Carpe Diem (Seize The Day)

I am one day away of starting a new journey in my writing career as an author. I stumbled upon NanoWrimo at last years Brain to Books Cyber Convention, and was very weary about it. Like it was some club, only the elite get into, right. well I am wrong of course, but I guess the mystery was there. I wasn’t sure what to think of it, and to my own wandering eyes, didn’t even look it up, as I thought it was a long shot that I would ever get into the “Club.”

I know by now, you are LOLing and LMAOing and can’t stop, but hey I am still new to being an indie author, so I was not sure about these sort of things. So unfortunately I left it on the back burner and quietly put it away in my thoughts.

This March, I saw a colleagues Twitter post, that asked who was going to do Camp Nano. Oh, who is my colleague, well a wonderful acquaintance of mine

Turns out, you don’t have to be elite at all, in fact all you have to do is be an author with a goal of 50,000 words in Nov. win lose or draw you can participate. Now I know I am far from a 50,000 in 30 days, but I can try, and maybe earn that moment of seizing the day.

Sounds good doesn’t it; Seize the day, put very little trust in tomorrow (the future)!!
To me it sounds magnificent, intimidating, yet wonderful and breathtaking all in one sentence. I am not sure where this will lead me, for camp I started with a feasible goal, 20,000 words in April, to maybe work up to the 50k in November, nonetheless each day of April I will seize the day.

One of my favorite movies of all time, and one that inspired me to write is, well yup you guessed it Dead Poets Society, and when I read Anais’s poetry, I think of two lines from that movie. It makes me proud to know my first book Pages Full of Memories is poetry as well. I began this journey with that one book, kind of bitter sweet in a way.

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”

Stay alive, read and write  poetry I say, no matter what the form, I believe that with any words you write they can be of passion, of love.  Words can change the way you think, Poetry can make you love, make you cry, make you fear, and make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. Stay Alive…..

“To quote from Whitman, ‘O me! O life!… of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless… of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?’ Answer. That you are here — that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?”

A Lesson I have come to love, and cherish over these past 8 years of writing. Think different and write, seize the day, and compose, don’t fear it, grasp it, and who you are. you deserve it, you deserve to be who you want to be, scorn the critics, and chase your dreams.

 

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
                         But O heart! heart! heart!
                            O the bleeding drops of red,
                               Where on the deck my Captain lies,
                                  Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
                         Here Captain! dear father!
                            This arm beneath your head!
                               It is some dream that on the deck,
                                 You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
                         Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
                            But I with mournful tread,
                               Walk the deck my Captain lies,
                                  Fallen cold and dead.
                                                             ~WALT WHITMAN

 

The moral of this blog, is when you find that moment, when you have that chance, do not let it slip, grasp it, and hold on for dear life, and never let go even with the critics. Carpe Diem… my friends, Seize The Day, make your lives extraordinary….Gather the rose buds yee thee may…

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