My New Years Resolution

As I never maintain or particularly choose a resolution for the new year, I figured I would this year. One that had potential to stand the test of time, unlike some fad diet or wasted box of nicotine patches. So I decided I would set myself the challenge that for years to come, I will read something everyday. This may sound very juvenile and simple. But I believe for myself it is a challenge, and one which I have decided to take.

As a very visual person I get myself caught up in the visual world, flicking through magazines, books, and the internet, always focusing on the images but never stopping to read the words. So as a student wishing to pursue a career in advertising as an Art Director I felt in order to appreciate and understand the true value of imagery and visual communication, I should stop to take the time to appreciate and understand the literary visual devices all around us. So hence my resolution to take time to read, I don't mean a simple sentence, but something with a little substance, or at least something which can let my creative brain run wild with. It is this 'exercising' of my creative brain which I believe can only better myself as a creative. So as a change I shall leave you with this poem, one which I have loved for sometime due to its sentimental value, but also for the fantastic literary skill used which creates the visual in my mind:

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

By John Masefield