(Audioblog version of the following text)
October has come. I failed to finish my September project. It has now become my October project. The project is something I started a while back and really should have finished in the summer. I keep failing. I will keep working though, so the failures don’t bother me as much as one might expect. Failure holds meaning for me. It tells me I am not as strong or as disciplined as I ought to be. Perhaps. Maybe it means my expectations were set too high. Regardless, I will put down words again and again because it makes me happy.
October Agenda
Work
This month I will finish my collection of poems about breastfeeding. The goal of the book is to normalize breastfeeding and I will need to find an artist to get it published. My hope is that my words and their beautiful imagery will help open some minds to the beauty, utility, wonder and humor that is the extended, child-led breastfeeding I have been witness to since my firstborn was just a helpless little baby who never wanted to leave her mother’s side. Front. You know what I mean.
Self-Education
During a little getaway, I had time to read about Ray Bradbury and I found his advice to writers thoroughly compelling. Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451, The Pendulum) is an acclaimed science-fiction author, with an award named after him. Impressive.
Bradbury advocated a literary diet rich in classic poetry, short stories and essays written by experts in a wide range of fields. He suggests that the burgeoning writer should read each of these for some time before going to bed each and every night. I am not going to go that far because I’m not willing to make the time for such a strict regimen. I will however, be consuming more classic and well regarded poetry and literature and digesting it in blog form here.
Since I am working on poetry this month, I have decided to work through some of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Please look forward to that this week.
MJ Muñoz 