Free Poetry Download

The Poetry School have a short free poetry download available on their website especially written to help with entering poetry competitions. It is written by George Szirtes, a poet and competition judge.  See http://www.poetryschool.com/ and follow the link or you can find a link through Facebook.

Book Review - The Seige - Helen Dunmore

Having just read a book about life in Berlin during the Second World War (Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada) which was very depressing, disturbing and brutal, I wasn't sure I was ready for another book about the war but I'd already got this one out of the library.  However, it made a better read, even though the topic (the seige of Leningrade during the winter of 1941) was still emotional.  The story revolves around the Levin family (father, daughter and son) and the terrible winter when malnutrition had people boiling leather to make soup, burning furniture and books to try and keep warm and stay alive another day. People became too weak to even move their dead relatives from their homes and those still able left them piled up outside the cemetary. This is a city where possibly forty thousand people died in the December of that year.  Depressing though it sounds the story is beautifully written and a thread of hope runs through it.  I had heard about the seige but never really understood how bad things got and what people were prepared to do to survive.  I hope I haven't put anyone off reading this because it is well worth it and I shall look out more of Helen Dunmore's books as she is such a descriptive writer.

Helen Dunmore

A weekend off

Been away for a weekend themed retreat on Celtic Spirituality so haven't got back into the writing mode yet, though I have submitted a poem to the Bridport Prize which I'd left 'stewing' while I was away because it was a fairly new poem and I wanted to let it rest for a while.  Coming back to it I altered one line which grated on me a bit. Now all I can do is hope!

Creativity formed part of the retreat I attended and before lunch on the Sunday we went to the art room/conservatory to draw, paint or write poems, prayers or liturgy.  No one seemed thrilled about this, all saying they couldn't do these things, but twenty mintues later (helped by some lovely celtic music and the beautiful garden) we sat around the table and shared what we had done as part of our midday prayers.  I had written a prayer (having cheated and written it the night before because I can't do things on the spur of the moment) and also I drew a picture using wax crayons (back to childhood!).  What we shared was quite beautiful.  This was my prayer which can be used by groups:

At the height of this day

We come to you

Between morning and evening
We come to you

Where the half days meet
We come to you

Meet us at this hour
As we come to you

If you would like to know a little more about my weekend away please visit my other blog http://www.heather-stuffandnonsense.blogspot.com/  This blog came out of that one, which started as an experiment, so you might find some poems there that are also here but then I decided to have a blog just for writing and leave the other one for more everyday stuff.  Did you follow that??!

An explanation and apology!

I realised that after talking about my cuttings file that writers actually use this for something else.  Sorry folks. A cuttings file is really used for collecting anything from magazines, newspapers etc. that you might want to keep to spark off a piece of writing. It is always a good idea to keep snippets that interest you and that you can refer to when those moments of writers' block kick in.  I don't know why I keep my portfolio in one but I've always been weird.  So for logical reasons ignore what I said earlier and keep the cuttings file for your clipped newspaper/magazine stuff of interest and your own successes in a portfolio.

Have just sent off three entries into the Manchester Cathedral Poetry Competition.  It's a smaller competition than the Bridport so maybe I have a better chance.  I've also entered the Lightship International Prizes in the poetry section (deadline 30th June 2011).

Happy writing.

Cuttings file

Been tidying the shelf where most of my writing stuff lives and trying to make more room!  One thing I decided to do was re-organise my cuttings file.  The cuttings file is where I keep my successes except that I've got lazy and just shoved magazines I'd been published in on the shelf as they were.  The cuttings files is in fact a large envelope that is too full so I went through everything in it and took out just my article, poem, story, letter and stapled it to the front cover of the magazine which gives the title and date.  That made the  envelope a lot better.  Then I took the rest of the magazines that had been on the shelf and did the same thing so now all is in one envelope.  I have cuttings going back to the 1990's and read letters I'd forgotten about but was quite proud of. 

It is important to keep all your successes (they make up for all the failures, ha, ha!). It's also good to keep it all together - a sort of portfolio and it's great when it grows and you can refer to it if a publisher asks where you have been published before.  I also keep a notebook recording everything I send out, logging the date where it has gone and what it is along with columns for acceptance and rejection.  You can also keep a note of when you will be notified if you are a winner of a competition because if after that date you've not heard it frees the piece up to be placed elsewhere (with or without an edit!). Keeping records helps to see where work has been sent before, stops things getting sent out that are already out there and to see what has been accomplished in the last year.  Should you be lucky encough to start selling work you should also keep a note of what you got paid , by whom and when (for tax purposes).  Of course you could keep all this info on a spreadsheet but I still prefer a hand written record.  I suppose I should also say here that backing up your work on computer is a very good idea!

Writing isn't just about stories and poems.  Many magazines pay (or give a gift) for letters published - check them out next time you are by the magazine rack. If you have a hobby then specialist magazines might take an article written on the subject but check procedures first and have a look in the Writers & Artists Yearbook, look at magazine websites and read the magazines you are submitting to to make sure you are pitching right.

The Old Sage - flash fiction

Cumin home one night the old Sage stumbled into a Basil bush, its aroma wafting over him. The plant next to it said ‘Why do you Curry favour with Basil when I can spice up your life?' The old Sage grunted and replied ‘I don’t have Thyme for this. I have to get home to the widow Rosemary, now she has a superior perfume.’ But then he began to think about the young Marjoram, his little Bouquet Garni. ‘Oh! Paprika!’ swore the old Sage. ‘What a decision to make.’ A Chilli wind blew through the bushes and he thought about the Mint of money he had made and whether he was being foolish to think it was anything other than his cash that caused such interest in him. He walked home with a heavy heart until he saw the adorable Coriander swaying suggestively in front of him. ‘Oh what a Cinnamon I am! All these spices and herbs will be the death of me, but what a way to go!’

I love this poet!

Came across Christopher James in a back copy of Iota poetry magazine today. He won the National Poetry Competition in 2008 and the magazine had an interview with him followed by the winning entry and two more poems.  His poetry blew me away.  As I was up in London later I tried to find a copy of his collection The Invention of Butterfly in Foyles, but no luck.  Have tracked it down online and am sending for a copy. However, while I was in Foyles I did buy a signed copy of Jackie Kay's new collection Fiere (a lyric counterpart to her memoir, Red Dust Road - if you get the chance to read it grab it!) and selected poems by George Herbert.

Anyway, to whet your appetite here is Christopher James reading his winning poem.

13th International Religious Poetry Competition 2011 - Manchester Cathedral

13th International Religious Poetry Competition 2011 - Manchester Cathedral

Editor's pen - an example

1^st draft

This is mainly a case of getting stuff down that I know/observe in to some sort of form - a quick draft about a magpie.

He bounces in with jaunty air

this pica pica Magpie

sidling hops across to drink

but is spooked and flies in

jerky movement to the fence.

Sleek in black and white plumage

yet the iridescent jade of wings

he calls cha-cha-cha-cha

and flicks his greeny purple tail.

Something has caught his eye

and he leaves the fence with elegance

that is and another loud, harsh call.  (already a change of mind!)

2^nd draft

Trying to put some shape into it, deleting/adding words to make it read better – the scruffy stage. After this I felt I couldn’t work on it anymore; things weren’t working and I left it to stew!

He bounces in with jaunty air

this pica pica Magpie

sidling, hops across to drink

but is spooked and^{up he}flies in

(^with jerky movement to the fence).    

Sleek in ^plumageblack and white plumage

yet the^{and with} iridescent jade of wings

he calls cha-cha-cha-cha

and flicks his greeny purple tail.

Something ^{else intrigues him}has caught his eye

and he leaves the fence with elegance

that is and another loud, harsh call.

and elegantly flies away

calling harshly as he goes

cha-cha-cha-cha.

(NB () indicates I am thinking of deleting this line!)

Final Draft

I saw a pattern in the short words pica pica (the scientific name for the Magpie) and decided to continue using short words/lines to form a pattern in an attempt to describe the movement of the bird.

Magpie

Bouncing with jaunty air

the pica pica magpie

sidles across and drinks,

spooked, it hop, hops,

in jerky, jerky movement;

cautious.

Slick in black and white plumage

it calls - cha-cha-cha-cha

flicks that tail - one, two, three

spreads those iridescent wings

and flies.

This has now been left for at least a week. Having gone back to it I am happy enough with it to post it on the site.  But is a poem ever finished? In a month or two I might look at it and think – could do better, maybe if I substitute that line?

Anyway, editing can be a frustrating occupation – a bit like the hokey cokey.  You put one word in, one word out, in, out, in out, move it all about! Editing goes through many drafts and you keep going until it works but when in frustration leave it, don’t throw it away.  Come back to it weeks later and things will jump out at you and suddenly words fall into place, even if you have to re-write the whole thing.