An Update & More on Myths to Believe In

Hi everyone, it's been a weird few days since I uploaded the Carat journal entry. When I promoted the post on Twitter and Google+ it got noticed pretty quickly by both university lecturers as well as some Carat managers. It just seemed to snowball from there and as a result I was asked by http://diginnmmu.com to write an opinion piece for them! The article I wrote tackled a similar subject to that seen in two previous posts I wrote back in June I think, on work experience and professional development; the new article will argue for the importance of digital skills alongside getting valuable work experience and taking the initiative to demonstrate commitment by doing something original and creative -like starting a blog for example! It should see publication sometime next week.

In any case I am very pleased with the result and if anyone who supported the previous post in any way is reading this, thank you very much, I hope I can return the favour in some way! The next Carat entry should hopefully be uploaded by this coming Friday or Saturday at the latest, because I've moved my internship day from Wednesday to Thursday. But regardless, I hope that you stay tuned and thank you for continuing to support this blog if you do check it regularly; I appreciate it.

But the brunt of this post is dedicated to something else and that is the second collection of poems entitled Myths to Believe In, which currently stands at over 65% completion I'd say, although it may take longer. A good deal of the poems to be featured you will most likely have already seen on this blog however, most of them have undergone drastic changes to make them more effective as part of a whole body of work, some of them only share a title and perhaps a couple of lines with their original drafts so hopefully if you found them initially disappointing, you'll change your mind! (I hope.)

What I will upload today for you however is the front cover of the book, which has been on FB/Twitter for a month or so, and which I hope you find aesthetically pleasing enough to look at!

And without further ado, please welcome Myths to Believe In!

Once again, I'm really grateful for all the views I've been getting recently, the Carat post is currently my all-time most-viewed at present! And if it wasn't for the re-tweets and shares, I probably wouldn't have gotten anywhere near that amount, so thanks.

http://jbwalkerwriting.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/work-experience-update-advice.html 

(Work Experience post)

http://jbwalkerwriting.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/the-need-for-professional-development.html 

(Professional Development post)

Ballad of the PoemHunter

Hi guys, just wanted to share something with you. There's a website for poets to upload works onto, akin to a forum/social network. Features include creating e-books out of uploaded works and rating poems/ voting for favourites etc. Check it out if you have time. So far I've uploaded three: Arthur Ironclad, Once Upon a Tide and finally: Ballad of the Dreamweaver. The former two you've already read on this blog whereas the latter one is the first upload anywhere online, save for the Pinterest image of a single line. So please, check the site out here: http://poemhunter.com/jake-walker

And for the sake of ease, here is Ballad of the Dreamweaver

Salutations to you my friend;

I’ll ensure this night will never end.

Sleep beneath the sheet, inside your bed

and lye down still, while I reside in your head.

Thoughts and memories aplenty I find,

Enough to weave a dream inside.

I knit the fabrics of your sub-conscience,

They bind together to find a nexus; I’m the one of omnipotence inside of many a mind,

I am the one to whom they abide.

An archive of thoughts and memories, of which there are many to choose.

Within this catalogue, track of time I lose.

I wile away minutes to hours

For you to experience that which life has not granted;

Realigning the tower currently slanted.

A plethora of possibilities that be presented to me.

Is it not unusual to think that glee may not be found in all nocturnal reverie?

With care you must travel through that crafted land,

For all can seem real; that deathly-stone hand.

The narrative to which this night has been set.

You must embrace all to be shown through my lens, for me to enlighten you must let.

Yes, you must let me show you both pleasure and pain,

For in the end it is knowledge that we will both gain.

But the sun begins to rise over the hills once more

and roll out to rouse you, from your serendipitous abode.

You may think all had been designed,

But once inside I stumbled upon a fortunate surprise.

This is when I let you go from my grasp,

To return unto the land over which I passed.

I will not disclose that what I came to find Inside of thee and hope that you shan’t mind, Since I took a piece of you inside of me . . .

Once Upon a Tide

After struggling with the ending for about 20 minutes I finally finished the piece below. Please give feedback and reviews if you wish. Enjoy as always!

ONCE UPON A TIDE

No time can wither his resilience, as he trudges through the snow.

Even when the thaw arrives, spring illuminates his glow.

His glittered eyes are like the golden tide, the coastline he came to know.

Distant it lay as his mind’s arm reached, through the void it crawled.

Pulling askew the Amnesia curtain, the beckoning sun enthralled.

His mind a gaze upon a frozen ocean, time had forever stalled.

Stalled and frozen with sand like ice, he eventually saw the beach.

The waves crashed and spluttered upon the rocks, his memory was not impeached.

The winter had passed and departed the land as the end of the chill was reached.

He now trudged along the sand in glee, just like he had done before.

But the glittering sun was hidden from view, across the sky night poured.

And yet he could feel the sun’s gaze persistent, long after his eyes bore the tide.

A tapestry drawn across the scene, it was all contained inside. 

Reverie

I really don't know what was going through my mind when I wrote Reverie but I hope you like it. I personally liked some of the rhymes like "here" & "stratosphere" but more importantly, I hope it does something for you. Please feel free to feed back with whatever opinions you have.

REVERIE

I can stand here:

On the crest of the Stratosphere.

I can float there:

Where the void breaks from the air.

Away I can leave:

Like those who have something to retrieve.

And if you wish, you could believe.

Washed away in city streets,

Head down low to bereave.

Inertia bites, your drive depletes.

And yet you could stand on top of this world,

Light up the darkness with fire from the sun.

Shimmering brightly like diamond-white pearls,

Could you believe that it’s already begun?

Alas it’s arduous to find this place,

A greater depth than even the sea.

Atop the Stratosphere with awe and grace,

Living out this fantasy.

A Pinteresting Update

Hi everyone,

Over the last couple of days I set up a Pinterest page so you can see the poem images already uploaded to this blog. The only difference is that I added a description of each poem, so you can check those works out and be more informed etc. I also created an additional board entitled "Poem 'Cards'" that features quotes and snippets of longer poems or even whole short works. These will be featured on an artistic background as an image, hopefully providing bursts of inspiration or something. I uploaded the first as a trial from a not-yet-released work entitled "Ballad of the Dream Weaver." I hope you appreciate the work and enjoy it. If you enjoy visiting this blog please tell people about it, rate, comment, subscribe etc. and if you did/do that I'd really be grateful for it. Thank you for reading once again and if you clicked the link, even better and hopefully, I shall upload some substantive writing some time in the next week or so.

Kindest Regards,
Jake.  

Why Am I Here?

I'm not entirely sure how most bloggers introduce themselves, but we'll start with a simple profile of who I am: My name is Jake, a student at a university in England that shall remain nameless. I like to write -obviously- and have undertaken many different genres, lengths etc. 

   Although my university studies are quite unrelated to this, it is still an interest of mine that flares then wanes depending on current life circumstances. I have often tried to complete projects -many long, some short- in childhood. These proved to be failures for the most part that didn't get completed, mainly, I imagine, because I was just too young and inexperienced. I don't claim to be much more experienced now to be honest, but given that I'm somewhat older, my endurance has strengthened congruent with my weakening self-doubt. Last October I self-published a chapbook of poetry via Amazon Kindle entitled "Distant Lands." The poems contained within focused primarily on aspects of my life so far, personality etc. and infused narrative poetry with romanticist imagery of nature, providing connotations and underlying messages, sometimes made explicit. Although they seemed great at first, many of them were, well, not as good. I continue to write poetry and have a new concept for a second chapbook focusing on the narratives of characters that embody certain ideas, lifestyles etc. The work has a working title of “Myths to Believe In.” I may post some actual works soon once I’ve decided what should go up here.

   My main project is a SF/F novel entitled “Skyscarr,” which started progress in August 2011. I have finished most of the first draft of this work, the word count currently weighing in at around 90,000. To explain the most intricate parts of the plot would be laborious so I shall just wash over the basics for your convenience. The story focuses on a small group of protagonists wanting to discover what a corrupt government has hidden away on a neighbour planet, the maneuver disguised as a travel ban to prevent interplanetary infection of a supposed disease. This is happening against the background of the protagonists being on the run, framed for a terrorist attack that was committed by the military of the same, interplanetary government.

   As a final note, it seems conventional to list the books that I am currently reading in my spare time, which are as follows:

-       No Logo (Klein)

-       The Divine Comedy (Dante)

-       The Dark Tower Vol. V (King)

Thanks for reading if you managed to reach the end of this post and with that, I will see/type you soon.