We are one week into April and I have been humbled and pleased by the bravery of so many Americans across the country who have joined protest marches in support of democracy. While I have read that these protests have not been widely published about nor on the front pages of mainstream newspapers, they are covered quite well on Facebook, CGNTEurope is covering the protests. I have contributed some cash to some marches but have not attended one. Many of my friends have attended local and state protests and have found the process uplifting. It is also thrilling to observe the marches taking place in other countries in support of American democracy.
As we are living in a moment where democratic principles are being challenged and sometime ignored, I decided to review and comment on the key principles of our American Constitution.
The five key principles include: the separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism, and popular sovereignty. The separation of powers deliberately divides governmental authority among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches to prevent a single branch from becoming too powerful. The principle of checks and balances allows each branch of the government to limit the power of the other two branches. The concept of federalism divides the power between the federal government and the state governments. The fourth principle, popular sovereignty, states that the government derives its power from the people. And, the fifth principle, limited government establishes that the government’s power is restricted by the Constitution—the government must not act arbitrarily.a
So, if you support our democratic procedures and the separation of powers, now might be a suitable time to let your thoughts and voices be heard. Writers Unite: Take Up the Fight!
My Writing Goals for 2025
- Continue to develop my poetry and connections with other poets:
- Bardic Trails: The Talking Gourds/Bardic Trails is a monthly Zoom presentation of poets, followed by an open mike, which is broadcast from Telluride, Colorado. This month, the presentation took place on April Fool’s Day but suffering from the fool’s part of the day, I forgot to log on.
- The Colorado Poetry Center: The poet who read at the CPC session in the middle of March, Christina A. Bejan, is a local. She presented with professional actors several scenes from her anthology of plays: “Finally Quiet: Four Plays from Bucharest to Washington DC.”
- The Boulder Writers Alliance Poetry Circle featured Gregory Seth Harris who read from his impressive narrative poems. Seth has recently published an audio book of his poetry book, A Black Odyssey, on Spotify.
- My poetry project goals: I managed to write a new poem every week over the last month and plan to submit one to a contest.
- Finish my first novel and query agents (IW): I attended a BWA Silent Writing Group session and managed to make some progress over this month on this novel.
- Finish my second novel (G): Nothing accomplished on this manuscript.
- Continue to work on my third novel, (PW): I read and corrected several pages of notes on my topic.
Continue to develop a network of kindred spirits in the world of writing and publishing:
- Boulder Writers Alliance: I attended the BWA’s Writers Who Read discussion of Burma Sahib by Paul Theroux—an informative and engaging read. It is a novelized biography of Eric Arthur Blair whose penname was George Orwell, the author of Nineteen Eighty-Four. Curiously, the beginning sentence of the novel is: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
2. Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers: I read the newsletter and various emails. I also started a draft of a potential submission to the anthology. The RMFW Gold Conference takes place this year in September: https://rmfw.org/conference/
3. Women Writing the West: I read the newsletter and attended our critique group. The WWW Virtual Conference this year takes place October. If you are interested, you can check it out at:
4. Document my writing progress through my blog and post it on the seventh day of each month, one blog per month in 2025:
Today is April 7, 2025. I am posting my fourth blog for this year. April is, of course, tax month so I have devoted many hours to tax preparation and submission. However, I have also had time to write. After having new snowfall on the ground over the weekend, today I took a drive and was thrilled to see white blossoms on some trees, white trees with red blossoms, pale green baby leaves popping out on bushes and trees all along the way, and tulips tipping their tops in the breeze. Spring is finally here!
Some Lines from a Favorite Poem
The Waste Land
—T.S. Elliott
April is the cruelest month
breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain”…
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