Category: poetry

inspiration, poetry

Responding to a Writing Challenge

carolyncordon

I have recently put together a new book of poems, all responses to breaking my ankle recently. I’ve written about this new book, titled “Angles on Ankles” both on this blog, and also on this one & this one as well. The book is going to be launched very soon, by a poet friend, John Malone, who is also a blogger, who posts regularly on his own blog, and sometimes comments on mine.

So when John suggested to me that now that my ankle is getting better and better, I could perhaps write poems about the good news, as I formerly wrote about the bad news. So, I thought, nah. Then I thought, well why the heck not? If I can write some poems about the good news regarding my ankle, that might indeed be a good thing.

So, having written that, I can now reveal that I have indeed written a good news  poem about my steadily improving ankle. And I’m thinking about other ideas for more possible poems I could write, celebrating the good news about my Right Ankle!

And because I believe a poem without an audience is a sad thing, here is my first good news poem about my ankle:

 

On the Road to a Resolution

The way is winding, like the bandages

formerly wrapped around my lower leg,

holding together the good work done.

 

Bandages gone now, medical procedures

completed, recovery now my task,

not someone else’s … Can I do it?

 

So far, yes, actually. I’m exercising 

daily – physio and others, as diligently 

as those former procedures were done.

 

Early days yet – these things, bones

healing, body and mind confidence

emerging, slowly, but surely, I hope …

 

Are balance and strength increasing? 

I hope so, yes – falling over isn’t on my

New Year’s Eve list of things to do!

 

So, the first of my new poems about my Right Ankle, is now revealed, is it a good poem? Who really knows. I hope writing this one makes it easier to write more, and if I can get some thoughts and feedback, who knows which direction/s my further poems might travel?

Therapeutic creative writing is definitely a favoured genre of mine, as and when needed, and it was definitely needed with my ankle, it helped to keep my mind active, when I had to just sit, and not put any weight on my right foot. Writing is a way to find out what the brain is thinking, when we’re not paying attention to it!

So if you have anything to say about this, please leave a message, I’d love to chat here with you about it!

poetry, Writing

My Beautiful, Broken Ankle

carolyncordon

I am a woman, middle aged, no raving beauty, for sure, but the sight of me certainly doesn’t frighten children. My ankle though, my right ankle, that is a beautiful thing! I’m not an expert on ankles, but I know more about them now, than I used to know, because I’ve discovered more about ankles, in particular broken ones, than I knew before I broke my right ankle on AFL grand final day at the end of September this year..

My broken ankle was certainly not a thing of beauty, when I fell, and, on landing, and in twisting the ankle, broke two bones of my ankle, the tibia and the fibula. It was a twisted and painful thing, something of horror. The pain I felt when I broke my ankle was the most extreme pain I had ever previously felt.

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Now though, after three ambulance rides, three hospitals visited, an operation, and some fine nursing, it has all come together, to mend the break, and with some fine further work from my podiatrist and physio, I can honestly say when I look at my right ankle now, it is no longer an ugly twisted thing, but a soft, supple joint, that, even though is not as flexible as my left ankle, it is definitely now fit for the purpose of walking, with or without the help of a walking stick.

I have worked on my ankle, obeying the instructions from the surgeon and podiatrist, as well as the physio. These are the people who definitely do know a lot about ankles, and the healing of ankles that are in need of work.

My x ray I had taken recently, before seeing the surgeon who operated on my ankle, is beautiful too, with the surgeon extremely happy with how things are going. When I read of others afflicted with broken ankles, I can honestly say the way my right ankle has healed since I broke it just nine weeks ago, is a beautiful thing indeed!

And to add to the beauty and positiveness of it all, I have, in my time of needed rest and rehabilitation, written a small poetry collection, written, edited, published and now ready to be launched and made available to the world.

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Yes,”Angles on Ankles”, will be launched just after Christmas, the perfect late gift for anyone who has had physical injuries, that kept them resting, and healing! Whether a broken ankle, or any other physical mishap, there will be something of interest in this little collection for everyone!

The collection will be launched by popular South Australian poet, John Malone, at the P/A Hotel in Gawler, on 29 December, at 1.45 PM, just before the usual Gawler Poets at the Pub event, with Carolyn Cordon as the Guest Poet. There will be much happiness, and a possible showing of scars, to anyone interested!

Carolyn Cordon

poetry

Getting Back To It!

carolyncordon

Sometimes life will give you a proverbial kick in the guts, and what you thought you would be working on until completion, has to take a back seat. This doesn’t mean that project isn’t important, or won’t be worked on, it simply means something else is more important at that particular time.

I know what this is like, because recently it has happened to me, and even though my Cozy Murder Mystery series was taking up much of my thought processes, in August and September this year, something bigger hit me, and I ended up writing, and having published, something else entirely.

It was a big thing, and there was nothing I could do to change things around. I fell over and broke my right ankle, needing an operation to fix it, and then a healing and rehabilitation period of two months. In that rehab time, I wasn’t thinking much about cozy murder mysteries, I was thinking about ankles, and healing.

I didn’t give up writing though, not at all. What I did was write a series of poems about aspects of broken bones, healing, the things I saw and went through as my ankle mended. It’s all more or less fixed now, my ankle, and I now have a completed book, a chap book of poetry related to my broken ankle!

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This chapbook is titled “Angles on Angles”, and I am so pleased with what I have done! I had to rest (a lot) with my injured ankle resting up high, and that was almost the only thing I could do … I had a nifty ‘Knee Walker” that allowed me to get from sofa, to next point, but it was tiring, and I only moved on if I absolutely needed to.

The making of this little book went smoothly and quickly and I am so pleased the publisher, Ginninderra Press, like this collection and printed it super quickly. So, I now have a new book to launch, and I love book launches, especially when the book is one I have written!

“Angles on Ankles” will be launched at the Prince Albert Hotel in Gawler, South Australia on 29 December at 2pm, and signed copies will be available for $5 on the day. People who have seen this little book have loved it, and the more I look at it, the more I’m loving it too. The pain is fading, and joy in new poems is growing!

They say ‘Write what you know’, and I now know a fair bit about broken ankles! Sometimes “life” is the best theme to write about there is!

poetry

Write What You Know

carolyncordon

I very much believe the writing adage of ‘Write What You Know’. I’ve done this in several of my earlier published books and in my most recent book. I am a poet, I know about writing poems on a vast range of subjects. I feel that my writing group exercises of writing on set topics have helped me with this, a lot.

But writing about the more personal things, things I know because I’ve lived them, these can be the very best of my writing, I feel. And my most recent book, is based on what happens when you have a broken ankle, and I know about this subject, because two months ago, I fell over, and yes, I broke my ankle!

I now know a lot more things about breaking your ankle than I knew before, and because a broken ankle means getting around is difficult, so you spend a lot of time just sitting … But because I’m a poet, I didn’t ‘waste’ that sitting around time, I wrote poetry about it all., instead.

Sitting on the sofa, with my broken ankle up high, to try to reduce the swelling, worked well – the swelling in my ankle is now much reduced, compared to how it was when I broke the ankle. And it also meant I had enough poems to fill a chap book sized publication.

So I put the poems together, asked a publisher I know if they would be interested in seeing my poems, and they said yes! Hooray to that. It turned out a broken ankle was not unknown by one of the people at the publisher, and they were keen to publish my book, “Angles on Ankles”.
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I’m proud of this little book, and am happy to now have copies of the book available for sale, at the very reasonable price of $5 (plus postage and handling). There are 21 poems in this collection (more if you count each of the Senryu in the collection as individual poems). The poems are honest, true to my experience, and I feel are thoughtful gems of wisdom, as I take a poetic look at hospital, healing, rehabilitation, and life.

I’m thrilled that I will be the guest poet at the next Gawler Poets at the Pub event, 2-4 pm on 29 December, where my book will be officially launched by well known South Australian poet John Malone. John didn’t think there were that many things to write about a broken ankle, and I’m glad to have shown him I could come up with many things!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

poetry

My Next Book Launch

carolyncordon

I love book launches, especially when it’s my own book that’s being launched! I’ve never launched this kind of book before, a slim little volume known as a ‘chapbook’ or ‘chap book’.

These books are scaled down versions of poetry collections smaller both in size, and number of poems within the pages. Chap books are excellent for presenting your words to readers at a cost everyone should be able to afford, only $5.00! And they are so small and light, you can easily carry spare copies with you wherever you go, ready for a sale!

If you have a collection of twenty or so poems, all going together nicely why not consider putting them together for the interest of all! You can ask friends along for a coffee, talk about your collection, and then casually reach into your handbag or pocket, and show the book, just like that!

So a chap book doesn’t have to be ‘about’ anything, it can just be random poems, but I think it all holds together better if there is a theme, to be ‘about’ something. So what is my collection about? Well it’s about something painful, and very personal to me. It’s about my right ankle. In particular, it’s about my newly broken right ankle.

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This break happened at the end of September, I fell over and bang, two bones broken in my right ankle, and excruciating pain. Ambulance called, medical things done, hospital to hospital, to hospital, and finally home again. And then foot up, rest, rest, rest, healing happening all of the time.

With all of this rest, the obvious thing for me was to write poems about what was happening, both out of the window near the sofa I was reclining on to rest, foot up to reduce the swelling of my ankle. I wrote about being in hospital, the birds on our front lawn I could see, and a great many other things.

I in fact had over twenty poems, and I had a name for this proposed chap book as well. This book was going to be called “Angles on Ankles”, and it would cover a broad range of subjects related to my broken ankle. I know a publisher who publishes chap books as well as larger books, Ginninderra Press, so I approached them about possibly publishing this book. They were more than happy to have a look at what I’d written.

I sent the poems off, and suddenly, the book was done super quick, like it was meant to be!

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So once a new book comes into the world, the next step after sharing the book with close friends and family is often to launch the book into the greater world, to hold a Book Launch. So I’ve done some sharing with family and friends, and have now begun organising the book launch, at a venue that I know well, and that is happy to have poets there, doing their poetic things.

This venue is the Prince Albert Hotel, in Gawler, a hotel my writing group meets at every week, and one that is the venue for a monthly poetry reading, Gawler Poets at the Pub, held on the last Sunday of the month, every month.

So on the 29th of December, at the Prince Albert hotel, or the P/A as it is known by locals, I will be officially launching “Angles on Ankles”, reading some of the poems from the book, and talking about the whole ‘adventure’ of it all.

Poetry can be written about the most unlikely of subject matter!