Up To Speed

I should get this car.

Re getting up to speed, it would be fun to do more projects spontaneously. It’s easier to be consistent when what you’re doing is fun and in the moment and not a tedious, discouraging bore. Less packaging work, more using all the cool tools to send messages in the moment.

I’d have to rely on experience, be brave, and have faith…

This radio poems session is a good example of fun, but it’s not quite in the moment, but I’m getting closer.

Why and how to write “radio poems”

• Quick, fun batches of poetry

• Creativity boosting writing exercise

• Spontaneous writing fun

Nan Patience with work in progress. Video made in YouTube shorts (link here: https://youtube.com/shorts/eD1QVLfLoQI)

Following my bliss one day, I sat down to write poems while listening to a favorite radio station. I low-key challenged myself to enjoy the writing, sit and do a solid session, and see what came out on the page.

It was a fun exercise, and I got a whole batch of short poems out of it, too.

Here’s how you can write a “radio poem” to have fun, boost creativity and churn out some work in a fun way.

Step 1: Turn on your favorite music or talk radio station.

Step 2: Get ready to write in the moment, without knowing what’s coming over the airwaves.

Step 3: Start! Listen and jot down random words, maybe not just from the radio, but other words that come to mind, your own feelings, experiences, people, sensory notes, instrumental notes, etc. Anything. Avoid unique turns of phrase of particular artists, original ideas and anything trademarked or copyrighted.

Step 4: Do a whole session, aiming for a batch of (short) poems. Smash out several pages of words and raw poetic notes.

Step 5: Turn off the music and edit, edit, edit. Group words and ideas, try different arrangements, draft titles, rephrase, add context, reword, omit words, add other words, try some rhymes if you want, etc. You have complete freedom.

You can do it anywhere. Here are two radio poems I wrote the other day on the fly when out and about…

Trouble Tonight

by NG Swett

if looks could kill
I’d be in trouble
so out of touch
in my own bubble

the dangerous type
what are you all about
shock me baby
let’s scream and shout

you’re all I desire
don’t play dead
light my fire
you god among men

And another (below). I will say the two poems are nice and short and have an edge of passion that is wonderful for poetry.

Poem At Open Window

by NG Swett

I long to know you’re real

something I can feel

like an old typewriter key

clacking away here

words on a rag breeze

you breathe in and sneeze

“Oh bless you, Darling’!”

Once edited, my radio poems aren’t too far outside of the kinds of poems I’ve written before. One is on the racier side, one on the charming side. Both a little desperate haha!

They would fit into, for example, my first book of poems, HOLD ME TIGHT, a collection of 36 love poems about love and loss in modern times.

I’m working on a new collection of poems to be published by Labor Day, which will be a mix of poems with black and white photo collage illustrations (I think).

Give my radio poetry exercise method a try and see if YOU like it!

How (and why) I’m making videos

Lately I’ve been making wide, longer form, evergreen videos for YouTube.

I use my android smartphone and Canva. I have a tripod, too, but I haven’t used it much yet. Oh, and I recently made a DIY phone mount on my bike safety helmet.

On my wish list are a bluetooth mic, a gimbel (for video stabilization), and a lot more courage.

A few of my first wide form videos for YouTube

Starting with the most recent as of this blog post, here are some of my first wide YouTube videos. Each is just a few minutes long. Notice the different topics, formats, and tools that I’m playing around with. For example,

• one is an animated video of a short story I wrote

• another is a climb up an historic lighthouse

• another is a day in the life type of vlog

• one is a selection of love poems from my book.

I have also done quite a few vertical mobile style short short videos, but here are longer, wide format videos.

Working on getting better at video making

Areas that I’m trying to improve are

• thumbnails

• titles

• research

• working up the courage to talk to camera

• video editing

• ideas for videos / relevant topics for both me and audience

WHY though??

Connect with Audience

As everyone knows, YouTube is a search engine as well as a massive collection of videos, and it continues to be a very popular platform. People like the video format, finding authentic people, and finding what they’re looking for. Of all the platforms out there, I think the best one for me to find my audience is YouTube. My goal is to connect with an audience, improve my craft, and own my intellectual property assets.

Pinterest is another great platform and search engine, and it’s somewhat under the radar. That’ll be a topic for another day.

Monetization?

Monetizing my YouTube channel through its Partner Program is do-able if I keep at it, be consistent, and continue to improve. Over the years, YouTube has stood behind people who create content with real resources. It continues to do so, unlike other platforms. I just need 1,000 YouTube channel subscribers and 4,000 “watch hours” LOL. It’s another long game! (Like writing and painting, let’s face it.)

I mean, what if by the time I’m 60, I have a nice big email list, a whole bunch of writing and painting going on, a monetized YouTube channel, a blog, and an online store as well? That would be a fun and awesome next chapter of life.

“More Babies!” — video with short rhyming poem, artwork

by New York poet NG Swett

Just a quick video post today, including a couple of extra pieces of material:

• notes about the substance of the poem

• when and how I wrote it

• creating and posting the video

The substance of the poem

The billionaires, plutocrats, oligarchs — some are calling for more babies.

Women should have more babies, some say. Women shouldn’t be able to end a pregnancy under any circumstances, some say. Life is too… precious!

Over a lifetime, families can easily shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars per person for taxes, health care, child care, education, shelter, food, transportation, weddings, and finally assisted living. The willingness to pay is only limited by our means. The value of a statistical life was estimated at $7.5 million in 2020 according to FEMA. Oh how the shareholders must drool at a number like that!

Other happy civilized countries don’t have things set up this way. Every heartstring we have is tapped for all it’s worth. Every fear stoked for our last dime.

There’s pushback on social media to this idea of women as livestock, especially among women. But the good news for the owner class is that they can mute ‘em with algorithms. (Studies show that social media is terrible for women’s mental health, especially secular liberals.)

Scientists proved that the human race is stripping the planet of resources, causing mass extinction, and polluting it to the brink of extinction. So do we really need more people? Or should we get our house in order first?

Writing the poem

So this all tickled my funny bone a little, so I jotted down this little rhyming poem, “More Babies!” just this week in a big black journal that I’ve been using lately for sketching and writing.

To illustrate the poem, I pulled up a painting I did some time ago of a made-up plutocrat, “One.” It’s from a series of a couple dozen mini acrylic paintings I made as art therapy to get me through writing and editing my first novel — a very, very challenging project! The paintings are all illustrations from scenes of the novel.

In the painting, One lounges god-like across a royal-looking chair in front of a glass window at night. You can see a bridge lit up behind him. The rug under his shiny black boots is a rough map of the Outer Lands Archipelago.

Making the videos

With the poem, the painting, and some branding basics for 4seasonshelf, I then made a short video in two formats, wide and vertical mobile. I added two audio tracks, one with the sound of a typewriter and another with the sound of an eerie lullaby…

I’m placing the wide format video here on 4seasonshelf.com first.

Then they will go on the billionaires’ platforms…

Pair of Haikus for our modern times

Earthquake, Solar Eclipse, Apocalypse, oh my!

You just never know what the day will bring...

Today we had a 4.8 earthquake in the region -- New Jersey to be exact. Everyone in the NY metro region felt it, up and down the East Coast.

Nothing was damaged, it seems. Close call?

Do you know where your friends and loved ones are? Everyone seems ok, but are we?

Life goes on. Get back to work?

I mean, it's absurd how much the world has to process on a daily basis. Today an earthquake, on Monday a total solar eclipse will slash darkness across the country. And always lurking in the background is the possibility of a large apocalypse, which is a reality for too many people in too many places around the globe these days.

Altogether the words earthquake, eclipse and apocalypse tickled my funny bone a little, even though the situation’s not really that funny. A haiku is quick, something we can all use to dash off an idea in a pinch, 5-7-5 syllables for three lines, and the last line is supposed to land a little flat or funny. This short ancient poem format is just the thing for a pair of poetic dispatches for today.

Here are a pair I wrote in my notebook then set up in Canva and posted on YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

While it may be wrong to ride a trending wave about a natural disaster, I can assure you that I’m not above it. And I feel it’s right to share an experience with the wider public, and an idea about something big that’s happened, so that we can all share in it.

Turn on sound!

~ Nan