Allowing Your Work to Take on Life and Breath

Poet and writer Trisha Georgiou Nelson is the author of "Show Up" in the MWC Creative Writing Primer (MWC Press,

Quartered Enlightenment
(Poolboy Publishing, 2013)

2012) and serves as the MWC Board vice president. Quartered Enlightenment is a chapbook of her poetry set for release this summer (Poolboy Publishing, 2013).  @Trisha_Georgiou

    Nearly a decade ago, I penned a poem entitled Waiting in Winter. I filed it away with my other unpublished and unseen works. She Who Questions Life was composed soon thereafter. Next, Winter Solstice was written. The poem, The Garden Gate, came into consciousness and found its way onto paper. All of these poems and other written works, along with scrap pieces of paper, post-it notes, and napkins from restaurants and coffee shops with ideas, thoughts, and possibilities, all managed to take refuge in the Drawer of Creative Chaos.

     Each of these poems is an individual. None of them at the time were related. They existed together in that drawer for many years. Did they converse? Did the energy of the ideas mesh together? Now, I wonder.

     On a lovely late spring afternoon I was tending to the roses in my Shakespearean garden, when creativity struck and a question came into my conscious thoughts. How do the plants feel as they live through each season? In winter, do they long for spring? Do they miss the warmth from the sun? It was at that moment I felt drawn to open the Drawer of Creative Chaos and revisit my forgotten works. It was not only a surprise, or maybe utter disbelief, but I saw an order to the chaos. These poems had connectivity and a purpose together. This is the exact moment my chapbook, Quartered Enlightenment was conceived. Although, at this moment it was only a spark of energy, a possibility without a title, or a heartbeat, or breath.

     The next few months this fetus of a book began to form and develop into chapters each relating to a distinct season and feeling. The gestation period seemed endless. The momentum slowed in my mind to nothing. Later, I would realize it was only a time of waiting for the stars to align and the season to change.

     I am not sure if it was the poems or the heavens that guided me to the publisher who had the foresight to see the end result. Quartered Enlightenment was granted a name, a body, a life, and a spirit.

     The path to publication never comes as quickly as we wish it would. Through perseverance and patience, and allowing your work to take on life and breath, the final outcome is miraculous.

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Starts today!

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