‘Frozen Faces’ (new poem)

Sometimes I try to forget the ugly things in this world: death, disease, war, destruction. I feel that I am not alone in this endeavor. However, every time I get close to a peaceful mind, the world finds a way to bring these things to the front of my thoughts.

This summer I took a class on Women’s Literature. It was enlightening and inspired me to begin writing poetry again, indirectly leading to my poem-a-day challenge. I had to read the poem “I Sit and Sew” by Alice Dunbar Nelson.

 

This poem is about a woman’s frustration with the futility of her housework while she is unable to aid soldiers in World War I.

The poem I’m about to share with you is my reaction to that poem. According to my notes, I wrote it on May 16, 2012.

“Frozen Faces
by Maggie McGinity

Alas! What a waste:
Those souls quickly erased
By bullet or blast.
Transformed by another’s hand
To: a sad story,
A frozen face,
A call for glory,
And an empty space.”

I feel I must explain a bit. I do not believe souls are destroyed, merely moved. And I do not believe all these deaths are in vain. But often I wonder what the world would be without so much potential life, love, and learning lost.

Quote:

“And I just can’t look. It’s killing me
And taking control.”
-“Mr. Brightside” by The Killers

‘Control’ (new poem)

Short one today. This is the longest Monday to date, and I’m constantly surprised it’s not Tuesday yet. Anyways, here’s a poem shorter than this explanatory paragraph. Enjoy!

“Control
by Maggie McGinity

My eyes consume your face.
Your eyes consume my soul.
This path, we can retrace,
But we cannot control.”

A relevant 90s music quote:

“I don’t care if it hurts
I want to have control
I want a perfect body
I want a perfect soul
I want you to notice
When I’m not around.
You’re so very special.
I wish I was special.”
-“Creep” by Radiohead

‘Weird’ (new poem)

I once heard that you should measure a year in love. If so, I am a rich woman.

I sometimes express my affection for others in strange ways. My friends and family can attest to this. For example, I like to call people I like “weird.” It’s a compliment coming from me, a praise to someone’s individuality.

Unfortunately, some people take it as an insult. I once had to stop calling someone weird for 40 days when I gave up insults for Lent. That was hard for me, because I never mean weird to be insulting. Whenever I say “You’re so weird,” I actually mean this:

” Weird
by Maggie McGinity

Wonderful, words are not enough to
Express in how many ways my life
Is different since the day I met you.
Readily I admit that I
Do not know what to do with a normal life.

Sometimes I know, if I had it to do
Over, and over, I would still choose:

Wonderful, words are not enough to
Express how much better my life
Is for knowing you.
Readily I admit that I
Don’t want anything to do with a normal life. ”

And now, a cliché quote about being weird:

“We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.”
-Dr. Seuss

‘Homecoming’ (Acrostics are not real poems)

So I’ve been super-busy today. It’s ISU’s Cytenniel Homecoming celebration.

I just got back from the football game, where the Cyclones beat the Baylor Bears 35-21, and while I was there cheering, I did what any lazy poet would do: I wrote an acrostic about Homecoming. Here it is. Enjoy!

” Homecoming
by Maggie McGinity

However far I must travel
Over pavement, over gravel,
May my wandering bring me
Ever back to loving thee.
Cold is life without home in it
Oh, my journey, how I loathed to begin it.
Miles and miles, which separate,
Invested for a better fate.
Now I find my journey’s end
Grant me entrance, home and friend.”

And quote:

“A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.”
-George Augustus Moore

Poem-a-Day Atonement Challenge/ ‘The World is Quiet Now'(new poem)

Hello! So to atone (make up for) the two weeks I didn’t write at all, I’m going to do better than posting a quote every day:

I’m going to post an original poem every day for the next two weeks.

Most will be poems I’ve already written, but a few will be created just for this challenge.

So here is my first one, “The World is Quiet Now.” I wrote it when I was hanging out with Nick and Sarah. They were studying some outsider poetry for a class, and the poet they were studying at the time rather promiscuous, overt and obvious. I decided to see if I could write a poem about the same topic that was much more subtle, and a few minutes later, I did. This is that poem.

“The World is Quiet Now
By Maggie McGinity

The world is quiet now.

Where there once was one
Are there now two
Or nothing?

Who can say what sights are seen
Before closed eyes?
What is heard
By deafened ears?

Deafened or distracted?
Ardently or acted?
Cross the cost
With the cast.
Two are one at last?
Or never further (farther?)
From the truth?”

And quote:

“Does not everything depend on our interpretation of the silence around us?”
-Lawrence Durrell

Escape from Midterm Island

I know. I haven’t blogged in two weeks. I’m sorry. I’ve missed you too.

I’ve been trapped in my horribly over-scheduled month of October, also known as Midterm Island. In this month, I’ve already had six exams (about one every four days),

 

(my professors don’t curve grades) one group project,

 

, made 300-400 flashcards,

and I was in two concerts within two days of each other and learned that Percy Grainger’s Lincolnshire Posy quite a stressful piece for piccolo players:

 

In between the two concerts, I went to approximately four masterclasses for the flute studio.

I also wrote four album reviews/articles for work and a lot more choreography for the dance I’m working on. It’s gotten increasingly difficult since people keep quitting.

I have two more concerts this month alone and a test and two papers due tomorrow. My life is now an endless cycle of this:

 

I guess it’s true what they say of college:

 

I’ve already given up on sleep(coffee is the answer: https://magslives.wordpress.com/2012/10/04/wisdom-of-winnie-the-pooh/), so to compensate for the social life I try to study with friends.

 

Clearly not the best plan. Alas, someday I shall escape from midterm island. Come November 13, I will have absolutely no huge events for two and a half weeks. I shall have free time and every day I will do a happy dance.

Until then, though, I’m going to try to keep up with this by establishing a writing challenge tomorrow. Look for it!

And quote:

“He who devotes sixteen hours a day to hard study may become at sixty as wise as he thought himself at twenty.”
-Mary Wilson Little

I’ve Said Too Much

“Oh no, I’ve said too much
I haven’t said enough

I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

Every whisper
Of every waking hour
I’m choosing my confessions
Trying to keep an eye on you”
-“Losing My Religion,” R.E.M

Inner Monologue

Call:

“What if I got it wrong
And no poem or song
Could put right what I got wrong
Or make you feel I belong?”

And response:

“How can you know it if you don’t even try?”

But remember:

“You know that darkness always turns into light.”

All quotes/lyrics from Coldplay’s “What If.”

Sidebar: If any of you would like to bring me this:

 

or this:

 

or maybe one of these:

 

I would love you for at least as long as it take me to eat my dessert and for about 30 minutes afterwards. Today is just one of those days where dessert seems like the only solution.

Dana’s Bad at Hiding Excitement(this weekend)

Awesome weekend. It started around 3 p.m. on Friday when I got off work and headed over to my friend’s room. I haven’t really gotten to hang out with him in five months, so it was a good time. We watched The Hunger Games

(my third viewing), and I was presented with a challenge:

I was not allowed to leave until I ate all the popcorn. Thankfully, I ate all of the popcorn before I had to go usher the ISU Theatre production of “Noises Off” with my friend Dana.

During the play, Dana was acting really weird. I figured she just didn’t like the play. Afterwards, we each had a slice of late-night Jeff’s pizza for dinner, and Dana revealed that she and Jackie would be writing “birthday songs” when she went back to her dorm. Later that night, I hung out with Nick and Sarah while they used Chatroulette, and managed to not get traumatized. It was a successful Friday.

Saturday was a lot of volunteering. You can read about that here: https://magslives.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/too-busy-to-blog/

I had a break partway through the day, so after I watched Cyclone football, I went over to my friend Jackie’s to deliver some leftover treats from a reception. Jackie is Dana’s roommate. Soon after I got there, my roommate Sarah showed up. Jackie sat us down on the futon and she and Dana started singing a song they wrote us. By wrote, I mean they used the music of Ingrid Michaelson’s “You and I” and wrote new words.

I need to jump back to last Saturday before I can continue with the song. Last Saturday Jackie and her boyfriend of a year, Collin, got engaged!

That’s the ring on Jackie’s hand, lovingly stolen from her Facebook page, where is got a modest 60 likes (so far). After they got engaged, they went about telling all of us in our friend group in different ways. There was much jumping up and down in excitement.

Now back to the song. It was really sweet and specific to Sarah and I in different way and it ended with Jackie asking us to be bridesmaids!!!

We said yes, of course! :D. There was much more jumping up and down in excitement, squealing, and a group hug that blocked the hallway by Dana and Jackie’s room for a little while.

Today I was in a joint traditional and contemporary worship service at Collegiate Presbyterian Church, and afterwards there was a congregation lunch with a hilarious political satire skit from the pastors.

I had a pretty good day at work, and now I actually have some free time. I’m going to do homework.

But first, a quote about marriage:

“Marriage is getting to have a sleepover with your best friend, every single night of the week.”
-Christie Cook

(This is all so cute! 😀 )

Too Busy to Blog

So I’ve been running around all day ushering music major senior recitals/receptions and volunteering for this:

So much fun! I stayed late volunteering because I didn’t want to leave.

Anyways, I’ve got a short break right now to watch some Cyclone football on TV.

Hoping we can get an upset over TCU :D. Anyways, back to ushering I go after this quote about busyness:

“Blessed is the person who is too busy to worry in the daytime and too sleepy to worry at night.”
-Anonymous

🙂