ONLY TIME
Stones. This morning the slightly warm wind carries the scent of seaside stones. I imagine it blew the smell in overnight when the gusts were strong, but it could be the stones on the paths.
PodBean Link for those who like to listen
I have a love of glasses and cups, and often match the drinking vessel to my mood or a particular time of day. I realised this week that I might be overthinking things when I felt myself falter when selecting the glass for my first pint of water of the day. I wasn’t sure whether I was going to be mostly ‘coach’ or mostly ‘poet’! There was quite a conversation going on in my head about whether I was going to start the day by redrafting some poems, writing a blurb or updating the coaching section of my website! In order to break the inertia I decided it would be best to use my ‘special sister’ tankard and crack on with the day. Alt text describes this week’s photo as a group of glasses with writing on them. To add a tiny extra there are two pint glasses, one with Sue Finch Coach, and one with Sue Finch Poet engraved on them and in the middle is a smaller glass designed by Rob Ryan. At first glance they look as though they might have been photographed in a forest, but I popped them on a chair with a cushion to make the writing more visible. I could have filled them with squash, but I don’t really use them for squash!
Helping Kath at a yarn show on Saturday helped me to get out of my own head this week. Before we set off, I drank water from my ‘There is Only Time’ glass. It holds just enough water to hydrate me before a trip and also carries a good message about time. Words on it include, “There is no such thing as down time/There is only time. I like the design, and I always remember to wash it by hand so that I don’t wash the art and writing off. Having said that, I might once have learned that lesson the hard way.
After I had helped Kath to set up her patterns, I went for a walk and saw a beautiful heron. Two egrets first and then the grey majesty of a wading heron. The sight of a heron is always wonderful to me, but this felt particularly apt because Nigel Kent’s review of ‘Welcome to the Museum of aLife’ had just been published, and one of the poems he mentioned was ‘I Hate You’ which features a talking heron.
I must admit that I returned to Nigel Kent’s blog to reread the review a couple of times because his words resonated with me, and I rather enjoyed the feeling of being proud. I am hugely grateful to Josephine and Peter from Black Eyes Publishing UK for putting my books into the world. It’s good to work with others and see your dreams become reality. Writing poetry is a pleasure for me and I enjoy setting things down, but there is another lovely tingly pleasure in being read.
The drop-in feature with Nigel that came before his review gave me the opportunity to focus on one particular poem. I chose ‘I Don’t Know’, and my mum cried when she read it because it was about my lovely Nan. I was pleased to know that there were no tears this time just an enjoyment of reading this detailed review. The format of a drop-in one week and then a review a week later really allows the reader of the blog to delve into the books that are featured. An admirable way of keeping things fresh and interesting.
Thank you to all those people who take time to tell me when they like a particular poem. It means a lot. When I need little boost about my writing I pull this quote from Karlos the Unhappy out of my confidence pocket: “Poems of the self, songs of experience, can so easily be jarring – but Sue's have such a sense of authentic self, likeable and true. This allows the poet's voice to guide us in to her inner self, because it’s a fine voice, accessible, real, momentarily telescopic of thing and feeling. Great work. When many writers start a poem with 'I' in the first line, I slide away a little. But here I feel happy to be beside you because you allow the reader to know you for a whole moment so completely. Bonus points for a Wendy James orgasm moment plus snakebite in black.” These words always makes me smile and smiling shifts the energy very nicely indeed.
Most of my poems get the poetry corner test in the lounge during the drafting period. There is much for me to learn from reading my work out loud and in having feedback along the way. One poem which didn’t land that well in poetry corner and was described by sister as “not even looking like a poem” was published recently and I have recorded it for poem of the month on my YouTube channel. It’s my loganberry poem. I adapted it along the way in line with feedback, and it found its home at Feral. In my opinion it has a great title, and if you like loganberries or prose poems you might just enjoy it...
Here's the link to YouTube and it has nice yellow subtitles for the poem text this time because I wanted to do something different. Let’s say it reflects the pollen in the poem. WIKIPEDIA SAYS THE LOGANBERRY WAS ACCIDENTALLY CREATED IN 1881 IN SANTA CRUZ, BY THE AMERICAN JUDGE AND HORTICULTURIST JAMES HARVEY LOGAN
Comments
Post a Comment