Blog Hoppin

Thanks to my friend Scott Morgan for tagging me on his blog WriteHook.  I’ve known Scott’s writing for some time and was lucky enough to meet him in Dallas last year.

Scott has asked me to answer some questions and pass them around to a couple friends. In the coming days Chris McQueeney and Nikki Sherman will answer these questions as well.

Read Scott’s responses here.

1. What am I working on?

I am currently working on a full-length poetry collection titled Inhale the Night.

2. How does my work differ from others in its genre?

Inhale the Night is my first full-length collection.  It has a wide variety of different styles ranging from free verse to haiku, tanka, and a short epic.  I don’t think I’ve seen so many elements work seamlessly together.

3. Why do I write what I do?

Recently, I have written poetry.  I like the challenge and the beauty in finding the right words.  I see things differently when I finish creating something and I hope others do too. Also, it keeps me from going crazy and that helps everyone.

4. How does my writing process work?

I’m very meticulous when I write.  People will tell you to just write and edit later, but I’ve never managed it.  If I see something wrong I stop and work it out.  I’m compulsive like that.

Pale Blue

In Memory of Carl Sagan

his pale blue
sense of wonder
suspended
in a sunbeam

taught beauty in
the faint sensation
of our atoms
put together.

a legacy of
dust and stars
billions upon billions
of stars

I saw the sky and
endless possibility
stretch over me like
broken shackles
form the past

and we remain the
momentary masters
of a fraction
of a dot.

© Ben Ditmars 2014

“Carl Sagan – 1980” by PBS – ebay. Via Wikipedia.

Lightning Burning

lightning never
sees its fire burning
the trees

absent and forlorn
as love can be.

I can feel your
thunder on the
mountainside.

we will tame
the ashes, fan the flames,
and the pray the sky
returns to calm
forgetful sleep.

© Ben Ditmars 2014

Image Source: Flickr