Month: February 2019

poetry, Writing

Hmm, Interesting Stuff Happens

carolyncordon

The theme for the #poemadayfeb poetry project today was ‘Beginning’. I had a bit of an idea about what I wanted to write, when I got started on this one, and I more or less produced something that covered what I’d wanted to write.

It seems bigger, and better, though, than I had even hoped, and if this continues to happen like that, for this particular poetry project, I will be one happy little poet, that’s for sure. It’s often said, the more you do something, the better at it you get, and it certainly feels like that’s true, regarding poetry, and other writing genre.

So this, below, is my poem written today, on the theme or prompt, of Beginning.

 

How it can go…

 

As it was in the beginning, so shall it be at the end –

we’re born, we need, we learn, we grow, the family rules.

We live and we continue growing, then, eventually, we know

all we need to know, living in cruise control mode.

 

Changes come, our needs morph, to medical not financial,

enough money, or not, but the money must be spent

to retain our health. We’re shrinking, not growing,

pieces surgically removed, posture slumping.

 

We’re slowing then, many needs lessening, as

dining out at night with lover, becomes friends’ lunch out,

then doctor & hospital is only visit out. We’re sinking

down, ever down, until getting up is our only adventure,

 

& even that may stop, with treatment from strangers,

instead of family visits. Our needs shrink, learning forgotten,

& if family is planning a journey for us, it’s not a trip to Bali,

but to our final destination, via coffin, not plane or cruise ship …

writing exercise

Second Poem a Day for February

carolyncordon

#PoemADayFeb

Today the theme was to write a poem in the poetic form of ‘Cascade poem’. I hadn’t known or written in this style before, although I have written in somewhat similar forms. With the Cascade Poem, the poet is to repeat the lines in the first stanza of a poem, in a particular manner.

In a four stanza poem, in the particular form, the first line of the first stanza becomes the final line of the second stanza. the second line of the first stanza becomes the final line of the third stanza, and the third line of the first stanza becomes the final line of the fourth stanza.

I’ve written my poem in this form now, and coincidentally, the first prompt for this project, ‘Heat’ could also be considered to be a prompt of the poem I write today. When you read my poem though, that may well explain why I wrote about heat again today … It’s currently 40 degrees celsius in the shade, in my backyard … That’s hot!

So here is my new poem, a ‘Cascade’ poem, I hope you like it, I certainly enjoyed writing it!
**************************************************

Ironic times

 

It’s the common subject, we’re all talking about it

Record books ripped up, on Mother Nature’s whim

Is this Climate change? Some still deny its truth

 

They say it’s always been like this, summer is hot

With heatwaves a common thing, always has been

It’s the common subject, we’re all talking about it

 

This summer, the year’s first month, the hottest ever

Climate change deniers must surely now believe?

Record books ripped up, on Mother Nature’s whim

 

Air conditioning sucking up our home’s electricity

As Solar power helps combat sun’s sapping heat

Is this Climate change? Some still deny its truth …

Writing

On Writing a Poem a Day

carolyncordon

I have a friend, a fellow writer, who has put together a list of words, and has challenged others to write a poem a day for the month of February. This list of words was posted on instagram, which I don’t ‘do’, but there was a link on Twitter from this person, and I certainly ‘do’ Twitter. My friend is Kathy Parker, and she is a fine writer, and keen blogger.

The idea is to use the given list for writing prompts, and write a new poem every single day in February based on the day’s prompt. It seemed like a fun challenge to me, so I said, yes, sure I can do that. So today, on the first day of February, and the first day of the challenge, here is my first poem, which I just finished writing. The poem refers to something that happened to me yesterday. I will explain a little about the poem after.

Poem a Day, subject – Heat

 

In the heat of discovery

Thinking on the past, things happened

bad things, good things, so-so things

but this new thing, this wondrous thing

has warmed my heart and my writerly soul!

I thank my former self, my untidy, creative,

even sometimes crazy self, thank you,

thank you, thank you, for this wondrous gift!

A novel written by a past me, hidden away

for some unknown reason, lost? Not sure,

but has reappeared, a first draft, with some

minor changes already on it, and with more

to add, change, explore, and wonder at, as

the future me, thanks the former me,

for losing this novel way back whenever,

for me to find again now, at a time when I am

eager, ready, willing, and able, to work

as needed to turn lost possibility, into found

certainty, as I read this novel and wonder

at the beauty and interest in my forgotten words.

I know this forgotten story, and these characters,

I’m remembering it, this lost story I lived with

 for a time, back in my past, and now I hope

to read this story, edit, it, love it all over again,

and to share this story, with as many others

as I can, as a brand new book, in this new year!

 

So yesterday, as this new poem indicates, I did indeed find a manuscript of a first draft of a novel I wrote many years ago. I’m not sure how many years ago it was, & I’m not sure how I actually came to find this paticular sizable piece of writing, and why I took a look at it, and suddenely remembered it, of course, that story, those characters, hooray, I might be able to do something with this.

The manuscript is printed single spaced, it is 84 pages, and I suspect it may have something like 62,000 words. I’m going to check the going word count required for a book such as this one, before I get to far through the process of reading this story again for the first time since I put it away.

So I’ve just spent half an hour looking at word counts for books, and it looks like the best length is probably somewhere around 80,000 words. My very rough calculations put my novel at 62,000 words, as I wrote earlier. I’ve only just begun reading through my first draft of this book of mine, and I am adding, rather than subtracting from the word count, and I’ve discovered some notes I’ve written, that indicate I will need to add more to the novel to clarify some issues, so that will add further to the word count.

All in all, I am quite excited about all of this. By the way 2019 is looking, I may well actually end up writing at least four whole books in just one year! Woo hoo to me!