Carolee Bennett –> poet. artist. crankypants.
Musings. Often random. Sometimes brief. More than likely not.
I always feel better when I’m making something, and today’s soundtrack was an essential reminder. It’s time to refocus and it’s time to shift and these seasons I loathe (fall and winter) may be the perfect opportunity. For once, I’m thinking they could be good for me. Perhaps I can use them to get my feet back under me?
Now in my 50s, I am (both IRL and in writing life) thinking about comfort over appearance. What would it mean to let go of the idea of pretty or sexy or cute? What would it look like to write what I like — “acceptance” be damned?
In which I learn what I already knew: Being a writer and artist means practicing. It also helps to play — and celebrate small wins along the way!
I started publishing on TikTok to create and support literary community and have a little fun along the way. In that same spirit, I want to share some intel with you — what I’ve found there (so far) in terms of poetry community and how I personally use the platform.
These kids have ripped me open in the most painful, fascinating, delightful way, and it’s given me a strength I didn’t know I had: learning to be OK with what’s raw and unfinished and uncertain — both as it makes an appearance in my mirror and as my boys experience it for themselves.
I just finished re-reading* Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret in the context of a manuscript I’m working on in which the speaker confides in and seeks guidance from an alter ego named Gertie. I’m not 100% convinced I can pull it off, but I’m following it where it goes and using my writing journals to get me there.
Except for Arielle Greenberg’s I Live in the Country & Other Dirty Poems (which I LOVED and hope to write about at some point), the “reading books cover-to-cover” list hasn’t included poetry. Here are the fiction and CNF books that have been on my mid-pandemic reading list.