The Inauguration of the Pen and Paper

Before I begin any posts in this blog, I would briefly like to describe to you the purpose, and meaning behind this blog I have made. This is my second blog (The other being http://expos2512.blogspot.com/), but this blog will be focused more on my writings than on my opinions of various topics. I have been writing poems for around eight months now, and have been writing short stories for almost three. For a while I have been wanting to get my poems noticed by a broader range of people than simply my family and friends, and blogging them just so happens to be the best way I currently know. I do not know how many people may stumble upon this blog, but if you happen to, please feel free to leave your comments and thoughts about my work. Many of my stories were inspired from the writings of Stephen King and H.P. Lovecraft. And although my work is not an exact copy of either of theirs, you can definitely see many parallels to both of them in my stories. My true inspirations however have come mostly from my family, friends, and of course, God. My ex-girlfriend was in fact the first person to try and get my writing talent out of me. She asked kindly for me to write her a poem for her birthday, and as guys know, it's hard to say no to woman. I didn't find the poem to be of much substance or quality, but of course she loved it and thought I was an excellent poet. I took a long break from writing after that. But around late summer I took up writing poetry again. I wrote a couple more poems for my former girlfriend, which now all seem like sappy love songs. After the break up though was where I got my first real "breakthrough" if you wish to call it that. I no longer was writing poems about concrete things, but was instead focusing strongly on the use of imagery, and symbolism. My short stories started taking form after the break up as well. I started writing them since poems simply could not convey the message I wanted. In this blog I will share with you all of the poems and short stories I have written that are not too personal (Sorry, that means no poems about my ex-girlfriend...), and since I still write poems and stories now, I will continue to update the blog whenever I finish a piece of work. At the beginning of each poem or story, I will have a brief description of what it is about, my inspiration, and any personal details that might be needed to fully understand it. Finally, I would like to briefly describe the origin of the name for my blog. Besides my friends and family, I had one last source of inspiration for my writings, a Christian rock band called Falling Up. Whenever I am writing they are almost guaranteed to be playing in the background, since they always manage to spark my inspiration due to their deep, passionate lyrics. Their songs use much imagery in them, which makes me wonder if that is where I get my keen sense for detail in describing a setting. Their lyrics and music are very thought provoking, and almost all of my poems were thought up while listening to one of their songs. So in order to pay them a sort of tribute, I have named my blog after one of their songs, Reedsport. Reedsport also happens to be a town in Oregon, not far from where the band grew up. The "101" in the blog name comes from the name of the route that runs through Reedsport. You may also notice that I mention Reedsport in some of my writings. Just to be clear, neither of the two Reedsports have any connection to each other; I simply used it because I like the name, and the reference it makes to Falling Up.