There are days

There are days when life is cold
no matter the heat outside

days when life is sickening
no matter the taste

days when life is desert-parched
no matter how long you linger at oases

There are days when the music plays
and never once do you feel like dancing;

when the neat pictures on the wall
seem slanted;

when the rain falls and doesn't wash away
the exhaustion
in your eyes

or the copper taste
on your tongue

or the flames
in your skin

or the broken glass case
around your heart;

days when life is crushing
no matter your armor

or the walls you have built in desperation

and you think of surrender

and it seems like you might fall

before sleep flutters forth
on angel-wings

and you fly away
in dreams of
greater things

floating
to another
tomorrow

Editing...

The speech is done...

And now I'm editing...

And then my edits do not result in shortening the speech, even though I've cut pretty ruthlessly...

WHY IS THIS SO DIFFICULT?

I FOUND A SOURCE!

THE SOURCE

THE SOURCE TO END ALL SOURCES

(Still talking about the Oratory here. Assume that I am until I'm done with a draft of this thing.)

That Oratory I'm talking about

Well, funny thing.

So I was doing Camp NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo: noun.
1. Intense masochism.
2. National Novel Writing Month, November; one must set a word count and reach it by the end of the month. For adults, the target word count is always 50,000.
Camp NaNoWriMo: noun.
NaNoWriMo during other months, generally April and either July or August. Everyone can set their own word count goal.

Anyway, so I did Camp NaNoWriMo, with a goal of 40,000 words - I reached it, at 40,089 words on 2 pm on July 31st. My prize? Bragging rights! Which I'm obviously using.

And then I realized that I did actually sign up for the Yale speech tournament and it is on September 22nd and I do have to get my original oratory done. And guess when it was originally due? August 1st.

Anyhow, I tried to get typing but frankly, I had just come out of a three-day word marathon. I had practically lived on the living room couch with my laptop. I had written 20,000 words in three days. I didn't particularly want to do it.

I ended up sending my coach an email asking for more time. She let me have a week. But I was still in a post-NaNo haze for much of that time, so it didn't get done then either.

By now I was pretty sure this wasn't going to happen, so I told my coach I wasn't going to go. Then my other coach jumped in and said he did want me to go to this tournament as originally planned and was willing to give me five more days.

Therefore, I am writing again now.

Speechin' the summer away

When I'm writing my Original Oratory and I have a kickass topic and so many things that I want to say but

HELP I CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO SAY THE THINGS