April? April? I haven’t blogged since April! Oh forgive this lengthy absence you fine human beings. Let’s play catch up again shall we?
-Working Indy, Idol and Sleuths as always. Auditioning for more shows to keep diversifying myself within the company.
-Also continuing to audition for commercials and anything else my agent puts me up for.
-My acting reel is finished! It looks mighty good I tell ya. http://www.youtube.com/user/TheCharlesWaters?feature=mhum
-Finished another mud run. A 3.2 mile obstacle course called Savage Race. Sliding down muddy hills, running up hills made of sand, climbing up 25 foot walls. All in a morning’s work.
-Am now down 35 inches in my body thanks in part to the workout regime of Armor Gym owner Jeremy Brassard and cooking from Isabel Garcia http://www.facebook.com/IsaVegan.
-Published more poems in various issues of the magazine SPOTLIGHT ON RECOVERY. http://spotlightonrecovery.com/default.aspx
-There was some big news I wrote about in the last blog entry that I wasn’t entitled to share with you until now. My commissioned poem FENWAY PARK was accepted for inclusion in the upcoming book AMAZING PLACES edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins www.leebennetthopkins.com and scheduled to be published by Lee and Low Books in Spring 2014. For those of you who don’t know, Lee holds the Guinness Book of World Records for compiling more children’s poetry anthologies than anyone else in history. Combine this with my poems in the Winter 2012 book THE ARROW FINDS ITS MARK edited by Georgia Heard www.georgiaheard.com and SPOTLIGHT magazine and I’ve made more money writing poems this year than any other so far. Please let’s this be just the beginning.
-Thanks to the partial scholarship issued to me I was able to attend the weeklong HIGHLIGHTS FOR CHILDREN writing retreat with Rebecca Kai Dotlich as our leader. http://www.highlightsfoundation.org/ Let me tell you this was a game changer for me. From 7:30am – 11:00pm (sometimes later) for 5 days myself and my retreat participants wrote, rewrote, read, received critiques, offered critiques and ate some of the best food I’ve ever had. I came in with an idea for a manuscript and left with that idea not only coming to fruition but then having a heck of a head start on said manuscript. Rebecca is a patient, honest teacher who asks tough questions when a poem needs help and is a cheerleader at her core. What a blessing that week was. I wrote it on Facebook and I’ll write it here, teachers really thing about bringing Rebecca to your school for workshops. You will not be disappointed. www.rebeccakaidotlich.com
-Was asked and accepted to participate in an e-book for teens. Poetry Tagtime or p*tag for short is where a children’s poet writes about a certain topic and then tags another poet to write one of their own. In this installment over 30 children’s poets chose a picture, wrote about what it reminded them of, tagged another poet, they would choose another picture and use any 3 words from the poem that was sent to them. Dr. Sylvia Vardell and poet extraordinaire Janet Wong came up with this idea. http://www.poetrytagtime.com/Poetry_Tag_Time/p_tag.html
I’d like to leave you with a poem of mine. A call to arms so to speak. Until we meet again dear friends.
WHO
Who could distill life’s essence?
Who in the world would show it?
I know for a fact I can
Because I am a poet.
© Charles Waters 2011
Friday, September 30, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
CREATING MY OWN LUCK
Well things have been busy in the past 4 months so let’s play catch up.
-Continuing to do the Disney jobs to the best of my ability and am thankful for the employment.
-Same thing goes for Sleuths.
-I will be performing my own poems for the first time on April 23rd at the Orlando Public Library Southwest Branch for their National Poetry Month Celebration. Afterwards there will be a Q & A and writing/performing workshop conducted by myself. This is a big deal to me because after performing over 150 of other people’s poems for 3 years at Poetry Alive at last the time has come where I act out my own words to an audience.
-I’ll also be performing at the IRA (International Reading Association) poetry extravaganza in May which will be held in my own backyard of Orlando, FL. I can’t thank performance poets Sara Holbrook (www.saraholbrook.com) and Michael Salinger (www.michaelsalinger.com) enough for this opportunity.
-I’ve been accepted to the Highlights Foundation retreat called The Poetry Muse which is a week-long children’s poetry residency mentored by Rebecca Kai Dotlich (www.rebeccakaidotlich.com). I was able to secure a partial scholarship for this event which made it all possible. Rebecca has become a welcome addition to my life as I’ve gotten to know her personally aside from the hours I had spent reading her books and performing her poems with Poetry Alive in the past. The retreat will run from August 13-18 in the hills of Northeastern PA near the town of Honesdale.
-3 poems of mine have been accepted by Georgia Heard (www.georgiaheard.com) for her anthology called The Arrow Finds Its Mark: Found Poems. According to Wikipedia Found Poems are: a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and reframing them as poetry by making changes in spacing and/or lines (and consequently meaning), or by altering the text by additions and/or deletions. The resulting poem can be defined as either treated: changed in a profound and systematic manner; or untreated: virtually unchanged from the order, syntax and meaning of the original.
I should add that in Found Poems you’re allowed to create your own title to the piece as well. I sent Georgia 36 poems, she took 3 of them and they’ll be known in the book as “School Poems.” Needless to say I’m thrilled to be in my first anthology and am looking forward to receiving the check in the mail! The book is scheduled to be released in early 2012 by Roaring Brook Press out of NYC.
-Continuing to write commissioned poems for the magazine Spotlight on Recovery (www.spotlightonrecovery.com). A magazine that deals with overcoming issues that life may bring you; it’s a worthy endeavor spearheaded by a wonderful woman out of Brooklyn, NY named Robin Graham.
-Got another poem accepted by a major children’s poetry anthologist for a big deal publishing house. However I’m not at liberty to reveal anything other than that but believe me once I receive the go ahead I’m shouting it from the rooftops!!!
-Was asked to once again to participate in 30 Poets/30 Days where a new poem by a children’s poet will be published every day during the National Poetry Month of April. This event was spearheaded by poet/social networking extraordinaire Greg Pincus (www.gottabook.blogspot.com).
-My dear friend/web designing visionary Isabel will be giving my website a good old fashioned facelift this month with new additions including my acting reel, more poems and each poem read by me.
-Got cast in a Home Depot commercial where I’m helping customers find the material they’re looking for.
-Got cast in a Pepsi commercial as a vintage baseball player, then a day later found out they didn’t want me after all. This is a good lesson for young people because sometimes you can do the best job you can and still have it not be enough for reasons COMPLETELY out of your control.
-Participated in a Navy Seal designed 3.1 mile obstacle course called The Rugged Maniac in February finishing in the top 3rd of my heat. I was pretty proud of myself, considering that I’ve never done anything like that before. There was lots of jumping in and crawling through mud as well as climbing 20 foot high walls. It was so much fun (or I’m losing my mind) that I’m doing a similar race called The Rugged Warrior on April 30th. Wish me luck … with everything!
-Continuing to do the Disney jobs to the best of my ability and am thankful for the employment.
-Same thing goes for Sleuths.
-I will be performing my own poems for the first time on April 23rd at the Orlando Public Library Southwest Branch for their National Poetry Month Celebration. Afterwards there will be a Q & A and writing/performing workshop conducted by myself. This is a big deal to me because after performing over 150 of other people’s poems for 3 years at Poetry Alive at last the time has come where I act out my own words to an audience.
-I’ll also be performing at the IRA (International Reading Association) poetry extravaganza in May which will be held in my own backyard of Orlando, FL. I can’t thank performance poets Sara Holbrook (www.saraholbrook.com) and Michael Salinger (www.michaelsalinger.com) enough for this opportunity.
-I’ve been accepted to the Highlights Foundation retreat called The Poetry Muse which is a week-long children’s poetry residency mentored by Rebecca Kai Dotlich (www.rebeccakaidotlich.com). I was able to secure a partial scholarship for this event which made it all possible. Rebecca has become a welcome addition to my life as I’ve gotten to know her personally aside from the hours I had spent reading her books and performing her poems with Poetry Alive in the past. The retreat will run from August 13-18 in the hills of Northeastern PA near the town of Honesdale.
-3 poems of mine have been accepted by Georgia Heard (www.georgiaheard.com) for her anthology called The Arrow Finds Its Mark: Found Poems. According to Wikipedia Found Poems are: a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and reframing them as poetry by making changes in spacing and/or lines (and consequently meaning), or by altering the text by additions and/or deletions. The resulting poem can be defined as either treated: changed in a profound and systematic manner; or untreated: virtually unchanged from the order, syntax and meaning of the original.
I should add that in Found Poems you’re allowed to create your own title to the piece as well. I sent Georgia 36 poems, she took 3 of them and they’ll be known in the book as “School Poems.” Needless to say I’m thrilled to be in my first anthology and am looking forward to receiving the check in the mail! The book is scheduled to be released in early 2012 by Roaring Brook Press out of NYC.
-Continuing to write commissioned poems for the magazine Spotlight on Recovery (www.spotlightonrecovery.com). A magazine that deals with overcoming issues that life may bring you; it’s a worthy endeavor spearheaded by a wonderful woman out of Brooklyn, NY named Robin Graham.
-Got another poem accepted by a major children’s poetry anthologist for a big deal publishing house. However I’m not at liberty to reveal anything other than that but believe me once I receive the go ahead I’m shouting it from the rooftops!!!
-Was asked to once again to participate in 30 Poets/30 Days where a new poem by a children’s poet will be published every day during the National Poetry Month of April. This event was spearheaded by poet/social networking extraordinaire Greg Pincus (www.gottabook.blogspot.com).
-My dear friend/web designing visionary Isabel will be giving my website a good old fashioned facelift this month with new additions including my acting reel, more poems and each poem read by me.
-Got cast in a Home Depot commercial where I’m helping customers find the material they’re looking for.
-Got cast in a Pepsi commercial as a vintage baseball player, then a day later found out they didn’t want me after all. This is a good lesson for young people because sometimes you can do the best job you can and still have it not be enough for reasons COMPLETELY out of your control.
-Participated in a Navy Seal designed 3.1 mile obstacle course called The Rugged Maniac in February finishing in the top 3rd of my heat. I was pretty proud of myself, considering that I’ve never done anything like that before. There was lots of jumping in and crawling through mud as well as climbing 20 foot high walls. It was so much fun (or I’m losing my mind) that I’m doing a similar race called The Rugged Warrior on April 30th. Wish me luck … with everything!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)