Nan’s Notebook

East Coast USA

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Nancy Swett 7/3/24 Nancy Swett 7/3/24

Exile: its meaning, purpose & tips

I know, it’s an odd topic but hear me out…

Why though?

It’s so simple.

I went to the beach, I found a nice spot to set down camp, and once I had a swim and settled in, I got a feeling of being alone and far, far away.

To capture the feeling and to practice taking wide video and being “on camera” I recorded the scene on my phone. I thought, maybe I could even use the video clips at one point.

With the beach footage in mind, and the feeling it gave, I researched the idea of exile. It’s a subject that’s come up in my own fiction and poetry writing. It’s an interesting subject. The more I found out, the more a video came together.

So this is how I used the beach footage:

Notes on the video

I used:

smartphone for beach footage, no tripod or mic
my “Blue Wave” 10x10” mini acrylic painting in lieu of the beach’s water view
ChatGPT, Answer the Public, YouTube and Google search to shape and research the ideas of the video
Canva to make the longer, wide version of the video itself as well as shorter vertical versions for social media, the thumbnail, and graphics
Audio from YouTube’s free audio library, including surf sounds and thought-provoking background music

What I like and what I don’t like

I like that the video felt fresh to me in the sense of experiencing something and within a week putting it into a video and dispatching it out to the world. If people knew more about exile, maybe it would be easier to survive and thrive through it.

I don’t like that the video reveals the kind of subjects that I’m liable to go off on a riff about. I mean, who thinks about exile??

~ Your pal, Nan.

Nancy Swett 6/6/24 Nancy Swett 6/6/24

Up To Speed

Re getting up to speed, it would be fun to do more projects spontaneously. It’s easier to be consistent when what you’re doing is fun and in the moment and not a tedious, discouraging bore. Less packaging work, more using all the cool tools to send messages in the moment.

I’d have to rely on experience, be brave, and have faith…

This radio poems session is a good example of fun, but it’s not quite in the moment, but I’m getting closer.

Nancy Swett 6/5/24 Nancy Swett 6/5/24

Why and how to write “radio poems”

Quick, fun batches of poetry
Creativity boosting writing exercise
Spontaneous writing fun

Nan Patience with work in progress. Video made in YouTube shorts (link here: https://youtube.com/shorts/eD1QVLfLoQI)

Following my bliss one day, I sat down to write poems while listening to a favorite radio station. I low-key challenged myself to enjoy the writing, sit and do a solid session, and see what came out on the page.

It was a fun exercise, and I got a whole batch of short poems out of it, too.

Here’s how you can write a “radio poem” to have fun, boost creativity and churn out some work in a fun way.

Step 1: Turn on your favorite music or talk radio station.

Step 2: Get ready to write in the moment, without knowing what’s coming over the airwaves.

Step 3: Start! Listen and jot down random words, maybe not just from the radio, but other words that come to mind, your own feelings, experiences, people, sensory notes, instrumental notes, etc. Anything. Avoid unique turns of phrase of particular artists, original ideas and anything trademarked or copyrighted.

Step 4: Do a whole session, aiming for a batch of (short) poems. Smash out several pages of words and raw poetic notes.

Step 5: Turn off the music and edit, edit, edit. Group words and ideas, try different arrangements, draft titles, rephrase, add context, reword, omit words, add other words, try some rhymes if you want, etc. You have complete freedom.

You can do it anywhere. Here are two radio poems I wrote the other day on the fly when out and about…

Trouble Tonight
by NG Swett
if looks could kill
I’d be in trouble
so out of touch
in my own bubble
the dangerous type
what are you all about
shock me baby
let’s scream and shout
you’re all I desire
don’t play dead
light my fire
you god among men

And another (below). I will say the two poems are nice and short and have an edge of passion that is wonderful for poetry.

Poem At Open Window
by NG Swett
I long to know you’re real
something I can feel
like an old typewriter key
clacking away here
words on a rag breeze
you breathe in and sneeze
“Oh bless you, Darling’!”

Once edited, my radio poems aren’t too far outside of the kinds of poems I’ve written before. One is on the racier side, one on the charming side. Both a little desperate haha!

They would fit into, for example, my first book of poems, HOLD ME TIGHT, a collection of 36 love poems about love and loss in modern times.

I’m working on a new collection of poems to be published by Labor Day, which will be a mix of poems with black and white photo collage illustrations (I think).

Give my radio poetry exercise method a try and see if YOU like it!

Nancy Swett 4/24/24 Nancy Swett 4/24/24

“More Babies!” — video with short rhyming poem, artwork

by New York poet NG Swett

Just a quick video post today, including a couple of extra pieces of material:

notes about the substance of the poem
when and how I wrote it
creating and posting the video

The substance of the poem

The billionaires, plutocrats, oligarchs — some are calling for more babies.

Women should have more babies, some say. Women shouldn’t be able to end a pregnancy under any circumstances, some say. Life is too… precious!

Over a lifetime, families can easily shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars per person for taxes, health care, child care, education, shelter, food, transportation, weddings, and finally assisted living. The willingness to pay is only limited by our means. The value of a statistical life was estimated at $7.5 million in 2020 according to FEMA. Oh how the shareholders must drool at a number like that!

Other happy civilized countries don’t have things set up this way. Every heartstring we have is tapped for all it’s worth. Every fear stoked for our last dime.

There’s pushback on social media to this idea of women as livestock, especially among women. But the good news for the owner class is that they can mute ‘em with algorithms. (Studies show that social media is terrible for women’s mental health, especially secular liberals.)

Scientists proved that the human race is stripping the planet of resources, causing mass extinction, and polluting it to the brink of extinction. So do we really need more people? Or should we get our house in order first?

Writing the poem

So this all tickled my funny bone a little, so I jotted down this little rhyming poem, “More Babies!” just this week in a big black journal that I’ve been using lately for sketching and writing.

To illustrate the poem, I pulled up a painting I did some time ago of a made-up plutocrat, “One.” It’s from a series of a couple dozen mini acrylic paintings I made as art therapy to get me through writing and editing my first novel — a very, very challenging project! The paintings are all illustrations from scenes of the novel.

In the painting, One lounges god-like across a royal-looking chair in front of a glass window at night. You can see a bridge lit up behind him. The rug under his shiny black boots is a rough map of the Outer Lands Archipelago.

Making the videos

With the poem, the painting, and some branding basics for 4seasonshelf, I then made a short video in two formats, wide and vertical mobile. I added two audio tracks, one with the sound of a typewriter and another with the sound of an eerie lullaby…

I’m placing the wide format video here on 4seasonshelf.com first.

Then they will go on the billionaires’ platforms…

Nancy Swett 3/8/24 Nancy Swett 3/8/24

Where is the Outer Lands Archipelago on the U.S. east coast? Is it a real place?