Please welcome the host of this edition of Life in Quotations, the brilliant Natasha Head of The Tashtoo Parlour!
Natasha is the author of Nothing Left to Lose set to be released by Winter Goose Publishing in March. Her most recent titles include, In the Presence of Poets, available through Willow Tree Press, and Inspiration Speaks also published by Winter Goose Publishing and are available for purchase through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. When Natasha isn’t writing, she is a recurring host at the popular OpenLinkNight at dVersePoets and holds the associate editor title at The River Journal. Busy girl, Miss Natasha so, it was such an honor to have her take time out to stop by the Backyard and play with us! The following is the quote she chose for discussion today. *Remember, if you comment with your own original quote, you get a FREE Quoto! (Learn more)
While You Were Sleeping…
A poet’s work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep
– Salman Rushdie
I write with the full intention of changing the world. I write not for money. I write not for fame. I write because I have to, and it has been this way for a very long time. I like to think I was born awake, and every word I bleed to a page is another battle won in this war to stay aware.
Thought is a funny thing. Best of friends, worst of enemies, and a constant assault. If not for the words, I would have surely been driven crazy. Writing, especially poetry, is the one release I have for the cause and effect that comes with being alive.
For some reason, since I was very young, I have been very opinionated. I question motives and intentions, actions and consequences and seldom have trouble finding the voice to do so. Writing allows me not only to share my thoughts, but it also provides me the opportunity to look back, to remember where I was and to see if I have traveled any distance on this evolutionary ladder. Ultimately, that is my only mission. And if I can get a few to join me, then my writing has served its purpose.
We are living in an awesome time to be the recorders of the history that is being made all around us. To find the courage to share our voices and perhaps brings back some common sense to this game of life. While I typically resist main stream media, nothing ignited my pen more than to see Time magazine name The Protester as person of the year. To me, it was a sign that the world really was waking up.
It is the power of well written words that can start and stop wars. It is the power of well written, emotional filled speeches that can rally a country. In the end, the success of any conversation, debate, manifesto, and agenda comes down to the power of the words. The power of its poetry.
For anyone who is driven to write, there can be no better description than the quote above. Our purpose is clear. Whether we are writing for an audience of one, or an audience of millions, the point of the work is to make them wake up, take note, and think. The consequence of the work is the reaction of its readers. It is the holder of the pen that wields the power. Fact or fiction, our society relies on words and the poets who weave them.
As we dance into 2012 waving our pens and our list of resolutions, let us join forces. Let us march with words in hand and demand of the world to wake up! To live, to love, to feel. To find respect for self, for others, for our planet and our species. I personally think us poor humans should have been placed on endangered lists years ago. Write with truth, write with power, write with courage, and engage those who have been content to slumber. We all know that life still happens….even when you’re sleeping.
Life in Quotations is now open for discussion…
- Do you often find yourself writing your own way to common sense? What inspires or even better, ignites YOUR pen?
- With the recent upheavals throughout many of our countries, do you pause to consider that what you are writing will be read long after you’re gone? If we are recorders of history, do we offer truth…or merely opinion?
- Don’t forget to give us an original quote on the subject and get a FREE Quoto!
Big hugs and thanks to Natasha Head! Be sure to Like, Follow and Fan her below!
Blog: Tashtoo.com
Twitter: @tashtoo
Facebook: facebook.com/tashtoo
Magic in the Backyard 
Poetry breathes in the brain’s
white space, in the place where
insightful eyes shape-see life
before hands inch forward
to ink-squeeze even the first
word’s wildflower seed.
This is my attempt at a quote/mini-poem about poetry. 🙂 And I love, love, love Natasha, her work, and her encouragement of other writers (especially me).
Shawna! So glad you popped by 🙂 Love your mini-poem…love ALL your poems! You’re on my short-list of “ones to watch” 🙂 …(hint, hint, nudge nudge, poetry lovers!CHeck her ouT!
Blush, blush. 🙂 Thank you so much, Tash! And I would love to know who else is on your short list so that I can make sure I’m watching them as well.
Kellie, did I earn a quoto? Or is mine too long?
yes you sure did! It is a bit long for an image, I try to suggest 2-4 lines at most but, I can try to work with this. I hate to break it up as it is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!! Let me work on finding an image for it ok. *Fingers Crossed* 🙂 What is your email address so I can email it when i am finished?
shawna.mcallister@yahoo.com
Great, thanks! You will get your quoto sometime today 🙂
Check your inbox! Your quoto is ready! 🙂 Thank you for playing with us, Shawna!
You’re not only a wonderful writer, Natasha. You’re also an inspirational one. Some writers demand their chance to write. Some writers’ writings simply demand to be read. You’ve achieved both.
Silver! I’m honored you found your way to me here! Thank you as always, for YOUR encouraging words! Blush 🙂
Hi Natasha, wonderful thoughts here, thank you for making me think! (I write for money and not to change the world lol) and I think you are right! 🙂 Good luck with your book!
Ina…don’t get me wrong…if my words produce money, you would not find me complaining! Heat and food are wonderful things and it would be awesome if words were spendable! 🙂 Thanks so much for the well wishes and good luck with your book too! Cha-ching!
Great words Natasha! Love it!
Writing brings us into the moment, makes us pay attention. It does bring back some common sense to the game of life.
Keep on writing and keep on being out there making a difference.
My quote:
“If you want to be heard, if you want to make a difference, take up your pen and take responsibility for your words, actions, and situation.”
Awesome Joanne! Thanks so much for visiting 🙂 Kellie has created a fantastic space here and I am so happy she asked me to come and play today. You’re quote is fantastic! We need to be heard…so many of us share the same ideas about the direction the world is taking…Power to the Poets!
Great quote, Joanne! Send me your email address to magicinthebackyard@yahoo.com and I will send you your free Quoto! 🙂
Tash is so elegant with her words.
Happy belated Birthday. I’d follow you around the internets anywhere, anytime.
Now, I have a new blog to reas.
Good post
Lance…You rock! (How poetic, eh?) We are pen wielders! May the force be with you…and you know you get a huge recommendation from me! Awesome wit with a fantastic soundtrack to boot 🙂
Great, thought provoking post, Natasha and belated Happy Birthday! This is a quote I use on my blog .. ‘Poetry is thoughts that breath and words that burn’ …because it really resonates for me and I too write because I have too. Poetry helps me sort out my thoughts and emotions…it stirs something in me and seems to awaken my spirituality. I don’t think I could NOT write now. I guess it’s a way of writing my truth, my observation on life. 🙂
Louise…we’ve watched you grow so much on your blog…a true testament to the power of those words that do so much to heal and help. I have your quote memorized 🙂 LOVE it! Write-on…and thanks for the BDwishes too 🙂
Making you a quoto! Email me with your email address so I can send it your way!
magicinthebackyard@yahoo.com
oh an happy belated birthday tash…smiles.
first…Tash rocks….def one of my fav people online…and fav poets…she has a strong voice and a great pen…love her reasons for writing as well…i share similar values in my own writing….we are all given a voice and we either use it or deny it…social injustice is def a common theme at my place, that and love…i think they go hand in hand…we often settle for tolerance which is a very pale reflection of love….as to realizing what i write will be read after i am gone, sure…hopefully, smiles….taking up the pen is def a responsibility that should not be taken lightly….and i think we offer perspective…even on truth the best we can offer is perspective…how we see it…
ok about to lay the longest quote on you but it is my all time fav…
He’s honest Bob; he’s blunt as well. That sometimes is part of being honest, because there are a lot of people who are blunt. But not honest. Larry is not one of those. Larry is an honest man. You too are an honest man, Bob. I believe that, that somewhere down deep inside you is something that strives to be honest. The question you have to ask yourself is, has it touched the whole of my life? That means that you preaching Jesus is no different than Larry or anybody else preaching lubricants. It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling Jesus or buddah or civil rights or how to make money in real estate with no money down. That doesn’t make you a human being. It makes you a marketing rep. If you want to talk to someone honestly, as a human being… ask him about his kids. Find out what his dreams are. Just to find out. For no other reason. Because as soon as you lay your hands on a conversation to steer it. It’s not a conversation anymore. It’s a pitch, and you’re not a human being, you’re a marketing rep. We were talking before about character. You were asking me about character. And we were speaking of faces. But the question is much deeper than that. The question is, do you have any character at all? And if you want my honest opinion Bob, you do not. For the simple reason that you don’t regret anything yet. You’ve already done plenty of things to regret. You just don’t know what they are. It’s when you discover them. When you see the folly in something you’ve done. And you wish you had it to do over. But you know you can’t because it’s too late. So you pick that thing up and you carry it with you. To remind you that life goes on. The world will spin without you. You really don’t matter in the end. Then you will attain character because honesty will reach out from inside and tattoo itself all across your face. Until that day however, you cannot expect to go beyond a certain point.
~The Big Kahuna
Brian! That quote is fantastic! And so are you! The community you and Claudia have built with dVerse will lend a voice to so many pens that wouldn’t normally come to the light. Oh…and with a day job in sales…The Big Kahuna REALLY hits home! But those tales are for another post 😉
Brian, I have picked an excerpt out of your favorite quote and would like to make you a quoto, please email me with your email address so I may send it to you. I hope you like it and thanks for coming by!
magicinthebackyard@yahoo,com
I have to laugh when I look back at my notebooks. Needless to say the evolution is at times, PAINFULLY obvious. Nature is my constant muse as well, its rawness, its perfection…then, I look to see what we are doing to it…and anger, frustrations, and I think most of all, disbelief, ignites my pen. I wish we could have a world wide poetry day, where all could pick up a pen and write it out…I think many would be surprised to find the thoughts that lurk within their minds…and the power those thoughts have when they take to words. This was initially meant to be my thank you to Kellie for having me…whoops, the thoughts took over! But my thanks and gratitude are sincere. Thanks Ms. Kellie for giving me this opportunity to share with your readers…and perhaps we’ll find some new members for the New World Creative Union! 😉
Just what I was afraid of…another hectic morning, so It is a good thing that I did post this up at midnight or else it would just now be live 😦
So awesome, all the feedback and love this post is being shown, you are an amazing person, Tash and I knew you would roll in the crowd! Now, time for me to get busy bringing in more! 🙂
Thanks again!!! BIG HUUUUUGS!!!!
I can relate to this whole article 🙂
This is what poetry and writing is to me 🙂
I write as I had to write 🙂
Loved it all 🙂
Thanks dear for such a nice writeup 🙂
Thank you for visiting! Yes…write! By all means necessary 🙂
When I first began to write (and I won’t tell you how many years ago that was!), I wrote of nature, pretty things around me, and how I saw my own, limited environment. As I experienced more of life over the years, I found myself still writing of the beauty of nature, of love and relationships, and of broader horizons than my own. Today, I find myself, again, still writing of those same things – but with a different perspective. My writing now, often, has a subtle spiritual flavour, and has broadened to include all of humanity. I believe that, “as we grow and mature in our own lives, as we expand our own horizons, so does our writing grow and mature and expand its horizons”.
Very nice article, I enjoyed reading it. Well done, Natashia and Kellie, for giving us something to think about in our own writing. ~ Julie
You’re welcome, Julie and thank you for coming by and talking with us. Keep that ink flowing!!! HugS!
I hope I can get a quoto with this sentence, I wrote it back in 2009:
” Life is like a river, it sometimes hits rocks but always reaches the ocean. “
It the rocks that, for me…make the best poetry 🙂
You just earned a Quoto, Eliza! Working on it today! Thank you!!! ♥