Engrish

I love the English language. It is very flexible and quite easy to express exactly what I want to say. Although I'm a little rusty, I consider myself fluent in Spanish. And since they are SO similar, I can understand (not speak) Portuguese, Italian, and a little French. I can also tell you that expressing myself in English takes less words than in any of these other languages.

I write a little poetry. I don't like to read it, probably because there is SO much bad poetry out there. I don't write it often, but when I do it takes a long time for me to complete a poem. I think that's partially because of the way I/we think. When I discover an idea for a poem, it generally comes as some vast piece of inspiration which has many facets and branches. Writing the actual poem is a way of shortening and giving definition to those larger ideas.

I never have an ending in mind when I write...usually just that bit of inspiration. The purpose of my writing is to bring the ending into being.

I also like to think about balance when I write. This even applies to love letters that I write to my wife on her birthday or anniversary. I read it over and over and over and re-write it until it just flows out of my mouth and "feels" right.

When I start writing, I usually write down ALL the inspiration I have about that subject and then edit the piece as I go. And I try to save the most powerful insight for the end of the story or poem. It's like the punchline of a great joke, as some great poet said.

Someday soon I'll write another sample of something I've been working on for a while. You may not like it, but I don't write for others; I mostly write for myself.