I had a surprise meeting, a meeting of the minds, I suppose, last night with this young woman, Jennie Torres, a writer, a student.

We talked about writing, novels and short stories and blogs and music. We discussed the importance of creating change, if nothing else creating a dialog though our work. We discussed the difference between great writing and the nonsense available as published work today; too many stories of wizards and demons and vampires and bare-chested men with wings – and not enough actual literature that makes people think.

The difference between telling a real story story through music, hip-hop, or glorifying a negative image of a culture that already has far too much negativity and prejudice attached to it.

The importance of poetry, real, raw, angry poetry.

The importance of keeping it real.

I showed her this Hemingway quote:

“In the morning there was a big wind blowing and the waves were running high up on the beach and he was awake a long time before he remembered that his heart was broken.”

It was amazing to see her reaction, from her appreciation for simple, perfect sentence structure, to the emotions she felt from this handful of words. [Read more…] about This thing called life — sitting on a couch in Newburgh, NY

 

 Ireland 1847 – No green beer. No corned beef, no cabbage. No potatoes. No shamrocks or leprechauns. Starvation. Betrayal. Ruined lands and lives. Watch the heavy laden ships sail to England, with the crops and cattle of your land, while your family starves to death. Swear allegiance to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

[Read more…] about lá sona Naomh Pádraig