Weathered grave markers at Christ Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In this peaceful cemetery lies the remains of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Rush, and other well know people both in their time and in ours. Here, too, there are markers where time and the elements have rendered unreadable.
Memorial
By: Daniel Derasaugh
Here; a crafted stone once stood.
Now weathered and leaning.
Beneath which rests an anonymous life.
How it began, how it was lived;
Now as mysterious as the craftsman,
And how it ended?
Dissolved into the abyss of time.
When looking at old grave markers where the inscriptions have been worn away by time and the elements, it is natural to be curious about who is buried beneath it. Perhaps, too, it is natural to easily dismiss these people as not likely having any historical significance. Yet, they were important enough at least to someone who saw it fit to ensure the location of their burial was marked. We can not simply dismiss them. Their life, whatever it may have been, did have some impact on history. In some way, no matter how small, everyone who has lived has contributed to where we are today.
I wrote Memorial a few months before my trip to the Northeast, but it was not until this trip that I found a perfect location to take a photo for the featured image. Christ Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has many markers that fit the theme of “Memorial”, so this provided the appropriate subjects. The hardest part was trying to decide on which photo was better. I wanted to choose one that honors the poem’s theme, carries a mixed sense of wonder, mystery, and a hint of sadness, along with maintaining a respectful nature.
Benjamin Franklin, the most famous and well known resident at Christ Church Burial Ground, along with Benjamin Rush; another signer of the Declaration of Independence among other significant achievements. Franklin attended services at the church as well, and his pew is a draw for tourists. While the Benjamins are two of the most famous people buried here, there are others of historical significance. I think will further explore this burial ground in a later post.
The point here is to wonder and lament for the unknowns. Not just weathered markers in Christ Church Burial Ground, but everywhere. My inspiration for “Memorial” came from seeing multiple markets in several cemeteries that have weathered to the point of just being a stone jutting from the ground with surfaces worn away, or the carvings of words so faint they are illegible.
These markers are also a way to put time into perspective with our lives, or our lives into perspective with time. They are reminders that sometimes, despite our best efforts not to be forgotten, time eventually forces the issue.
Our ideas can be like clouds in the sky being shaped by the currents of thought within the mind. They form unique shapes, but those shapes are ever changing, even if in the most minute details. Every second brings change and the cloud that once was will never be again. Unless recorded, the unique form is lost forever.
A Lost Idea
By: Daniel Derasaugh
It was there.
Swirling inside with everything else.
Radiant in unique yet brief flare.
Notice was drawn to its beauty.
I had it!
Undeveloped, yes, but it was there,
Standing out, shinning with potential,
Yet only for a brief moment.
A morphing shape.
It changed to something similar,
But not the same. What was it?
Now just a shadow in my mind.
I chase it.
The ever-changing cloud drifting across the sky.
I have not the tools to catch it;
Remember it, record it, mold and craft it.
Its gone now.
Never again to return exactly as it was.
Words scattered into the breeze of other thoughts.
A lost idea.
I think I’ll start carrying a journal and pen.
The subject of my previous post was about the importance of morality in the way our ideas can impact the world. I am at this time focused on the first act of creativity, and since I seem to be fixed with exploring my interests poetically, a particular thought came to mind.
I have recently began to wonder how many poems (published and unpublished) have been written. The answer is likely in the billions throughout history, far more than any of us could read. But then I try to add to that the number the poems people have composed within their minds, yet for whatever reason, failed to write down.I find it a sort of tragedy that such creativity should disappear into the void of forgetfulness as if it never existed to begin with. Chances are that such an arrangement of words will never again come together precisely as the initial creator had crafted them.
Our minds can unexpectedly and spontaneously create amazing organizations of words with meaning. There were times when that happened to me and I struggled to remember lines that would have been great for poetry, stories, or quotes. There was nothing available for me to use to write them down, or record in some way. As I went over them in my head, trying to memorize the lines I discovered that the organization of the words would often change, and sometimes degrade in their quality until the initial meaning was lost.
So now I try to carry a little journal and pencil or pen wherever I go to record and catch them when they appear in kind of my own personal version of Pokemon Go.
Crafted from thought and imagination, an idea is born, and if fostered and nourished can change the world in minor or drastic ways. It is the beginning of creation, the point where thought transforms into a plan with the potential for execution. To leave the confines of the human mind to be shared with others, to take form, and to perhaps set on a path or transformed by controlling forces to something unintended by the creator. What governs how an idea develops and the path it should take?
Course of an Idea
By: Daniel Derasaugh
To create or destroy.
Encourage or push down.
Free or enslave.
An idea. A thought born,
a growing light,
Or a gathering darkness.
To improve the world,
Or to grasp power.
The choice is not its own.
The creator guides it,
But cannot control it forever.
For ideas, once born, outlive the architect.
Others will take command.
Where will it go? What will it cause?
Ah! My dear friends; we shall soon see;
the importance of ethics and morality.
An idea is a burst of new thought, or old thought renewed in a different way. This alone does not determine a positive or negative effect on the world, but all ideas have one of the the two, or even a mixture of both. The idea itself is usually not the deciding factor if it is to be positive or negative. Instead it is the force that is in charge of it, guiding it to whatever purpose they desire.
But people do not really steer an idea in one direction or another, either. It is the ethics and moral code that they live by that does that. The architect may or may not be aware of it, but whatever moral principles they live by will determine the course of all ideas they create or take charge of. Ethics and morals that are firmly adhered to take on a great importance as they are the shields against allowing an idea to be utilized as a destructive element.
A photo of a fence in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. It does not really have anything to do with this post other than I needed a nice looking featured image and I had recently been there and found this spot very impressive.
A back to school concept to go over with students/children.
After failing at something:
DO
Determine cause of failure.
Fix those causes, or plan how to avoid them.
Try again.
Repeat if necessary till all causes are identified and removed or addressed.
DO NOT
Get angry.
Whine/Complain
Blame others.
Get discouraged.
Failure teaches us how NOT to do something. With some thought and corrections, we can learn how to do that thing and succeed in it. This is really just a fancy way of saying “Trial and Error”. It is important to remember that failure is how we learn. If it did not work one way, or the desired results were not achieved, then you have learned what does not work, and are now one step closer to find out what will.
Shakira’s song from the movie Zootopia is a great way to express this belief:
A medal designed by Karl Goetz to commemorate the Battle of Verdun; a terrible battle fought from February to December in 1916 in which over 300,000 soldiers were killed and hundreds of thousands more wounded. This battle had as many losses as most wars saw in their entirety up to this point in history and it was still not the worst of the First World War. Death personified is shown whisking away a woman; an accurate and disturbing testament to the war that was supposed to end all wars.
For the last few months I have been gripped with a fascination of the First World War. It was one of the last topics in United States history I taught at the end of this past school year. As I have said before, I want to try to create an emotional connection to the war to help make learning about it matter. I hope I have, in some small way at least, achieved that with “Death Dances Across the World”.
"Death Dances Across the World"
By: Daniel Derasaugh
Within dark clouds and flashing light,
moving behind such a veil; a ghastly sight.
Tearing ground with every swipe.
Her gleaming scythe gathers from every type.
She looms over all,
as millions die and nations fall.
A towering wraith with a shroud of soot.
Broken bodies wail under foot.
She harvests, she gathers,
the ground breaks and taters.
Still millions more are sent.
Have not enough souls been spent?
Death dances across the world.
Incinerating peace and the last of hope.
Bursts of light from mortar shells,
reveal her form, the horror tells.
On November 11th her blade grows dull.
Blunted from many a reaped soul.
Of this, the first of two great harvests ends,
as souls to heaven or hell the reaper sends.
“Death Dances Across the World” is my attempt to sum up the level of destruction and loss of life as a result of The First World War, while at the same time acknowledging in the last stanza that such a horrific global conflict would not be the last.
Personification of Death
I used the personification of death as a way to connect to the period. Death is not an unusual image used in relation to the First World War, or any event that causes such massive loss of life.
Obverse of the British Recreated Version of Karl Goetz’s Lusitania Medal.
Goetz’s Verdun medal, shown in the featured image, and his Lusitania medal shown to the right, are just two of many examples that show death personified. It is this morbid theme that I am attempting to carry on with this poem.
The Goetz medal; the one shown here, is a British recreation that was produced as a propaganda piece to show the brutality of the German U-Boat attacks against civilian ships. Goetz’s original was made as a German propaganda piece to show disregard of the warnings of using passenger ships to transport arms and supplies to the Allied Power nations. The ticket salesman on the right side who is selling civilian passengers their tickets to the ship is shown to be a skeleton.
Using death as a character also carries another purpose. As fantastical as it is to imagine a monstrous skeletal figure hidden in the smoke of burning cities and battlefields walking across the land to reap the lives of soldiers and civilians, it is also not pleasant. It is supposed to be unsettling, but interesting as well.
Poetry as a Lure
The base purpose is to help readers visualize the consequences of the war and to build interest in the period and hopefully study it deeper. Perhaps using the creative avenue of poetry can help spark that interest. Some people do not need this, but others may. “Death Dances Across the World” and the two poems from Historical Poetry: Connecting to History Through Poetry – The First World War are written to be lures to build interest. They are not something to study, but to be read before asking: “Do you/I want to know more?”
If we wish to the learn from the consequences of previous generations; good or bad, making it matter is key. But we can not do any of that unless we know and understand the past.
A hatchling eastern box turtle cautiously crawls along the ground looking for food, and exploring the world.
Another poem post. Now, this is not about anything historical, its actually my first non-history related post since my first one. Nor is it looking at an artifact in a different way. “The Terrapin” is just a fun little poem I recently wrote at my girlfriend’s house, after finishing painting with her. It was a sort of challenge. We were trying to see what kind of poem I could just write out in my little notebook without much thought or planning in a short period of time. Below is what I got. I also did one about a sea horse, but that will take lots of work to polish up. I hope you enjoy!
"The Terrapin"
By: Daniel Derasaugh
A rock?
No, a nice smooth stone.
Rounded and painted by God.
It moves!
A small, cautious step.
It looks around after a pause.
It sees me!
Don’t be scared.
In its head and legs go!
Now again;
a round, painted stone.
A graveyard of sorts stands where a lush forest once grew. Broken and burnt trunks of trees stand as markers with smoke rising in the background. Haze, or more smoke, drift among the markers. Soldiers walk in the foreground with experiences detained as memories in their minds; experiences we could never fully understand, nor would we wish to. Yet we should seek to empathize with them as much as we can, to not just learn about history, but connect deeply with it, to understand the consequences of the past to help us prevent such tragedies from occurring again.
Emotion and visualization are the best tools we can use to connect to a historical period or event. In my second post I included a quote by David McCullough, which I will include again because it works so well here:
History is about people. History is human… You have to get to know the people. You have to get inside their lives.
-David McCullough
The purpose of the following two poems is to inspire an emotional connection to the tragedy of the First World War. These are poems that describe a basic overview of the war itself, nothing specific about a person or event, so they do not go as deep as other poems about similar topics have, but it is a start for me, anyway.
The Great War
By: Daniel Derasaugh
A false calm hides resting chaos.
While forces build their strength.
Ignorant of their new power;
such destructive might.
Pressure mounts, peace strains.
Then a spark; a tiny yet terrible flash.
The vortex forms and rapidly death begins its spiral.
Churning and cranking.
Slowly, flesh is drawn to the grinder.
Faces and futures.
Torn and tattered.
Crimson to bone, bone to powder.
Only Echoes remain…
…echoes.
Marching British soldiers, 1917.
Field of Battle
By: Daniel Derasaugh
It is silent now.
The earth is still, the air is calm
the last echoing moan has now ceased.
Succumbed, and silenced;
quiet.
Yet hours before,
Beneath a dark sky cloaked in clouds,
the ground rumbled with deep concussions.
Far away thunder and nearby blasts
cracked the air.
Doom, not weather.
Death, not rain.
The Earth lay torn and burning.
Rifles sang out their chorus,
Munitions burst with atmospheric flashes,
like lightening upon the horizon.
Death stood tall,
casting a cloaking shadow upon her spoils.
Trenches and the destroyed road to Bapaume.
The understanding that people experienced and endured periods we study is essential to making it matter. It allows us to connect to what ordinarily we can only know through a photo, or perhaps a video or written/verbal first hand accounts.
French soldiers in the ruins of a cathedral during the Second Battle of the Marne, 1918.
We have to tap into the emotions of those who experienced what we are studying, and to do that we have to tap into our own emotions in order to empathize as much as we can. We can never really match their experiences, but we should try to make our understanding as profound as we can.
The further the event was in the past, the more guesswork it becomes, but we can make educated guesses. The real goal is to seek that connection; make it matter, then get into the content and facts of the subject area.
Above is a structural foundation that is found in front of the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall in Philadelphia. As with the pottery fragment the poem below is about, these two creations can be a conduit to the past. Someone who lived long ago skillfully crafted these with their hands. Ponder it some. An artifact held in the hand and looked upon by the holder as more than just an old item with or without historical significance can open up a new way of thinking about history. With a little background knowledge and some creativity, the artifact can come alive and a discussion develop. Below is the result of my first attempt at such a practice: A conversation with history written in poetic form.
Israel Pottery Fragment
By Daniel Derasaugh
Beneath the sands,
covered and lost;
you rested alone.Forgotten,
without worth.Small, square, copper-toned piece; Whose sure hands crafted you?What purpose did you hold?
Who relied upon you?And how did it end?“Pulled up and fashioned from the Earth.Water for a lone potter’s widow, then,a young family with a little girl.A trip to the Jordan,
and a careless step.”How long was the wait?“Two millennia? Two days?”Was there relief to be found?To be held with purpose, prized?
“No, there was nothing. A numbness.”You should now know,
There is new worth in you.Appreciated and valued by One,Cherished by Another“I feel now. I know.”
The Actual Pottery Fragment
Front view of the pottery fragment which is the subject of the poem.
It really is just a small piece of broken pottery, isn’t it? Seemingly insignificant in its importance. There are, after all, an untold number of these fragments. However, it was part of someone’s daily life at one point, or several points, in time.
The two poetic devices prominently used for this poem are personification and point-of-view. Personification is used to allow the conversation by giving the fragment the ability to listen and respond to the questions asked from a realistically imagined point-of-view. Content knowledge is important, but the degree can be variable depending on whether you are just trying to look at inanimate objects in a difference way, or promote your own or others interest in a historical topic.
In truth, I have no way of knowing if anything in the poem actually pertains to this fragment. But this is where schema and imagination work together to create logical meaning where none may exist at first.It is logical to assume this was a vessel for carrying water, and since it was found by the Jordan River, it probably somehow met its demise there.
Side view of pottery fragment.
Mixing a bit of creativity with history can help make it come alive for those who are not too fascinated with the topic. Doing so allows for something like this fragment to have some kind of importance that can be grasped, making a seemingly worthless piece of clay far more significant. However, remember that whatever is conjured up in the mind, no matter how backed by content knowledge, cannot be taken as historical fact.
For me, Texas Historical Markers inspire a great deal of awe and excitement. They do not have to mark a significant moment in history to catch my interest. Sometimes the mundane, little known events and locations can be just as fascinating as the more significant, well-known ones. History has occurred everywhere, and the smallest moments recorded are often the ones that provide the most significant connections to the past. They are stories of regular people’s lives; the kind of people we can more easily relate to.
David McCullough has said:
History is about people. History is human… You have to get to know the people. You have to get inside their lives.
So, when I stumble upon a state historical marker I get excited, but that thrill is heightened when the marker is there to mark an old cemetery. I stumbled upon such a pairing this past weekend.
On the northern side of The Shops at Legacy in Plano, Texas, there is a hill surrounded by an iron fence where inside lies the remains Henry Cook, a veteran of the War of 1812, and a member of the Peter’s Colony. Braccus Cemetery, named after Cook’s daughter’s married name, was founded by Cook when he buried his son there in 1847. A Texas Historical Marker provides a brief history of the location.
Baccus Cemetery Historical Marker
The cemetery was not my reason for going to The Shops at Legacy, I did not even know it was there. I went because I had only been in the area two times before, briefly, and wanted to take a more in-depth look around. It was a pleasant surprise to find.
Standing tombstones in the Baccus Cemetery in Plano, Texas.
Cemeteries offer something special that many historical sites do not. Historical sites can be impacting places to visit if you allow yourself to fully comprehend and reflect on what occurred in the area. Yet, in most cases the people who caused, played a part in, and/or simply experienced these occurrences cannot be found there.
While a cemetery is not always the host to a notable historical event, it does provide the resting place of the bodies of those who had lived those events. It is one thing to walk the ground of an historical site, but a cemetery can be significantly more profound since the remains of the men, women and often children who lived it are a few feet below the ground where you stand.
Some smaller cemeteries can be found in the most unlikely places. The Riley and Warner cemeteries in Carrollton, Texas are two examples of small cemeteries, not much bigger than a house lot, and are found in the middle of neighborhoods. They are an odd sight. You have a series of houses that are unexpectedly interrupted by a little hill capped with a fence and old native trees. Mixed within are grave markers more than a century old.
The Riley Cemetery in Carrollton, Texas.The Warner Cemetery in Carrollton, Texas.
Perhaps the title “Historical Cemeteries” is a bit inappropriate. There are those that are declared official historical sites, but in truth, all cemeteries are historical, aren’t they? They contain the remains of people who have lived in a different time. Their bones may be all that remain, but consider this: those bones are what carried their bodies and supported them as they lived through all the events we are taught about, and many more that we are not. Their bones are the most profound connection to our past.
Imagine a person standing in front of a wall of trees at the beginning of a vast forest. They are either going to have one well defined path to take into the unknown wood, multiple paths, or no obvious path at all. If this person represents the direction which your project is going, it will be up to you to decide what path the person will take. Writer’s block would be having no obvious path for them to take, or even multiple paths, but with indecision on which path would be the best for the narrative.
It is appropriate that my blog’s first post would be dealing with the problem of writer’s block. Appropriate because I started this blog as a means to keep writing something while enduring severe cases of such creative stagnation. I say “severe cases” because minor ones may be easily treated with the methods that I will discuss here. I am no expert. I am just sharing what has been effective for me and it is my hope that at least something will work for you.
Mild Cases
All the remedies here will address minor blockages and can be done at your computer desk and help get you back to writing in a few moments.
Sensory Stimulation: Music and Images
Music
I listen to instrumental music while I write. I tend to see the movie in my head with the music in the background as the soundtrack, and it helps my imagination flow with images rich with detail. However, music can also activate inactive creative neurons. When I am stunted, I have found the best music to recharge imagination and get the mental movie playing again is lyrical and poetic, such as the example below.
The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes and hauntingly performed by Loreena McKinnett has on many recent occasions unlocked a flow of imagination from a well once thought dry for the day. Poetic lyrics will craft images in my mind, and this is the key. You need to have those detailed images being weaved in you mind so you can then forge them into existence on paper or the screen. It is best if the song matches with your personality and also the type of project you are writing. The project I am working on now can be described as gloomy and melancholic so this performed version of The Highwayman works perfectly for me.
Find a song that fits with your project’s mood and your personality, and play it. Pay attention to the lyrics, allow your mind to wander and then when you begin seeing those images try to connect them to your story. Let the poet’s words spark new and creative ways to craft your writing.
Music can also encourage you to keep going. Another song that I often listen to for creative encouragement is Kerli’s Walking on Air.
While Kerli certainly has a unique style, Walking on Air is a great way to prompt your writing and creative aspirations.
Images
Music can stimulate your creationist energy, and so can images. A good set of photos taken of an area that evokes the same ambiance of your story, or that represent a setting in your project, can help. Observe the elements in them. Make a list of all the visual details you can and then imagine your character within such a setting, or just write something new and unrelated to exercise your mind.
Give it a try: Click on the photo, list the details you see. You can describe how the creek is cutting through the forest. Even if it is not related to your project, it makes for good practice.
Add to Your Schema
“Our dreams are the sequel of our waking knowledge.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emerson’s finely crafted quote is one of my favorites as it so profoundly speaks to the mindset of the creationist. We have dreams of what we wish and strive to create, but those dreams are formed by a mixture of what we know and experience and then forged by the strength of our God-gifted talent.
I do not know who originally said it, but I have heard this repeated many times: Great writers are also great readers. If you find yourself stuck, grab a book of a similar topic to what you are writing and read random pages of it. Doing so exposes yourself to the talents of another author and the way they crafted their words together. Pay attention to their techniques in areas you’re stumped. If you are stuck with a transition then focus on how they transition. If you’re struggling with action in a scene, then pay attention to how they describe action.
It will also expose you to a broader scope of ideas. The more you read the more you add to your waking knowledge; your schema.
Severe Cases
If you are suffering from a prolonged case of writer’s block, I have found two remedies that work, though not quickly as those described above.
Go Places and Just Write Anything, Even if its Stupid
Go Places
This can also go with adding to your schema. One way to get over a severe case is to go somewhere; ideally a location similar to the setting in your project that has you stumped. At this time I am writing a story that takes place in a forest. When listening to music or looking at images does not solve the problem, I find a wooded area to explore. I am then surrounded by sensory stimuli that will usually reactivate my creativity.
Take a notebook and record your thoughts as they come to you.
Just Write Anything, Even if its Stupid
Which is what I am doing here, I just hope it’s not stupid. (Although, I have written some fairly peculiar things in the interest of rekindling dormant aspirations.) This method does not usually help me as much as going somewhere, but I have had some success, and I know people this works for. I took a creative writing class in high school in which I have fond memories of the teacher making us write for ten minutes nonstop. We were told to write any thoughts that come to mind, even if they do not make sense. I certainly exploited those instructions. I still have many of those practices which I will occasionally read or share to close friends for entertainment and shock value.
Creative Randomness 