My Writing Process: An Epic Penned Across the Compass

My Writing Process: An Epic Penned Across the Compass

I'm fascinated by a many number of things.  One of those things is the concepts of direction and journey-taking.  It's one of the reasons why I enjoy classic epics such as The Odyssey and The Lord of the Rings; as well as modern classics such as The Inheritance Cycle, and A Song of Ice and Fire.  Now, combine that with the inspiration I find in video games, and it makes perfect sense that I would be such a big fan of role-playing games like Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest, and most recently: Fallout.  My interest in video game RPGs is not an exclusive one; I also found a great interest in table-top RPGs back in college.  That interest has followed me into my teaching career.  Fortunately, an incredibly awesome group of students I have enjoyed teaching just so happen to like table-top RPGs as well.  It was difficult to get a Dungeons and Dragons campaign going since attendance was inconsistent.  I was therefore required to be creative.  The thing is, I took that requirement to the maximum and created the foundation of a whole new table-top RPG.  I have named it Cataclysm and the students absolutely love it!  I was so happy they were having fun and to watch their characters evolve in conjunction with the game itself.  Improvements have been made to the mechanics, but the lore is in need of much more than is currently written.  Therefore, I've embarked on a poetic journey to tell four stories of particularly skillful adventurers from the world of Cataclysm.  I have already written quite a few poems in the series and I am very excited to keep it going; seriously, there's such a refreshing feeling that comes from writing for the fun of it; to create a narrative with my poetry, that which contributes to the even larger narrative of an entire world that I have created.  I'm relatively certain that this is the kind of rush the writers of those aforementioned classics felt and fell when creating brand new worlds filled with an assortment of fascinating people and a rich, diverse, and enlightening history.  I don't mean to compare the quality of my work with the greats of the genre; however, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that I hope to enter their ranks some day.  For now, I mostly just hope to enjoy the fun I'm having for as long as I can.

That One Moment of Many

That One Moment of Many

When that one bad day
Sets the sun forever
On all the good ones

When that one remark
Mutes in permanence
Every nice thing you've ever said

When that one break
Undoes all that hard work
And time you put in

When that one moment
That was less than awesome
Outweighs all the good times

Your smile must exercise
Put in some reps
At the introspection gym

"You're a good teacher Mr. Bray.
Know that. Believe that. Remember that
The next time a student needs you to be that."

Acrostic

Acrostic

Been waiting a long time
Even set aside other goals
Necessarily left behind
Just to get to this moment
Absent of further goals
Meant to keep me striving
Instead, I plan to stand
Nesting in my humble nest of success

Want Ad

Want Ad

Wanted:
An empty mind
With room to spare
For endless anxiety
Time to kill
To experience the negativity
Constantly knocking at the door to your day
Hope and hopelessness
Need not apply
To this war of attrition
Entropy eternal
And heart forsaken
No pay; no promotions; no retirement
I offer you nothing
Simply because I can't

Invite to the Ball

Invite to the Ball

My cauldron's pit knows no bounds
Find me the serrated nose of a drunken clown
Trim from the hangman's armpit some whiskers
And slap the pus right out of your blisters
Make the wolf howl and then claim its call
I swear, upon this night, I will attend the ball

Benjamin: Three Hundred Tries Later

Benjamin: Three Hundred Tries Later

A nerd who reads
A geek who sings
From his greatest highs
To his deepest lows

No more his, he, or him
This one's mine
About me
For me

I am the gamer
The geek
The nerd
The reader, writer, and poet

I am the one
Who shed my fears
My blood, sweat, and tears
To face a new day

This new day
Most definitely different
From years of feeling overwhelmed
I'm still battling; it's true

It's simply that
For the first time
I genuinely feel
I might win

I have two legs to stand upon
And I'm standing tall
I have friends, family, and love
To stand beside me

The time will come
When I write to express
The depths I fall into
As I have before

But for now I write
For fun
I write in celebration
Of what's begun

This new chapter
Is mine for the writing
A chapter
Of my design

The ideas from my mind
The feelings from my heart
The dreams from my soul
The life from my pen

All of it flows
Towards another challenge
But this time the waters are clear
The waters are strong

I am
Benjamin Robert Bray
I am
Loved, cherished, respected, and blessed

Thank you all
For helping me reach this point
At which I can stop crying every time I write
And start smiling at this chance I have to do what I love

Eclipse

Eclipse

Eclipse mine eyes
With all I've yet to see
Shut one eye to what is
And the other to what has yet to be

It's mine eyes that I own
And their recordings I've known
To be misleading in the past
Making me believe in a future that cannot last

So where to next with my contradiction
Of eyes both blind and yet can see
To where are my thoughts' journey to come to fruition
When will it be true that my eyes are me