[stylist] Nonfiction, As I Lay Me Down to Sleep, no language, no sexual c...

Fri Sep 9 21:20:23 UTC 2011

Bridget...

You say that good poetry is beyond your skills?   I think you have the 
skills if this is any indication... this reads like poetry  but also like what I 
call sculpted prose.. very well done!  And I too was  so intrigued by the 
'Lay Me Down To Sleep' reference...  excellent!

Myrna

In a message dated 9/9/2011 3:30:13 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
bpollpeter at hotmail.com writes:

Chris,

Thanks. I actually had about four ideas floating  around in my head, but
this one was a little more concrete. For some  reason, the Lay Me Down to
Sleep prayer led me down a trail, and I wanted  to explore it. I have no
clue why it came to mind; I often have random  ideas, or random things
help me create ideas, and I am clueless as to why  certain thoughts,
sometimes just a word or phrase, will inspire my  inspiration! LOL

Ross said the same thing about it reading like a poem-  I wish. I can do
the lyrical essay, but actual poetry, good poetry, is  beyond my skills.
The inspiration is a couple of things, I'm sure you know,  but
spirituality is a topic I like to explore. Sometimes the poetic  language
allows me to express things that are difficult, or when I can't  find the
right words, using imagery and metaphor helps. I know this poetic  style
is not for everyone, but I seem to have some of the best responses to  my
work that follows this style. It's funny because I'm by no stretch  of
the imagination a poet, hats off to those who are, but I seem to do  well
when writing with this poetic, or lyrical,  stream-of-conscienceness
style.

It's funny because I had a couple of  ideas come to mind after showering
the other night; Ideas like to come to  me at the oddest times, and I
proceeded to write them down, one being  incorporating Charlotte Perkins
Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper into a piece.  When I was working on this,
I thought it could be a possible jumping off  place. Gilman's short story
could frame it, being a catalyst to weave  in-and-out of a piece. I also
posted this on Facebook, and my mom said it  reminded her of Gilman's
story. I thought that was interesting that she had  a similar thought.
Weird. Not sure what this says about me, or my mom and  me! LOL

Yes, I had that itch like I just had to get the stuff in my  head out
instead of waiting to work ideas out. I've never been big with  outlines
for my writing, though I do use them for bigger pieces, which  usually
end up changing anyway, but I have this organic style of writing  where I
just sit and let it happen. It sounds so corny, but I honestly feel  that
my stories, fiction and nonfiction, have a mind of their own. I'm  just
the device recording them. I like to think about things before  writing
them down too. Let stuff play in my head for a bit. Usually, my  ideas
play like a movie in my head, scene-by-scene.

Thanks for the  comments. Just thought it was about time someone posted a
writing sample.  I've tried weekly exercises, but they never seem very
popular.

If I  expand this, I'll keep the list updated.

Sincerely,
Bridgit  Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog for Live Well Nebraska.com  at
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/

Message:  2
Date: Fri, 9 Sep 2011 08:46:11 -0400
From: "Chris Kuell"  <ckuell at comcast.net>
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List"  <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] Nonfiction, As I Lay Me  Down to Sleep, no
language,    no sex, sorry  ha-ha!
Message-ID:  <9846B4D9460A4E9491E6D7097D65C91E at ChrisPC>
Content-Type: text/plain;  format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
reply-type=original

Hey Bridgit,

I enjoyed this--thanks for  sharing. And I hope that eventually you got
some 
sleep! I suppose you  can take that as the sign that you've made it to
the 
big leagues when  the muse keeps you awake and forces you out of bed and
to 
the  keyboard.

You didn't ask for a critique, but some of the things I liked  about this

piece were your reference to the rabbit hole, which ties in  nicely with
the 
dreaming later on.
they breathe into the ebony  silence, chiseling solid darkness  is a
really 
nice line. I can't  say why, but I love 'ebony silence'.
This piece strikes me almost as a  longish prose poem. I've read it
through 
twice, and it seems that the  'you' in the piece is God, whom at first is

comforting, but suddenly  isn't. The sound obviously triggers a bad
memory, a 
time when you felt  abandoned by God, then it's as if the fears and
magical 
feelings  dissipate and you are once again in bed with your very real  
husband.

Again, thanks for  sharing.

chris

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