Write On!

Prose provides hydration for my writing like cool water replenishes the body. My commitment to prose began when I was five years old. Every book I could take out of the library allowed me to escape the tensions of younger brother and sisters. Reading took me to places where words danced in rhymes and my world grew as new concepts jumped from the pages.

When my mother instructed me to help keep the younger children from 'under her feet, prose taught me to entertain my brothers and sisters. My stories recited in soft tones in a large closet placed them in a silence slumber without a nightmare.

As an educator, prose brought joy to my student not only when they read a book, but to create their own stories. Each student felt the worth of their story as they shared it aloud to the class and to their parents.

My full press writing career expanded when my oldest child handed me a yellow pad and pencil and said, "You've got great stories. Write them down."

Boy, did I write. I spent the next twenty years making a living in corporate America writing. I wrote my stories in books, on scraps of paper, and on my home PC.

It wasn't until a life altering event, a neighbor, and my desire to write that 'damn' book, that my writing of poetry and prose became a top priority. I love to write. Ideas burst from some existential dimension and force me to write. I have four novels in first drafts and one novel its final reads. I have tons of poems (some go back to my high school days).

A sight, sound, touch, smell can ignite a writing spree. An event forces me to stop everything and pen my reflections. I consider writing my quest. So many stories, so many books, so little time.

@Pat W Coffey 2017