Poemgranates Have Antioxidance

The ability to cultivate the feeling of accomplishment while writing stems from the creation of miniature successes. I want, so badly, to have this writing project finished, which is why I write short poems. I think I end them before they are finished. However, a work in progress is still progressing. So it is with Ryal. I read an article about cultivating solitude, hence the verbage at the beginning of this paragraph. I found myself doing this—finding peace while music was playing. I hit a stride in writing even with the distractions of people arriving at home, emails pouring in, cats being adorable together on the foot of my bed, and a phone that rang once.

About two weeks ago, I got stuck. I didn’t know where I should go with my story, so I let the story get cold for a little bit. When I got back to it, the solution struck—just switch activities. Maybe this is where a break comes in, which is why I got stuck. I kept trying to fight the break instead of leaving it and going to something else. I’ve gone on. And I even got to write a couple of other things in the letting Ryal get cold practice.

There is a source, a why, and always a fault.
There is a white lie at the end of a tunnel.
We can turn in, jut out, or share in the middle of a kitchen kiss-
ed by the sun.
You-- faultless, seamless, seen less oft than before I left.

There is a winter so long, a sigh, and a safe.
There is never a cry too soft to touch
Burst, mourn, so join. Go on.
Coffee sang outside- the birds- I felt.

There is space and air and are moments, just mine.
There's time like the present, but not much.
Turn a phrase, your face, to face me
Knee, I'm sure, versions of this.
We joke inside contexts and outside frames.

Under the podium, I thought, but there's just foundation.
Understand, you sought, and we built off that.
Easy rhymes and misprospelled statements.
Better just say within our means.


Yeah, okay, poetry is weird. Mine rarely makes sense at first, even to me. But sometimes it's like dreams, and I figure out what I mean and what I'm saying, then I make that a little clearer. Sometimes.

And this acted as the platform to writing about Ryal. I went back to his story for the first time in a very long time. And the whole time, I got to listen to music, which was glorious for me.

'Is there a word that means weighted down but not in a bad way?' he asked. 'I'm weighted down with musical ideas that keep me writing and recording and doing my job.'" --M. Ward in an article in the New York Times written by Melena Ryzik