Category Archives: Writing

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~ My Love Affair with Words ~

~ My Love Affair with Words ~
A new week dawns, another day behind me. I linger in the space between letters and words, where stories take root.  Friends, these words have been, guiding me on countless journeys.


I reveled in the music of rhyme, the dance of language across the page. The written word unveiled profound truths, each sentence a step on a path of contemplation.


I am a passionate reader and writer. The thoughts I’ve captured are precious treasures, windows into my soul. Initially intended for future generations, they now serve as a personal chronicle of joy, growth, and experiences.


These words may seem antiquated to modern eyes, yet they hold the essence of my past self, my evolving heart and mind. Through them, I’ve strived to express my loftiest aspirations, and in the process, they’ve shaped me into a better person.


© Jurgens Pieterse. All rights reserved. 2024

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~ overcoming writer’s blog ~

Question:

My favorite way to overcome writers block is morning pages. What do you do?

Answer:
I start my day with 10 minutes of free-flow writing by hand, accompanied by calming meditation music from the Insight Timer app. I let my thoughts flow freely, without censoring myself, and I don’t worry about grammar or punctuation. When I’m finished, I read through my writing and use voice dictation to transcribe it into my Evernote app. I then edit the grammar and punctuation, and I start to streamline my writing. I look for ways to use the writing, and I give it a title. I then add a tag so I can easily find it later, and I file it away for future use. If the writing is coherent and cohesive, I might publish it on my blog for further input from those who subscribe to my blog. This practice helps me to tap into my subconscious mind and to generate new ideas. It also helps me to improve my writing skills and to become more creative.

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Ars Poetica

 

Photo by bruce mars on Pexels.com

What makes a good poem?
A poem is an expression of beauty lurking in mans soul. A poem crafts art through the use of words. A poem uses minimum words to express maximum meaning. A poem is a letter of which all frivolous words has been deleted to leave the essence of the message burning. A poem turns a man’s emotion towards the most noble ideas. A poem attach itself to the readers mind in wonder, contemplation and deep concentration….
And ultimately transform his paradigm by shock, expansion or attraction. A poem has a rhythm and rhyme that appeals to the listener even if the language is not understood. A poem is complete, it is whole and stand without explanation, yet allow different people to discover different interpretations within it. Layered a poem has a multiplicity of meaning and it excavated the full treasure trove of language, the new, the old and forgotten. It speaks its own truth and appeals to the imagination.
A poem is born from the passion of inspiration speaking images that adresses both heart and mind. A poem must be memorable to encode it firstly in the brain, then the mind and ultimately in the unconscious knowing. A poem knows its topic intimately like a lover his beloved. A poem makes man fly to heaven or drool in hell but never leaves man untouched in his soul. In a poem each word tells its story through the its meaning, placement and emphasis. A poem tells a writers truth irrespective of whether he speaks for himself or the collective.
In modern days a good poem arrests minds and goes viral… Yet it is not in an instant but will find its way into the archetypes of mankind to linger in man’s ever expanding collective memory. The beauty and meaning of a poem is extant….
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Pliny the Younger and Ancient Rome

Pliny seems to have been trained in philosophy but he is not writing a philosopher but rather as an administrator. He was held in high regard by a wide circle of friends, the public at large and most importantly the Emperor Trajan. Through the eyes of Pliny I discovered the excellence that earmarked a successful ordinary Roman citizen. His letters represents him as a wealthy, hardworking man that walks in prominent circles and devoted to continually learn. His life looks no different from a modern leader in modern society. I find Pliny managing his estates and finances with care and that he goes on holidays like I would do during a good vacation. In Roman life he was far richer, busier and involved in politics than what I can ever dream to be. Pliny provides a view of social and political life of the Roman Empire during the second century Christian era.

Since my interest is in the advancement of civilisation it is worthwhile to look at the context in  which Pliny lived in terms of the Emperor Trajan. Trajan is generally seen as a good emperor and was given the title as “the best” and put forward as an example of what a Roman Emperor should look like to all following emperors of Rome. Every emperor after him was honoured by the Senate with the wish “felicior Augusto, melior Traiano” (luckier than Augustus and beter than Trajan). In Trajan’s time we see the Roman empire extend its boarders to the biggest territorial area in its history as well as some significant building programs to advance the Roman empire’s society. Ancient sources on Trajan’s personality and accomplishments are unanimously positive.  Pliny describe Trajan as a “good” emperor in that, by himself, he approved or blamed the same things the Senate would have approved or blamed. It means he did not use his position to override the will of the Senate and respected the authority of a wider system of consultation. If in reality Trajan was an autocrat, his deferential behaviour towards his peers qualified him to the role of virtuous monarch. Trajan wielded autocratic power through moderatio instead of contumacia – moderation instead of insolence.

Despite being ancient Rome, Pliny lives in a complex empire bigger than most countries in the modern world with less technological resources to aid him. We talk of a time of success and progress and it is worthwhile to try and see what made Roman Civilisation successful. I had always been aware of the prowess of the Roman Army but failed to see that such a huge empire can only be manage over such a long period if there is some successful administrative system behind it that works like clockwork. This system of governance was a key success factor to sustain Roman civilisation. Pliny provides me with a view into that world and I would like to extract those elements that seems part of the success recipe of ancient Rome.

 

 

 

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Accountability writing

 The most difficult part of writing accountability writing is to decide on a topic to write about and the secondary problem would be to write something in an interesting and thought provoking manner.
This does however brings to mind the question on why we do accountability writing, for what purpose and what is the most effective way of writing a daily accountability writing. I suppose it will differ from person to person on what the aim would be for taking up such a project. On aim could be to specifically write a book and add to the book each day. Another reason might be to remain in the habit of writing and getting more fluent in one’s own style. Yet a third approach is to just free flow and write almost as a meditative practice allowing one’s thoughts to flow freely from the mind through the keyboard onto the screen. For one content will be important and for another it will be style. What is essential is that accountability writing is not by default a complete product or even a semi-complete product. It is always a work in progress from which one might later pull some valueable expressions and insight from. I wonder often in my own musings if that is really creative to just sit and write. Yes it improves and maintains the habit but does it improve our style of writing? If we want to improve our style then the content might be of lesser importance since the focus is in the fluency of the text.
I think I am far too often concerned not to repeat myself or even to write a piece that is already perfect. Maybe a better approach would be to write through the week not just writing but more according to  program focused on improvement. It might be worthwhile to sit at the end of the week for example to look at what was written and then improve on that writing by taking one of the weeks writings and purposefully working to improve that text whatever the original meaning. So rather than just writing I can learn also to edit and improve on previous texts. At the end of a month for example I should be able to look at four or five of my writings and again try to improve it even further. Such an approach will be far better to evolve one’s writing skills than just writing. Any professional writer will go through multiple phases of writing and I think it would be good for me to emulate that process in my daily writing. In essence I should also not fear writing twice about the same topic or even writing multiple times consecutively on the same topic. It is totally against creativity if one only wants to write something once and then think it will have to be perfect and complete.
To get maximum value from accountability writing one should aim to craft a good product and improve your writing style. That can be done by rewriting an existing piece of writing or looking for improvements or trying to cover the topic from different angles. This approach can not only make the process of accountability writing more attractive but it can also improve the quality of writing.