More than anything I write for me, because I need to. In the past two years I’ve submitted poetry and short fiction to literary magazines, so far without success. Why do I do this? Why does anyone want to be published? These days the writer (especially the poet) who makes their living with their art is a rare case indeed. So why bother?
Something about knowing that others will read my writing inspires me to write. I hope this doesn’t mean quantity over quality. Think of this as my equivalent of youtube: instead of practicing my brains out dancing or playing guitar in my basement and not getting record deals, I am writing (at times feverishly) and not getting published. So I’ll share it here, online. Will it get me “recognized”? probably not. But it might make me feel good to know that some people derive some pleasure from my verbiage!
This blog started as a travel blog, a creative way to let loved ones know what I was up to on the road. But I later found myself still pining to write, and to be read. So I relaunched the blog (the old content is still accessible) and a year later it’s still going strong!
Why the name? Because in my lines nature and awe are often central themes. Thus, leaf and love… It could also be called the “awe” blog or the “awesome” blog, but those names might give the wrong impression.
I post many types of writing here: from poetry to essays to pure fiction. Because of the “diary”-type nature of many blogs, it may be hard for some people to recognize that this blog, while deeply inspired by both my personal experience as well as my emotional state, is not my journal. Of course, poetry is often raw and honest, and that is true here. But any prose found on this page (if not obviously an essay or opinion piece) may be any combination of real events, dreams, (re)interpretations of art or reality, and plain fiction. The important bit is what it makes you feel…
Even the most fictitious fiction comes from somewhere, from some lived event or emotional reality. This is what makes great literature so universal: it is able to evoke real feelings because it comes from something real, not because it IS real.
So I welcome you all (again) and hope that you enjoy or are provoked by the lines you find written here. I encourage commentary, both positive and critical. Lets see where this goes!
explore, travel, run 