Category: writing and writers

July heat

This piece has been in my drafts file/notebook for years and has never really seemed to ‘gel’*. Still, given its provisional title, if I don’t post it today, I might end up waiting another year before I decide to do anything with it.

July

Heat swells to stuff the corners
of the room, tucking itself up
to pad the picture rail, deadening
the walls. We lie at the edges
of a king-sized bed, white cotton
smooth beneath us. You reach across
and touch me. Sweat breaks
under the weight of your hand.

 
 
(*perhaps if it weren’t so hot in Spain in the summer, things would gel better, but when the writer herself feels as if she’s melting, it’s not that easy to concentrate and get poetry to its final setting point.)

madrid heat

I had to make a quick visit to Madrid yesterday to sign some papers, but fled back to the village as quickly as I could. A considerable amount of the time I was in the city was actually spent travelling on the metro.

This poem dates from at least six years ago, but I remembered it as the air-conditioning on the metro doesn’t seem to have improved at all.

Fat Woman on the Metro

Her fan is silk and lace – a butterfly
whose coloured wings flick
and furl coquettishly. Crimplene
caresses curves as tenderly
as any lover’s hand; she wears pearls
of sweat at wrist and neck.

results round-up

I made a concerted effort to send out some poetry competition entries earlier in the year. I haven’t had the success I’d have liked, but there have been a few short-listings and commendeds.

I received a copy of the adjudicator’s report for the Southport Writers’ Circle International Poetry Competition a few days ago and was delighted by the fact that my piece Neighbours (I) was commended for “its use of everyday language to express an horrific scene.” (The fact that it’s called Neighbours (I) might reasonably lead you to think there are other neighbours. There are, and they are mostly quite nasty, too.)
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nonvital statistics

My university maths lecturer would never have believed it, but now, 30-something years later, I am fascinated by statistics. So my attention was caught when I visited the ‘Freshy Pressed‘ page which shows some of the recent posts on blogs hosted by WordPress.com.

I took a screen shot of the stats box yesterday afternoon and then again today, just over 24 hours later:

'Freshy pressed' - WordPress stats, Saturday 4:00pm
Saturday
'Freshy pressed' - WordPress stats, Sunday 4:27pm
Sunday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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polish/spanish/english: a few thoughts on poetry & other writing

The revista literaria El Malpensante has an interesting article based on the column written in a Polish newspaper for 30 years by the Nobel prize winner Wislawa Szymborska.

In Cómo escribir and cómo no escribir poesía they have selected a few of the replies Szymborska made to readers who aspired to write poetry. Most of the article is interesting, but I have selected just two snippets.

The first, chosen because it ties in with my interest in translation:

Para H. O., de Poznan, un posible traductor
El traductor no está obligado a serle fiel al texto únicamente. Debe dejar ver la belleza de la poesía conservando su forma y reteniendo, en la medida de lo posible, el estilo y el espíritu de la época.

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