The Rose

AUTHOR’S GAB, READER TALK.

A LETTER TO YOU, THE READER, SO THAT YOU CAN FINALLY FIGURE OUT WHAT I’M THINKING.

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THIS MONTH: The danger of writing about love <3</3

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“I write down what’s in my heart… and it’s always you, you, you.”

— Ranata Suzuki

Dear Reader,

Has this ever happened to you? You fall in love or you break up with someone and that’s all you can think or feel about. So, that’s all you can write about. You scrall sappy love poem after sappy love poem about your relationship and how you feel and it feels GOOD to write about. You think to yourself, “I can get behind this. It’s full of emotion. It’s worded well. What could go wrong?” The answer: a lot can go wrong.

Basically, your portfolio starts filling up with Shakespearian-type love poems and stories. As much as it’s pleasing to you, this can be a mark of an amateur writer. Usually, just by glancing at people’s blogs, you can tell, just by seeing if they’re writing about their relationships or writing about other things. Readers, for as much credit as we writers give them, don’t always feel like trudging through your relationship crap. Even poems or stories about friendships, in excess, can be too revealing or redundant. The writer begins to miss the point and loses the breadth of writing about his or her whole experience for a fixation or focus on their love life.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I have my share of love poems. But, lately, I’ve realize that, hey, I could write about my faith. And so, I wrote a Christmas poem, entitled, “Nativity”. The final version is still sitting in my drafts, but I will probably publish it eventually. And so, I have taken more to think about and focus on that.

But, I also had a stark reminder of my relationship history when I realized there was at least one break-up poem for each guy I dated, including my latest relationship, which heartbreakingly ended just before Christmas. The semi-perfect sonnet I wrote is called, “Getting Dumped”, and you can see it online now. It’s almost like I could lump those poems into a collection entitled, “Relationships that Didn’t Work Out”. The ironic thing is that I’m missing one, and that was the one relationship I was glad to see end.

I guess you could go the other way also and read “Loving Luke” and others about the love I experienced in each relationship, passionate in each way. Or, you could read about my feelings about a guy who couldn’t commit in “Water”. Or, you could even read about my friendships in “Missing You” or “Through My Lucid Storm”.

But, then again, you could also read about my experience in science class in “The Anatomy of of Compound Microscope”, the irony and repetitiveness of summer art fairs in “Street Art Fair” or the thrill of a chess game in “The Chess Game”. Or, experience life’s shortness and change through “Vacancy” and “Occupancy”. Or, discover Jesus through “Crimson” or see life through the eyes of a stray dog in “A Stray Dog”.

Focusing on these types of poems and stories thus helps to balance out your more personal pieces, which can reflect humanity if done properly. Otherwise, why do you think Shakespeare was so successful? Because he integrated the intimate with the mundane, the profound with the simple, and balanced them all out together.

Think about that.

Sincerely, Your Writer,

Jessica A. McLean

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Recent Happenings:

• Recent Ad-Lib Activity:
  • December 2019 Ad-Lib is here!
  • Here lies my foolish thinking. A writer is dedicated, not lazy. Making a resolution to pick up monthly Ad Libs again!
    • Recently, I have not been keeping up with Ad-Libbing. I graduated four years ago from Oakland University with a degree in Journalism and I got a job at a local paper, The Oakland Press. I’m doing more writing, editing, designing and publishing than I could ever dream of. But, this cascade of graduating, finding a job and working hard at a job has captivated much of my time and mental faculties, leaving little time for personal reflection. I decided there just wasn’t time for Ad-Libbing, but I would keep publishing poetry, which is what I have done. I may not be able to publish Ad-Libs monthly as before, but I hope that when I get the chance suffices.
      • TBA: I’m working on finishing my series on form. It’s a gigantic project, so I will probably split it in two. Stay tuned.
• Recently Published:
  • Poems Added:
    • “Gardening Wildflowers”
      • This is an old, old poem of mine that I think deserves a fresh look. The copyright date I put on it is the year I graduated from high school, but I actually wrote this much earlier on, possibly in middle school (seventh grade?). I was sitting in history class, bored out of my mind, when this came to me. So, I wrote it down. And, you know what? It’s really withstood the test of time over the years. I’m finding applications for this poem now as much as I did in middle school. I hope it touches your life in a real way as it has constantly touched mine. But, for some reason, it was never uploaded to the blog. Mark this day then, as it is now uploaded. And, please enjoy this spiritual free verse. 🙂
      • Isaiah 58:11 (NASB):
        “And the Lord will continually guide you,
        And satisfy your desire in scorched places,
        And give strength to your bones;
        And you will be like a watered garden,
        And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.”
    • Occupancy
      • semi-perfect sonnet, part two of “Vacancy”
    • Tba — thoughts brewing
• Editing, editing, and more editing.
• Waiting 🙂

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