Singing as the Darkness Lifts

    A TRIP TO LONDON TOWN     Listening Link This morning the air brings me the notes of new carpet off gassing in a Premier Inn and mixes in essence of chilled seaside town air. A soundtrack of traffic plays like urban waves in the background.   Alt text says this week’s photo is a person holding a book in front of a bookcase. I say it is me visiting the National Poetry Library in London and not being able to resist a photo with my second full collection of poetry Welcome to the Museum of a Life published by Black Eyes Publishing UK . I also say this feels particularly apt given that I am a guest on Helen O’Neill’s Coach Write podcast this week. We had a wonderful chat about coaching, poetry and the journey to having books in the world, and it felt good to be a guest. I like listening to people talk on podcasts and I like being asked to talk too. It also makes me chuckle that the episode will air on the first of April!   The mai...

    A DAFFODILESQUE DALEK, THE FIRST MOW AND THE MUSE   This morning the air mingles the scent of warm Premier Inn and fresh grass into a cloudy mix.   Alt text says this week’s photo is a yellow flower in the grass. I say it is my shadow featuring a midforehead daffodil. I also say I was rather hoping to create a daffodilesque dalek photo. I guess it is distinctly unlikely that alt text would come up with that description even if the photo was on point, but perhaps I also didn’t pull it off quite as I had planned. It was fun though and it was taken during my daffodil noticing/clear my head/have a think walk one sunny morning last week.   Jobs have been calling to me this week... “Look, the sun’s shining, if you clean me you can hang the washing out.” was the cry from the washing line. “You feel better with a haircut – what about us?” the mini lawns were imploring.   And at the same time my energy levels were feeling a little depleted, so reba...

STUNT GIRL  Listening Link This morning the air is delightfully fresh. I sense spring and I feel the contrast of what I breathe this morning with the city air I breathed at the weekend. It is wonderfully refreshing to stand still in the new day.   Alt text says this week’s photo shows a person smiling holding a book. It does indeed! And it is me, wearing a Stunt Girl t-shirt, holding a copy of Safety in Numbers .   Once when wearing this t-shirt I was asked by a stranger what my stunts were. I answered with, “I eat fire whilst unicycling.” This had them leaning in with, “Really?” before we both stood in a moment of disappointment as I admitted that this was in fact an untruth. This interaction, and the fact that I have also been asked if I am a trapeze artist, came to mind when I was writing the poem that I would submit to the Safety In Numbers project.   Each of the poets involved in the project, which was designed by Gill Connors, was sent a poem a...

THIS MORNING, WOOD PIGEONS   PodBean Listening Link This morning, wood pigeons are sounding their calls and I remember them heralding in the sunny days of my youth. The air carries definite hints of spring, and I call the scent raw floral as I am transported back to my time of harvesting daffodil bulbs. Last night’s mist has cleared and the day is beginning to be seen.   Alt text says this week’s photo is a group of books on a patterned surface. I say it is three elements of the post I received on Saturday. I also say it is an absolute delight (and indeed a rarity) to receive three wonderful things in the post on the same day. It also tied in well with my recent thoughts about surprise and anticipation. (More about the excellent book Safety In Numbers soon, but if you have read it or been to any of the launches so far you will know it is a thing of beauty. I heartily congratulate Gill Connors on bringing this book into the world.)   I’ll delve a bit into anticip...

BREATHING THE SCENTED AIR   PodBean Listening Link This morning a chorus from herring gulls welcomed in the morning, and the wind is swirling and mixing the scents of flowers and green.   Alt text says this week’s photo is a person holding a drink and a plate of food. I say it is me enjoying a sit down in a café at Chester Zoo with a drink and a doughnut after visiting a range of animals including a gorgeous tapir that seemed pleased that I told it that I thought it was gorgeous.   The first of March brought sunshine and gifted the perfect day to walk round The Great Orme in Llandudno. There were plenty of fresh smells to delight the senses for my sister and I. After the foodie smells from the doughnuts and onions on the pier, we had the herby scent of grass and gorse mingling with the fresh sea air as we headed round the coastal edge. There was a moment of pure contrast when a strong smell of fish puffed up from the cove below us where we had stopped t...

I SEE BLUE SKY   PodBean Link for those who like to listen This morning the air holds the scent of green and unfurling. The birds are well awake when I step outside and are singing to each other of a new day to be in, seemingly unbothered by the wind.   Alt text says this week’s photo is a tree with no leaves. I say it is blue sky framing the branches of a tree, and that it delighted my heart to be walking under it.   After last weekend’s yarn show I set myself a catching up kind of a week. The kind where sparkly conversations with good friends featured amongst time to tackle admin type things and time to see if the poems that wait patiently in the draft folder are ready for polishing. The kind of week without a particular routine which allowed for resting and for seizing the moment when there was a gap in the rain to take a daily stroll.   It was good to get out for daily walks again after having recently had to wait for my cough to diminish. I felt ...

NO KISS ME QUICK HAT     Listening Link This morning the air is cold and brings the scent of bark. The birds are singing to welcome in the day, and one short daffodil holds its trumpet proudly aloft on the front lawn.   Alt text says this week’s photo is two women smiling for a selfie and indeed it is. It is Kath and I in a corridor in a hotel in Blackpool the night before a yarn show.   I have decided that Blackpool will be one of those places that is ‘snapshots in time’ for me, and this week I have added a cabaret singer in a hotel to my ‘album’. Staying away for Kath’s work saw us in a hotel in Blackpool for a couple of nights and on Friday night we wandered down for the onsite entertainment. We had not planned to do this and had no knowledge of anything other than there was going to be something happening. When we got there, we got the treat of a person singing a wonderful range of familiar and well-loved songs. It was great to be in the audi...

  UNDER A BLANKET     Listening Link This morning the air is simply cold. I am unable to detect anything other than cold and fresh. The fresh feels revitalising.   Alt text says this week’s photo is a person with a scarf behind her face. I say are you sure you want me to try to decipher that description. I also say it is me sitting on my chair with the blanket I have been spending a lot of time under lately. The blanket is a hexi-flat blanket made by my lovely wife from leftover yarn from a range of different projects. It holds the colours and memories of socks and blankets and shawls and jumpers. And this week it has helped me to be cosy and weighted during a week that featured a persistent sore throat and general feelings of yuckiness.   Progress measures this week have included three distinct stages of biscuit thoughts: 1.     Actively disliking the thought of a biscuit. 2.     Not wanting a biscuit,...