If You Give a Girl a Pen... » Tamesha S. Hawkins

“We” Are The Words They Don’t Have Yet

TameshaH — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 05:00:19 +0000

I was ready to pull out my hair and throw my notebook out the window. But reality set in, told me I was being to dramatic. I took a deep breath and took a moment to look at the messages coming in on the BB (it had been beeping for the past 45 minutes but I was trying to ignore it to get in a creative zone), only to stumble across an email from a young follower of mine. It really touched me. As writers, it is easy to get ladled down in the hustle and bustle of creating. Crafting words, editing, linking thoughts together, wordplay, sweating over deadlines and striving to “one up” our writing styles that in the haze of trying to say something…we forget that we already say it. Our words become the insight or encouragement to other individuals that graze our blogs, books, essays and tweets…and I only became aware of this after I read the email. For me, I write to remove the cluster of images that clog the mind. Its not about being deep or attempting to claim the title of master griot; I write to later sort out who I could potentially become. Who knew, that while searching for the words to embody ones true essence, that I would have the words that someone else was in need of. Wow, it feels really good to help someone with my craft. Aiding someone with my words was always something I hoped would happen down the line in my writing career but it came sooner than expected. It is truly eye-opening. Any other writers have a similar experience? Please feel free to share!

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Going Postal?

TameshaH — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 05:00:37 +0000

Random action for the day…I sent a letter to my best friend in the mail! I suppose most of you are saying, “Well, that’s not random at all.” What if I told you that I see this person almost everyday? In addition, we talk on the phone and send texts on a daily basis. Now, I bet you are like “LOL, this is a bit random”. The funny thing is I felt compelled to do as if I could be more truthful on the page than I could have ever been in person. As I was standing in front of the mailbox for a brief moment there was a sense of angst [ok, to be honest…stupidity] but I dropped it the mail slot anyway. It felt like the right thing to do even though I had that one moment of doubt According to Newsweek, letter writing was once commonplace and the lack of doing so [letter writing] is due to a cultural shift, i.e., texting, internet chats and video chats. For historians, a paper trail is very important in the study of the human race. How they react(ed) to the society around them is crucial to development of the past and present. If one day, the “lights” went out on the internet, where would our history go? So, to make the soul feel a little bit better, I’ll tell it…it was a part of history

As a writer or a soul dwelling in the technology age, let’s challenge each other to write letters more often than texting, video chatting or speaking on the phone. Now, if it is an emergency please do not send letters to the fire department or the police! Picking up the phone or yelling down the street is most acceptable

Moreover, if you feel obliged to share a small portion of the letter with the Ladies with the Pens, it would be greatly appreciated. We would love to have an insight to pieces of your history!

~Confectionately Yours,

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What’s Love Got To Do With It?

TameshaH — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 05:00:49 +0000

After watching an episode of “Chowder” called my ‘My Big Fat Stinky Wedding’ [which airs on Cartoon Network]…it hit me. For days, I had been agonizing over what my entries should be about and how it should color me as a writer/author/poet who wanted to flex her lingual wings. Luckily, “Chowder” saved the moment! I will attempt to keep these pieces in the style of “Quirk-fo-tainment” thus taking the everyday quirky moments, tying it with hot world topics and sprinkling it with poetic interludes. Can you dig it? I hope you can…

So, “Chowder” is a purple cat personified with childlike qualities who is the apprentice of Chief Mung Daal. Mung owns a catering company in [fictional] Marzipan City! For a complete line up of these groovy characters, feel free to check out The Chowder Episode by clicking on the link! On a personal note, Chowder is my favorite.

Oddly enough, the cartoon grasped my attention about marriage. The ups, the downs, the “what fors”, those denied the opportunity, the laws, the rules, the sanctity and the [in]sanity of it all. Coupled with the overlapping conversations with my “bestie’ on the subject matter [which has also brought her to near regurgitation when seeing and or hearing the word “marriage”] I’m left torn. As someone who once entertained the thought of the ceremony, the dress, the vows and the partnership, I feel like it’s really not worth the song and dance. With divorce rates continuing to rise over “irreconcilable differences” and each party moving on with the remains of the relationship in U-Hauls and therapy sessions dashed with legal jargon, it seems like marriage is a merger that is bad for business. Is it possible for a “couple” to be committed to each another for many years without the ceremonial stamp? If so, why is marriage so important? Aside from the tax implications, if the “love” is more than a “second hand emotion” does shackling the verbal promises in rings and signatures on the dotted lines put a band-aid on loneliness?

To try to obtain clarity on the topic, I shall leave you with a Tanka:

“I Do”, “You Do” and

still left holding uneasy

thoughts for the next day…

Vows left at the alter can

alter the happy ending!

Ehh…cartoons are teachable moments So, for all those writers out there [and lovers of writers], how would a character in your realm respond. What quips or words of advice could be rendered in your character’s soliloquy/monologue?

~Confectionately Yours,

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Notation

Sarah — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 06:00:31 +0000

By Tamesha S. Hawkins

Writing is breath…

Catharsis wrapped in self-reliance and possibility

Write because it doesn’t make since not to

It is adjuvant in the development in personhood

Without the written word

The body lies on a bed of discontentment

Rigor mortis in thoughts

Blood siphoned

The ink that kept everything flowing

Without the lingual quill

Nothing moves forward

Writing is breath…

Because when you give a girl a pen

You make an honest woman out of her

Breathing honesty with every page

Creating the mogul, maverick, the majestic

Many solutions

Many powers

Many things needed to keep consciousness spinning on its axis

Writing is breath…

The pulse for the beating heart

The tissues used to coddle muscles

Swaddle the capillaries not to be vain

Throbbing with creativity

Writing births new ideas

New beginnings

New essences from scratch

Without it

Nothing moves forward!

Tamesha S. Hawkins is an author, actor, vocalist and PBGP Slam Champion for 2009. She has written “Sugar Lumps and Black Eye Blues” (2007), “Confectionately Yours” (2009) and is the creator of “Cipher This” for PMZ Magazine!. A lover of the arts, Tamesha will continue to expand her knowledge by producing her first play “Beginning with Molasses” then she will be traveling to Japan to perform poetry. For more information: www.myspace.com/tameshashawkins or become a FAN on Facebook!

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Two new girls with Pens

Sarah — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 06:00:01 +0000

We would like to announce the joining of our two newest Girls with Pens.

Tamesha Hawkins and Tes Hilaire.

Thank you both for the willingness to join us.

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