I like writing prompts, a lot. So when I saw this challenge, ‘EIF Poetry Challenge’ I gave it a good look. Sonnets are lovely. With a sonnet, you know what you’ve taken on. There will be only 14 lines, with a set number of ‘beats’ in set places, and there will be a rhyming scheme of a particular kind (one of two, actually, but not terribly different from each other.
So, the call for a sonnet, how could I resist? The person calling for sonnets is someone I know, as much as one ‘knows’ people online. She had got on board with something I’m working on, and so adding all of this together, of course I’d get a sonnet into the action.
When I got myself ready for this EIF Poetry Challenge, I’d intended looking into a sonnet I might already have, but the keyboard called to me, and changed my mind. It was time to write a new sonnet. And so, in accordance with instructions, here is my sonnet.
I hadn’t necessarily meant to write a poem about Covid-19, but that’s the main thing these days, isn’t it? And that’s the way it went, but with a possibly different slant on it, and bringing another ‘big thing’ into the action. A thing that may or may not be connected.
This is my new sonnet:
No Decent Reason … What on Earth is the reason, for this disease? A rhetorical question, but is there a ready answer? Is it response for doing whatever we please? Have we become Nature’s deadliest cancer?
We’re killing things with barely any restraint – With no regard for damage that we’ve caused, Murdering creatures – no avenue for complaint Wanting things right now. If only we’d paused …
Covid-19 a symptom of devastations, Inflicted on habitats, trees cut down. Some put all the blame on developing nations, But the destroyer here is the big end of town …
How do you explain to a little kid, The selfish reasons for what us oldies did …
At the moment, I have a big writing project going. This project, an anthology, is topical right now, and will be for some time to come. The book is well on the way to being finished, and then printed, launched, and sold, with me making back the money it cost to produce, at every step. Or not, I don’t really know, of course.
But in my mind, I feel this book had to come into the world, and I can afford the production of the book, without any worries at all. Even If I don’t sell any copies at all, it won’t send me broke. So this book is going well, I’m loving it, and I just need to do the finishing off stuff, and send it to my printer.
So now is the time to start thinking about new book projects, right? Well, yes, perhaps, but I already have another book project, begun last year, or perhaps before that really, that I want to work on as well. But now still doesn’t feel like the right time for that particular project. These current times still feel too fraught, to me, to focus on a book project that is a fluffy bit of silliness.
These are serious times, and I feel it’s a time for me to be working on serious things, with my writing. So my mind is looking at possible books to shift to, once the anthology is done and launched, then marketed, a bit … (Marketing pfft, who likes that side of the ‘being a writer’ thing!)
three of my books
Anyway, ideas … my brand new best ever idea for today is something to do with intuition. It started with a name, and a google search, then shifted to other, related ideas, and now I’m sitting here, laptop on lap, writing this blog post about it. But I have other things I have to do almost right now, and as soon as I finish this blog post, I do them. Then after that, there will be a game of Scrabble, at some stage, and then, and then …
That new idea for today may drift away, the way the clouds do, up there in the sky, full of water vapour, but drifting past, and not producing anything at all, beyond a shadow perhaps, if they come between the sun and me. Idea, I have a few, but then again, to few to mention? Haha. Goodbye, time to feed the dog!
I’ve begun thinking it may be time to get on with a new writing project, something different to my current, big project, one that is different to that current project, in many ways.
So my current project is working on an anthology, where I’ve asked for the work of others, to come to me, so I can work with those words, and make a beautiful book. The book will be “Plague Invasion – Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19”. An important book, for sure, an historical book, that will be a record of what people have been doing, thinking, and writing about in this difficult time.
But with that project at a waiting stage (waiting for what? Waiting for me to work out what the next step was), I’ve been thinking about putting some of my thoughts about what life was all about, into a book, a new book. Writers write, editors edit, and those you do both of those things, well they self-publish …
Three of my self-published books
I know how to write, how to put a book together, and I know a printer who knows me, and has worked with me on most of my self-published books. I trust him, and he does a good job. Marketing is a problem, for many writers who have to take on that role, but writing and getting the writing made into a book, what a lovely time that is. But marketing the book … It has to happen though, doesn’t it? If you want to sell your new book, you have to show it to people.
And of course, having a blog, obviously, that is useful, to show your work, your words, to other people. So here I am, talking about my previous books, my current book-in-progress, and the one that may come after the current book. I’ve written about a number of different things. In the photo above we have “Mick Jane and Me”, which is a memoir talking about my life with Multiple Sclerosis. And “Precious Gems” is there too, a poetry collection about child sexual abuse, and other abuse too. And then, for something completely different, is “Dig It!”, an amusing little book with illustrations I created with my clever friend Ally Hean who did the pictures.
All mine, all self-published, and all available too, if you’re interested in having a copy go to this page and find out how. So books are my thing, books and words. If only marketing was as natural to me … I’m trying though, and if anyone out there would like to have me talk to a group about my writing, I certainly am a natural at doing that, for sure. I can talk about anything, in interesting, and amusing ways, if I’m asked, and it’s something I love doing!
Libraries, service groups, school students, I’ll happily talk to them about writing, poetry, and my books! Once upon a time, I was a shy and retiring little mouse, who never said boo to a goose, now, talk, talk, talk, I can go on for as long as I’m asked to, and I’ll be interesting, informative, and maybe even funny!
So my next book, that began this blog post, has a working title, which will not be its final title (Life Is …), and it has some chapter headings. five of them, in fact. And some of those chapters have brief notes on what they may be about. And of course, I’ve just remembered, I actually have another book-in-progress, which still seems unlikely to become my ‘current work-in-progress’ still, the first in a series of murder mysteries. Time still feel to fraught for that one.
Although, there’s the next book in the Buster the Dog series, that began with “Dig It!”, nd that one will not be a serious book, but a funny one about Buster the Dog, and McTavish the Cat, and the troubles they have learning how to live in the same house, after Buster’s ‘owner’ finds a new woman in his life, and moves in with her (and her cat). At the moment, this is still a project to come, as I’ll be writing it with my friend Janette, who is doing the McTavish side of the story, and both of us are working on other things.
And thinking about that thought, I almost had a title for that next book, but it drifted in and then drifted out again, before I could write it down … Ah well, if it’s a good enough idea, hopefully it will drift back in, and I’ll write it down next time! Words come and go, don’t they? Words and thoughts, good ones, so so ones, terrible ones. And the title of that book may well depend on something that will come,and be appropriate when I’m writing the book. Time will tell … Hmm, Time Will Tell – could that be the title? Haha, who knows I have to write the book first!
I’ll be going to the printer whose services I’ve used in the past, for my self-published books, and if I get the chance to, I’ll talk to him about my current writing project. I’m very aware the visit is not for me, it’s for my friend Pam, with her brand new, first ever book. A very exciting time for her, and for me too, because using this printer was at my suggestion.
I love it when I give people and they take the advice, and good things happen! I expect her book to be beautiful, and I’m very much looking forward to actually seeing it, and reading the words. New books for new writers, that’s always an exciting thing!
So, as I said, if I get the chance to, I’ll talk to this printer, and if I don’t get the chance (I won’t hijack the conversation for my own book!), then I can make an appointment, to talk about the book I’m working on, at a later stage. It isn’t ready to go to the printer yet, I haven’t reached the closing date I put on receiving submissions by.
Books are great, aren’t they? New books and new writers, lovely!
I have always been the President of the Adelaide Plains Poets group, ever since we started back in 2004/05. And my other role in the group has always been than of Competition Secretary. I’ve always loved having the opportunity to read all of the entries that come in for the competition, for free, Woohee!
I’m even gladder that it isn’t my role to pick the winners, because, we certainly get some excellent entries, and it would be so hard to choose between them. Certainly, perhaps because I know who the entrants are, and it’s difficult to get that out of the head, if you know it.
This is why have the judges not knowing who each entrant is, or where they come from, is such a good idea. There is not bias based on familiarity, and each poem is judged on its own merits.
So this years competition is over, all that is left is to hand over the entries to the two judges, and for them to make their decision on first, second and third, plus Highly commended and Commended awards, as and if they see fit to award them. I haven’t thought, this year about which poem I like the best, so I can’t be disappointed on behalf of an unlucky poet!
The judges we’ve had have never picked a bad choice though, and I know them and have the utmost faith in their ability to choose the best poem, in their own point of view. That’s what their role is, and that’s what they do!
It is hoped the winners can be announced at the Gawler and Adelaide Plains Festival of Words, at the end of July, but things have been a bit strange so who knows …
Carolyn Cordon - Creative 