Brain Under Attack

I didn't abandon my blog, honest. When I get creative inspiration, I must go where it leads.

So far this year, it has led me to respond to a call for submissions put out on TheBrainMatters.org website, for entries in the 2010 Neuro Film Festival.

You can view my entry "Brain Under Attack" below and I'll keep you updated, as there will be fan favourite voting, but I don't think it will start until after the Feb. 16th deadline. The film festival jury will also award a Filmmaker Prize and Storyteller Prize. All results expected April, 2010.



Stay inspired!
Michelle

Recent & Upcoming online publications to share

Hope you'll enjoy reading
all the talented poets
featured in the following links.

Pleased to share the link to the EPN that will host four of my haiku next week, November 23-28 :).

Shreve Memorial Library - Poem of the Day

 

   

Pleased to share my photo haiga published in the current issue of Sketchbook  :).

Sketchbook, Sept./Oct., 2009 4:5

Pleased to share my three senryu published in recent issues of Haiku News :).

Haiku News

Pleased to share my three solo renga published in the current issue of Lynx  :).

Lynx XXIV:3 October, 2009

Stay inspired!
©2009 Michelle V. Alkerton

'Tis the season

When reading through the weekly paper, packed full of advertising flyers hoping to snag our hard earned dollars, my husband pointed out an ad for a new med spa recently opened in our region.

The three column ad has these words bordered with delicate snowflakes and glowing across a chest with a peek at lace and cleavage.

Give him a gift you will both enjoy

And that ad is for...

24 Hour Recovery Breast Augmentation

That's right, forget about the power tools, hiking boots, or sports tickets, your man really wants you under the knife!

So, I told my husband he'd have to be happy with what I've got, because that's all he's getting :). He didn't seem at all upset with the prospect.

Stay inspired!

©2009 Michelle V. Alkerton

willow response

limbs dip the shadowed surface
       in gentle arcs of dark reflection
                   paint each movement overlapping
                               a simple dance beneath the sky

©2009 Michelle V. Alkerton
I envision this becoming my next digital poem.
Stay inspired!

Words on writing - Thanks Holly

Stay inspired!

A day of birth, a day of death

Each smile,

each laugh,
each tear,
is a moment lived.

Moments tend to expand
when shared.

May each memory

of shared moments

be a comfort

in your loss.

Our response to death ultimately alters each tomorrow we hope to attain. Another woman has lost her husband, a son and a daughter have lost their father. The ripple effect will continue long past the bloodlines, through friends, colleagues, former students and golf buddies. Echoing knowledge through school hallways and classrooms, from tee offs and over fairways. Hug someone you care about, hug yourself. Remind yourself again to engage in the moments when you're able. Savour those good moments and store them for later use when strength recedes and weakness triumphs. Be good to each other.

Stay inspired!
©2009 Michelle V. Alkerton

The Challenges of Writing

Starting a blog has it’s pros and cons. If your aim is to become a freelance writer or an up and coming poetic phenom, your own blog is a good way to write on a regular basis, find your voice and have a place to direct people to see samples of your work. However, most magazines and journals, whether online or in print will not accept previously published material which each blog becomes once you hit that “publish post” button. So, I’m finding I have to restrain myself from including all my creative writing here, so that I can submit to broader markets out there.

     I’m nearly halfway through the November 2009 PAD Chapbook Challenge from the Writer’s Digest blog Poetic Asides by Robert Lee Brewer. I must say that this challenge of writing a poem a day in November, then editing them in December and putting together a 10-20 page chapbook manuscript for the January 5th, 2010 deadline is very motivating and I’m enjoying it immensely. It enables me to stay loose and focused at the same time. The daily prompts are helpful in accessing different dimensions of myself and have so far taken my writing in some surprising directions.

     Participants are encouraged to share their daily poems on the Poetic Asides blog as part of the fun of “poeming”, but because of my previous statement on the cons of blog publishing, I have chosen not to post any of my resulting poems. As the goal of entering any contest is winning and ultimately publication, I am also fully aware that the judging of poetry or any creative writing is very subjective. On the chance that my words aren’t chosen for this particular contest, I want to have the ability to submit them elsewhere in good conscience, knowing they are not considered published because I shared them on a blog.

     For my fellow poets involved in the challenge, all the best and as always… Stay inspired!
©2009 Michelle V. Alkerton