Category: Uncategorized

Uncategorized

WordPress Is Annoying Me …

carolyncordon

I did something a little bit different to my WordPress blog, this one, and now my WordPress Blog has done something a little bit different back at me.

C’est la vie I tell myself. It will sort itself out, and the reality is that while I enjoy blogging, there are more that just that one form of writing to get my word out to the world. I can write things for the newsletter (Mallala Crossroad Chronicle), I edit, produce, have printed, and distribute every month, or I could write more poems for another possible collection. Or I could write one of the two books I’m currently either working on, or thinking about.

So if I wanted to, I could do any of those other things, and there are so many other things I love or at least like to do, that have absolutely no need for me to proficiently use WordPress, or even have a bog of any description.

I prefer actual people more than the internet anyway, real people who laugh, drink coffee, write wonderful words, or no words at all! And plants, the blue sky, those clouds up there, no need for any blog, to be able to enjoy any of those things.

So a message to WordPress, you may have beaten me over this particular issue, but I am much stronger than you think, and I will work out where I went wrong, eventually, and get it all sorted out.

But right now there are many things that I am much more interested in than that! So instead of letting this minor annoyance build into anything bigger, I will leave this blog post, and have my lat lunch and read an actual book!

So nyah, nyah, nyah to you WordPress – you can’t beat me, I have books, and coffee, and yummy food!

Uncategorized

Not All Poems Need To Be Shared With All

carolyncordon

Yesterday was a big poem writing day for me, and I don’t know when, or if, the poems I wrote will be widely shared. So poems may have only one reader who will understand the poem written. But that one person may be the perfect person to read a poem, and find solace, or understanding, or relief from the poem and that is what many of us wish to give …

Author’s photograph

I’ve written some poems, and published them in a collection, that had a limited audience, but those who understood, and felt the truth of my poems, were exactly the kinds of people I was writing for. And those people may well be the ones who will understand the poems I wrote yesterday.

So for that to happen, I’ll need to share the words, carefully, and hope my intent is understood, as one to assist in healing, not trying to rip sheds of skin from already damaged people.

Touching on damages done, can hurt people, but ignoring the truth of that damage can destroy them. I hope my writing is always felt to be understanding, and healing. ‘damaged children, Precious Gems’, a blog, and a poetry collection, have been the way I’ve gone with my poetry in the past, and I have a feeling that blog, and at readings from that poetry collection, may be where I eventually share these recent poems I have written.

Or perhaps it may be that I am the person to gain healing from the writing of these poems, and they are never shared more widely at all. And that is fine. Therapeutic writing is definitely a thing that works, it has done so for me in the past, and does for other people all around the world – it has in the past, does in the present, and will into the future.

Words work, in many ways.

Uncategorized

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.

Uncategorized

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!

Uncategorized

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.