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Posted By Ing on July 24, 2010

By chance tonight, I read these two poems one after the other, randomly leafing through a little book (”30 Timeless Poems”) I found on the Young Lad’s nightstand.

—————

A word is dead
When it is said,
Some say.
I say it just
Begins to live
That day.

Emily Dickinson, “A Word Is Dead”

—————

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.

Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed–

I, too, am America.

Langston Hughes, “I, Too, Sing America”

—————

I was going to write some sort of essay or manifesto (your standard bloated blog post) about poetry and the power of words in general; but these poems don’t need me.

I need them.

Category: About books, About writing, Maunderings | 2 Comments »
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Posted By Ing on July 12, 2010

Today I came across a writing program I hadn’t heard of before: Page Four.

After skimming through the website, I’m thinking this could be a nifty program indeed. It’s billed as “a tabbed word processor, outliner, and organizer for writers.”

To me, it sounds sort of like Liquid Story Binder lite — which could be a very good thing. I love LSB, but I have to admit that it still makes my head spin sometimes. Maybe Page Four would hit that sweet spot between the simplicity of yWriter on the one hand, and the powerful but sometimes intimidating Liquid Story Binder on the other.

But I haven’t tried it, so I don’t know. (If you’re a Mac user, you’ll probably never know anyway; it’s only available for Windows PCs.)

Any of you heard of Page Four or used it?

Category: About writing | 3 Comments »
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