habits

Humans are creatures of habit. And yet it sometimes seems very difficult to build a new habit into our lives, even when we know that it’s a good thing to do or the results will be beneficial. Maybe it’s a medicine that needs to be taken at a specific time of day, a morning exercise routine that we know will ease our aching back and bring long-term relief, or a regular phone call or email to a distant relation that only takes us a few minutes and brings them genuine pleasure.

None of these things are exactly difficult or onerous, but until the habit is formed, it’s very, very easy to forget.
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lost landscapes

Well my time as poet in residence at the local TEDx event has been and gone. It was an interesting experience and did mean I had to actually produce some new poems.

I already had a lot of pieces that would have fitted the theme of home, but it wasn’t a question of reading old poems, but of creating newer pieces that documented the event and complemented the talks in some way.
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words, words, words

Usually when I go somewhere different, I come back with lots of photographs I can use on the blog.

lights and reflections

This weekend, though, I have been away at a conference. I took very few photos, but have returned with my mind awash with words.
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an echo of butterflies

Autumn is full of butterflies. Or so it seems to me.

Sometimes, as in the picture at the top of the post, it is only the visual echo of a butterfly. Sometimes, as in this fragment, it’s a memory of summer:

From among the fallen leaves, the wind
lifts a broken butterfly wing
and gives it flight.

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late home

It’s way later than I usually write the blog, but I’ve been out all day at a rehearsal for the local TEDx, which is coming up in a fortnight’s time and at which I’ll be reading – or perhaps performing – some poetry.

I won’t go into the details of what I’ll be doing, as I guess I will write about it all after the event (or not), but all the talks and performances are vaguely connected to and around the theme of the event, which is “home”.
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