Poetic form – Acrostic

2017-09-01 Do Art Now

Artwork created Friday, September 1, 2017

Most of us have done acrostic puzzles, but some may not realize it is also a poetic form. Often it is used to write about a person, event, or thing. The letters are written vertically down the page, each becoming the first letter of the respective line. Often the letters are capitalized at the beginning of each line. The lines are written out to create a poem.

The line: Do art now, will be the starter of this example.

Do Art Now!

Do you have any idea,
Original thought to lead you?

Are you stumbling in creative darkness?
Remember you have power in this place
That is unlimited by time or space.

Never underestimate your talents, gifts,
Over a lifetime you have employed them
With results, some might never imagine.

This could be continued, but an acrostic typically ends when one runs out of letters. Name acrostics are often done for special occasions, like birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, promotions, and to celebrate relationships.

Give it a try. The form is actually rather simple to complete. The lines do not have to have enjambment, which is where one continues into the next, some might stand alone.

Thank you for visiting Haphazard Creative. There is a follow button which may be used to ensure posts are never missed, or there is the option of returning often. May inspiration and encouragement abound in all life’s moments. Stay safe and take care.

Ever felt this?

Art can be anything. The pattern for the meme is a kitchen rug. If you look carefully at your surroundings, you will find the opportunity for creativity in perhaps, mundane things. There is so much beauty in the world that we often overlook. We live for something to overwhelm us when there is much in our lives that when looked at with open eyes reveals its unique character.

Look around, see if there is something which can be incorporated into an interesting and arresting creation. Each of us is capable of making something out of almost nothing. The fabric of the universe, of our day, is ours to explore and use in myriad ways to further our creative impulse.

Thank you for visiting Haphazard Creative, click the follow button, or should you rather not, please just come back soon. Stay safe and take care.

Redirect your day

Every day we experience a variety of emotions and moods. These influence and inspire our creativity. As an exercise, think about the sentiment or mood that dominated the day. Go back into that state, if only in thought. Pick something that seemed to cause it and explore that a few minutes.

When the feeling is dominant create a character or begin a work of art that displays the emotion or mood and see how it works out. Let this be an imagined creation, not based on reality. Write or work as long as is comfortable, then continue a bit more. Often when we go beyond our limits and push ourselves, we will find an unexpected breakthrough wherein the genius lies.

This is a way to integrate creativity into our lives and sometimes find resolutions to problems or situations we are struggling to solve. The creative impulse not only allows us to do works we imagine, but it helps us deal with the things that trouble our days. It is a major contributor to our happiness and success. No one finds a new way forward without engaging creativity in their lives. Innovation is always sparked by the efforts of creative imagination.

Our goals going forward should mingle our creative imagination with our engagement with reality, so that our days may become more joyful and happiness filled.

I hope this has sparked your imagination to create something. It is my wish to encourage and inspire you. Thank you for visiting Haphazard Creative. There is a button which allows you to follow the website. Please come back often. Fill your days with moments of creativity, and you will find life more rewarding and less trying. Take care.

The forge, the rain

I once told someone,
We have to walk through the fire
To reach the other side,
Where the cleansing rain falls down
Washing all the smut away.

I can say the truth
Is the fire can burn away
All the reasons why
We want to hold on to ways
That no longer serve our aid.

People are like gold
Smelted in fire to force out
Impurities which
We must lose to become who
We are meant to truly be.

The rain can cool us
So we do nothing quick, rash,
It restores our peace
Making us aware we are
Only strangers passing here.

There will come times
When the firing is over
We move through the rain
And then we will be wrapped in
Linen white as untrod snow.

So now, remember,
The furnace is only here
To forge character,
Refreshing rain will bring
A sweet, forever surcease.

Now it is your turn. Stir up that creativity that lives in you and write, draw, photograph, or compose something that expresses traveling from one emotional or mental state of confusion or trouble to one where there are comfort and a continuation of goodness in life.

Thank you for visiting Haphazard Creative. I hope something touched your heart and inspired or encouraged you. We all have burdens, but often they lighten when detailed in text or artwork. There is a follow button you can click, or you may return at your leisure. I hope your day is all you dream it can be. Smile, today is a piece of eternity. Take care.

A little background

2017-08-21 Me

I have been creating so much of my life that it is as basic to my survival as breath. It may sound precocious, but I began working creatively with art and writing at age three. As soon as my mother taught me to read, I begged to write. I am not sure I realized it then but know I soon knew that creative expression gave the power to communicate. I hope my skills have improved significantly over the 51 additional years I have spent working the crafts.

My first publishing credits were in elementary school newspapers on pink mimeographed pages with purple ink which I loved to smell. Part of an early effort that for some reason has stuck in my brain (which rarely contains anything I write after it is written) these many years, is:

Lonely Shadows

Lonely shadows
In the dark.

Lonely shadows
Do they stay?

Lonely shadows
Do they play,

In the mid
Midnight dark?

The whole thing was longer, but I guess it a blessing I forgot the most of it.

I wrote books by hand and illustrated them with pictures I created, drawing on paper, cutting out the image and pasting it on the page with my words. My first efforts were made with crayons and colored pencils. I was often scolded for wasting paper because if I made mistakes, I would start over on new pages. I have always had a sense of perfectionism. It is a hard thing to overcome.

I graduated to graphite and then ink pen. I still do a lot of writing by hand. When you practice penmanship as much as I have you feel obligated to use it at times. I am a pen collector extraordinaire. I have friends who are enamored of fountain pens, but somehow they always make a mess for me, so I use ballpoints, roller balls, and gel pens. I like the feel of ink moving across pages due to my hand. I sometimes use my scanner to import handwritten pages to the computer. When I can, I leave screens for a bit and get back to that primary sense of control.

I inherited the old typewriters that had come from my father’s years at seminary and my brother’s years in school. These clunky machines gave me output in print, but they were no joy to work with, and correction tape was at best an iffy thing. The innards would become tangled and cause frustration, and the keys required much finger strength to manipulate.

After begging for a computer for years, I bought my first one in 1991 while managing a convenience store. Since then, at times when I owned computers, writing has been a dream of ease. Much writing and almost every final draft are done with a keyboard on a screen.

Art was compelling to me in younger years, but periodically I drift away from it. To me, it seems to require much time-consuming commitment and effort to perfect. Writing is less demanding on me. I am attempting to rediscover my artistic skill, but it is likely to take a while.

I think I was six when I got my first camera. It was an Instamatic knock off, quite likely bought at Grants. In 1991, see a pattern here, aye, I got my first semi-professional camera. I tried a Cannon, and that did not work right. I had bought it at K-Mart. I took it back, and made a trip to Wolf Camera and bought a Nikon SLR. Let me tell you life was never quite the same from 1991 forward. I have taken beaucoups photographs since.

I have joined those elements in many ways over the years. In the nineties I desktop published a gray-scale magazine of art, photography, poetry, writing that was digest sized and went out to contributors the world over. I joined in on the blog craze at the beginning on MSN Spaces and have migrated that around. It can be found at Chronicles. I suppose it could be said that my creative focus, the heart of it all, is writing and publishing. I have designed works combining writing, art, and photography so often, I cannot quit. For the last year, my poetry and writing have been appearing in local magazines at times, and I have worked as a copy editor for those publications.

This is a new website but does not signify I am in any way new to the work. I wanted to start something new with the reasoning that it would be meant to encourage creativity. There have been many times had I not used the creative drive I might have given up, and we can as people can never give up. Creativity gives hope and ways to express the pain that lift us beyond it and bring us out of the darkness of despair into the light of love. Every day of our lives holds the opportunity to express our creative impulse and improve the world.

I hope you will be a part of the ongoing adventure. You may follow the website by clicking the button or just return often if it suits you better. I would not have posted my story, but I guessed some of you might want to know why I feel I can encourage and inspire you creatively. I do a great deal of reading on the subjects of creativity, genius, inspiration, writing, poetry, art, and photography and put much of the knowledge I gain to work. So rather than having to do all that yourself, you might pick up a few timely tips here and there.

Write something about your own creative journey and share it somehow. If you like leave it in a comment or on the contact page. You never know, what you share might help someone realize they can make their dreams reality.

Thank you for visiting Haphazard Creative, please come back when you are able. Keep a smile on your face, and you will find the world is a much happier place. Take care.