An Early Draft of part of How To Self-Publish (Writing Process Chapter)

Some need distractions to write, others need
quiet and solitude. It depends on the state of
one's personality and mood. Try different situations
so that you get experienced writing in any environment--
try a different place to write every so often, the rest of the
time write wherever the situation occurs that gives
you ideas for material to write about--also practice
observing with potential writing material in mind, and maybe
try describing to the point of over-describing so that you
break through to the potential that is all around us once
we learn how to look for it. Then free-write
without reservation or any edits or any critical
thinking--just free-associate and flow with your
creative ideas for your pure substance, your pure first-draft.

Collected Works

Sorry for not posting my poems online for a while,
I'm putting them into a collected works book, titled:
"Not Entirely Certain"

I hope to have it out before this time next year (Sept 2010).

Night of Silver, Blue, and Black

Donald R. Anderson
Night of Silver, Blue, and Black

Hopefully these arteries are not clogging,
as I write and produce and clean and organize,
slipping things into their places,
and finding my place.
A secretary, name of a furniture piece that is old,
gift from a friend who is moving, reunites me with
my sense of places in my apartment,
and created (creates) a new favorite sitting spot
in the new arrangement, perfect for reading or for
working on my computer on things that otherwise
fall into the rut called procrastination.
I must avoid sloth and laziness, and the apathy therein.
So I am putting together a collection of my words
(all of my poems) with notes (as a necessity, for much
has to be explained for over the years with changes of
things going on in my life, philosophy, attitude, maturity,
basic states of mind) and it shall be as unabridged as I can
(though names in some poems may be omitted to avoid bringing up old scars).

Time in the beautiful cool night air,
a hummingbird-sized hummingbird-moth,
a look at the stars (the Milky Way is out! and the moon
just dipped beneath the horizon not long ago)
and the time with family on my brother's 25th anniversary
has brought a certain peace of mind and happiness,
and I suppose after I can and will write even when I've nothing
in particular to say... though it's more of a journalistic poem
(old school diary journal not newspaper) and rest my thoughts
on that I've done a bit at a time and there will (though no one can say)
be time to do all that needs to be done (or that I want to do).

God Bless the universe, not just one group of us,
for that is His intent, though if we do not follow his ways,
we perhaps are lost. The greatest thing is love.

In Good Health and Bad

Donald R. Anderson
In Good Health and Bad

What tests a person
is whether the person sides with the ones he/she loves
when the ones the person loves are in good health and bad.
What tests a person
is whether the person stands by beliefs
when self is in good health and bad.
What tests a person
is whether the person does what the person should, and follow what is right,
and do all the person can, and make the best of the gift of life,
when the person is in good health and bad.

Purpose when stranded from means

Donald R. Anderson
Purpose when stranded from means

"Time counts and keeps counting"1
while moments crawl away through tired clutches
I struggle with some basics...
as basic as health and means to life.
There are no accidents,
it falls into place like pieces into a grid
on some celestial playing board
upon which I play for the motives and fates
that I was born into and those that I accepted.
I play no more important, nor less important, a role
than anyone else. It is the fact that I play it
the way that I feel is right,
that drives me forward to another day.

Laptop at home,
heartburn settled in,
sleepy half-tearing tired eyes,
I type into a keyboard
longing for sense of purpose,
perhaps it is more, perhaps it is all.


Footnote: 1. quote from Mad Max III: Beyond Thunderdome

Say Cheese for the Camera of Time

Donald R. Anderson
Say Cheese for the Camera of Time

The sadly tasty double layer pizza--
microwave personal pizza on top of
tortilla, marbled cheese and chunky-sliced salami--
while satisfies the appetite lays heavy upon my heart.
The pepper-jack that goes so sizzling
on a sandwich, wherever you go...
that too makes its case in digestion.
Perhaps not the best for my health,
yet the cream cheese... hopefully far removed from cheesecake...
is one of my favorite of delicacies,
when on wheat bread toasted,
roasted turkey slices thick,
perhaps a touch of mayo,
or a spread of jam... maybe plum.
Baker Street was it called? Way back when.
Ownership of the cafe that had it has changed,
and so much slips through the experiences of time.

The Ox and the Independent Activist

Donald R. Anderson
The Ox and the Independent Activist

Ox that labors, toils earth.
I feel your pain.
The dirt is upon my hands
as is on the hands of all taxpayers.
There is only so far one can distance oneself
when one is in a society of empire.
Ox, we toil for the governing forces
but we shall lay still should it drive us too far.

Detective Dizzy

Donald R. Anderson
Detective Dizzy

Investigating possible causes of dizziness.
Perhaps the only consistency is when I'm at home,
is when I get it the most,
though there are exceptions.
If it is the case,
perhaps something in my apartment,
such as the excessive scented candles,
whether lit or not,
that perhaps is the culprit.
Sealing most of them away now,
we will see if there's improvement.

Magic in Remembering a Smell

Donald R. Anderson
Magic in Remembering a Smell

Something in the scent of flowers and soil in the garden, wet,
in the warm air of summer walking through the paths
that my grandmother once may have walked long ago,
same place I've always been transformed by fragrance
to that same back yard she lived in about a mile or two away.
I can think of all the things I'd have liked to ask,
before she was senile, before I was old enough to want
to know such things... of the life from back then.
The life before my parents, and of my parents' youth.
The life of olden days that I long sometimes to visit
on the summer days when the air, though so full of people,
seems lonesome for humanity to have its past remembered,
to not let go of that magical something that I myself
have never had.

Assurance

Donald R. Anderson
Assurance

Am I assured
of having a new pair of glasses when I need it?
I'm not so sure.
It depends on whether they think I need it,
even though it may have been long enough
according to previous law,
the law that is no longer there as assurance
of insurance.