Ladies and gentlemen, we are pleased to introduce you to the subject of this week's Proser Showcase, James Samsel. His username, @seamlessjam is an anagram of his name.

Our recent interview with James, or "Jim," resulted in a detailed narrative which we have shared below for your reading pleasure.

I teach English and social studies grades 6 through 12 at a residential treatment center in San Antonio, Texas. Teaching is my third career. I have, at other times, been a builder and a musician.

My relationship with writing has been on-again off-again over the years. I messed with writing a bit in high school, writing poems and songs lyrics. My 30s were productive: I went to college as a nontraditional student, obtaining an English degree and participating in writing workshops. During this period I published a few poems and released an album of original songs with a band.

Then the off-again started up.

10 years ago, I entered an alternative teacher certification program, finding work at a charter school for at-risk kids doing credit recovery. I really didn't know anything about teaching reading and writing except that I like to do both, and set about collecting a bag of tricks to coax unwilling students into writing. In doing so, I tricked myself into writing again.

I collect visual prompts, surfing the Internet for images, memes and quotes that will engage my students. I use apps and websites like Storybird, Lark, Flocabulary and TeenInk to spark my students' creativity. We write 6-word memoirs, use "where I'm from" templates, and make found poems with magnet words on the dry-erase board.

Haiku and acrostic poems are accessible and fun. I have also found that hip-hop backing tracks and loops can inspire the even most reluctant boys to get their flow on. Demonstrating these gimmicks to my students got my own writing going again, even if at first it was just writing a daily haiku on the board.

Twitter is my best resource. I found Austin Kleon's Blackout Poems, Flocabulary and Prose on Twitter.

Following contemporary poets like Mary Karr, Natasha Trethewy and Richard Blanco lets me keep an ear to the ground. The great HW Brands, a history professor at the University of Texas in Austin, is tweeting the entire History of the United States-- in haiku. This is geekdom at its finest! Unfortunately, my favorite poet, Billy Collins, is only on Facebook.

I am currently and ploddingly working on a series of acrostic poems, cataloguing evocative names of places and native plants to conceal in acrostics. This is one of the tricks I use to get students off high-center with their creativity.

When I found Prose., or rather, when Prose. found me, I liked the idea, seeing the possibilities for feedback and community. On Twitter, there is some of that in the favoriting and following of micro-poets, but the "bot-ness" of AuthorBee and other entities is off-putting; it's certainly not the same as being read by a real person.

There was a bit of a learning curve with Prose. for me. I was frustrated that the app would not maintain my line breaks when I pasted text in from Notes on iPhone or iPad, but "typing" directly into Prose. works just fine and is a strangely tactile experience. The what-you-see-is-what-you-get characteristic of the app works well with my writing process, such as it is.

I walk nature trails and watershed linear parks in my hometown, San Antonio, and take pictures and notes for ideas, then write poems and journal entries in one sitting, with little revising.

My stuff exists in a particular moment and doesn't hold up through reiteration.

Be sure to follow Jim here and on Instagram @seamlessjam and on Twitter @tejastani.

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This #FridayFeature blog series is designed to help you get to know your fellow community members better. Would you like to nominate someone for interview? Have a question you’re dying to ask of someone on the platform? Send us a private message here or visit our contact page to get in touch: theprose.com/p/contact.

It has come to our attention that there are a number of you who are frustrated and aren’t happy with Prose right now.

We want to change this.

We put our hands up and admit that our listening skills weren’t good enough. We didn’t ask the right questions, and we didn’t make it clear those of us who are contactable in-app or via email. In this respect, we failed you, and we are sorry. We are working on steps to remedy that right this very second.

We want you all to know that we are here to listen and, even if your question, concern, or feedback is not something we can address immediately, we will pass your comments on to the right person straight away. That will ensure that the relevant team member is made aware and will work on those improvements for you, our users.

Prose is a year old and, while we have achieved a lot over this past year, we have received feedback from a number of you that have voiced concerns over speed of improvement within the app and website. There are times that it may not look like anything is happening within the app in terms of progress, but this most definitely isn’t the case behind-the-scenes. We are all working non-stop to provide you with the best writing app with social integration, ever.

To give you an update on HQ activities, we are working on the next release of the iOS app right now and with it will come significant and welcomed changes here. So, while we understand that you’re frustrated right now, please bear with us. We are working hard to deliver answers and solutions to your requests.

To give you better understanding of Team Prose, I’d like to share some insight with you.

Prose currently has seven (7) team members working full-time, four (4) within the marketing and relationship management division, and three (3) within the tech and development team. Although we are still small in terms of team numbers, the community is still growing and our social media following continues on an upward climb each day.

We manage, between us, everything Prose-related: from the emails that hit your inbox, to the images, tweets, and posts that you see on social media, to the blog and its contributors. Every button you press, every heart you touch, every comment you make has been coded within an inch of its life. We also spend countless hours networking with like-minded writers from elsewhere to spread the word about Prose. All of this is done with the goal of bringing you guys even more fellow writers and readers with whom to interact and share your words.

We understand that you feel that interactivity is low right now. Admittedly, we as a team could do more to read, write, and engage with the community. That being said, we can’t improve this aspect alone. We need your help.

It's easy to fall into a trap of feeling deflated and discouraged when a piece you’ve painstakingly written and re-written isn't being “liked.” This, however, doesn’t mean you’re not being read. It also doesn’t mean that people didn’t enjoy what they read. We are addressing this issue on a technical level for the next update. In the meantime, you all can read more, write more, encourage more, share more, and provide detailed feedback, or just leave a comment. This will improve interactivity immensely and we promise to do the same. We want you to know that we believe in your words and your talent as writers, perhaps now more than ever before.

Prose isn’t Prose without you. We could provide every single feature you desire, but without you, our Prosers, there is no Prose. Team Prose is striving, and will continue to strive, for the same goals you are.

When frustration is playing a large role in a writer’s life, it's easy to focus on negativity. However, within the last 3 months, we have improved. We are still improving. And, for the last portion of this blog piece I’d like to focus on the positive things that have happened recently:

- 2.0 was released back in June. With it came a new look, easier navigation (including global search on mobile), and direct messaging. The Leaderboard is no longer prevalent and a randomisation option was provided to further your ability to find more like-minded writers. There also were numerous bug fixes and glitches addressed.

- The Partner Program was released in May. We currently have 30 partners who are all helping to improve the visibility of your words by proposing your pieces to be spotlighted. Spotlighting is a great achievement. Because of it, for any new people that look at Prose, the spotlight pieces are the first words they will read. You guys are the biggest asset to Prose, and we want to showcase your talents by having your content Spotlighted.

- The official Prose blog was launched in June and this gives ALL Prosers the opportunity to blog for us here: blog.theprose.com/blog. Our aim for the blog has been networking with influential writers, publishers, and other creatives to bring you the most cutting-edge, up-to-date information within the Prose network and beyond.

- We have now offered beta testing to our Partners as a part of the partner program. This, enables them to give us more feedback and allows them to have a hand in shaping the future of Prose.

- We have had a number of sponsored challenges, one of which is still live. It is hosted by fellow Proser and Partner, @rh, who we thank greatly for this contribution to the challenge stream.

- We launched the KDP challenge initiative which has given a number of unpublished authors the chance to now say they've been published. It is open to everyone and everyone has an equal opportunity to see their words in an eBook collection. These will continue, so if this is something you’d like to take part in, check out the current challenge: www.theprose.com/challenge/2404.

Again, it may not appear that progress is happening, but it is indeed. We have already achieved a notable list of improvements over the last 3 months. Rest assured that we will continue to deliver to you, our community. That is a promise.

As of today, three (3) members of Team Prose, including myself (@sammielee46), Maggie (@MaggieGreene), and HB (@hbaugustine), will change their profile bios to say “Prose Admin.”

If you have concerns or feedback, or would like to help out the team in any way, please either:

Drop one of us a direct message on Prose;

Visit our contact page and email us directly;

Or send a direct message to the Prose profile here.

Going forward, we can assure you of the following:

We are listening.

We welcome feedback.

We will do more as a team to interact with the Prose community.

We will continue developing new features and functionality for you to enjoy.

We will communicate with you guys as much as we can.

Now, let’s get back to doing what we do best, shall we?

Why write? Because Prose.

Kind regards,

Sammie

Marketing and Media Director

on behalf of The Prose Team

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Sarah Herr.

Originally from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, she has lived all over the “Keystone” state: from Reading to Philadelphia and Wilkes Barre, to her current home in Somerset.

Right now, she’s without a car, “living in the sticks” and putting in hours at a run-down gas station which, she admits, she does not enjoy.

P: Describe your relationship with writing and how it has evolved.

SH: I began writing when I was a little girl. I didn't really know how to write but had a notebook full of crazy squiggle marks across the page that I thought were words.

Writing evolved for me when I was getting off heroin. It took me outside of myself and let me feel and become whatever and whoever I wanted to be. I was able to let out feelings and emotions that I couldn't explain or tell anyone else about. Writing became my new high: totally therapeutic to my soul.

P: What value does reading bring to your personal and professional life?

SH: Reading helps me think outside the box. It makes me see the unseen.

P: Briefly describe your current literary ventures. What can we expect to see in future posts?

SH: I write a lot of nonfiction and rhyming poetry. I have been trying to write some fiction stories and am going to try to write some non-rhyming poetry.

P: As a fairly new writer, what does Prose. mean to you?

SH: It is absolutely amazing. Pure brilliance. I love reading other people's writing. To be able to see people's raw talent in the making is definitely cool. I also enjoy receiving feedback on my own stuff.

P: Where else can we find you and your work?

SH: When I was in grade school I won a contest and one of my poems was put into a book but, other than that, most of my writing has been in my personal journals. I did experiment with poetry.com but found that it was lame. If I’m not mistaken, I was actually on poetry.com when an ad popped up about Prose. It struck my curiosity and I decided to check it out.

I'm glad I did.

Be sure to follow Sarah and her literary journey here @PoeticJustice87.

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This #FridayFeature blog series is designed to help you get to know your fellow community members better. Would you like to nominate someone for interview? Have a question you’re dying to ask of someone on the platform? Send us a private message here or visit our contact page to get in touch: theprose.com/p/contact.

The subject of this week's Friday Feature is Lucie Parker, known here as @lucieinthesky.

She grew up about an hour north of Manhattan, New York. But where is she now and what does she do? we asked.

"I just recently moved back to NYC from DC to be a research analyst with a group focused on effectively and efficiently reducing crime in the city. Although that's my official job title right now, I'm still figuring out what I want my occupation to be," she said.

P: What is your relationship with writing and how has it evolved?

LP: Since before I can remember, I've been writing. My parents preserved books of mine made of scrap paper stapled together telling the story of a young girl (or "gril" as I spelled it then) and her adventures. I remember binding my very own book in elementary school and going to an after-school creative writing club for kids with my neighbor.

As I got older, I found myself spending less time on my creative side and more time on math and science. They didn't exactly go hand in hand, but I always found myself turning to writing when I was going through something big. When my grandfather died, my coping mechanism was to draft a seven page biography of his life from my eyes. I spent days researching his accomplishments and, in doing so, learned even more about him and myself than I previously did.

Writing remained an emotional outlet for me throughout high school and college and into the time after graduation. During these times of great transition and sometimes turbulence, it was always comforting to know my pencil and paper were there waiting for me.

It wasn't until I discovered Prose. that I even considered sharing my writing. My trains of thought and imperfect poems reflected the innermost workings of my mind and revealed some of the most personal things about me. For awhile after joining, I didn't post a single piece and just absorbed all of the wonderful content.

When I realized that I had entered a community of the most supportive strangers I would probably ever meet, I decided to give it a shot and haven't turned back since. It's definitely opened up my writing in an entirely new way and I know it will continue to evolve from here.

P: Briefly discuss the value that reading adds to both your personal and professional life.

LP: Reading had always been a huge source of inspiration and knowledge for me. When I find a book that really resonates with me, I can't put it down until I'm finished (and then I always wish that it would go on forever). Recently, I've been exploring my spirituality more and more, and have consequently been collecting books faster than I can read them.

Professionally, I'm often reading academic papers on the latest economic insights and techniques, and rely on them heavily to advance my own understanding.

P: How would you describe your current literary ventures and what can we look forward to in future posts?

LP: Most of the writing I do now is very free form and somewhat abstract. A lot of my attempts to create rhyming poems and more realistic stories end up sounding forced to me, but they're both genres that interest me greatly.

I've had a very vague concept for a novel in the back of my mind for a few years now, so that's also something I'm working toward.

P: What does Prose. mean to you?

LP: I was lucky enough to be able to join Prose. early on and have since witnessed it grow into something much bigger than it once was. From a handful of users to more posts per day than I can keep up with, Prose. has evolved into a space where everyone is met with loving support and guidance, myself included.

It's rare to find a form of social media today that inspires creativity on a daily basis and remains free of negativity. Also, having met almost everyone on the Prose. team, I'm always in awe of the hard work and dedication that goes into creating such an awesome platform, and it makes it that much more special to use.

P: Where else can we find you and your writing?

LP: Currently, most of my writing either takes place here or in the numerous notebooks I have lying around my apartment. I am on Instagram @lap819 and Facebook, and, technically, I have a Twitter account (@lap819), though it doesn't get much use these days.

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This #FridayFeature blog series is designed to help you get to know your fellow community members better. Would you like to nominate someone for interview? Have a question you’re dying to ask of someone on the platform? Send us a private message here or visit our contact page to get in touch: theprose.com/p/contact.

It is dangerous to feel it

It feels as lustful hunger

It feels as unquenchable fire

It feels as if the darkness from the universe

Brews inside one

It makes you feel like you are about

To let currents of salty water come out from your eyes

It feels as if it repels everybody around you

No one can approach you

And you don't have another option but to remain lonely

It makes your stomach hurt

It makes your chest burn

It makes the heart twirl in agony

Making it miserable

Making the one who possesses it

The bluest of the people

This nothing that hurts like hell

This emptiness that swallows every word a poet has to say

This blank space inside my chest that won't allow me to love anyone

It is asphyxiating, for it covers your mouth preventing you from screaming

If you try to cry it won't help at all

You will only flood that place with more murky, salty water and ink

This emptiness of nothing capable of swallowing poets

And sealing their mouths

It is as painful as platonic love

Or hunger in the morning

It is obnoxious as headache on Mondays

It makes every emotion more intense

It is dangerous to let nothingness inside you

It highlights pain

It feeds the flames of desperation

It is imposible to quench its thirst

For the more salty water you give it

The bigger it gets

It is simply nothing

It is emptiness

It is unrequited love

It is depression

It is a desert

It is a dry river

It is a blank page

It is an empty chest

All of this took place where a heart used to exist.

DA 2015

Isolation is not for the idiot,

broken slabs of sorrow

moistened by the rain,

no sign of the suns

needle point breakthrough

a puncture

to a raised palm,

alone disguising himself

in clothes so vanilla plain

he becomes in indistinct,

until another comes

with words used

as a way

to reach ears

not wanting to listen,

and a soft touch

on a fallen shoulder