Freedman on The Act of Writing

From his stellar book:

To put it another way, the act of writing is the act of turning chaos into cosmos, of seeking to explain the hurly-burly of existence. Real life takes place in equal increments of sixty second to a minute, sixty minutes to an hour, twenty-four hours to a day, none weighted any more or less than any other. A journalist dares to believe that he or she can selectively discern what is most significant from this ceaseless stream of activity and then explain it to the larger society. The basic forms of journalistic prose, if used judiciously, are the tools of doing so. They afford us venerable, proven ways of organizing material, and more importantly, they compel us to sharpen our thinking.

Samuel G. Freedman, Letters to a Young Journalist

Gasp! Armies of Academics Measuring Poetry

From the movie Dead Poets Society:

Keep ripping gentlemen. This is a battle, a war, and the casualties could be your hearts and souls. Thank you Mr. Dalton. Armies of academics going forward measuring poetry, no! We will not have that here. No more Mr. J. Evans Pritchard.

A Moral Journalist

"A moral journalist, a journalist in full possession of both professional ethics and human empathy, the kind of journalist I pray you want to be, prepares for the day when he or she must stand before Thoth to be judged." Samuel Freedman, Letters to a Young Journalist

Holding you down -jazmine sullivan (anhayla)

My Only Published Poem (Circa 2005-2006)

The Boast

Alone I have stood stagnant for seventeen summers

Some think the reason I write

Is as simple as signing a fraudulent forged note

I tell you this tale:

Early in my minor middle school career

I careened out of a relationship rapidly

Avid and eager to advance

Perfecting poetry became much motivation

I quickly climbed the poetic plateau

The steep side,

Pacing and not rushing my written rhetoric

Now I need to conquer and neutralize any negative forces

With wicked words worthy of a Shakespearean scholar in solitary

C.Goins (Age:17), Published in "Celebrate! Young Poets Speak Out" Northeast-Spring 2006

The Fickleness of Feelings

There was a muted sadness in knowing that something that had affected me so strongly just didn’t anymore. Something must be said of the fickleness of feelings. But we had, it seemed, moved on.

Amy Van Vuuren, Ex Sex Success

Kim Strassel on Journalism 'Demystified'