Aspiring

My Poetry Writing Process

The fabled writing process, everyone has one, or one they prefer at least.

My own process keeps me sane, keeps me trying, and ultimately makes my work better. That’s what I’m going to explore in this entry.

The fabled writing process, everyone has one, or one they prefer at least.

My own process keeps me sane, keeps me trying, and ultimately makes my work better. That’s what I’m going to explore in this entry.

I’ve found, that in the past spending a few moments considering what my process is has made for better poetry. It prevents me trying to force myself to fit molds that aren’t mine, which so far when I’ve tried has led me down paths of frustration. Having the desire to write a poem, and then destroying the will to write is a terrible thing.

Preface: Before I start exploring, it isn’t fair to say I have one writing process, I have several – the aim of this post is explore my writing process for poetry, I will do another blog entry in regards to writing literature.

So what is my poetry writing process?

Continue reading “My Poetry Writing Process”

What is great literature?

An interesting question, one for which every aspiring writer, and most if not all published authors would give their leg, and any other body part, or parts, that wouldn’t impede their writing, to know the answer to, “What truly is a great piece of writing?”

When I say ‘great’, I mean the kind of writing that is remembered as being up there, and out there, that historically will stand the test of time and will forever earn plaudits.

Continue reading “What is great literature?”

Update on Blog (Adminstrative Notes)

I am definately feeling more committed to this blog than any other. That said, I have done a lot of little bits and bobs technically to get the site where I want it, which has distracted from actual writing things to go in said blog.

Well that changes now, I’m reasonably confident technically I won’t be making anymore changes.

However, I’ve listed some of the technical achievements.

You can feel free to ignore this post, it’s more for me than anyone else.

Continue reading “Update on Blog (Adminstrative Notes)”

A poem very close to my heart…

This morning, I couldn’t sleep and went for a walk. Up the slanting street I went, and found myself by the field behind Osmondthorpe Lane, facing the bridge I’d climbed up after I came back from hospital, the night my Granddad died.

I wrote a poem for him after that, I’d intended on reading it at the funeral – I messed up though, it was the first funeral I’d ever been to, and I left it at home, and even though I’d practiced it, I didn’t dare stand up and read it, in case I spoiled it.

By no means is technically a great poem, but it’s a poem that means more to me than any other. Since I ended up at the bridge, and the memories and chain of thoughts led me to rekindle my blog, I thought it was fitting I put it out there once more.

One of the last great heroes has gone

One of the last great heroes has gone,
A warrior of sea and life,
Lost to us, but for memory,
And love in our hearts,
He will be there for us in the strife,
And always too when life is merry.

But on that sorrowed night I prayed,
Just for two minutes,
Two minutes, to say my love,
To share my heart,
He had given his all to life’s fight,
And from his body he flew, released like a dove.

I wish I could have said more in the time we had,
How much we all cared for the tailor,
I know, I hope,
With all my heart,
That we loved with out failure,
Only with that faith could I cope.

By Jonathan Lawrence, 5th April 2003

Congratulations to the new UK Poet Laureate – Carol Ann Duffy

On Friday it was announced that Carol Ann Duffy was confirmed as Poet Laureate. I find this really exciting, Carol Ann Duffy is an amazing poet, I’ve been reading her poems for years, I studied her for my GCSE’s, over a decade ago. I don’t find it exciting for any of the first’s that are banded about (first Poet Laureate appointee of the 21st century, first woman, first open lesbian, or first Scot).

I think it’s fitting for my second post on here, to post about latest appointment of the UK’s Poet Laureate.

I honestly do love her poetry, my favourite being the exquisite Valentine. I think if I could find an ideal of love, then I’d be able to demonstrate my love in an unconventional form – I haven’t yet, and that does make me sad, but hopeful.

She is very deserving of the title, and job Poet Laureate – I’m hoping she has the opportunity to produce more in her role, than Andrew Motion was able to do. I’m kind of romantic about the notion of Poet Laureate. It’s a wonderful role to aspire too. To me, it’s the pinnacle, above all awards, and rewards, it’s recognition of being the best.

With the change to the post being for ten years, it may feel slightly less special, I don’t know, but I’d still hold it up there as being at the top of the game. Ten years is a long time, so there’s plenty of scope for poets present and future to also aspire.

So congratulations to Carol Ann Duffy, I’m looking forward to her first poems as Poet Laureate, and her next poetry to come out.

Aspiring.org’s First Blog Entry (for the umpteenth time… this is the last, honest)

So here I am, once again in the blogosphere, with a whole new blog.

I struggled with what would be the first post. It should be prolific after all this time, right? Grand in nature. Broad in scope. So, I struggled. Should I be business like, or should I be all pally? I struggled some more. And then I realized it’s just like walking into a room full of people you’ve never met – I’ll introduce ourselves to you. It’s the only polite thing to do, right?

My name is Jonathan L. Lawrence

So here I am, once again in the blogosphere, with a whole new blog.

My name is Jonathan L. Lawrence (yep the name’s in the banner, so you’ll never forget), I go by a few nicknames, for this blog I’ve chosen JL Legend, a monicker coined where I work, an ironic confidence booster. This is also my name on Twitter, if you want to follow my micro-blogging.

I’m a Business Analyst by trade, but in my spare time I’m (deep breaths this is coming straight from the banner), writer, poet, artist, geek, among other things. I’ll admit, I’m not the shit at one of these, but I aspire to be – and that’s what this blog is about, my aspirations. Now, the benefit of having a blog is that I can show case what I can do, and pretend I know what I’m doing. I do have some clue, I’ve been plying myself at the creative arts for fifteen years now, ever since I was a teenager. I’ve studied in school, in college, in my spare time when I started work (and shhh over the years occaisionally at work too – though obviously not in my current job *psst anyone from work looking?).

So, you have an idea of who I am, you kind find out more specifics in the About section. You also know why I’m posting (no it’s not just to further my ego by having JL Legend plastered everywhere across the site!), it’s showcase what I can do, to diarise where I’m going, and where I’ve come from, to offer what advice I can, commentaries on the creative world, and the news around it. I might also throw in a review or two of books, such old and new. It’s not all about me (damn the world not revolving round me!)

I encourage anyone to comment (if you’re not a spam bot, or a sweaty, greasy, puberty waiting troll), I love comments, makes my day to hear my inbox ping. You can also email me at lex-a-like [at] [dot] aspiring.org, or through the comments page. The more the merrier.

My Poetry Archive

Header for my poetry archive section of the site.

Here we have my poetry archive, here I will undertake to type up and post as many of my historic poems as I possibly can. There are of course many that won’t make it, some were sadly not kept together, others given away as gifts, others that are unreadable (I have shocking handwriting, made worse by writing on buses and trains), and others no matter how low I set the bar, I just couldn’t bear to post.

The bar is low though, these are poems from across the past twelve or so years, and though I don’t consider myself a great or talented poet, I’d like to think my use of rhyme, structure, and English has improved over those years. Certainly looking back at some of my poems, I feel I definitely have improved. Who knows where I’ll be in another twelve years time, here’s hoping to way out there.

In the meantime feel free to peruse this category, sadly I don’t have dates, even just years, for some of these poems. I’ve kept most of them together, but my version of filing is fairly chaotic. For instance, the picture below is about two thirds of my collection laid out:

[singlepic id=62 w=320 h=240 float=]

I shall do my best to catalogue these writings accurately, and with as little prejudice as possible (what’s a little embarrassment between friends?), and hopefully it will all work out. Suffice to say, this blog will be the premier place for the complete collection of the works of one Jonathan L. Lawrence, should anyone ever need one.

It will take some time to achieve, in the meantime, here are some already typed up, saved from the now closing GeoCities site I’ve had for many a year.