Category: writing and writers

the wrong poem

Years ago, I used to participate in an online poetry forum. It was the best thing that could have happened to me at the time, as I learned a huge amount and stopped writing teenage-angst, hearts-and-flowers poetry and started to – occasionally – write something worth writing. Perhaps even, though more rarely, worth reading.

I posted my own poetry, and I learned from the comments and critiques, and the subsequent discussions. When someone misunderstood what I’d intended, or found my word choice or phrasing unsatisfactory, it was always helpful, as it encouraged me to look more closely at what I was trying to do and where I had failed.
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once more, with feeling

You know how it is, when you get a phrase stuck in your mind and it repeats round and round on an endless loop? Just at the moment, the phrase I can’t shake off is the quotation from John Cage:

I have nothing to say and I am saying it.

It’s pretty much the truth. But even if I have nothing to say today, at least I am saying it here with passion (flowers).

Passion flower

daffodils in august

If someone asked me what my favourite flower was, I’d probably say the daffodil. But there are so any types of daffodil or narcissus that that isn’t a particularly helpful answer.

True, there are very few daffodils that I don’t like, and if someone were to give me a bunch of King Alfreds or Pheasant Eyes or even the fluffy looking Cheerfulness, I’d probably be equally delighted.
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looking back

If you write a blog on WordPress, they offer you insights into the number of visitors, where they come from and the like. They also send you little messages when you reach certain “achievements” or targets. Today, they have told me that it’s thirteen years since I registered on WordPress.

The odd thing, though, is that if you go back through the archives here, you’ll find that I published my first post – cerditos y patitos – on the 23rd of April, 2007, which is thirteen years and three months ago. Somehow, it seems I managed to write and publish five posts before I actually registered the blog. I suppose I must have cheated and backdated them so that if the first visitors enjoyed what they found they’d have something more to read.
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a change of title

Some writers seem to be full of ideas and inspiration; they write every day and always have new work to share. And they think it’s a jolly poor show when you admit that you aren’t working on anything new.

I write every day, but it’s not usually creative writing: most of my ideas and imagination get used up on emails to family and clients, on articles for the business or client projects, and on social media posts and interactions. That said, I think I’ve written more poetry in the last few months than I had in the last couple of years put together.
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