Tag: social media

• Progress Report

  Hi all. Hope you are well. 

  This week I have been typing up the contents of 3 different notebooks. Poems I have written in the past 5 years. You know sometimes you write in a notebook and then shelf the notebook and never look at it again? So when you do, eventually open that notebook, you get a pleasant surprise at re-reading some of the poems. They are not too bad! Certainly some things to work on in there. I am planning to submit some of these poems to lit mags but there are some I am going to post here on my blog, the more poems in progress. That I need to work on. 

  I have unsubscribed from emails this week that I don’t read. I let all of these emails pile up in my inbox. I don’t read them and I don’t delete them either. Some emails have been read but I don’t engage with them or follow that person or product anymore, so I might scan the email but I don’t take any of it in. I also logged out of some of my social media apps because, again, I scroll and scroll and I don’t think I’m taking in the content that I am seeing. I feel as if I am looking at the same photos, quotes, reels etc. constantly and they don’t have any kind of effect at the moment. I’m wondering how much more time I would have in the morning or in the evening if I wasn’t disengaged. Maybe if I was reading one of the many books on my TBR list instead. Being more intentional with my time. And I think if I’m editing my own poetry at the moment, I need to concentrate on that and not be taking in other people’s work. I just need to focus on whatever I am trying to say or communicate.

  I do feel as if I am trying to numb out of my life right now but I’m struggling to do that because I don’t actually want to. I want to be creative. It’s that trust, isn’t it? When you’re facing change, but what you are used to settling for is very much still breathing down your neck.

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  February 26, 2023

  blog, change, Mental health, poetry, social media, WordPress

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• our conversation

  flowing, our conversation
  like the words in a poem 
  the constant communication 
  through our messages 
  learning a new language 
  of really getting to know someone 
  

  • Patreon

  July 5, 2021

  blog, Bookblog, instant message, Poet, poetry, Reading, social media, writing

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• Fem lit.

  I have been reading a few excellent fem lit books over the last few weeks. I am not entirely sold on calling them fem lit, but as a rule I don’t really like slapping genres on books, because they’re merely labels. Here are the books.

  I only discovered feminism four, five years ago. I have grown up in a very working class, women are wives, and mothers etc. background. There were no role models.

  I feel as if I have been under a rock. As Laura writes in Girl Up once you start seeing everyday sexism it’s like you have put on a 3D pair of glasses. Situations I have felt uncomfortable in, and should have spoken up in, now make sense. I had the right to say no.

  The world has been against us for centuries!

  

  A collection with a feminist ethos that cuts across race, gender identity, and sexuality.

  Creative activists have reacted to the 2016 Presidential election in myriad ways. Editors Danielle Barnhart and Iris Mahan have drawn on their profound knowledge of the poetry scene to put together an extraordinary list of poets taking a feminist stance against the new authority. What began as an informal collaboration of like-minded poets–to be released as a handbound chapbook–has grown into something far more substantial and ambitious: a fully fledged anthology of women’s resistance, with a portion of proceeds supporting Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights.Representing the complexity and diversity of contemporary womanhood and bolstering the fight against racism, sexism, and violence, this collection unites powerful new writers, performers, and activists with established poets. Contributors include Denice Frohman, Elizabeth Acevedo, Sandra Beasley, Jericho Brown, Mahogany L. Browne, Danielle Chapman, Tyehimba Jess, Kimberly Johnson, Jacqueline Jones LaMon, Maureen N. McLane, Joyce Peseroff, Mary Ruefle, Trish Salah, Patricia Smith, Anne Waldman, and Rachel Zucker.

  

  They told you you need to be thin and beautiful.

  They told you to wear longer skirts, avoid going out late at night and move in groups – never accept drinks from a stranger, and wear shoes you can run in more easily than heels.

  They told you to wear just enough make-up to look presentable but not enough to be a slut; to dress to flatter your apple, pear, hourglass figure, but not to be too tarty.

  They warned you that if you try to be strong, or take control, you’ll be shrill, bossy, a ballbreaker. Of course it’s fine for the boys, but you should know your place.

  They told you ‘that’s not for girls’ – ‘take it as a compliment’ – ‘don’t rock the boat’ – ‘that’ll go straight to your hips’.

  They told you ‘beauty is on the inside’, but you knew they didn’t really mean it.

  Well screw that. I’m here to tell you something else.

  Hilarious, jaunty and bold, GIRL UP exposes the truth about the pressures surrounding body image, the false representations in media, the complexities of a sex and relationships, the trials of social media and all the other lies they told us.

  

  She Must be Mad explores coming-of-age: the pain and beauty of love, the relief and the agony of turning from girl to woman, the isolation of an untethered mind and the power and subjugation of the body.

  Charly captures the formative experiences of today’s young women from the poignant to the prosaic in writing that is at once witty, wry and heartfelt. Wayward nights out that don’t go as planned; the righteous anger at those men with no talent or skill or smarts who occupy the most powerful positions in the world; the strange banality of madness and, of course, the hurt and indecision of unrequited love.For every woman surviving and thriving in today’s world, for every girl who feels too much; this is a call for communion, and you are not alone.

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  August 9, 2018

  beauty, Blogging, Bookblog, Books, fem lit, feminism, girl up, love, Mental health, poetry, Reading, Relationships, social media, society, summer reads, WordPress, writing

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