Month: November 2021

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A New, To Me, Poetic Form

carolyncordon

I am quite fond of the shorter poetic forms, such as Haiku, Senryu, and Tanka, which are 3, 3, and five lines respectively. All three are Japanese forms and while these forms in Japan are not exactly the same as Western poets understand those forms to be. It’s complicated.

There have been many wise words written about those poetic forms, and I’m not the person to have that discussion here. I am instead going to talk about a form called the Tetractys poem. It was ‘invented’ by a man named Ray Stebbings, in the year 2000.

On further research, I’ve actually found a mention of this poetic form back in 2016, when I actually left a comment on the website post it was described in. So my dodgy memory strikes again, ah well … It doesn’t really matter, I’m enjoying giving it a go again!

In that article, which you can read here, if you’d like to, it is mentioned the poem can take on a variety of extended further forms, but at the basic level, it is a short poem of five lines, with this syllable per line count:
one, two, three, four, and ten syllables per line.

And in that article, it is mentioned the whole poem can be about a single thought, exploring it briefly, and then end. I wrote a couple of attempts at this poetic form, before reading that comment, so wasn’t thinking about that aspect of the Tetratcys, but these are my own tries at writing on of them:

Here
tonight,
I wonder
if tomorrow,
knows or even cares, how great this day was?!

I wrote this poem about the writing event I attended yesterday, and it was completely fabulous, so I wanted to immortalise it, forever! Or if not forever, then at least for now! The event was a presenter/poet who spoke interestingly about her writing, and public speaking. The guest was a well known South Australian ABC radio presenter, Annette Marner, who has two recent books, one a novel – “A New Name For The Colour Blue”, the other a poetry collection – “Women With Their Faces On Fire”. Both are awarded works of literature, and I heartily recommend you try to get a copy, and read them. Both are published by Wakefield Press.

This is the second poem I wrote:

This
is not
anything
deep, meaningful,
OK? It’s just maths, mashed with words. Art? Shrug …

So on re-reading my two poems, I can see both are in in keeping with what this poetic type is supposed to be, a single thought, explored a little. And to be honest and not wanting to brag, I quite like them both, but with a preference for the second one.

I’d love to know what you think about this form, and my words written about it. And of course, I’d love you to comment on my own poems, of course! Whether you like my work or not, the truth as you see it, is what I want to read!

Thank you.

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My Anthology To Be Now Has A Title!

carolyncordon

OK, it’s still only a working title, and the final title once closer to publishing time may change. But the fact of finally settling on a working title makes this project feel more real to me, which means I can put more effort into making it happen!

So the working title for my next Anthology is Climate/Change/Climate Change.

It’s Spring, the climate is good, and the mandarins are growing! (author’s photo)

As the editor of this Anthology, I am seeking submissions of Poetry and Prose written in response to Climate, Change, and/or Climate Change. Poems of up to 30 lines, prose of up to 2000 works, and only up to three submissions each of poetry and prose.

The closing date for submission of such works is 1 May 2022. If you have something you wish to be considered for inclusion in this anthology, please send to me as an attachment, at kittycordo@gmail.com.

I would love to read submissions from all around the world. All writers whose work is accepted will receive a free copy of the book, once it is launched, and will be able to purchase further copies, if wanted, at a lower price than recommended retail price.

This book will be launched during the Gawler & Adelaide Plains Festival of Words 2022 (Imagination), as one small event amongst many bigger ones. I hope so anyway. These past years have not been kind to this Festival, with an much bigger program having to be cut back, due to Covid-19 …

Fingers crossed for a vaccination-led recovery for the Festival of Words in Gawler and beyond!

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Why Am I So Thrilled?

carolyncordon

Why, I’ll tell you why I’m so thrilled – I’ve only just put out the word about the new Anthology I have begun working on, and the submissions have already begun arriving!

The theme of my first Anthology was Covid-19, a bit theme for sure, but the combined themes for this next anthology is possible an even bigger one, even if it may seem to be distant, to some people. But with a theme of Climate Change, and Climate, and Change separately, well that takes in Global Warming, and with the seas rising up and trying to swallow up island nations, this theme is one that also has potentially deadly effects.

So, while this anthology is about something I’m not thrilled about happening, I AM thrilled to process of raising concerns and sharing ideas about these matters has begun, and will result in the publication of a book that brings discussion of important notions into the world.

So the stated themes for this anthology are these: ‘Climate, Change, and Climate Change’. Three different things, but perhaps with many possible connections between them. I leave it to the contributors to this call for works, to make any connections, or simply focusing on one single theme, Change perhaps, and make no connections from that to anything larger or more global that the changing of a light globe.

But is even that process of change as simple a thing as seems at first. I remember when light globes were cheaper than they are now, and why did we so easily make the change to the new, more expensive kind? The change to low-energy (LED) light bulbs came in in most countries, and the people have had to make the change, because they were the main option available.

Low energy means less carbon in the world, and that is a good thing, good for the planet, which means good for all. And the higher cost is off set by the fact these LED lights last much for longer than the old incandescent ones we all had in 2006 and earlier. So better for us, and better for the globe yet again.

And of course climate – the prevailing conditions occurring over a long term in weather, or in opinion, etc, this is another important theme to write about. If the climate of opinion on something is that money is the most important thing, what kind of a world does that make for this living at that time? What if the climate of opinion was that the betterment of conditions for all was more important than filling the pockets, of a few?

So these and many more ideas will suit this anthology, and I look forward to reading works that arrive!

Submissions are to be made via this email address: kittycordo@gmail.com and the submission period will go on until 1 May 2022, with the anthology planned to be launched in late July 2022.

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I’m Getting Ready!

carolyncordon

Putting together an anthology takes more time than writing a poetry collection, because an anthology requires submissions for other writers, rather than simply writing your own work/words …

So yes, I have another anthology planned to bring into the world, and to do that I am reaching out to that world, in the hope I will again have a wonderful response from writers from many countries, beyond my country of Australia.

My First Anthology
I’ve produced my first such book, an anthology titled “Plague Invasion” that dealt specifically with the Covid-19 Virus that has caused deaths and problems around the world in 2020 and 2021, and looks like still being a problem for many into 2022 and beyond.

There may now be a vaccination against this Virus, but that is not going to completely end the problem. There are many reasons for this, economic, personal, and others. But as things move ahead, I hope sanity might prevail, but hoping and actuality are far from being the same thing.

The New Anthology
This next anthology, as I have mentioned in a blog post previously, will contain creative writing inspired by three things, three connected things, perhaps, but not necessarily. These three things are:
1/ Climate – works relating to Climate bearing in mind that it refers to a long term pattern, rather than something happening on only one occasion. So Climate is not just the weather on one day, it is the weather happening on a longer period of time, in a particular place, perhaps. Or climate may refer to a workplace, or household, referring to how they can seem on not just one day, but over a longer time. An office for instance may have a happy climate with people working there feeling glad to be working in a place they feel respected, and like to go there every working day.
2/ Change – writing about change in its many and varied ways – nappies get changed, hair styles may change, fashions, the weather changes, we change our clothes at least once a day, we change cars, houses, some people change their gender. Change your mind, change your political views, change your shoes, the colour of your roof, or walls, dye your clothes to change their colour. They are so many things that get changed, write about it, and send it in!
3/ Climate Change – are, this is the biggie, of course. The climate is changing at a faster pace than ever before, according to the ones who’s job it is to know such things. For this section of the anthology, I am looking for opinions, thoughts, ideas, theories about how and why Climate Change is happening, and what can be done about lessening the terrible consequences that can occur.
The weather is changing, the oceans rising, the seasons are bringing more extreme weather, and the consequences more damaging. Hot days can be even hotter, tornadoes worse than ever, bush fires turn into infernos that are totally uncontrollable.

Steps To Make It Happen
Putting the word out, as I’ve begun doing, is a necessary step to make this project happen. I’ve also started thinking about what I will write to go into this anthology, and have in fact written a poem about Climate Change. This is that poem:


Profits Before Prophets?
Scientists’ words telling us
what is on the way,
are ignored

Waters rise,
temperatures too
at speeds faster than before,

and as the world ignores it, 
some people will die,
are dying.

The world warms
while people’s profits
rise faster than rising seas – 

Their bloated bank balances 
more interesting 
to them all

than prophets
of climate change doom,
whose warnings go unheeded

People die, when they could have
been saved, if only
if only …

******
I will be promoting news of this new book in local media, and online, as well as to writers I know through groups I’m involved with. I welcome news of this project to be shared widely with other writers, of people with strong interests in any of the three writing prompts.
I don’t expect there will be much to write about changing the baby’s nappy, but would welcome something funny about such a subject! Even though these are serious subjects, a bit of humour can lighten the sombre ‘climate’ of such a book!


Call To Action
For this anthology, I’m calling of writers to contribute their creative writing, in either poetry or prose, fiction or non fiction, with the same ‘rules’ I used for “Plague Invasion”. That is up to three poems, and three prose pieces, with the poems up to thirty lines, and for the prose pieces, up to 2000 words.
Again, there will be no payment for accepted works, but as with the other anthology, those whose work is accepted will receive a free copy, and will be able to purchase further copies at a lower price than is offered to the general public.
Writers can write about any or all of the three writing prompts. If a writer puts all three of the prompts together in the one piece, I ask that they indicate which of the three they consider to be the most important thing for that particular item.
As you can see, when you read my poem, I wrote about Climate change, and so my poem would go in the Climate Change Section of the Anthology.
It is planned that this anthology will be launched at the 2022 Gawler & Adelaide Plains Festival Of Words (Imagination), which is expected to occur in late July 2022, so to have the anthology ready by then, the closing date for submission of work is 1 May 2022.
I will be accepting submissions for this anthology from now, with such submissions to be emailed to me at this email address: kittycordo@gmail.com – Please put Climate/Change, Climate Change as the subject

If this interests you, I welcome comments and questions, please leave them in the comments section below.


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Back To My Blog Again, It Feels Good!

carolyncordon

I have a new project, another anthology I want to edit, calling for submissions, receiving them, putting them together, then getting the book printed, and launching it.

This will be my second anthology, and I hope it can be as well accepted as my first. The theme for that first book, “Plague Invasion” was deemed by others to be an important historical theme, that would be a reminder of how things were at that particular time/this time, in fact, as we still battle through the trouble the Covid-19 Virus has brought to the world.

So now I’m thinking about another big theme, one that is devastating some areas of the globe, particularly island nations who are facing possibly terrible consequences from their homes disappearing under the water, as the results of Climate Change threaten them with flooding.

This is only one problem Climate Change may bring, there are many, and that is what I wish contributors to explore in their submissions to this new anthology I’ve begun working on Medium – see here: https://kittycordo.medium.com/ my blog and other forms of my writing are missing out, to some extent.

But I have the fire in my belly again, and this new anthology is going to bring me strongly back to my blog, and my own creative writing that is likely to end up in an actual book, not something online, out in the ether, and perhaps unseen to most …

So if you’re reading this and you have any thoughts about Climate Change, or Climate in general, or about Change, why not check out my previous blog post here, and submit something to me for my next anthology!