Cataloging my one-a-day poems and some sad news

Now I am into week 41 of my write-a-poem-a-day-for-a-year I have realised that to track down certain poems is difficult because there is no record of what is in each week. I just have a folder with files numbered by week  so I have to search through each file to find what I want. I have in fact submitted a few poems, but the task of searching is becoming silly. So, today I decided to sort this. Not being a person with a liking for spreadsheets I have resorted to old fashioned pen and notebook. In fact I am using the one but last school exercise book once used by sons. This one is a Year 8 Spanish exercise book!  Once the used pages are ripped out there is plenty of paper left for the purpose. I have a few columns and enter by week the title of each poem written. At present the amount of ticks in the submitted column indicates how many times I've sent it out (where to is entered in another book). There aren't many ticks yet, but one is on it's third submission. This will help a great deal for now. I've written about half the year's poems in so far and noticed a few things, like how awful some of the titles are, and how I love some of the others, how some poems move on from the last written. I can also see by their titles around the time I wrote them in the year, the influences I had to write them. It's quite interesting. There are a mixture of quite silly things that will never see the light of day, a lot of climate stuff later on and I noticed a few poems ended up with titles I'd used already!

I came across some poems I'd forgotten about and were a nice surprise, some cringe-worthy, some laugh out loud and some deep stand out poems. I also realised that some weeks I had more than seven poems and a couple with only six poems (I did add to one to make up the seven, though I shall more than 365 poems when I've finished. That sounds a great deal, but possibly only a handful will be good enough to submit. However, there are others I will edit when I've finished if I think they are worth the effort, even if I have to re-write them.

This has been a useful exercise and the start of the next phase. I hope to have the remaining poems entered in the next few days, though of course I'm still writing, but I see the end of the tunnel now.

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Ollie making himself at home in the new cage

I have written about my son's pet rats before. Having failed to bond the rescue rats with Rizzo, it was time to buy a new cage for Charlie and Ollie. The temporary one was hard work. The doors opened inwards and frequently the hooks caught on clothing, it took two of us to clean and it wasn't easy to get the two boys out. The new cage is identical to Rizzo's and is just ideal. The two settled into their new home, and while we still tried bonding Rizzo with them, Charlie particularly would end up fighting with chunks of fur being pulled from Rizzo. It has been stressful for us to watch and while some fighting is normal we separated them many times to avoid anything worse. Rizzo seems very at home alone these days. I get him out in the mornings and we share breakfast. Well, he would steal my cereal, so I gave him his own breakfast of oats, soya cheese and a dollop of soya yogurt. Sometimes I'd add blueberries and carrot, but the soya products were pounced upon first! Often Rizzo comes out at night too. He appears to like whistling and my singing. He had a rendition of the Bee Gees Staying Alive the other morning!

Charlie

Charlie and Ollie have been out just together lately, but sadly little Charlie died on Friday. I found him lying in the bottom of the cage. There was no warning. He'd been out in the morning, taken food and seemed perky. So this was a bit of a shock. I don't know the cause. It could be related to his start in life, the infection he (and Ollie) had before they came here, or age, though he was only just over a year old (life span of a rat is around two years).

Because it was already dark when I found him we wrapped him in kitchen roll and put him in a small box and left it until the morning to bury him in the garden. I did what I did for the guineas pigs when they died....I put some food with him for the afterlife! (Me and my pagan/Christian ways! - I made a cross too).

Now Ollie is alone and wondering where his friend is. We are trying to lavish love on him. It's not good to have lone rats, but Ollie has always been the biter and aggressive one. I am not sure what we do. I can't see him accepting another rat. Oh, and he bit me on Sunday. Blood everywhere and the bite was tricky to stop bleeding. It's getting better now, though. I should have known better than to stroke him in his cage. Once he's out he is much better, but we are always wary. We are teaching him to go inside the pouch so we can lift him out of the cage. My son is very good (though he's been bitten three times!). Oh, the trials and tribulations of pet keeping!

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Finally, I had a nice surprise yesterday when the Brotherton Poetry Prize Anthology arrived in the post. I'd not won the prize or been a runner up. In fact I'm not in it at all, though I did enter. Maybe it was part of the entry to receive a free copy when published. Whatever, it was good to have a copy and see what I was up against. I guess I can see why I got nowhere! I've only read a few poems so far but I really liked the poems by the overall winner, Dane Holt, especially the first few. I think I've finally realised that these winning poets are in another league to me. I'm not sure how I will ever get to that level, perhaps never.

Poetry, Dear Earth, singing, and ratty news

I am shortly to submit my last climate change poem to Live Canon for feedback, but it won't be the last poem of that nature I will be writing.. In fact this morning while I was sinking my first mug of tea of the day I had an idea for another so I wrote a few verses. I liked the start of it but struggled over the end verse. I put it aside and went back to it later and re-wrote some lines and found a way into the final verse. Now it's set aside to rest.

I've just signed up to Satya Robyn's free e-course For Dear Earth, 28 daily emails to bring you in a closer relationship with earth. Satya is a Buddhist Priest and some years ago I took part in her monthly Small Stone Poems. I am only on day two of the e-course but I am finding it challenging to my emotions. I watched a half hour video made by Extinction Rebellion which was both very informative (fact wise) and scary. This course sits well with the work I've been doing with Live Canon and is making me think about what I do next. While I am making changes in my life, should I be doing more and getting out of my comfort zone? I am certainly still taking small steps in my plastic free life (though I haven't managed to stop other members of the household from buying bottled water yet). I'm trying to lead by example and am working on a solution to my bottle buying son who reckons tap water tastes awful.

One of things that bugs me is the amount of cartons I end up with for my soya milk. Oh for it to come in glass bottles! I'm considering trying to make my own oat milk, but I fear it won't taste the same and then do I have to time to make enough? I recently bought some silicon baking mats in order to reduce the amount if aluminium foil and baking parchment we use, and I've bought a reusable sandwich bag. The other day I used a shampoo soap bar for the first time. However, my hair felt rather sticky. I'll give it another go but I might have to find an alternative. I wish there was a refill shop near me. These things are still taking time but I'm hopeful I can find something nearby soon.

Thinking about Christmas I'm trying to be as eco friendly as possible. I'm giving one friend a Kilner Jar with ingredients for a cake. All she has to add is an egg, water and butter. I've written the recipe out. We always try to re-use Christmas wrapping (my husband spends ages peeling off sellotape), and I often make tags out of old cards. This year I'm making my own Christmas crackers - just enough for one each on the day. I used to do this years ago. I'm just waiting for the pack of 'snaps' to arrive.

This week has all been about singing, but I think this will be the last year I sing outdoors in winter because after a two hour stretch at Waterloo station the cold made me feel so ill. It's not the first time this has happened and I think I need to take notice now. Yesterday was our end of term concert which went well and was fun to do. We had our regular band for some numbers. Our last performance is at Kingston Parish Church on Saturday as part of their Christmas Tree festival.

And back to writing.....I was pleased to see that my poem Milkers was published by Visual Verse on their website this month. It was a prompt I could not refuse!

Oh and we successfully managed to get both Charlie and Ollie out on the sofa together without Ollie Bear (he looks just like a polar bear) biting anyone. He seems to feel less threatened out of the cage. Still not sure whether bonding with Rizzo will happen. The only time Rizzo and Charlie met there was a stand-off, a bit of sniffing and then Rizzo chased Charlie over the sofa and Charlie yipped. Not sure if Rizzo bit him, but certainly there were no marks. Still a way to go!

Charlie

Ollie Bear and Charlie

Charlie

Concert day - taken from the first floor of the Rose Theatre looking
down into the cafe where we performed.

Poetry, writing and rat whispering

Today is writing group day so I have to leave in about three quarters of an hour. This morning I have been working on poems for the Live Canon Climate Crises course as well as my one-a-day poetry challenge.

I did, as I thought, finish Slade House yesterday and have moved on to one I dip in and out of - Sapiens - A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. I have around 100 pages left to read so I'm nearing the end. I shall take this with me (despite it being a thick book) to read on the tube today. I'm reading about the scientific revolution. I'm learning a lot - about how a smaller nation can overcome a bigger one, capitalism with a lesson on lending and how the first insurance company used statistics to work out how much each person should pay. They are Scottish Widows, still going today. Fascinating stuff. This book is certainly giving me a grounding in how the world works. You may never view it quite the same again.


The new rats are settling in though we've discovered that Ollie is right piggy with food, takes three where Charlie takes one, and hoards it. He bit my son's finger the other day (drew blood). I think he thought it was food. These two are going to take some coaxing, but we have high hopes for Charlie. He's inquisitive but the way the cage door opens isn't ideal and I'm loath to just shove my hand in. I talk to them both and they come to the bars to investigate, but both go to bite. Meanwhile Rizzo came out of the cage of his own accord today after lots of coaxing. I've been working on him to try and gain more trust. He's nervous and backs away a lot, but I saw this as a breakthrough. Maybe I shall become the rat whisperer! We shall certainly need time and miracles with the new boys.

Meet Ollie and Charlie

Charlie (left), Ollie (right)

Today my son and I went to collect his two new pet rats from the lady who has been fostering them. Since Gonzo, one of his two rats, died (suspected brain tumour), Rizzo the remaining one has been rather lonely. Rats shouldn't be kept singly and it was decided to have two rescue rats. So, meet Ollie and Charlie. They are ten months old (Rizzo is just over a year) and were kept in bad conditions. They have been treated for respiratory infections and lice but now have a clean bill of health. After some pre-adoption texts and photos we went to see them on Thursday and brought them home this morning. They are now settling into their own cage while they get used to us. Hopefully after two weeks we will try to bond them with Rizzo. We have been given advice about bonding. It may take time but will be worth it in the end. However, should all that fail my son will keep the new arrivals. I have managed a quick stroke! Ollie, being white, has bad eye sight, so we have to let him know we are approaching, but both are sweet. They are feeding and getting used to their surroundings. Their cage is in my son's bedroom while Rizzo is in his in the lounge!

A lot of my friends are horrified at the idea of pet rats, but they are intelligent, inquisitive and great fun. I'm happy to handle them and have them running over me. What about the tails? They don't feel like you think they would. They have fine hairs on them and I like the feel of them running through my fingers!

I do hope Ollie and Charlie settle quickly. We shall certainly give them a good home. My son dotes on them. They have enough fleeces and accessories to fill a cupboard!

Rizzo with Gonzo

Gonzo eating scrambled egg
(it was a good way to get medication into him.)

A cage on three levels for the new boys