journal entry 18.01.10

# photo { What I am reading: Stephen King On Writing }

# poem: a new beginning

I stood upon the hill

wrapped in my frock

the dampness filled my lungs

and all I could see was barren land

There was no movement

except the heaving of my chest when I breathed

There was no color

for I had been blinded by the flash

The silence was unbearable

until I heard a raven in the distance

and I knew he had found me

and I him

He feared not I

nor I him

and he landed on my shoulder

and I could hear him restless

I reached into my pocket

and pulled out a handful of dried corn

and I fed him

We spent eternity together

and when I walked away from this place

he circled high and low

and I followed him

My sight over the next few weeks improved

and one day when the corn ran out

and Arias was flying high and low

I came upon a forest green

and heard a spring riverbed

I drank from the water Arias had found for us

and he drank too

my parched lips cracked and bleeding

and I heard the voices singing

we followed the melodic melancholy

until we came to a waterfall

deep within the forest

and the voices went silent

and I feared

Then I felt a hand on my shoulder

and Arias was not to be found

and the hand turned me around

and I saw her standing there

with Arias upon her shoulder

and she sang for me and Arias

The others came out of hiding

and joined us in song and friendship

and I swear I could see Arias smiling at me

I never gave it a second thought again

and Arias and I lived out our lives

amongst our new found friends

and joined often in song

as we shared a new beginning together

# Inspired enthusiasm.  This is the way to know if what your doing is working for you.  So whenever there is inspiration and enthusiasm there is creative empowerment that goes far beyond what a mere person is capable of.  I gleamed this from reading Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth.  Kind of ties into what Stephen King says in On Writing too.  Just write when you get an inspired idea and see where it takes you.  That inspiration usually contains the essence of enthusiasm when you can’t wait to get out of bed everyday to write.

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journal entry 17.01.10

# photo {I miss the fall light of early morning walks along Riviere Simon, Val David, Quebec, Canada}

{re-post from Redroom: http://www.redroom.com/blog/michaelwpokocky/journal-entry-170110

Today’s entry is a “blast from the past”

# I found this on the net today for Google Alert – Farrar, Straus, & Giroux: namelos: Publishing the old, old way. Part I http://bit.ly/4LqViF | Highly recommend reading the first of several forthcoming parts from Steven Roxburhg

#f journal entry 30.08.09 I want to be in great health.  There’s so much I want to do. Now.  There’s an insanity that sets in your mind when you desire to be published so much.  And I think this is tragic.  Its silent; destructive; and theres a trail.  Anyone on that trail cannot help but step in it.  Thats another tragedy. So what I stand for I don’t care if you care.  I stand for a healthy state of mind.   And I do what I love.  Writing.  I don’t care to be published. Its not important anymore.  Its a way of life for me to write and to live joyfully.  Just think about how tragic it is when an obsessive “I want to be a published writer” behavior leads to drug and alcohol abuse disguised as the muse in one’s head, and the tagedy of what your children inherit from your obsessions, unfulfilled.  And obsessiveness is just one point to discuss.  There are a thousand other habits that can be broken.  Some good.  Some bad.  But the bad ones got to go for the sake of a life well lived.  And you can sense you’re destruction in them.  I’m glad to be emptying my mind in this journal.  Way to much to keep locked up inside.  Better to get it down and out.  Set oneself free.

# poem

Pieces of me

i’m wandering

for a long time

looking for peices of me

i can’t remember anything

its a good day when i do

then again

it is better not to remember some things

Copyright (c) Michael Pokocky 17.01.10

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journal entry 16.01.10

# photo Inspiration at John Le Grec | Where the writers go

{re-post from Redroom: http://www.redroom.com/blog/michaelwpokocky/journal-entry-160110

# poem: Passion and Purpose

i dreamed of a distant place in a distant time

of three men in brown robes and one in white

i was there too at an outdoor table by a white building on white dessert sand

the only colors were the green of a green plant and the deep translucent blue of the man in the white robe

his face was like fine chinese porceline

oh but his eyes were clear and kind and knowing

he reached very quickly across the wooden table and touched my forehead between the eyes

i immediately went into convulsions as if having been electrocuted

and awoke spasmodically unable to keep from contorsions and violent movement

my wife awoke and held me tight until it passed

and then in the passing i cried from a well so deep inside

sobbing, eyes filled with tears running down my face like a spring mountain stream

then it passed and i felt a extraordinary calm not of this world

and the thought occurred to me it was love

only much later would i find out it was a divine intervention

and the love was actually a glimpse of the profound bliss we all are capable of feeling

i’ve searched and waited for it to happen for a long time afterward until i gave up

it was then that i found it again and now experience it several times a week

to have glimpsed the human potential has changed my purpose from what i want to do

to what i sense is wanting to be born into this world.

Copyright (c) Michael Pokocky 15.01.10

# I am having apple pie with ice creme right now at John Le Grec.  Just waiting ’cause they had to go out and get the ice creme — for me?, how kind.  I love writing in the black artist sketchbook I have returned to from the moleskin’s because they are too expensive.  The artist sketch book: more room, whiter paper in dim conditions relfects the light better for these old eyes, well its just plain fine.  Ah the apple pie has arrived.

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journal entry 15.01.10

photo: Tolstoy became famous first for writing Childhood.  Such a simple title. Such a great book.

{re-post from Redroom: http://www.redroom.com/blog/michaelwpokocky/journal-entry-150110}

# Something is speaking to me.  For me.  And sharing my journal yesterday is like opening up myself not to boast or to invite attention but rather to give to give for I need nothing back from this you see.  I am at peace with this; perhaps I have found that one true thing that is in line with how I actually live my life everyday.  Its been an everyday for many years.  Why did I hide from this; or did it hide from me because I was not open to it.

# Awake Awake

an opening through the bush

a snow covered field

a lone deer crossing

and i am breathless

within without

am awakening

i know not what it is

yet the deer stands still now

i am lost to my thoughts

overhead the cry of an eagle

joyfully i look up

forgetting the breathless moment of the deer

i am one with the eagles cry

suddenly i am hit heavy

a profound weight on my shoulders

what happened

the disconnect was but for a moment

the breathless deer

the crying eagle would be forever

this duality of breathlessness and broken pervades my thoughts

and we spend eternity trapped in that incipient Hell

awake awake

is the proverbial whispers we don’t hear

copyright (c) Michael Pokocky 15.01.10

# I am not feeling as lost this year as I have been for the last 20.  I wonder what this means.  Ah I don’t really need to know.  I am “doing” instead of “thinking” and the second I think I am dead again.  Must keep on this peaceful path. There is no stress nor effort other than my pen scratching across the paper.  I can hear it now and its a melodic mantric melody keeping me sane.

# Thank you Blessed Virgin Mary.  Use me as you wish.  All I care about is that you take care of my family as you have for so many years now.  Thank you for blessing my family with the Holy Spirit in the name of the one who never cried out ever especially the day he was beaten to a pulp and nailed to the cross.  I shall call out His name for I honor you Son, Jesus.

journal entry 14.01.10

my wife drops me off and does her thing. LUCKY l can  write anywhere: Cafe Fayette

{Re-post from my Redroom.com blog and tweeted to @ThisIsMikesBlog

I am going to try something new for me.  Write a journal entry from my “real” journal.  That’s what I do everyday and today I just cracked my 69th journal.  So here we go.

# A poet I am.  I poet I shall be. Cigarette break.

# poem:

tamed indifferece

such a stoic stance

silly.  foolish of me in fact.

have i not lived experiences

gained wisdom

felt an exacted toll

a full frontal cortex of assault

truthfully i wouldn’t change anything

in misery there is clarity eventually

for the mind has a way of favoring the elusive ego once found

and bliss is thy reward

# lait 1%, deca, aromatise, [this is all French but the keyboard is English] lait de soya, sirop, creme fouettee,  All exceptional for the pallet.  But I have made my choice: cafe au lait, no 1%, topped with dark chocolate peel extreme, a slight dollop sprinkle of cinemin essence.  Very good for clarity of mind and induction of state of bliss from which creative power flows.

Copyright (c) Michael Pokocky 14.01.10

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The greatest cafe in the world(Cafe Crem)

On my daily walk along the rivier Simon

“Books are like wines_you develop a taste for them, and everyone has a unique palate”

“What is Wisdom without light.
Disenchanted finds me.
Primrose evenings.
Beyond Evenings Darkness.”

{written by Michael Pokocky on his quest in 2009}

How is everybody doing?  Hope you had a great 2009 and I am sure 2010 marks a new decade of hope and dreams being realized and fun.

I have been on a long quest for clarity, wellness and achievement.  I have succeeded.

I feel a wonderful sense of presence and purpose in all areas of my life.  For that I am grateful.

I know a new path was presented to me when I befriended all of you on Cafe Crem.  It was fun but at the same time I had not solidified in my mind a sense of who Michael is and therefore I might, and most probably had, given many different impressions of myself.  The good the bad and the ugly churned inside of me and I am afraid I might have poisoned people’s perception of me.  For that I apologize, but having realized the struggle to define oneself with transparency, authenticity and integrity is difficult when one is lost.  Lost is probably the best word to describe my state of mind.

I spent 2009 getting healthy, working on revisions of my book One More Day, exploring the business of publishing to great depths trying to figure out where the future of publishing lay and all of this work I did alone.

I have been active on twitter and facebook and found a home of writers on Redroom.  In these three places I tried to be a good friend, provided assistance to those in need, asked a lot of questions and listened and learned that giving with love and compassion is what I like to do.  Living a life of love and compassion has given me a reason to get up every day.  Paulo Coelho says everyone has a personal legend; a reason why you are here.  I found mine.

Its not about what Michael wants.  Its about helping others to be better, happier, more at peace and motivated to get up in the morning too.  What I once did for a dream of being something, someone, I know do out of pure enjoyment.  This new dip into new waters refreshes me beyond anything I have ever done.  The irony is now thing seem to come together for Michael.  I don’t even try to figure out why anymore.  I just am at peace with it.

As this is the first day of 2010 I came up with a resolution: My resolution this year (2010), and you’re welcome to join me, is to do something every day of the new year that scares me.  Not scared as in putting myself in danger, but rather going to the edge of the cliff without falling off and knowing each time I can make it back.  Going to the edge is a metaphor for trying to do my best each day no matter what is in front of me, behind me or ahead of me.  There is only the present moment and I want to be fully present in each moment and do what ever it takes to do that.

Oh it has been a long time since I was here and yet writing this this morning I feel like I never left.  Its natural to be here.  That is probably the most profound experience Cafe Crem and the people here give me.  It is truly a place where we can come and go without judgement, fear or hesitation.

And for that I am truly grateful I met Miki in the first place and felt so proud that she invited me to be a member of the greatest cafe in the world.

Happy New Year everyone,

Michael

Summer Time

Summer Time

My art lessons are going well. They are a lot of fun.

Wishing everyone well,

Sarah

click on the picture to see the original size.

Flower by Sarah Pokocky

Flower

This is Sarah’s first painting from her first session with a professional painter on 05/09/09

Writing tips from the life of Alexander The Great!

Michael Pokocky

I wrote a blog post on Red Room | Where the Writers Are and it is featured as the Blog Post of the Day! [Sunday August 29th, 2009].

Here it is posted from the Red Room to share with my friends:

Writing tips from the life of Alexander The Great!

by Michael W Pokocky

August 27, 2009, 8:41 pm

Look!  This is the most important thing writers must understand before they even write one word: Never take advice from anyone.

Alexander The Great had Aristotle as a teacher and a friend, but Aristotle did not teach Alexander The Great to become the greatest leader of men.  He taught him knowledge because the worlds knowledge during Alexanders time was so small that one man like Aristotle knew it all.  That was Aristotle’s passion: knowledge.

What made Alexander great was realizing that what life threw at him was what he had to deal with.  To take action.  To believe so much in himself and his abilities to get things done that he took action based on the knowledge he had learned from Aristotle himself.

I’m not sure there is any reference to this but I believe this to be true.  So Alexander conquered all of the known world to him at such a  young age nobody has ever repeated what he had done.  Alexander did not bestow upon himself the crown Alexander The Great.  The people did.  History did.  We did.  And therein lies the writing tip from the life of Alexander the Great: Never take advice from anyone.  What you can do is gain knowledge or expertise in what you think you like — and you will know what you like when you feel guilty not doing it.  You can gain experience by going out into the world and trying something you never did before.  Hunter S. Thompson infliltrated by gaining the trust of the Hells Angels to write the definitive work on that subject.  Hemingway lived his life as he saw fit and wrote about it.  Proust suffered all his life and wrote it all down and we marvel at such an accomplishment.

What will work for you won’t work for the next person.  Will you ever get published?  I don’t know.  The only thing you have control over is you.

So the next time you think that what you call your writing life is in peril, don’t!  I don’t even care if my spelling or grammer is write in this post.  I don’t care that you care.  I am having so much fun writing it that it makes my day.  If it is never read nor commented on I don’t care.  That’s the point.  Nobody cares except the ones who are not writing and are frustrated and angry and feel they will never be a writer.  Believe me there are many out there who will attack this post if they have the guts.  I hope they do.  I hope nobody agrees with me.  I hope there is so much of a fuss over this post that something deep down inside of you — a gut wrenching response that you want to make but you hesitate because it is not politiacally correct.  Who cares?  You do!  Don’t care!  Just write what you really feel and forget spelling, grammer and hurting my fellings.

That is what Alexander The Great did I believe: he did not care what others thought.  He just went and did it.

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I hope you enjoy this!

Michael

via:  Red Room | Where the Writers Are Blog of the Day

The Visual CV

WE all want to be found.  Everyone and everything will find you if your findable.  So I found a new technology that is free where you make a visual CV for yourself to use like this below to be found on the Net including the addition of your videos channels or a video, sideshows of your work, or just about anything.

You can use a button with your photo like here:

Or you can use a simple link instead of a whole list like this: Michael Pokocky’s VisualCV – http://www.visualcv.com/michaelpokocky

If you have any trouble I will help you with this.

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Hi Michael… I hope you don’t mind, but I thought i edit my own Visual CV here, which I did this afternoon after having seen yours!