Update: August 2006
The end of August is here, and while some of you are dreading it because it means you're going back to school, others are looking forward to it with anticipation because it means that your kids are going back to school. And yet, for those of us in the northern hemisphere, we must come to terms with the end of Summer. My school is right at the middle of the first quarter. Seven weeks in, two to go for our first 3 week break of the school year. I'm definitely looking forward to September.
On the website this month you'll find four new poems. In between is a piece that I've had in my notebook for weeks. This is a very short poem that I kept trying to turn into a longer piece. In the end, it was only that first stanza that didn't seem contrived so here it is. The Stranger is a very simple piece. On the surface it's about the impact a stranger can make on us, at a deeper level, it's about how sad it is that we often keep quiet when another human being moves us.
The idea for the third poem, The dance, came to me about three months ago. For a long time I've used the idea of "dance" as a metaphor for the patterns we create in our relationships, be they friends, spouses, lovers, etc. In May I attended a dance concert and was able to peek at dancers in the wings waiting for their cues. I hope you like it. Finally, Sometimes it's hard, is one of those things that starts as one thing and ends up being another. It started as a writing exercise that quickly took on a life of its own. As I shared it with other writers, it became evident that a lot of people related to it, so I share it with all of you.
Book Update:
The “Three Bucket Money Management” project has been on hold, although I have contacted a couple of other agents. Publishing, especially for new authors, is a waiting game. :)
As always, I hope you enjoy these pieces and your comments are always welcome.
Update: July 2006
Well, the school year is behind me now. The weeks leading up to graduation were full of final exams, and calculating final grades, dealing with disappointed students, etc. However, those stressful weeks are over, I'm appreciating my three weeks of free time, and am back to the business of writing.
As you can probably guess, May and June were not very conducive to being creative. However there are three new poems on the site. The more I write the more I realize that inspiration can come from just about anywhere. The first new poem is called Little Lizard. This piece came to me as I was bike riding along the beautiful San Diego Bay and I noticed a large number of lizards had come out from their usual hiding places to enjoy the warmth of the sun. The second poem is, There are days. It doesn’t need much explanation, other than to say that the reaction I’ve received from this piece has led me to understand more fully the universal experience of the ebb and flow of confidence and self-doubt: like yin and yang, one contains the seed of the other. The last piece, My grandfather’s workshop is one that digs deep into my childhood and my relationship with my grandfather. I hope you enjoy, and as always I encourage you to leave comments on the website.
Book Update:
A few of you have emailed and asked about progress on “Three Bucket Money Management.” And at this point there really isn’t any progress to report. The agent I had mailed the manuscript to has not responded so I’m assuming that she’s not that interested, so in the next few days I will be contacting a few new literary agents. Thanks for asking.
Update: April 2006
Well, April is winding down. Wasn’t New Years just a couple of weeks ago? Well, it’s crunch time at my day job. As some of you know I work at a school that’s been open for three years, and this June we will have our first graduating class. So we’re very excited and at the same time stressed out. I thought it was the students that were supposed to be stressed out? In any case, work keeps attempting to take up more and more time, but through it all I’ve managed to make progress on some of my resolutions for the year.
My first goal was to publish my book on personal finance for teens. While the publishing part is probably still a way out, I have managed to finish the manuscript. It’s done! Not only is it finished but a couple of weeks ago I sent it to a literary agent that has seen it before and asked to resend it once I finished and implemented some changes she proposed, so, I’ll keep you updated on that front.
My second resolution was to keep up this website. Although I haven’t written as much as I’d like, I’ve at least been consistent with an essay and a couple of poems each month. Now that Three Bucket Money Management is done, (that’s the working title of the manuscript I finished), I’m ready to work more at fiction, so look forward to some new short stories and I can get back to the novel I started a few months ago.
So what’s new in April? A couple of new poems: Starry Night. This poem came to me while driving at night a few weeks ago. after playing with it a bit I finally got it to where I was comfortable sharing it. This one comes with a parental advisory sticker for strong language. The second poem is called The Canvas: I love impressionist paintings where the technique is to show the “impression” of the subject and not necessarily a realistic rendition of it. In any case, I think this piece is one of my most optimistic pieces. And finally a new personal essay titled Love sucks…but what’s the alternative? That one speaks for itself
By the way, although I didn’t do a Literary Website entry this month, I wanted to remind you that, in the US, April is National Poetry month. The Academy of American Poets has a great website to celebrate this and you can even sign up to get a poem-a-day in your mailbox. Check it out.
Thanks again for taking the time to visit and read my stuff. I am forever grateful.
Roberto
Technorati Tags: essay, life, poetry, publishing, writing
Update: March 2006
Hi Everybody:
Well, March is coming to an end and Spring is here. Pretty soon we'll be changing our clocks again and losing that hour we got back in October. With Spring comes a sense of renewal for some, the sense that life is all around us. And for those of us in the education field...Spring Break. All I can say is...not a moment too soon.
So what's new this month? First up we have a couple of new poems. They are about drastically different subjects although they do have a common denominator. One poem is called My grandmother’s hands. During my childhood, my grandparents were a huge part of my life and they made a huge impact on me, yet it is only today that I realize how strong the impact was. The other poem is called Today. This one came to me all at once. I think the editing was limited to some minor things, that's pretty rare for me.
The essay this month departs from my usual topics and I delve into my grad student days. The essay is titled National Security? It was prompted by the recent push by the Bush administration to put the best face possible on the situation in Iraq. As a teacher of American Government to high school students I tend to present both sides of an issue, my role there is to get my students to think for themselves not give them my thoughts. It was nice to leave those constraints and put down on "paper" my thoughts the current situation. Expect more political essays in the future
The Literary Website focuses on one of my favorite American authors: John Steinbeck, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1962. For this one all you have to do is scroll down a bit. I hope you enjoy it. Finally, you'll notice on the sidebar a section called "Blogroll." Here I've put links to some of my favorite blogs. I've started with a very cool blog by a young woman that works extensively with marine life, especially Orcas. Check her blog out.
Enjoy,
Roberto
Technorati Tags: essay, poetry, writing
Update: February 2006
Hello friends,
Here we are, another month speeding by. Can you believe March is already here? Unfortunately my day job has been keeping me pretty busy. As many of you know I teach a couple of AP courses and we are getting down to crunch time. So for the last few weeks writing as a whole has not been a priority. I do have a couple of new items though.
This month I remembered to do a Literary website piece. This time I’ve highlighted one of my favorite poets, Pablo Neruda. I would be a complete idiot if I didn’t thank the man that introduced me to Neruda back in college, Dr. Marambio, of the University of San Diego. I took a few courses from him and learned a great deal of Latin American Literature. (He might disagree about the learning part.) In that piece you’ll find links to Neruda’s poetry both in the original Spanish and translations into English. I hope you take the time to take a look at it.
I’ve always said that when inspiration strikes, I never know where it’s coming from or where its going to lead me. For me, most of the time the muse comes and it speaks to me in English. This month was a bit different, maybe it was all that Neruda I was looking at, but the new poem this month is called Recuerdos, and it is one of my very few Spanish pieces. Since most of you who are victims of my monthly updates aren’t Spanish speakers, I’ve included an English translation. But I have to tell you, the Spanish sounds better to my ear.
A third item this month is an essay titled The Power of Belief. It’s been a couple of months since I wrote one. Actually, this one has been brewing in my head since January, but I finally got it finished. It deals with beliefs and how our beliefs influence our lives most of the time without us even knowing. I would really enjoy any feedback you might have on this piece. I tried to keep it to a manageable size, but I could have written much more. Perhaps I’ll revisit the topic in the future.
Just in terms of an update, Three Bucket Money Management is moving along. I just got the edits for Chapter 7 from my friend and trusted reader/editor and overall encourager, Jaime Jeffries. Chapter 8 is about half written. The whole thing was supposed to be done by the end of this month, I’m now a couple of weeks off, but it’s not too bad. I look forward to sharing some excerpts with you once I know if this is going to be published in the traditional way or if it will end up being a self-published book.
Finally, I’m happy to announce that I have found a permanent home for my blog. The new address is very simple http://roberto-rodriguez.com. I know, its a bit egocentric but what the heck. Blogger.com is a great free service and I would highly recommend it to anybody that wants to keep a blog. Yet, having my own domain gives me the freedom to post what I want….Nah…it’s all about the ego and the cool factor. For now though, some of the links are still pointing to the blogger website, which is still up, at least until I can get all the links to work properly.
Enjoy, and as always, let me know what you think.
Roberto
Technorati Tags: essay, life, poem, poetry, writing
Update: November 2005
Hello everybody,
As I mentioned last time I’m shooting for a monthly update and here it is. The holidays are upon and I know everybody’s busy. So I’ll hit the highlights. As many of you know last month I sort of widened the “audience” if you will. Even some of my closest friends had no clue that I was writing something other than a money management book or high school lesson plans. The response has been very encouraging from many of you and I truly appreciate that. I did have to field my share of emails from friends asking if I was all right. I guess some of the poetry was a little “heavy” on the sad and melancholy. All I can say to that is, when that’s what the muse gives you…you just have to go with it.
So, in order to show that I do have a fun side, I wrote a little ode to my Morning Cup of Joe. I played with it a bit and although most of my poetry doesn’t rhyme much, this one is my own little ode to Dr. Seuss. Believe me, I fall way short of the good Doctor, but if you put your tongue firmly in cheek, I think you’ll find it funny. The other two new poems, go back to my usual M.O. One poem, The lonely girl was inspired by this student I happen to see almost every day that I walk to my classroom. The other is called Walk Away. I’ll let that one speak for itself. The only curious thing about this one is that it sat in the depths of my laptop for 6 months under a different title. When I rediscovered it, it took 10 minutes to rework and finish it. The muse spoke loudly.
The essay this month, In this season of happiness and joy, is all about happiness…well, not really…more the lack of it and our constant search for it. But I think in it’s own way it’s an affirmation of the human condition. Either that or it’s just me venting on the downside from caffeine high.
One last thing, if you want to expose your kids to poetry, why not make it fun. Check out my Literary website of the month on the main page of the blog. Just scroll down a bit. Or just point your browser to Giggle Poetry. Oh, and if you don’t have kids, check it out anyway; you’ll be smiling in no time.
See? I’m not a downer. I just write that way. ☺
Technorati Tags: determination, friendship, love, poetry, writing
Literary Website: Poetry for kids
Poetry Daily features a new poem daily. I looked through their "previously on Poetry Daily" link and perused some of the poems. I liked many of them, but the quality can be a bit uneven, but I'm willing to admit that it may simply be an issue of taste. Either way, I recommend you bookmark this site and add a bit of poetry to your day.
Giggle Poetry is just a fun site that has the aim of introducing poetry to children and making it fun. The topics range from dogs eating homework, to teachers boiling their textbooks. It's a fun website for kids and for adults that still have a little kid in them. I highly recommend it.
Take a look at those sites and tell me what you think.
Roberto
Recent Posts...
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog. Up to now I've been "updating" in a very uneven way. This is the first of what I hope to be at least a monthly update on my writing. October turned out to be one of those months; a lot of emotional stuff has come up for me which has prompted quite a bit of writing. This month I have a couple of new poems and two new essays. Also I'm updating a newly created weight loss journal. I've been trying to become more disciplined about writing and am hoping to publish more regularly here.
Most of the time when I write poetry it comes from my own experience, my own reaction to whatever is happening in my life. Yet last month for the first time I wrote some poems based mostly on the experience of others: Emptiness is all that's left and Anxiety. This month's new poems are Loneliness and The Whole of Me.
I mentioned my weight loss journal earlier and if you read the personal essay Introspection, you'll see why losing weight has become so important to me. The newest essay, A busted window, was inspired by someone breaking into my car. Believe me, when I was writing, I was surprised by what came out. By and large personal essays are difficult for me to write and share but it's been interesting writing both of these. The outcome was much different from what I planned when I started.
The novel is coming along but it will be a long process. The first draft has been all about just laying out the story and the characters...subsequent drafts is where the real creativity happens. At least that's what I'm hoping.
Three Bucket Money Management is the long standing project that I've been working on. I've been stuck trying to make some changes that were suggested to me by a potential agent. I think I've been working on this for so long that I'm beginning to hate it. I was warned that this might happen. I guess I have to work through it. But a good friend made some suggestions that might get me unstuck and give the agent at least some of what she wants to see. I'm hoping to be done with that manuscript by year's end.
Drop me a note, leave a comment. Tell me what you think.
Roberto
The Poet Laureate
The main reason I started this blog was to share my writing. And part of my writing is my reading and authors that inspire me or that I aspire to. So, I've decided to share a bit here. I had never heard of Ted Kooser before. But as I was driving home from work on Friday I heard an interview with him on NPR's All Things Considered. Who is Ted Kooser you might ask? Well, he's the current Poet Laureate of the United States.
The Poet Laureate is appointed by the United States Library of Congress. I found information on the position on Wikipedia. The library of Congress has a fantastic website highlighting poetry in general and Kooser in particular. You can access this information on The Library of Congress Poetry Home page.
Take a listen to theKooser interview and read a few of his poems. There are links to more information on him there. I like him because his poetry is simple, direct yet heartfelt and sometimes funny. Check it out.
Technorati Tags: poem, poetry, Poet Laureate, writing
What if?
What if we can’t be together?
What would we do?
What of commitment?
What of lives together?
Who would take my place?
Who would take yours?
What if we are together?
How will we live?
Where will we live?
What if I’m not the one?
What if you're not?
What if it doesn’t work?
What if we’re not compatible?
What if you’re sun and I’m moon?
What if I need care?
What if you need space?
What if we have nothing to give?
What if love isn’t enough?
What if I close down again?
What if I forget to speak?
What if my fears become true?
What if we miss our chance?
What if we don’t?
What if it’s destiny?
What if we are soul mates?
What if this is our chance?
What if happiness depends on it?
What if I’m for you and you’re for me?
What if destiny has brought us together?
What if our past led us here, to this place?
What if we don’t follow our path?
What if we take a chance?
© 1997 Roberto Rodriguez
1997
