a butterfly cross our path.
And a period of doubt doesn’t seem too heavy after watching your cat utterly fail a jump from the floor to the counter and still get back up to try it again.
Animals have a subtle way of offering us a lot of hope, love, and inspiration.
Let this be a love letter to them.
Do you have a favorite animal? What about them inspires/encourages you?
Do you have a pet? What about them has a grounding effect on you when you’re having a tough day?
Use this piece as a way to honor your pets or your spirit animal, and tie it back into the impact it’s had on your life.
A few new rules:Keep your submission to ~ 350 words max.Format the poem as it is meant to be readMake sure to put the “poetry” tag on your storyFocus on clarity — make sure your piece has a clear premise and takeawayThe same rules still apply:You can submit to this or ANY of our past writing prompts. Just scroll through our previous newsletters. They’ll be marked “Call for Submissions.”If you’re already a writer for CRY, go ahead and submit.If you’re not a writer for CRY but would like to submit to this or any other prompt, let us know and we’ll add you ASAP. Include your profile handle in your message or comment.Be as creative as you want in your submissions. As long as you stick to the topic, we’ll consider it.Just because you submit doesn’t mean we’ll post. If you haven’t heard back from us in three days, consider that a pass.Please reach out if you have any questions at all. If you are new to Medium, here’s how you submit a draft to a publication.
[image error]Call for Poetry Submissions — A Love Letter to the Tiger Inside.. was originally published in CRY Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
How to Write about the Pandemic
Photo by Joyce McCown on UnsplashSometimes in our writing, we tend to overlook the very things that are most evident in our lives. Sometimes we want to overlook those things. I’d like to offer some encouragement and ideas for ways that we can each try to write about something we’re all experiencing as individuals right now, as people all over the world continue to cope with COVID-19 and the changes we’ve felt in our daily lives.
In my own life, I’ve been fortunate in that my family members have stayed healthy, and I’ve also felt the sting of living alone throughout the pandemic. My family came up with creative ways to spend time with each other, such as our Christmas of 2020 where we bundled up in coats and scarves and masks and made s’mores around the fire pit in my brother’s backyard. I’ve spent a lot of time alone, reading, walking, writing, and making collages. I’ve watched more TV than I have in a few years. I’ve gotten hooked on checking out audiobooks for free using my library card and the Libby app. But enough about me.
Exercise: Write a poem or short prose piece in which you address some aspect(s) of your own experience in the unique/changed world of 2020, 2021, and beyond as we deal with the impact(s) of COVID-19 on our lives. You can think of this as a journal entry or as a piece that you ultimately want to polish and share, whichever feels most comfortable for you and helps you feel motivated to write.
Here are a few ideas to help focus your writing.
Go small, not big. Look at the details of your life, not global impact or political discussions. Try to focus on specific images and details that you have observed, felt, experienced, etc. Remember to use the five senses in capturing and describing detail.Imagine that you are writing this poem to someone in the future, someone born after 2020 who wouldn’t know what this time was like; your piece of writing could give that person a glimpse into what daily life was like today. You can even write your piece as a letter to someone (or to yourself) in the future.Write about any aspect(s) of your experience that you want. Some questions to consider include the following. Are you cooking more? Are you spending more time with some of your family? Have you been separated from friends and family you want to see? Are you going outside more? How is school or work different? How has shopping changed for you ? Have you been able to spend time on any enriching hobbies or activities? What does it feel like to do more things online?Try writing a list. In a list poem or prose piece, rather than focusing on describing just one particular thing, you simply make a list of related things (or seemingly unrelated things if you prefer!). You can even start with a title that describes what you’re listing, such as Recipes I Cooked in Quarantine, or Jigsaw Puzzles I Did with My Mom, or Things about the Outside World I Never Thought I’d Miss.Freewriting Prompt: Think about the duality of our lives at this point in time. Change can evoke loss, and also growth. We can look back and contemplate how life used to be, and we can look around and try to deeply notice how life is today. (We can also try to look forward, but so much is unknown.) For a freewriting prompt, try these two sentence starters:
I miss…Today I notice…Set a timer and freewrite for ten minutes. You can focus on one prompt at a time, or alternate between them as you like during the freewrite. Whenever you don’t know what to write next, start a new sentence with “I miss” or “Today I notice,” and keep going.
What would you want someone to know, or what do you want to remember, years from now, about how you experienced life during this time? I hope you’ll take as little as ten minutes (or, of course, more time if you want, either in one sitting or in multiple writing sessions) to write about your experiences over the last couple of years, even if your ideas stay hidden in a journal or on a flash drive or stored to the cloud for a long time to come.
Even just the act of writing your feelings out and throwing the pages into the recycle bin can help you put the changes in the world and your life into your own words, and this creative process helps each of us keep moving forward as daily life continues, however changed or different it may be from what we might have expected. Taking time to write like this is also a way to be kind to ourselves. We can witness this creative process in action in a poem called “Kindness” by Naomi Shihab Nye, where the author finds that even in the hardest times, “kindness… ties your shoes / and sends you out into the day.”
Have you been writing about your experiences since the pandemic began? Let me know in the comments what prompts or strategies have helped you get your feelings and ideas into words.
I’m very aware that people’s lives have been affected deeply by COVID-19 and that many people have experienced illness or loss and grief. If this is true of you and your family, I’m truly sorry for your losses.
How to Write about the Pandemic was originally published in CRY Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
Compass
Compass
Photo by: Heidi Kaden on UnsplashWaves crash violently,
nearly forcing me overboard.
I promise no surrender,
desperately in love with control,
in the face of nature’s apathetic glare.
Wearing a mask of ambition,
I seek validation in a race for rats,
losing my humanity, and the best parts of my mind.
I hold a vice-grip around hope,
suffocating all opportunities with a sailors knot,
only to prove that I am “a somebody.”
Hiding behind the facade is the fear that if I build it and they don’t come,
then what?
Maybe be just a nobody?
Shoeless Joe Jackson wouldn’t be the only barefoot man in a field of dreams.
I search the night.
Were it not for the stars, I’d believe that my mind was shut off.
My eyes falling to the top of the lighthouse,
hoping to be found amid countless other ships lost at sea.
I let go,
hopelessly brought to my knees from the downpour of disadvantage.
Genuflecting from pain lifts my spirits.
A phantom takes hold of me,
whispering that the beacon of light comes from within me,
and you,
and we.
Not some building in the night,
or views over the horizon at sunrise.
Our gold isn’t in sunken treasures,
but the beauty of the journey we spend a lifetime journeying to find.
I rise as the gentle breeze carries me to the shores of promised lands that only appears after Faith.
Compass was originally published in CRY Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
I Live for Mid-Tide
Somewhere between sudden inspiration and absolute zero lies a place where I can write safely.
September 14, 2021
Now
Photo by Raisa Milova on UnsplashNow is;
A snowflake,
A raindrop,
A cloud,
Here for now.
Now was originally published in CRY Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
