Symbolic Poem: The Sky as Your Crown

Nowadays, I call myself a poetic photographer. I have taken smartphone photography as my new passion. I wanted to be a professional lifestyle photographer but I do not need to wait to get enough money to purchase a camera before I start. I decided to start with my smartphone.

So if you want me to take a picture of you using my smartphone, I am always available. I don’t have the best camera quality but I can do something about it.

There is this palm tree at home and it looks funny. It is not dead, but the fronts have withered. It is still firm to the ground, producing palm fruit and providing shade. I wonder if it is normal for a palm nut tree to look like that. To look dead, yet living.

This palm nut tree looked symbolic to me, so I decided to write a short poem about it.

You were in pain

 But you still wore

 The sky as your crown

There are people who are in pain, whether physical pain or emotional pain, but they overlook those pains and care for those they love and grew up with. It is their calling to do that, and they have gladly accepted it.

In the end, try to look at the brighter side of things. Have hope and be strong.

Fall (Davido) Cover by BraKwaku

Hello world!

Happy Tuesday, and I hope you are all doing well. The month has been a hot one in terms of weather conditions and we are trying to cope.

If you are in search of new voices, Bra Kwaku Jnr is one guy you should add to your playlist. He is not only a singer, but a guitarist and a pianist also. Double thumbs up.

He does music covers of various artistes, both local and international ones and his voice is exceptional and romantic.

One of my favourite works of his was Davido’s Fall. His blending of voices made the song very beautiful and a new kind of voice art.

To listen to the audio, click here. It will link you to his SoundCloud page. Do not forget to subscribe and like, comment, repost and download your favourite pieces.

Another good thing is, he has a YouTube page too. Subscribe, if you haven’t already and click on the notification bell, so that you can get notified anytime he uploads a video.

Show love by giving his videos thumbs up and hit subscribe.

Share with friends, loved ones and let’s show love in the world of music.

Thank me later, darlings!

Writing Journal Entry: Bleeding Writer

As I am a writer

The ink is my blood

I bleed words

With pain and sadness

With joy and happiness

With hope to build a home

And love to heal the world

And with romance,

Well--

Let's leave that for space

For that alone can contain

All our romantic fantasy.

~Bleeding Writer by Marietta DeGrant // Writing Journal Entry

My Writer’s Notebooks

 I have a confession to make. Actually, it is not a confession. I was born like that. I am obsessed with notebooks. (Stationery in general)

I have kept so many notebooks since I started to write. The sight of notebooks with so many blank pages makes my skin grow goosebumps. Every page has an adventure to help us cherish every word written on it.

I am still an old fashioned writer. I still write in notebooks. I am trying to love the digital way of writing. When I was interviewing Krizick, he told me he loved the digital way of writing. I am trying to learn that way of writing digital, but don’t think I will be feeling the vibes while doing that. The probability that I will be adapting that strategy would be low.

I introduce to you, my 2017 writer’s notebook.

Well, it is not exactly a new notebook. I had this notebook in High School, I saw my friend, Vanessa (Hi! Vanessa, if you are reading this) holding it (It was originally for her) and I begged her to give it to me. She gave it to me and I wrote my favourite quotes in them. But I don’t do that anymore and I decided to use it as my writer’s journal/notebook. There are so many blank pages in it right now, and I want to exhaust them with my words. Using this would be better than buying a new one. (To be honest, I might just go on to buy new ones. Remember what I said in the beginning of this post?).

I decided to cover it with brown paper and put some of the words that describe my personality; Like Dreamer, Born in the 90’s. If you look closely, you’ll see kelewele. (Oops. My bad). Hashtag (#) is the new way of talking on social media in our generation.

My writer’s notebooks are where I hide my writings. Maybe, I’ll bring them out.

Let’s Chat: Do you have any obsessions over stationery?

Do you keep notebooks where you write your heart out, whether you are a writer, or not?

Six Word Stories Found in my Creative Journal

Hello everyone!

Today, I stared at my creative journal and became angry with it. In the middle of the year, I thought the journal would be full before the start of October. Those days, I wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote. New ideas were coming and I wrote.

Writer’s block visited me and I was like, why now? It was my New Year goal not to see you at all, and you came without being invited.

I opened a page and saw an entry. The title was six word stories. I remember when I was in my teenage years (The most horrible years of my life), I wondered why there should be a story in six words. I mean, how possible? The writer must describe the dress the character is wearing, the environment, the situation at hand etc etc. So, I thought six word stories are not my thing. I see them to be titles.

But to my surprise, I wrote some this year. Somewhere in July, August, September?

These are six six-word stories I found in my writing journal.

1. I can’t have conversations with pictures

2. He became the word I love: Glorious.

3. I can never forget your stories.

4. The Beach and I: Friends Forever.

5. I drowned in his passionate kiss.

6. We all love somebody in overdose.

They were fun to write and very mysterious. I wanted to explain each of them, but I prefer to leave it look mysterious. I have become MYSTERY myself and I need to write one, too.

Let’s chat: Have you ever written any six word stories? Can I have a look? Tag me @MarieNoelGrant, both Twitter and Instagram.

Frozen Feeling, Frozen Creativity

Hello world!

I recently finished reading the Women Who Run with the Wolves book and I am still reading some passages in the book, especially the passages about talents and creativity. Those are the parts I enjoyed most.

This month did not start with so much enthusiasm, but I am excited we are in a new month. New month, August means a lot of things; back to school season, getting ready for a new semester, internships, running to and fro, and too many other stressful things.

I have not been the best version of myself lately. No great new ideas, no sense of creativity, no sense of chasing the aspirations found in the world. August has been the most stressful month for me for some time now, and funnily enough, the Christmas season is not very stressful to me, like August. August is all about searching for accommodation, paying fees, back to school shopping stress and all that commotion.

My creativity level has gone reduce to a temperature of -70°C, which is so not me, at least not for a very long time. It has become too cold. Coldness is the kiss of death to creativity, relationship and life itself.

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D. said, in archetypal psychology to be cold is to be without feelings.  My writer’s feeling is frozen, that goes on ahead to freeze my creativity.

In times like this, she says we should be like the ugly duckling. Go ahead and struggle through it. Generally, a thing cannot freeze if it is moving, so move. Keep moving.

Whether you are a dancer, writer, poet, actress, musician, artist or any other creative force, just pick up your weapon and move.

I am moving. I have decided to move. Fight through it, and get back on track.

I will thaw myself from the ice, and move, and meet creativity again.

PS…. Who is excited for the Olympic Games? It is my all-time favourite sporting season.

FLASH FICTION: SNOOZE

I submitted this flash fiction to a publication about two years ago, and it was rejected. So I decided to publish it here. As for my blog, nothing gets rejected. I have all power here. Lolz xx.

Don’t really mind me. *wink*wink*

SNOOZE

Alarm goes off at 5am sharp. She hated that sound. Where did the 8 hours of sleep run to? But if it was Public Administration class, time would just decide to go slow. She stretched out her arm and fumbled around for where she thought the snooze button was on her phone. Her class doesn’t start till 7:30am anyway.

The alarm silences and she left out a sigh of relief. Ah, more sleep. She allowed her heavy lids drift shut for a few more minutes. Just a few more minutes, she promised herself.

She was having the best dream ever and she wouldn’t let Calculus class ruin it. Calculus! The course she feared. Well, she’s doing something about it. Having study groups and seeking assistance from the cutest most intelligent boy in class, so what there’s to worry?

Her dream was about her tour. She was on center stage, the perfect hair blowing in every direction. She sang and her audience waved their hands and moved to her music, shouting and screaming her name, singing along with her. She had the best fans in the world. She wanted to be a singer and she admired Kaakie in everything. She read Science at the university just to impress her family. She had her own dreams.

One of her fans ran to the stage and hugged her tight, then tapped her on her back.

“Peggy…..Peggy?” Everything started to fade away, but she was hearing her name.

“Peggy?.........Peggy?................wake up”

“Huh?”

“Peggy, don’t you have a class this morning?”

She opened her eyes and saw her roommate staring at her.

“I thought you said you have Calculus class on Fridays.” Akua, her roommate said. She stretched, grabbed her phone and gasped.

7:15am

She startled awake and let herself have a mini panic attack. As she was searching for the snooze button earlier at 5, her finger accidentally turned the alarm off altogether.

She rushed to the bathroom and cursed herself. After less than 5 minutes, she came out, put on her tracksuit and took her bag, shoving her Calculus book and calculator into it.

“What about Calculus class?” Akua asked.

She began combing her rigid her. “I’m on my way.”

“In tracksuit?” her roommate asked, puzzled.

Peggy smiled. “Let’s just pretend, I’m just from the gym.” She picked up her bag and headed for class. 

A Day In The Life of My Creative Journal

I have been keeping creative journals as long as I can remember. I have them in different sizes and shapes and styles.

You might be wondering what I usually write in my creative journal. I usually write

Poetry

Short stories

Story ideas

Phrases that come into my head

Some parts of a song I love (the lyrics)

Disqualified art (art that are not worth the look)

My creative journal is my way of escape, my way of writing down my creative feelings and I hope, it takes me along throughout this lifetime.

Proud to be a nineties chick, I mean kid, Hehehe xx.

Do you keep creative journals? What do you write in them?

Poetry: Dream Of Me

Do you dream of me?

When you close your eyes, do you dream of me?

When you hear my name, do you dream of me?

Do you dream of my smiles?

Do you dream of my laughter?

Do you dream of my tears?

Do you dream of my touch?

My caress

My squeeze

My complaints

My annoyance

Do you dream of my prayers for you?

My fast for you?

Do you dream of my love for you?

My want of you?

My need of you?

When you see my face, do you dream of me?

When you hear my voice, do you dream of me?

Do you dream of my mistakes?

My imperfections

My downfall

My adversary

My adversity

When you see my lips, do you dream of my kisses?

My soft whisperings

My lullaby

When you see my eyes, do you dream of my tears?

My joy

My sadness

My little white lies

When you see my heart, do you dream of my love for you?

My anger

My heavenly peace

When you see me, do you dream of my feelings?

My excitement

My shiver

Do you ever dream of me?

The Friday Born, according to Creo’s Concept

My name is Afua, Afia, Afi. It is the name(s) given to a Ghanaian girl born on Friday.

Last two weeks or so, Creo’sConcept uploaded pictures and characteristics of girls born on each day. They really know how to put us in suspense. I know. They did it to me, uploading this image as Afua Friday morning.

I frowned. How can they do this to Friday born? But I felt from the beginning that, it was just a prank and they uploaded this later in the day.

They got us, didn’t they?

The Friday born is

A music lover

A deep thinker

Sensitive

Passionate

Talented!

And I totally agree!

Yes! It feels as if they interviewed me about my personality, which brought out the outcome.

I am a music lover. I can abuse music.

Meaning I can play music the whole time without getting tired.

Yes!

I am very sensitive. I even wanted them to add emotional to it.

Friday Borns Rock!

I have said it.

Serial Review: Pep Talk

It's amazing how you get to meet people with incredible talents.

Meet Awo Dede, a lady whom I was in the same secondary school with, and in the same boarding house. I knew she was doing General Arts, but never knew she had a creative imagination. Anyway, I don't blame her. It's not her fault. She's just like me, we write, then hide it, lol. Awo Dede, I totally understand.

Awo Dede has started writing a blog. Yay! Yoo-hoo! This blog has a serial in it. The title is Pep Talk. The write up is beautiful, amazing, weird and fantastic. I love it. Read episode 1 here and episode 2 here.

The story is about a girl who has reincarnated. I love the imagination of the spirit world. I have never imagined the spirit paradise that way. She used a bit of local dialect too and underneath the story, she wrote the translation of the sentence for those of us who don't understand. Really, Awo Dede is Talent. (I do not mean, talented. She is talent itself)

One thing I didn't like about everything is, there are no images. Apart from that, everything is amusing and arrrhh-mazing. I even bet she can write vampire stories. Tell me, Awo-dede, if you are reading this. Do you like vampire /werewolves stories?

I can't wait to read the continuation, if there would be one. How would it continue, how would it end? I don't want to spoil the fun, so bookmark her blog and follow her on Twitter for more information.

Stay sweet.

My Journey in Zines

When I made my Long vacation bucket list, I wrote that I would do zine covers. I started making zine covers as long as I can remember, but because I am not good at drawing (or arts in general) , I do not show them to anyone because they suck.

Ouch. Really?

Yes. Really.

But I want to show you some of the ones I designed since school vacated.

1. A Drop of Golden Sun

This was made for the story I tried to write this break. It is about turning our swords into ploughshares

2. Bad Dreams

This was made for my poem Bad Dreams which I posted last week.

3. You-Nique

This is the shape of my hand. My left hand. On everyone's hand and palm are unique patterns. Everyone's prints is different. There are none alike, so why try to be like someone else. On the drawn hand are the introductions to the poems 'Song of Myself ' by Walt Whitman and 'Me' by Walter De La Mare.

4. Sketch Me A Dream
This one is still in progress, so I can't show you yet. But as soon as it is done, check it out on Instagram.
This was one of the poems I read on Citi FM radio. It is a lullaby.
Are you a zinester? How can I check them out. Leave your Instagram or wherever you post it in the comments!