How To Become A Better Poet

The Artist Date is a dream-child of Julia Cameron, helping readers learn how to become a better writer. We've discussed her book, The Artist's Way, and highly recommend both the book and the weekly date. An Artist Date can be life-changing. It can open your creativity like nothing else. Today, we find the blues.

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I drove out of town to see Blue Jasmine. My town doesn't get every movie. I'm not blue—I've got a car to drive away with you.

After the movie, I went to a bar called 116 located on 116 State beside a salon, but the salon wasn't open, neither was the bar. Instead, I went to a Tapas Bar and Cocktail Lounge called Blue.

I chose the bar instead of a booth where I could watch the blue sky get painted with thin grey clouds. At one end of the bar was a golf tournament, but the screen was askew, making the green blurry blue.

A man named Chandler said, "Hello." He wore a button-up sports shirt in blue. His cuffed sleeves where checked, a pattern of white and blue.

He sat beside Carmen who gave me her light blue card. "Well-Kept" housekeeping, a new business, it read. I suggested she go into interior decorating, like Jasmine in Blue.

Just when the blue sky went black, the orange lights of a big truck pulled up and parked. A trucker in navy blue coveralls sat across from me. He ordered "dippin' chicken" and substituted ranch with blue cheese.

A woman said, "Hello." Her name is Red because of her curly hair. She said, "What you writing with a pen that is blue?"

"Just taking notes." That's my usual reply.

A friend from Hawaii once said that blue ink on a yellow paper was easier on the eyes than black ink on a white sheet.

When my glass of Red, not blue, Diamond was finished and both scoops of mint chocolate, which looked light blue in the bar lights, was gone, I paid my tab with green cash.

Outside, I tossed the quarters into the patio fountain. The water was dyed blue, like at a golf course. About my wish, I'd like to tell you, but if I do, it won't come true.

Image by Brian.Mo. Used with permission. Post by Robert McCready.

How to become a better writer? Browse Artist Dates for inspiration, then head out on your own.

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Every Day Poems Driftwood