Author: carolyncordon

Wife, mother, Poet, Writer, Art Installationist, Stand Up Comedian, Dog Enthusiast. Spending most of my time being creative in a variety of sometimes quirky ways! I have suffered in my life, I have had wonderful things occur in my life. Concentrating on the wonderful things makes it easier for me to live a great life.
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Making The Most Of Things …

carolyncordon

Everything that happens to a person can and probably will be judged by them. It’s up to all of us to make the call, is it a good thing, or a bad thing? We decide.

At the moment, I’m healing from the effects of a fall. I’d name that fall as a bad thing, for sure, but it wasn’t my worst ever. i’m still feeling pain as a result of the fall, several days later, but it’s getting better.

And it has given me ideas I may be able to use in my writing, and in fact have been using, in my blogs, and on social media. I’m wondering whether this experience may be used to ‘beef up’ my cosy murder mystery that I began some time ago, adding real life experiences to make it seem more real …

And this quiet time, well, it’s not the worst thing in the world, that’s for sure. Rest and rehabilitation leads to thinking about life, what is important, what isn’t, and what will be the best things to get done, once I’m getting back into a more active life.

And at least this sprained thumb isn’t as difficult to deal with the broken ankle I had at my previous serious fall. I haven’t even had this thumb bandaged up, although that may have been a good idea. It wasn’t spoken of when I was at hospital on the day it happened, but I’ve been thinking it might have been a good thing.

But resting quietly at home for the most part is fine, something I enjoy, looking outside at the sky, and he trees and smaller plants outside, very pleasant! So I honestly can say the results of this fall, while painful, aren’t all bad …

This is the link to my fundraising page here

The biggest part of my fundraising will happen at the event where I will be launching my new Poetry collection “Leonard Cohen Is Dead”, which I hope will be a well accepted new book, because I feel this may be my best book yet!

And even though I may be slowed down at the moment, I’ve still been able to think about what I need to do when I get out and about again. Slower times, can give more opportunity for considered thought, and that’s always a good thing!

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May Is A Big Month For Me!

carolyncordon

And I mean big in my life in a few different ways, one good, one not so good others possibly good.

The good one, is the most exciting one. That is about having my new poetry collection launched at the end of May! I sent a draft copy of my collection to the person who is going to launch the collection for me, and he wrote:
“Congratulations on your book. Very powerful read.”

That is a good start to a book being popular, I hope. This person, Martin Johnson, is well known in Gawler, as poet, musician, and all round fine community member, and I’m thrilled he accepted my invitation The not so good to launch this poetry collection for me. He also is going to put one of the poems in the column he has in the Bunyip which the local weekly newspaper.

The not so good thing, was probably a bad thing, but there are points to it. I’ll explain. The day before yesterday, I took our dog, Lenny, for a walk. But when we were getting closer to the turn around point, but not quite there, I heard thunder, and a very light rain started. So Lenny and I went home, without reaching my required distance for the day.

So I let Lenny in, then went out the back, to walk the length of our back veranda, up and down, undercover, and out of the rain, which got a bit heavier. I got the steps up, then decided to head back inside. But no, that didn’t happen, instead I fell over, onto my knees, and left hand, and hitting my left temple quite hard on the concrete ground. I must have landed hard on my left thumb, because it was so painful, I was worried I may have broken bones in there, Ouch!

So while extra steps are good for a person, that’s only if the walking isn’t interrupted with falling … This latest fall included an ambulance ride to the Gawler Hospital again and then lots of hanging round …

There was pain too, with a sprained thumb, of all things! A small sprain, but painful, and limiting in terms of being able to do some things. It’s getting better now though, slowly. My face, from where I hit the concrete is looking worse, but that injury is nowhere near as painful as the thumb injury is.

And while I haven’t been doing any more exercise I expect that will happen again soon, by next week anyway. And I have a lot of work to get done for my fundraising activities this month, raising money for the MS Society SA & NT, ‘Wear Red For A Reason’.

I’ve put my box of items for the fundraising that will begin in person tomorrow, and I will order copies of my book for purchase at the book launch later today, so I should get them by next week, in plenty of time for the launch!

I’m happy for some quieter times for a while, but I’ll be able to show off my new book to the members of my writing group tomorrow, as long as I remember to put my new copy of it in the car before I head off to Gawler for the meeting!

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What I’m Working On Today …

carolyncordon

I’m a writer, which means I write. But a writer, if they want to improve their art.craft, also must live, and learn, about life in the broadest of senses, and also in the most miniature and closely observed sense. They can then bring those closely observed tropes and treasures to the writers’ writing.

So to that end, today, as I’ve been editing the first draft of a poem written yesterday, in the hope of this second draft perhaps being included in my next poetry collection, I’ve been listening to the the Labor Party’s Better Future talks, with many fine words spoken, knowing these speeches were written by fine writers.

I hope such inspiring things may rub off on me, and I may insert such passion into my words. That poem I’m working on, will, I hope be included in the poetry collection I’ve been working on, in an off and on manner, as I created the poetry collection I will be having launched at the end of this month, on 29 May, the collection titled ‘Leonard Cohen Is Dead’, that will be a full sized collection.

The poem I’m working on today, will be in a much smaller collection, a chap book with a ‘clever’ title which I’ll talk about another time, and it contains some interesting poems, about things that interest me. choosing to write about things that interest me, means I can write with more passion, and interest, I hope.

I don’t write about things that are ho hum to me personally, because I can’t feign passion, where there is none. Passion comes from within, when we look deeper into our minds, and follow the lines of ideas, to considerations, to results …

And as I’ve been listening to our probable next PM, I have finished the second draft of that poem, which has the working title of ‘Meanings In Puddles’, and having read it, I feel needs another edit, and then, after draft number three, may become something special. I hope so anyway!

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Another thing I’m working on today, is the relationship I have with our new dog, Lenny. He is an adult greyhound, and while I want to love him dearly, the two of us aren’t there yet. So I will be taking Lenny for a walk quite soon, perhaps driving somewhere, to get to the place we’ll be having our walk, because it seems Lenny prefers being driven, over actually walking particularly far …

As a racing greyhound, and the necessary training to be good (which he was, earning stake-money for his owner), well, to be a good racing Greyhound, you have to do the work, which means walking and running to build up strength and better ability.

And me, with my Chronic Illness of Multiple Sclerosis, well, keeping active and mobile means I will be better able to keep on being active and mobile! If I’m going to be standing up and reading my poetry to others, I need to train myself to speak my words, but I also need to be mobile to get to where I will be presenting my work/words!

Body and mind working together, being better at the first, helps me to be better at the second! ***** Something to report on, in relation to that ‘active and mobile’ thing … I’ve had a trip and crashed down to the ground … Ouch!

Not my best look! ‘writer’s photo’

So there’s been a lot more thinking going on the past few days, and not much ‘mobility’ happening. I’ve been writing online, on Medium, and talked about the accident here: so it sure isn’t a good look, but it is nowhere near as painful as my thumb, my left thumb, which was sprained, as talked about in that article on medium

And because I had that fall, and time waiting at the local hospital, I’m feeling disconnected in some part, from what I’d wanted this post to be about, such is life!

poetry

Book Is Becoming More Real!

carolyncordon

When I sent off the manuscript to my chosen publisher, I wasn’t sure whether it would be accepted. I wasn’t unsure about the quality of what I’d submitted, but books can be rejected for a variety of reasons, beyond quality if the work/words.

It this new poetry collection was accepted, and the process of the publisher turning my poems and additional material into an actual poetry collection with a cover has begun!

Today that publisher, Gunninderra Press, sent me an image for possible use as the image for the front cover, and my next book is suddenly feeling even more real!

This next poetry collection is going to be my absolute best collection ever, and I feel I could never produce another one, and it wouldn’t matter, this poetry collection is perfection in poetic form! Or perhaps I’m kidding myself?

No, Stephen Matthews from Ginninderra Press likes it, and I trust his judgement, so this book-to-be is a good one! Isn’t as good as I feel it is at the moment? Only time will tell, but I’m happy with how this book looks and reads!

I’ve been working with Stephen a little bit about some of the non poetry bits and pieces of the book today (via email), and in the pit of my tummy, I can feel excitement is beginning to grow!

The actual putting together of the book is still not finished and so it usn’t printed yet, but there is an image for the front cover considered and approved of by me. So it is certainly looking like I will have an actual book to read from at the book launch, and copies to sell too, this is one of my favourite stages of this process, when I see my book being read by others!

The act of writing a poem can feel frustrating at times, trying to find a publisher can feel difficult if not impossible, and marketing, especially with a self-published book is horrid, but book launches are fun and joyous occasions!

So keep working on ‘LEONARD COHEN IS DEAD’ Stephen, so this new book will be ready to be launched at the end of May!

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Blogging About My Next Poetry Collection?

carolyncordon

Blogging about poetry, interesting? I hope so! Now I’m wondering, could I write a poem about blogging, or even lots of poems about blogging, a whole collection’s worth?

Back to the subject of this blog post, regarding my next poetry collection. It’s underway, written, submitted, and has a back blurb written. Now it just needs to finish off the editing, get looked at by me for approval of the proof copy, and then it gets printed!

In case you’re interested, the title of this new collection is ‘Leonard Cohen Is Dead’, because that is the title of the first poem in the collection, and it’s an attention grabbing title, isn’t it? I wrote further about getting this collection to the ‘published’ stage here, which may be of interest to poets who have had a collection published, or would like to have one published.

My ideas about this are my own, and different people may get to that point in different ways. Some of the bits may be the same though, and it has worked well for me, on this occasion, and previously, in slightly different ways perhaps … But until you try it, you won’t know the best way you have for getting that collection published, yourself.

I haven’t always had my work published by actual publishers, but most recently, that is the way I’ve been going with my poetry recently, and it’s been ‘working for me’, as in, books get produced, and I get some money out of it all! The connections with readers are always the most important thing for me, though. I love sharing my words with people!

A Poem About Blogging?
A poem or a blog post, that is the question –
One a mere slice, a taste, or is it more?
A poem can be so small, but so deep,
an oceanā€™s worth of words, in a thimble
of meaning, and truth ā€¦

A blog post, can be a brief piece too,
but it may connect with hordes of readers,Ā 
internet surfing, and include so much –
research, images, links, commentsĀ 
from interested others

Which is best, is it a contest of words?
Worth and value, trite words or true?
Or is it simple fact, all words can win?
This is the way I see it, for sure, all words
are worthy to me!

********************************

That little poem just cropped up yesterday, and I finished it today. I’m posting it here, on this blog post to show, perhaps what a poem can do, in few words, that would usually use many more words, in a blog post. And while I don’t consider this little poem to be my best work ever, I feel it does show the difference, between the two forms of writing.

And it was easier for me to express my point in that poem, that the truth is that I consider words, all of them, to be the best thing, in whatever form/genre they are presented. And if you are reading this piece, what to you think? Are you a word lover too? I won’t be surprised if you say yes!

And going back to the heading for this blog post, I am sure most of the poems in my next poetry collection, which is titled “Leonard Cohen Is Dead”, are far more worthy, and worked on, than the poem above this. But the poem up there has done what I wanted it to do, to give an example to further the point I wanted to make …

So that task is done, and so it is time for me to finish off, lest this short blog post out stay its welcome! Please leave a comment, if you have anything to say about blogging, or poetry, or words in general!