the silence is eclectic by Odilia Rivera-Santos

I have been on a long sabbatical from blogposting. .. watching the whirlwind of social media activity from a safe distance and racing through winter as I overuse the gerund. 

I've been teaching four completely different groups of students, which served my writing well. 

There are new voices added to the tidy collection of voice possibilities.

I've worked with students from Kazakhstan, Brazil, Nigeria, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, France, and the Dominican Republic. 

In-between the busyness of working with human beings, I have continued work on creative projects -- on the bus, in bed right before falling into the magical realms of sleep and on the elliptical.

In-between snippets of Frida and other movies I'd never seen, I painted my apartment gallery white, imagining the sketches I will draw to decorate the walls. 

For some reason, after so many thousands of words, I've begun to crave an exploration into visual art. 

I want gray ink and gray pencil to draw on bright white paper to see what else is rattling inside this brain. 

It is a sleepy afternoon in Manhattan with the faraway sound of ambulance and cart and child and honk and squeak from a faulty faucett. 

I will be doing a tiny poetry reading in January

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Buy my book here: Love When You Say Love

by Odilia Rivera-Santos

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Writing, being and somethingness

Odilia Rivera-Santos

I had no coffee today and felt the clean lethargy of withdrawal but it was minor, not the cataclysmic migraine some people get. My body can easily acclimate to change as long as it's not weather-related. Writing is something best done with a hot beverage in hand though.

Kukicha tea was a substitute for a while and then, green tea and Postum, which tasted like melted brown crayons.

It is still novel-writing month and I had my normal bout of belligerence with the thought of writing one in November, not because it is a one-month assignment or because it's November, but because I have to wrestle like a crocodile at the conformity aspect or the footballness of it -- a team sport with plenty of head injuries. 

Writing is about the love, not the vain glory or pain... I think. And sometimes, there is a little bit of solace and therapy in creating art as well and having the guts to call one's own work art. It's a pretty word although it rhymes with an inelegant one. 

I guess today is a day to write as if no one is reading.
















 Buy my book here: Love When You Say Love

Life Experiments ... Odilia Rivera-Santos

I am in the process of polishing a poetry manuscript, something that always puts me in a trance-like state.

I am writing two songs per day and have agreed to help a friend with an exciting project in Puerto Rico. And I continue to work in various fields in service to my art. Writing, teaching dance and health literacy, and translating. Everything I do is language.

Some musician friends are pushing me to sing and I will. Money comes in handy at the grocery store and when it's time to pay bills. Money will never be the driving force for me -- I have to care about what is doing. This is not to say I undervalue my work -- my fee for Writing Consultant work is still $100.00/hr.

Another item on the work menu is making a documentary on ex-cons and their re-entry into the real world. It is something I've wanted to do since working in a homeless shelter for recently-released male ex-cons. I ended up in a small office and one by one, a man sat down and told me his life story on between getting information to sign them up for health insurance. There were heartbreaking stories and hilarious ones, but the core issue for me was how to help these men make use of their talents, how to enter the world without feeling as though he had value and how to build an adult's sense of being connected to his community and how to create a healthy ego and self-esteem after a lifetime of hardship. 

This is something To which I am happy and willing to donate time, energy and love. 

My love life?

I get emails about this and here's the answer.

Work is always first but I am open to dating a 1.brilliant, 2.funny, 3.creative, 4.confident, 5.drug-free, 6.multilingual man who 7.enjoys socializing and he has to have a 8.strong sense of self.