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Friday 30 March 2012

Saturday 24 March 2012

A success, sonnet and authenticity

I have a Haiku being published in the next issue of Areopagus.  This is my compensation poem (remember I lost a poem for their competition which still hasn't surfaced).

It is the end of the second term of poetry class.  Two weeks ago I took in a Sonnet to workshop.  It turned out to be interesting.  Everyone loved it and my tutor said I had it spot on so I admitted that I didn't go by stressed and unstressed syllables but went by how it sounded and counted syllables.  Even so, I had established a pattern (not intentional so it rather knocked me out!) with iambic pentameter regularly interspersed with lines of trochee  (the opposite of iamb).  Well, I never knew! I felt very proud I'd succeeded.  My tutor said that I had worked my own way round the form and must have a natural feel for it (Wow!).

This week we spent quite a time talking about authenticity in poetry, what did it mean, how was it achieved?  We looked at a Simon Armitage poem about being bereaved.  He admitted afterwards that he had never been through this experience yet he was able to write it so authentically that the reader felt that this had been written from his own experience.  I said that we write about life how we see it and that I have used other people's experience in my poetry.  Not everything I write about is from my own experience, however I draw on my own experience, or how I see it, to express the moment.

I guess we all think that a poet (or indeed a songwriter) writes having experienced that moment and that is the authenticity of it.  If we believe it, the piece written has been successful in its aim.


Friday 23 March 2012

Photo poetry?!

'When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;' (William Wordsworth)

Wednesday 21 March 2012

World Poetry Day...a poem

HAPPY WORLD POETRY DAY

Here is my offering:


I Am Love

If you deny me, mistrust me,
Use me, abuse me, ignore me,
I shall not go,
For I am love.

If you run, hide in the shadows,
Refuse me and turn away
I shall not go
For I am love.

If you twist me, misrepresent me with
Fickle words and false affections,
I shall not go
For I am love.

Whenever you hurt, feel lost,
Or pain consumes you
I shall be there
For I am love.

And should you ever feel worthless,
lonely or mistreated
I shall be there
For I am love.

Whatever you do and whatever you say
Wherever you go and whatever you need
I shall be there
For I am love.

(published in Areopagus in 2006)

Friday 16 March 2012

Learning Lessons

It was written on a small piece of paper from my memo block - a Haiku.  I remember it, but not enough to remember each word (small as it is!).  It was something  I was considering for a small competition.  Could I find it?  No!  I'd search everywhere.  Now I've missed the deadline.


What have I learnt?  To type up hand written poems on small pieces of paper straight away.  Don't leave things until the last minute and thereby miss the deadline!


Will I do this again?  Probably!!

Search for poets - What's On - Countywide - West Sussex County Times

Search for poets - What's On - Countywide - West Sussex County Times

Sunday 11 March 2012

The Ballad of Solar Flares and a Writers' Day

Grape Hyacinth in my garde
Writing ballads isn't really my favourite poetry form but that is what we looked at on Thursday at poetry class. There was all this stressed and unstressed talk again...ahhhh!  I counted syllables from our examples and used that as a guide when we had to write our own.  The subject was the solar storm that was being talked about that day.  We had a news report to use as background information and we were told to use our imaginations and just go for it.  There was a lot of giggling and laughter as we tried rhyming our lines and even more laughter as we read out our scribblings.  These were my two verses:

Tonight I put my PC on
To see who had hotmailed
My Inbox flashed a page which said
The Universe has failed.

The solar storm had hit the earth
And all the radiation
Had knocked out all the satellites
Messing communication.

We've been asked to develop our ballad and take it back the week after next.  I've since written another six verses of this very weird story!

For those of you who want to write a ballad the form is abab, stanzas four lines long with rhymes on the 2nd and fourth lines or the 1st and third lines (or each line can rhyme), stresses are 4 in 1st line, 3 in 2nd, 4 in 3rd and 3 in 4th (or even 3,4,3,4!).  Ballads tell a story like The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (though there is a variation here in the form).  Have a go yourself.

Yesterday I attended the Writers' Day.  Excellent speakers, including Liz Babbs.  She spoke about a writer's profile, using 'platform' to advertise ourselves through blogs, websites, Facebook, Twitter and other online media, as well as giving talks and interviews.  Liz was very enthusiastic and funny.  She gave us much to think about.  The next speaker was from Lion Hudson, publishers of religious books.  He spoke about how Christian writers can go about keeping theology in their writing without being 'preachy', something that can be difficult to handle.  After lunch there were three workshops to choose from, one for beginner writers, one for professional writers and the one I attended which was on Self Publishing.  Here I learned the difference between mainstream publishers, vanity publishers, print-on-demand and self publishing.  There were plenty of hand-outs and tips on how to go about self publishing and the cost involved.  People had many questions; one was about ISBN numbers, did we need them and the cost.  We were told that if we were just printing a booklet to hand to family and friends we didn't need an ISBN number, but if we wanted to sell copies, have them in libraries etc., then an ISBN number would make the book traceable.  The cost would be between £10-£20 for one ISBN number.  I found it a very interesting workshop.

Member authors had books on sale during the day and I bought a poetry book (surprise, surprise!).  Simon Baynes is my favourite ACW poet!

Going to something like a writers' day makes me realise I have much still to do/learn.  I felt awful that I'd not done much new writing this year and had sent out nothing for potential publication.  So bad did I feel that this morning I sent three poems off by email and vowed to spend more time writing new stuff and editing older things.

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Writer's Block? No brain paralysis!

You know how it is when you can't get your thoughts organised?  It's not writer's block, more brain paralysis!  That happened at class last week.  We had a 'supply tutor' as ours was away and this one teaches Life Writing at the college, though poetry is her thing.  She gave us a writing exercise based on observance of an object (mine was a tea strainer).  I wrote plenty of notes and even a line a I really liked but from that I couldn't form my thoughts together in the fifteen minutes we had to write a poem!  I had ideas but nothing I could hang on to.  I felt very disappointed as everyone else managed it.  We then work-shopped our poems and that went a lot better.  Feedback was good and useful, enabling me to re-write the last stanza and tweak a few words.  I might take it back and see if everyone approves when we work-shop again.

Also at home I managed to finally write a poem based on my notes from the writing exercise (possibly because I was more relaxed!).  It's not a competition winner but a 'nice' poem, I think.

This Saturday I am attending a Writers' Day in Bromley, Kent organised by ACW and with the chance to meet Liz Babbs, whose blog I follow.