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Tag: rhetorical redhead

Cória Estates: A Review

Sunny vineyardThat particular Tuesday was an Adventure Day, which means I pack up a small bag of essentials (typewriter, book, pen, paper, sunscreen and sunglasses) and follow the call of my wanderlust muse, wherever she may lead me. On this particular summer day, I knew my destination would be wine country–the sunny, cloudless sky just begged for it. When most Salemites think of local ‘wine country’ we immediately imagine the West Salem hills, which are famous for their numerous small-batch wineries offering Oregon’s staple Pinot Noir.

But today…today I am introducing you to a little boutique winery (without the boutique price tag) in the South Salem hills by the name of “Cória Estates.” I will be reviewing and discussing their wines, their tasting room and amenities, their event options, and a few other notable tidbits I experienced during my visit.

The Rogue Ovary Chronicles: A Tale of Two Cysts

Note: This blog post includes a lot of biological/sexual/medical descriptions that may be considered graphic for some readers…this is a post about my lady-anatomy, after all. I do not spare any details; read with caution if you’re prone to discomfort when reading such content.

Monday, August 3rd, 2015 – 8:30 pm

Irony has a funny way of jumping in to my life to yell, “Surprise!” while my pants are still down.

Steve and I just had a lovely round of marital relations and were looking forward to a nice relaxing evening, probably involving a movie and going to bed early. (Don’t squirm–intercourse is kind of a thing that happens in marriage, people. And I include this snippet because it single-handedly initiated the following story.)

I stood upright to go to the bathroom and was greeted by severe cramping in my lower abdomen. Curious, as I have never, ever experienced cramping before (lucky me, I know…sympathies to my not-so-lucky fellow females out there). True, I was due to start my cycle any day now, but this was something quite different than the usual pangs of discomfort.

Cramping was soon accompanied by extreme bloating in my upper abdomen, and the pain only continued to increase as an hour passed by. I lay in bed with a heat pad on my stomach in hopes the cramping would pass. But I found myself sitting on the throne of my misery, cramping at a full roar with my abdomen refusing any form of calm as nausea and fatigue and light-headedness took over.

I couldn’t even call out to Steve, barely getting out, “Babe…something’s wrong…”

He called an advice nurse through our insurance company, who asked me a laundry list of questions and concluded with, “You need to be seen at the ER. Immediately.”

Great.

Steve was a superhero—dashing around the house to pack a small bag of necessities for the hospital as I attempted to confidently leave the bathroom behind without concern of needing it again soon.

This was bad. Let me be clear—I have a high pain tolerance. Like, stupidly high. I know when my body is just dealing with something minor, which is most of the time. But this was unlike anything I’d ever felt, and everything in my body and brain screamed wrong wrong wrong. The pain was so bad I seriously considered telling Steve to drive me to Salem Hospital (which is a desperate move…everyone knows how bad the local hospital is when it comes to ER care…or any care for that matter). The proximity was that tempting. Steve reasoned me out of my insanity, though, reminding me that I would be seen and likely diagnosed at Silverton Hospital in the same amount of time it would take Salem Hospital to simply call me into triage.

Good point. To Silverton…

A Rhetorical Update

An update for you, my dear reader: I know it’s easy to see that #PopUpPoetry takes up a LOT of my time (it does…my IG gallery reflects that blatantly, as does my gap in WordPress posts). But that’s not to say I don’t continue to work on other things. It has actually been very hard to resist posting my more personal pieces as of late–because, firstly, people plagiarize FAR too much on the internet for my liking and I can’t afford to be plagiarized because, secondly, I am saving my work to submit for publication. It’s a slow and arduous…

Hacking (Up a Lung)

HDay 8 – “H” as in Hacking (Up a Lung)

Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? But illness happens to all of us. (Writers aren’t invincible, contrary to popular belief.) The daily grind of poetic progress comes to a daily grinding halt. Be it due to the seasonal cold going around, or the full-blown flu, or food poisoning (I certainly hope not), we can’t be healthy 100% of the time. And when that happens, well…let’s just say it can really be a damper on your creativity, causing some unnecessary frustration.

As I write this, I’m perched atop a bar stool in a local coffeeshop. It’s a sunny spring day and the afternoon couldn’t be more promising. But my head is foggy from days of being suffocated by mucous, my extremities are exhausted from fatigue, I keep sneezing every three minutes, I’m mouth-breathing, my eyes are watering constantly…to any bystander I must look like I’m having a really bad day. But really, I’m just sick. And this is the first day I’ve been well enough to venture out of my house in the last week and attempt some writing. (Apologies if this blog post amounts to nothing but random yammering in the end. I’m unpredictable today! Weee! And this only proves that illness muffs up your writing routine, and you just gotta roll with the punches sometimes. — That was my wonky and weak thesis statement, professor, if you’re reading this…)

The Greats of Poetry

GDay 7 – “G” as in “the Greats of Poetry”

Today’s post is a tribute to the Greats of Poetry. I’d like to take a moment to thank the brilliant men and women who came before us, paving the rough road so that we can have an easier go at it…learning from their failures and successes…studying and understanding the whys as to what made them so “great” in the first place…before attempting to carve our own path of originality on the road less traveled in hopes to create something worthy of standing stacked amongst their vertical names in bookstores for generations to come.

Pop Up Poetry 04.18.2015

Better late than never! I wanted to give you guys another peek into my event this last weekend during our glorious 70-degree sunny weather. 🙂 I set out to perform Pop Up Poetry at two locations on Saturday: first at Broadway Coffeehouse in the late morning/early afternoon, then to Archive Coffee & Bar in the evening. My first time performing a Daily Double, I am merely thrilled that I managed to survive! It was incredibly fun, as always, and I got to meet some wonderful people who were so kind to share their stories with me. Thanks to each of you for giving me a priceless gift time and time again! Hope to see you again soon!

Some Pop Up poems below in order of creation…Hope you enjoy!

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F*ck Expletives in Poetry

FDay 6 – “F” as in “F*ck Expletives in Poetry” (*gasp!*)

Before anyone gets all up in arms about swearing or not swearing, know that I am not a nun when it comes to colorful language, but I also do not house a sailor’s tongue in my mouth–each with reason. I’d like to think I’m in a good place in regards to profanity in poetry: on the fence, smack dab in the middle of opinion. And since this is a strangely-heated topic in “social media writers’ circles”…I will keep this short and sweet.

I’m stating my conclusion, my sole point, at the start of this post: Expletives are unnecessary in poetry 99% of the time. But if you dare to swear in a poem in that 1% moment…it had better be placed perfectly and must serve a purpose other than to make you sound tough or edgy.

Editing Poetry

AtoZ E logoDay 5 – “E” as in “Editing”

I will do my best to keep these next few posts as brief as possible since I am in dire need of catching up on this challenge. *cheers from the crowd* (You’re welcome.) 😉

As much as I love editing (I know, it’s sick and perverse), I won’t exhaust this topic. It has been discussed time and time again, debated even more so, and I think we can all agree that Editing is the necessary evil to poetry…less evil and more necessary, in my opinion. But let’s be honest–there are so many opinions about editing floating around in the writing community, so, for this blog post, I figured I would keep it relatively simple and outline the three basic types of editing I have personally experienced and witnessed in the poetry-writing process. Of course, I think there are variations of the following examples, and everyone has a preferred editing style, but I think we can all agree that these encompass the universal spirit of what we experience when revising our babies. 🙂

Day Trips & Adventures

DDay 4 – “D” as in “Day Trips & Adventures”

 Confession:   This may be one of my favorite posts for this entire A-to-Z Challenge

Why? Because as a full-time poet/writer/editor, the days when I am able to cut loose from my daily grind (yes, I have one, too, haha) and just GO–creating my own adventure according to the pull of my Wanderlust Muse–those are the days where I feel most alive and full of creative ammunition. On those days I am able to recharge my old, poet-soul and breathe in life, living in the spirit of possibility and, most importantly, inspiration.

Sometimes I plan my Day Trips. And sometimes…Adventure yanks me out of my house before I even know what happened. I don’t think I am the only Creative who is haunted by the siren song of Experience, which dictates our every word placed to page. And experience comes from adventure–from living with a purpose. We draw from our own experiences and knowledge when creating poetry. But how does one gain that kind of experience and knowledge? Not holed up at the writing desk, that’s for sure. You need to get out. Go out. Spread out. Speak out. Reach out. And live out your days to their fullest extent. That’s what Day Trips are for. They get you out of the house, away from reading about life on the screen or in books and actually experiencing it in order to write about it. These adventure days feed our insatiable craving for poetic material, and are crucial to our process. They don’t have to be extravagant or far-reaching…they just have to be fulfilling according to your unique need.

Community

CDay 3 – “C” as in “Community”

Community–the word has numerous definitions, but generally speaking, a community is a group of people with something in common, be it geographical, social, economical, professional, or a matter of general interest(s). Without question, our lives are filled with people, in general, yes? And those people make up our collective “communities” that influence us and help us through this grand scheme of Life. Whether your “people” are from school, church, work, social settings, friend groups, family, etc, each person contributes to each unique Community you have.

When it comes to poets and writers, I wholeheartedly believe that our individual Poetry (or Writing) Community is not only extremely valuable to our writing process, but also very practical and conducive to our overall well-being as Creatives. I see our peers and colleagues as a bonus to our Self. Sure, our family members and day-to-day friends (important and wonderful people!) are typically kind enough to support our poetic endeavors, but, just like any niche or obscure profession, nine times out of 10 they are prone to missing the mark when it comes to understanding our needs as poets…and that’s okay! That deep-thinking, musing, confusingly creative side of us is simply tough to comprehend if you’re not also a poet. But on the flip side, it is incredibly comforting and healthy to find yourself a handful of like-minded writers with whom to collaborate creatively. Here’s my thinking…

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