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A quick post - found The Poetry Forum which might be of interest to you.  You can subscribe to different groups, post poetry and comment on others when you register.  Take a look.

Putting things off and reward systems

I'd set aside this morning to clean the lounge because it's the first full day I've had free for some time and there wouldn't be another along until next week. Also the lounge needed a good clean before I send hubby up to the attic for the Christmas tree and other decorations.  But I hate housework!  So while I was contemplating the awful task I was reading my Discovering Art History and about to learn all on Jan Vermeer (I'm in the Baroque period) when I broke off to get an after breakfast coffee and as I sat down again I looked out of the window and thought 'this is the sort of time I'd write a poem.  I want to write one!' So I put my book aside and took up pen and paper.  I stared out of the patio door watching the clouds moving in the sky and there was my first line.  Soon a second line came and a whole stanza.  It wasn't until I got to the last line of the second stanza and I found I was using a line ending rhyme (to that of the second line) that I thought 'no, I don't want to rhyme, I'm writing in free verse.'  But you know how it is, sometimes poems dictate the structure themselves and this was one did because I looked back at the first stanza and realised that line two and four had an 'almost rhyme' to it.  So I gave in and ended up with four stanzas of rhyme or close rhyme.  It needs a little editing but I'm quite pleased with it.

I was then temped to sit down and blog but was very good and got on with the chore of cleaning and then went out shopping for my younger meat-starved son!

The only way I get things done when I really don't want to do them is to promise myself a reward afterwards - in this case, to go on my laptop!  What do you do to get motivated?

Acceptance

Just had a poem accepted for the Christmas edition of Areopagus.

Working the body

Yesterday I spent the day at a poetry workshop run by Ruth O'Callaghan from Camden and Lumen Poetry. We were a small group, just five of us.  Some had attended Ruth's workshops before and some not.  This was a first for me.  The subject for poetry for the day was the body and we began writing a continuous piece about what had happened to us since midnight until we arrived. We then made a list of things our body demanded or we demanded of it like sleep, food and illness. From this list we then chose one thing to write about in a short poem, how it affected us.  Mine ended up as a rant about disturbed sleep from an unthinking son!  However, it went down well.  We each read our poems and then could feedback our thoughts

The next exercise was to describe an action performed without actually saying what that thing was.  Not easy to guess!  One person wrote about the arm movement during a tennis serve, another the feet in mountaineering, fingers threading a needle, the action of painting and I wrote about the voice in singing.  Then we read them out and offered feedback to each other.

During the course of the day we looked at three poems - Temptation by Nina Cassian, Excerpts From The Body's Sura (I forget the poet, sorry) and The Spirit is to Blunt an Instrument by Anne Stevenson.  All  these describe the body and it's function using different sorts of language.  One of our exercises was to try and write a praise poem in high language about one part of the body.  I was functioning on low battery by now as I'd had a really bad night with no more than about an hours sleep.  Ideas were getting harder to find but I chose the eye and managed about seven lines.  The last exercise was a real struggle and I'm not sure if I really understood what I was supposed to be writing but this time I chose the ear but I couldn't find a way into it (no pun intended!).  I wanted to find out about the function and names of the different parts of the ear....in other words I wanted to research it because that's how I work.  I knew some of the technical terms but I didn't want to write something that didn't make sense until I could find out.  I ended up with two very boring lines and spent the rest of the time doodling - and no it wasn't an ear!

So, I've come away with four potential poems to work with and met some lovely people. It was good to get feedback on what I had written, to know I have some lines appreciated by others.  The two other ladies wrote so well.  How they managed to produce such work in fifteen minutes amazed me.  It takes me a long time to get the initial spark and often it doesn't arrive until the 15 minutes are nearly up!  I find it very hard to think on the spot and end up with ideas and couple of lines where some have written four verses.  How do they do that?  The two men were very different but the younger one seemed very like me - he needs a long time to ponder.  I felt we were allies and we also seemed to share the difficulty in analysing others poetry.  We travelled back on the rail replacement bus (or yes, one of those days!) which allowed us a better chat and we indeed have a lot in common, though he memorises all his poetry to perform and he tells me he writes long poems, it just takes him months to write because he ponders over each word and sentence  until he is happy before he moves on.  It's always interesting to hear how others write.

That will be the last poetry workshop or poetry course I can attend now for some time as in January I am going to two classes in art history.  I shall still be writing but my time will be limited until after Easter while I self indulge the arty side of myself......but there may be some poetry in there as one of the classes is about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (my speciality) and of course William Morris and Rossetti  both wrote poetry!

Another poem in print!

Just heard from Victoria at What the Dickens? magazine that the poem I submitted recently is to be included in the next issue which comes out in December.  The theme for this one is journeys.  Looking forward to seeing it.  Am now aiming for a hat trick as I sent a new poem in last week for the February issue but will have to wait until the end of December for the verdict.

Watching the process of novel writing

Who watched Imagine last night?  I was glued to it as it followed Ian Rankin in the process of writing his next book.  I have to admit I have never read one of his books or watched the TV series Rebus but watching Ian with his file of newspaper cuttings, notes written on napkins and anything else he had at the time will be very familiar with fellow writers.  Some of what he said was rather comforting - like he'll do anything to put off starting to write and well over half way through the book he admitted to not knowing where it was going.  He had highs and lows, times when he didn't think the book was working and had doubts about the whole thing. He always comes to a wavering point around page 64, I think it was, with each book he writes.  This is a man who has written more than 25 books - there is hope for us all!

If you haven't seen the programme it is well worth watching - pick it up on BBC iPlayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01nw51c/imagine..._Winter_2012_Ian_Rankin_and_the_Case_of_the_Disappearing_Detective/

What the Dickens? Magazine - SPONSUME Crowdfunding video

How inspiring!  This is the magazine I recently had a poem published in.  Why not give it try yourself.

Words in flight!

Well, it's done - I have sent off a collection of 14 poems to iOTA Shots competition. My words have flown, my poetry in flight across the internet!  Having left the poems for a while I was able to re-edit some but even as I was going through them a final time I felt that I have no chance.  Some of the poems I think are really good, others are 'nice' but are they really good enough?  If nothing else this has been good practice in that I had to select poems within a theme (as that was what I had chosen to do), really look at them, re-edit if necessary and choose an order for them.

I won't know until February whether my collection has been chosen which means those poems are now out of bounds for sending anywhere else until then.  That leaves me with only a few poems now to use and few to still work on.  Hopefully I will get back to writing soon.  Poetry has taken a back seat recently as other things in life have been occupying me but I am attending a poetry workshop later this month and with any luck I will have lots of poems to work with.

Oversteps Books » In this Bowl

Oversteps Books » In this Bowl

Delicious poem by Miriam Darlington.