Poem in Your Pocket 2016

Today we celebrate Poem in Your Pocket Day, a day when you carry a poem in your pocket and share it with friends, family, strangers, whoever you can find to stand still and listen to your poem. Fortunately, I work at a public residential high school, so I have a captive audience. As a poet and lover of poetry, this is one of my favorite days!

So, what is in my pocket today? Today, I am carrying "Masquerade." Here is a video commemorating the poem:

Digital Scrapbook: Ireland, Wales, and England

 

Last spring break (March 2015), I had the opportunity to travel to Ireland, Wales, and England as a group leader to six teenagers. It was a unique and rewarding experience and one I won't soon forget. When we returned, I spent the next few months working on a digital scrapbook commemorating the trip.

I used Book Creator for iPad, which is one of my favorite apps for creating books outside of iBook Author. In my opinion, the $4.99 price tag for Book Creator is money well spent. I find that I turn to it for projects I want to quickly put together. The app allows you to add audio and video to your book and has a feature that turns your book into a video.

In Ireland, Wales, and England, I documented the daily activities on the tour as well as the sites we visited to create a visual narrative that includes pictures, videos, and short descriptions. The first video (playlist) was created using an iMovie trailer theme:

A few of the videos were created using a variety of video editing apps, including Drop 'N' Roll, Replay, Vont, and Fliptastic. Photographs were edited using the Martha Stewart Craft Studio and Photo Tangler. At some of the sites we visited, I was quite the shutterbug and took an absurd amount of pictures. Instead of having page after page of boring pictures, I turned them into a short video. Here is an example from my visit to the Archaeology and History Museum in Dublin, Ireland:

Mixed with the photographs are screen shots of some of my social media posts from the trip. Modern technology allows for easy communication with people back home. The first time I traveled outside of the country, the Internet was a new thing and mass emails was the easiest way to stay connected. Today with Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, staying connected is in real time. I can check-in at Buckingham Palace in London and friends and family back home (if they're awake) know immediately. It was fun to include the posts in the photographic narrative:

Once I had all of the pictures and photographs in place, I was ready to turn the scrapbook into a video. To create a video, click on the share icon and then on "Export as Video," which will save the video to your camera roll.

When the video is uploaded to the camera roll, I then opened it in iMovie and did some more editing to it. One of the main bits of editing I did was to add audio to dull areas in the video. These were mainly the portions of the video that showed photographs lying flat on a page. A great source for free music that can be shared in videos for free can be found at the YouTube Audio Library. They have a variety of different music that can be searched by mood, genre, length, etc. It is a great source if you're on a budget. The video also plays the short videos that were added to the book, but they were small on the screen. In a book, this would not be a problem because a video can easily go to full screen. In the video, however, it was just too small. I simply deleted the sections showing the short videos and inserted the original footage into the timeline, using transitions as a clean segway in between scenes.

I'm still using DVDs for movies so, of course, I had to burn a copy to a DVD and make a matching cover. To burn to a DVD, I used DVD Creator Pro Burn Video ($14.99) for Mac, which is a simple and intuitive software that lets you add background pictures as well as audio. To create the cover and the sticker for the DVD I used Pages. 

Book download

When I began this project, I had no intentions of turning the scrapbook into an .epub that can be viewed on my iPad, but I have changed my mind. Had I originally intended to create an electronic book, I would have created it using iBook Author instead because of the massive size of the files. With iBook Author, you can decrease the size of your book by using the YouTube widget instead of uploading individual videos. On the Book Creator app, the size of my final book is 2530 MB. Crazy, huh? Perhaps one day soon some genius will figure out how to have a media rich book without ending up with an incredibly large file. Until then, I will have to make due with many volumes to the work.

To download a copy of the scrapbook, click on the link to the volume you wish to see. If you are using your iPad, simply click on the "Open in" tab and open the document in iBooks or your favorite .epub reader. If you are on your Mac, click to download the file and save it to your computer. Then click on the file and it will open automatically in iBooks. 

Please note: these files cannot be read on a Kindle. You must either have iBooks or an .epub reader to view.

Vol. 1: The introduction and first two days in Ireland, including a visit to Adare and Killarney.

Vol. 2: Finishes the second day in Ireland and continues into the third day, which includes a tour of the town of Killarney and the beginning of the Ring of Kerry with a stop to see the Atlantic Ocean at Dimple Peninsula.

Vol. 3: Continues along the Ring of Kerry, highlighting the sheepdog demonstration and a stop at Sneem.

Vol. 4: Continues along the Ring of Kerry with stops at the Kerry Bog Village and the Ladies' View.

Vol. 5: Begins day four at Blarney Castle, Cashel Rock, and Dublin.

Vol. 6: Begins day five with a look at St. Patrick's Cathedral (a short book with only 15 pages because of the size of the video of St. Patrick's).

Vol. 7: Finishes day five with an exploration of Dublin, including Trinity College. Day six begins with a ferry ride across the Irish Sea to Wales and the beautiful Beaumaris Castle.

Vol. 8: Begins day seven at Stratford-Upon-Avon (a short book with only 13 pages because of the size of the video of Stratford-Upon-Avon).

Vol. 9: Continues day seven with a stop at Oxford before continuing on to London (another short book with only 11 pages because of the size of the video).

Vol. 10: Finishes day seven in London (small book with 11 pages because of the size of the video).

Vol. 11: The final volume covering day eight with more sites of London (one video removed because it was too long to allow the file to upload from Book Creator). This volume includes Buckingham Palace, a stop in Windsor, and a concluding video.

I hope these volumes leave you inspired and ready to create your own digital scrapbook!

A few months before going to Ireland, Wales, and England, I went to Rome. When I returned, I created a digital scrapbook using iBook Author on my Mac. To check out step-by-step how I created Weekend in Rome, click on this link.

Another way to commemorate a trip or event is to make a memory quilt. You can check out mine at I Tried That Crafter blog.

Book Trailer for Expectations by Regina Horne Beard

Expectations

filmed in Arkansas at

Lake Greeson Wildlife Management Area

and

Camp Charlton

This eclectic collection of poetry explores love, rejection, abuse, loneliness, and history with an eye on the expectations we place on each of them. Expectations is a life journey, experiences familiar to every human soul - the feelings of loss, confusion, and heartbreak. It is a story of emotional, spiritual, and intellectual growth set to prose with a unique blend of free verse and free rhyme. $2.99

Purchase your copy of Expectations from one of the following vendors:

Amazon.com

Baker & Taylor

Book Tango

Getting Started: Writing Poetry

Perhaps the most difficult part of writing is getting the first sentence, sometimes the first words, committed to paper. You must keep in mind that anything that you write can be rewritten and edited. The important thing is to begin writing, so be creative and do not be afraid to write something terrible. Remember: you can change what you have written once the writing begins to flow.

When you are writing poetry, you want to keep the imagination open. Do not limit yourself and your writing. Before you begin writing, you should set the mood for writing. Do you have a place where you can go with limited interruptions? Are you more comfortable indoors or outdoors? Some writers have told me that they light fragrant candles and play music while they write. Do not be afraid to experiment. When I write, I sit in the quiet of my den with my laptop and a few cats. I always meditate on a project for a while before I do any actual writing. Sometimes I jot a few words or phrases down over several days and work with them while writing the poem – often changing the vocabulary after much thought about the selection of words chosen.

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve been giving about poetry is to keep a log of ideas for poems. This works for fiction and nonfiction ideas as well. There are times when I have a flood of ideas, but then there are those times that I am uninspired and inarticulate. I use to keep an index card holder of my ideas, but now I keep them in a file on my laptop and iPhone. There are several apps that can help keep your ideas organized. Two that I use often are Writer Lists and A Novel Idea. Writers List is a paid app and contains lists that can inspire ideas for writing, including ideas on characters, plot, and setting. It also includes information about animals, foods, colors, etc. A Novel Idea is a free app that organizes my writing ideas as well as details about current books I am working on and ideas for books I want to write. Some of the notes are brief while others are more detailed inspirations. When I need an idea, I often refer to this file.

Over the years, I have received great advice from many friends and colleagues about writing. Listed below are some of the most useful tips I’ve been given:

Tips on Writing Poetry

1. Write a paragraph about an idea for a poem. A paragraph usually contains four or more sentences of a collective idea. This step will help you to organize your thoughts. Take note of the key elements in your paragraph. What are some of the key words used? What is the tone? Then take some time and think about the poem and try to hold back from writing it. Take your idea and discuss it with others. There is great value in having a network of honest friends you can ask advice and receive encouragement. I am often surprised by the input and advice people share with me.

2. Poetry is not self-indulgent. Poetry is for the reader, not the writer. Poetry is about people, not abstracts. Use words that describe people and their experiences but avoid sentimentality. This helps the reader to empathize with the poem.

3. Use images. Remember Plutarch from my last blog entry? Poets paint with words. Poetry should stimulate the senses: sight, sound, smell, touch, taste, and motion.

4. Use metaphor and similes. According to the Oxford American Dictionary, a metaphor is “a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.”

Examples of metaphors: “a sea of troubles,” “life is a journey.”

A simile is “a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid.”

Examples of similes: “cute as a kitten,”’ “strong as an ox.”

5. Avoid clichés. According to the American Oxford Dictionary, a cliché is “a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought.”

Examples of clichés are “live and learn,” “busy as a bee,” “avoid like the plague,” “what goes around comes around.”

You should always try to avoid clichés unless you are being ironic. I think that the best poetry is informed by ironic vision. When using irony, words can take on different meanings. The best poets use these different meanings to give further detail to the poem, so be aware of some of the contradictory possibilities.

6. Poetry is efficient. Words are not wasted. Adjectives are fun but watch over-using them. If a noun stands alone, then let it.

7. Poetry moves from specific to general. Poetry should begin with the particular and broaden.

8. There is a difference between truth and fact. Poetry is about truth, and truth is universal.

9. A poem lives partly in its silence. A poem is best when it leaves us with questions it has not asked. It makes the reader look for meaning.

10. A poem does not stop - it closes, it resolves. Other lines raise expectations of another, but the last line does not.

Here is a short video to help inspire creativity:

Video taken by Regina Horne Beard at Lake Greeson Wildlife Management Area in Arkansas (November 2013).