13 Phrases #4: David Thomas Jarecki

I met DTJ on Issuu, a site where small publications and regular folk can upload documents to share in a smooth page-turning format. He commented on the excerpt from [If] Life's Rotten, Write to the Core. Dave's comments on my work were inspiring and encouraging, especially coming from a fellow writer. Since our first online encounter, David has been sure to keep in touch. Currently, he is busy at work on the next issue of the Kankazine, in which I will be a featured poet. Check him out.

1. By day, I am a Logistician.

2. I write best when I am depressed about universal issues while being content in my personal life and responsibilities. When I am universally content or have challenges in my personal life I cannot focus on writing.

3. When I find it difficult to complete a piece, I complete the piece. I'll force myself to finish it even if it is in the worst way possible just so that it is done and all concerns about finishing it are gone. Then I go back to the beginning to find what first inspired me about the work. When I see how I rushed through to finish it I get angry at myself for doing so and channel that back toward my original passion to complete it the right way.

4. Three things that help me recover from Writer's Block are: I don't believe in Writer's Block. I believe that writers are in a perpetual state of creation. When we hit a speed bump or get stumped about a piece that we are focusing on that natural creative instinct is subconsciously being focused somewhere else. Here are three things to do when you think you have Writer's Block: 1--Figure out where that creative energy is being focused. 2. Make a decision on weather you should keep it directed that way or shift it back toward whatever you were working on. 3. DO NOT direct your thoughts and energy to feed the notion of Writer's Block.

5. I starting writing because my Catholic school 8th grade nun teacher read a paper I wrote and told me I didn't write it because she didn't see the same effort in my other school work. Day in and day out I worked to prove her wrong. As a side bonus, I love how she contributed in her own way to the fact that I am proud to call myself Multi-denominational when it comes to religious categorization.

6. I continued to write because it was a great release and a better, guilt-free, use of my time than video games. I found it to be more rewarding than anything else that I was doing in my life.

7. I will always write because I can't stop. I am truly blessed that after 7 years of smoking cigarettes I was able to quit cold turkey 7 years ago on the first date with who would become my future wife Nora. After several attempts to quit writing and focus on other things, I have failed.

8. If I weren't a writer, I'd be a film director or actor.

9. The writer(s) who influence and inspire my work are Jack Kerouac, J.D. Salinger, C. Shoup, Chris Rock, Richard Roeper, James Riordan, John Lennon, Roger Ebert, Paul Reps, Jim Morrison, George Carlin, the Dalai Lama, Allen Ginsburg, David Mamet, Wyclef Jean, Bill Maher, David Koepp, Ain HD, Paul Thomas Anderson, Robert Frost, The Cohen Brothers, The RZA, Richard Kelly, William S. Burroughs, Redman, Roger Waters, Christopher Guest.

10. The most important goal I have as a writer is for people to not scratch their heads as often as they currently do after reading my stuff.

11. People who read my work are most likely going to scratch their heads.

12. My most significant piece to date is The Legend of the Fetal Poltergeist

13. There is nothing more important than not giving up. No matter what your dreams or goals are you will get knocked down many many times--it's part of the process. If we could all snap our fingers and get what we wanted all the time life would be boring. Learn to enjoy and appreciate the moments that you get knocked down. The purpose of those moments is to make the moments that we stand tall more rewarding! Rock on and make it happen.

Excerpt from The Legend of The Fetal Poltergeist:

Breakfast Luck from July

Hoarding all the cereal
on a morning in July.
Mocking the imperial
by laying where I lie.
About that four-leafed clover,
I’ll use it if I can.
Hell is greening over,
the pasture’s where I am!

Embracing my temptation
a deadly fantasy.
Pennies in a fountain,
an imitation of the sea.
I gamble my summer,
Caesar owns its split.
Horseshoes land in winter
from a toasted autumn rift.

Defying this betrayal,
a season without love.
Bowls land on my table
descending from above.
Regales that we greet
are traffic in our jam.
Scratched by rabbit’s feet,
thoughtlessness disbands.

Not ‘til lunch will I be hungry,
independence day is full.
Autumn’s noon is soupy,
who cares about your pull.
My meals are branded sloppy,
my reputation’s stuck.
But I’ll continue happy,
‘cause that’s my given luck!

Contact David Thomas Jarecki:
Email: theothman7@comcast.net
Website: http://www.issuu.com/djareck
Buy: http://www.planetostrogoth.com