writing poetry – Page 8 – don't confuse the narrator

works in progress

I read a few of my poems at an open-mike event yesterday evening. One of the pieces dates from 2008 and I have around 15 different drafts of it on file. I rather thought that it was finished back in September 2014, when I submitted it as part of a portfolio.

But while waiting for the event to start last night, I found myself tinkering with it again. I wonder if it will ever be finished.
Continue reading “works in progress”

golden December

Sadly, the photo doesn’t really do justice to the glorious light that shone over the neighbours’ houses for a few minutes early this morning.

Perhaps, though, it gives an idea of a warm glow, which is the feeling I got when I discovered that an article I wrote about Critiquing Poetry, which was published on Writing-World in 2001 is still being shared and considered useful by complete strangers.

Over the years it’s been copied and re-published without attribution, rehashed and plagiarised all over the web and quite possibly elsewhere.

This time, though, it was properly attributed and credited by the Poets’ Roundtable of Arkansas, who shared it on their FaceBoook page a couple of weeks ago.

you don’t know what you’ve got…

When I moved to Spain in the late Eighties, I still thought of the UK as my home. Having now, at least temporarily, ceased to have a permanent base in Spain, I seem to be in the opposite position. I don’t think I’ve ever really suffered with home-sickness, but there is always a hint of greener grass elsewhere. (Or, more realistically, greener grass in the UK and bluer skies in Spain, I suppose.)

I don’t know if the leaves in the picture are actually olive leaves – there were certainly no olives visible on the trees – but even set against the grey English sky they reminded me of the olivar I used to walk through to get to the pueblo and I had to stop to take a photo.
Continue reading “you don’t know what you’ve got…”

before breakfast

View across a lake with Queen Ann's lace in foreground

I went for an early walk today. Like the lake, the day had an umbelliferous edging. It also had moon daisies, above and below.

Continue reading “before breakfast”

word games

If you get a group of writers together, it’s pretty much impossible to come up with a definition of poetry that they will all agree on. One of my personal favourites describes poetry as “the genre where the writer has more control over the presentation on the page than the layout artist does”, but I’ll admit it isn’t tremendously helpful.

This quote from Phil Roberts is another of my favourites: