NaPoWriMo Day 6

Hi all, and welcome to day 6 of NaPoWriMo 2013. Today's prompt - a poem of farewell. This is a tribute to a wonderful cat named Oscar:

Farewell

A sad goodbye

To a furry friend.

For twenty-two years,

You shared our lives.

A stripy predator,

And a purring lap-cat.

From the day you arrived –

Tiny ball of fur,

So scared you hid,

Beneath the kitchen cupboard.

Until the day you died –

A little old man

Covered in fur,

Resting by the fire.

A rub of your head,

A scratch of an ear,

And you were happy,

An easy life you led,

Ruling with one tabby paw

And a soft meow.

NaPoWriMo Day 3, Er, 4

Unfortunately I've had to skip day 3 of NaPoWriMo, at least temporarily.I do plan  to go back to it, but day 4 is here now for your attention!

The prompt for day 4 is to use a name of a fiction spaceship created by author Iain M Banks as a title. The title I chose was 'Lightly Seared On The Reality Grill'.

Lightly Seared on the Reality Grill

When reality twists, and turns,

Inside out, upside down.

You wake up and think,

You’re in the middle of a dream.

When the mirror cracks,

And you see yourself

As if a stranger,

Wondering at every little thing you do.

Time stops, you hang, frozen,

In a random moment,

Asking what is real,

Living on automatic pilot.

Until…

A sharp shock brings you back,

A faint smell of burning flesh

As you’re toasted lightly,

Seared upon the reality grill.

A tiny scar the only souvenir,

Of a never-forgotten experience.

NaPoWriMo Day 2

The prompt for today is a poem that lies, or is about a lie. You can decide for yourself if this is completely true, or not!

My height, when asked,

Is five foot exactly,

A small, white lie

Rounding up the figures,

Nice and simple.

Who needs to know?

Heels add the extra,

So it’s sort of true,

I tell myself.

But truth be told,

It’s not the same.

Not five foot tall –

Just four foot ten.

NaPoWriMo 2013

It's back! National Poetry Writing Month is here, with the challenge to write a poem a day (or at the very least, 30 poems in 30 days) during the month of April. Using the prompt provided by www.napowrimo.net, of beginning with the first line of an existing poem, and using a line given by my loving husband, I offer below my contribution to NaPoWriMo Day 1:

I Wandered

‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’,

So the poet says.

I stand and watch

Those fluffy wheels

Travel across the morning sky.

A pale light guides them,

And I do not see

Loneliness,

But travelling companions,

A flock of ariel sheep,

Grazing upon light blue grass.

I smile at their journey,

Content to be on the side-lines,

Not needing to search for golden treasure

Or fields of daffodils.

Tune in tomorrow for Day 2's challenge!

Seaside, summer solstice, and stort stories

On 21st June 2011, I was privileged to have a short story of mine performed at local live literature evening. The event, entitled 'Are You Sitting Comfortably', is a regular night run by a theatre group called White Rabbit, who invite stories on different themes for each event. This month the theme was the seaside, especially apt for both Brighton and a summer solstice evening, as the evening was warm, and the town busy with tourists visiting the seafront.

As you might expect from a theatre group, where stories are performed rather than just read, this was no ordinary live literature event. It took place in 'The Basement' in Brighton's North Laines, a venue you entered by descending into a literal basement - a room full of small tables and a stage area complete with comfy armchair - just waiting for someone to take a seat and tell you a story. The Basement was all exposed brick walls, low lighting and tea-lights on tables. It was busy, with people sitting on a raised step against the back wall, and all the tables full, creating a really lively atmosphere.

Also on the tables, which were all covered with check table-cloths, were plates of fairy cakes, sweets, blowing bubbles, playing cards and china teacups with tags stating 'Drink Me' - a nod to the White Rabbit concept of our hosts. The seaside theme continued with one of the three readers being dressed as a mermaid, and there was ice-cream during the interval.

With nine stories in total the evening was quite a long one, with six guest stories and three from the readers themselves. During the intervals, as well as ice-cream there was more grown-up refreshment such as wine and even cocktails served in teapots! The whole atmosphere was one of creativity and fun. To keep the fun going there was also a pass-the-parcel after the stories, with literary questions each time the music stopped!

It was a great experience to hear my story read aloud. It's a step away from the writing, and even the editing, and, for me at least, very different to having to read your work yourself, as you can concentrate on the words and story rather than what and how you are reading. I found all the other stories chosen to be clever and fun. The audience seemed to enjoy them all, and a really fun night was had by us all. For a final touch, as it was the summer solstice, we were invited after the event to light sparklers out in the street. Overall, it was a very enjoyable way to spend a Tuesday evening, and I was delighted to have been chosen as a guest writer.

Carol Ann Duffy

On Wednesday 18th June 2011, I had the privilege of being able to see and hear Carol Ann Duffy read her poetry at the Brighton Corn Exchange, as part of the Brighton Festival. I've long been a fan of her work, but this was the first time I'd had the opportunity to see her live. And she was brilliant, grabbing the audience's attention right from the start, coming across as approachable, down-to-Earth and an extremely talented poet. Being the current British Poet Laureate, I had to wonder how much of Carol Ann's new poetry, and the poetry she would choose to share, would be linked to subjects affecting the country. To my surprise, she hardly mentioned her position as Laureate and instead introduced a range of poems, some old and some new, that appeared purely her own.

She began with a selection from her 1999 collection 'The World's Wife', which I personally adore. It's a response to the men of history and myth, such as Midus, Faust and Charles Darwin, but looking at them through the eyes of their wives. These were fun, moving and clever.

Carol Ann then shared some poems from 'Rapture', her 2005-published series of poems exploring the journey of a relationship. These were also moving, both sad and happy. By now she had the audience fully with her, providing brief introductions to most poems but letting a couple speak for themselves.

Next, it was onto some new work. Here we did find some reference to her work as Poet Laureate, but it was refreshing to find that they were still very much in her own voice, and weren't necessarily in support of the current government and its decisions. She read one poem on the fact that one of her poems had been removed from the GCSE examination board, and another on the Royal Mail's plans to remove the use of UK counties on letters. She also shared some poems about her mother and her daughter.

It was a varied mixture of poetry, in style and topic, but all appeared very much Carol Ann, and all were enjoyed by the fully-packed, sold-out audience in Brighton's Corn Exchange. For me, it was great to hear her new work, be reminded of older work that I already enjoyed, and brought home how she has become a strong role-model for poetry in general and for creative women specifically, as the first female British Poet Laureate. She informed us that she would have a new collection published in September 2011 and I, for one, can't wait to read it.

NaPoWriMo 2011 - Day 5

Today's prompt - write either a serious poem or a goofy poem. Rather a vague prompt, this one! Here's my attempt at a serious poem, anyway:

Small Sparks

There are small sparks
Between you and I.
Electrically charged,
Energy burning bright.
We're drawn together like magnets,
Opposing forces
Becoming fused as one.
But we are two sides
Of the same coin -
Finishing each other's sentences,
Reading each other's minds.
Soul-mates, written in the stars?
Or is it just co-incidence,
That we have found each other,
And small sparks fly.