Sunday, September 21, 2008
Loose-leaf
As my pen glides upon this fresh piece of paper, my focus is stationed on the loose-leaf while the rest of the world is nothing but a giant blur. From my head, the words tumble out onto a surface whose color is unknown. They say it’s white. And when I say they, I refer to the company who produced it. White. The loose-leaf is not just a shade of white. It is deeper than that. It could be a pure white, for pure thoughts. It could be a cloud white, for the mind to wander. It could be a serene white to calm the writer. It could even be a shade of white chocolate to stir an appetite as the imagination performs its magic. The possibilities are endless, but who is to judge. Only the writer, the critic, and the poet have a say in this long, disputed matter. But why white? I wondered, why it could it not be orange, or green, or even brown. Why white? This unique hue has potentials like no other color. It creates miracles. It transforms an over-cluttered mind into a peaceful sanctuary. It can bring luminosity to the darkest thoughts and maximize the brightness to any wandering shadow. As I continue transforming my thoughts onto this piece of paper, I can not help but be grateful for these lines that separate each individual sentence and create order and structure to any type of writing that takes place. Not only is this idea suitable to any writer but it is genius! Picture a world whose loose-leafs lacked lines. Words would just fall of the page unnoticed. A poem would not have structure, for it would look lopsided. How asymmetrical life would be. Thankfully that world does not exist. We have lines. I can even go far as to say that these streaks of symmetry are college ruled. How convenient! I can write twice as much on this paper than on a regular sheet. That means I can use less loose-leafs for any types of writings, and kill less trees in the process. The last thought that pierced through my head before my pen untangled from my fingers is; does writing on this white college ruled loose-leaf make me an environmentalist?
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4 comments:
Wonderful start and middle. There seems a defnite growth from pure creativity as you sit down to the endless possibility of a page to the respect for organizaiton of thought. And also how the creativity section word-choice is more dreamy and the structure section uses much more precise language. However at the end it seems to fade out uncomfortabley. The message seems unrelated and the word choice becoems a bit to conversational to fit in with the rest, in my opinion. But the first two clearly seperate sections were beautiful.
Nadia, you've raised a lot of great, thoughtful questions here. Since Shane has focused on the style in his comment, I'll say something about the substance. I like your meditation on the colour white and all its possible connotations and purposes. And I am also intrigued by your sort-of-flippant comments about environmentalism. Why white is a good question, especially since the paper is not naturally that colour; we need bleach and dyes to make it look like that, which of course are not good for the environment. I love it when real issues like this, hard questions from the real world, seep into our most abstract and internal musings.
I felt that the paper was heaven from the way you wrote it. The descriptions are beautiful; the birth of something beautiful is taking place. My only quibble would be that the enviromental awareness at the end feels forced in. I agree with Shane that it does fade te poem out a bit, especially since the beginning was so beautifully written. I think that if you want to incorporate the enviromental aspect it would be excellent, but it's really not necessary.
I like the way that you started the piece. The way you described everything was really beautiful. I agree with Patricia, I think that in the the bit about the environment seems forecd. I think that if you wanted to keep this in, try and introduce the idea earlier in the piece, not just drop it in at the end.
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