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 …
I came up with this semi-random set of writing prompts today, and if I ever run out of things to write about, I know I can look at this list, and there will be something to write about. Surely if I can do this in about half an hour, which includes the time it took to prepare my lunch of bits and pieces that are in that bowl, then I can always finbd things to write about.
If I can do this, can you do it too? How do you find things to write about? Do you struggle with that idea, or is it easy? I’d love to know your answer to the question, please leave your answer in the comments!
My husband (Graham) and I have been playing Scrabble every day or so lately, and while we had almost finished the game in the photo, I had an idea. I often have ideas, some of them big ones, others not so big. Some fun things, some serious ones.
Anyway, I was looking at the various words on the Scrabble board, and thought about what an interesting mix of words we had there. That thought led to the almost inevitable idea of, why don’t I do something with that random mix of words, something fun, for me, and for my writing friends. My writing group and the radio station I’m involved with, have fun with five word challenges, to come up with a winning piece of writing, to win a bottle of wine (for the writing group) or to simply have your words read by someone involved with the PBA FM ‘Words Out Loud’ radio program.
Anyway, my idea is this –
Look at the Scrabble Board, and write something, using as many of these words as possible (perhaps aim at having at least twelve of the words in your piece of writing). Poetry or Prose, Sensible or Silly, Fact or Fiction, go for it! If you write something that leads to an award winning story, or film, please remember where the initial idea came from, and mention my name!
With the blank tiles, one of them is simple – it is a ‘u’ (aqua) and the other is not so simple, it is an ‘e’. You can use the words as they are on the board, or with ‘s’ or ‘ing’ added or removed if you wish , but perhaps no other changes that can’t have been actual words possibly scored for this game. There are a number of ways you may wish to go with this idea. Perhaps you might try writing a piece using only words that are on the board (a very, very short piece of flash fiction). Or you may wish to write something using words from the Scrabble board, but other words as needed, as well. Up to you, of course!
If you enjoy this little writing exercise, please let me know, and I may do it all again, after another game. Graham and I know lots of words, about many, many different things. Some of the words may have been new to one or other of us, and learning new words is always a good thing to come from a good and interesting game of Scrabble!
I’m not saying who won this game, but as far as I can see, on looking back at the scores we have, this game had the highest score for one of the two players, so far. Scrabble is a fun game, and really rewards players who are readers, and who have a wide range of subjects they read about.
I’m going to write a very short piece, using other words as well, and post it in the comments. You might wish to do the same, up to you.
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I ended up with a poem, not a story, but it’s very much a story poem, a narrative poem, scaled right back … I’ve put the poem in the comments section.
These Lock Down times are leading many, many of us to think hard about what we are doing, and ways we could be doing it better. We may be stressing about things, worried about our health, and health of others. We may be having to work and not liking to, or working and wishing we weren’t.
Times at the moment are different for all of us in Western Nations. Things are scaled back, and we are missing out on many things. Some of those things, we may have realised, weren’t as necessary as we’d thought, and we’re learning to manage in other ways. Other things may still feel necessary, and we feel we’re missing out, because we can’t get them.
It may be a time to look at how our pets manage their days. I look at my dog, and from what I’ve seen, her life is more or less the same as it was before Covid-19 came into our lives. The main difference, is that my husband and I are home even more than we were previously. We are both retired from work though, so that’s not that surprising.
At this time of year, my husband would usually be out all afternoon on a Saturday, playing Lawn Bowls, and I would be out on Thursday afternoon at my writing group. We are both now home, instead. And from a dog’s point of view, having the humans at home is always a good thing. Humans mean pats, and food, and the door opened to go out, and then to come back in again.
Missy isn’t that keen on her new ‘friend’, we think it’s cute though!
There will be a time though, when sports happen again, and catching up to have a meeting in a hotel will be allowed. My writing group have been meeting online, and have discovered some interesting differences in how we do our meetings when together in person, rather than together online, some of which are better. There are some troublesome aspects of the online meeting, though, or if not troublesome, then definitely very different.
One thing I feel many of us are missing though, the friendly touches, the hugs, the pat on the shoulder, the smiles and the silly things. You can’t do these things in a virtual world. And if you can’t see each other, you miss out on many nuances of what is happening in a conversation.
Shopping, that’s been a strange thing too. Having supermarkets run out of necessary goods, that was definitely a new, and very much unwanted thing. Will 2020 be remembered as the year we ran out of toilet paper, and couldn’t get any more?
Some of my ‘stash’
My feelings about this time, are that many of use realised the importance of being together with friends, and looking out for each other. And it’s been a time of valuing and appreciating the small things others do for us, when they can. Life is different, and in some ways, the new way of things is better, less impatient, more forgiving, more thoughtful. I think time spent ‘locked in’ at home, without a job to go to, has given us both permission and time, to finally do things we’ve wanted to try in the past, but couldn’t.
Being able to finally do these things, is definitely a positive thing. Personally, I have begun working on an Anthology, based around the creative writing responses of writers to “Covid-19”. It feel as though this time has been waiting for me to do something big, and I feel like I must do this. At the moment, I have only only ten or so pieces for this Anthology, but I can feel there is a great upswell of thoughts and ideas, creative writing, that can, and will fill, the pages of this Anthology.
As soon as I came up with the title, I know I had to do this. “Plague Invasion” was the phrase that hit me, and I’ve now taken it up as definitely the title of my new word-related thing. I’ve since expanded the title to “Plague Invasion – Creative Writing in Response to Covid-19”, to make it clear what the work is all about. But the responses I’ve received so far, and my own written responses, are different, as our lives and responses to these times are also different.
I’ve read comments that these times are an introvert’s version of perfect times, and an extrovert’s version of hell, and I suppose there’s truth to that idea, but introverts don’t hate people, most of them, they just like alone time, more than extroverts do. Extroverts like to talk, to discuss things, all things, and to get ides from others and what is happening all around them. These, of course are generalisations, as is my thought that introverts are more like cats, and extroverts dogs, particularly happy bouncing ones, bounding constantly from one thing to the next.
Cats would be troubled perhaps by having so many people in the house, when they were used to many ‘alone’ times, and dogs happy to have their humans with them so much more … When (if) things change, who will be grateful for the change, and will things actually to back to how they were before, I wonder? What caused this? Could it have been stopped? Is mankind in some way to blame, or at least a little complicit. These are questions that will go on being considered, written about, and discussed for a long time. That’s what I think.
And for those who feel these current troubles have hidden away concerns about Global Climate change, I suspect the two things are far more connected than many realise, and those things that tie the two together will be subject to many more discussions and ideas. Times are achanging that’s for sure, can they ever really go back to how they were? And if they can, who really wants that? Do you? I don’t, not entirely. We have the chance to hold onto what we’re now learning about ourselves, and the world and new and better futures for ourselves and our planet. Are you up for the challenge of it?
I am a poet and writer, but I am also an editor too. Obviously, if poets and writers are going to present their best work/words, they will need to edit their work, before they ever show it to other people, whether friends, family, or writing buddies. And they will have to do an even more intense job of editing their work before they present it to a publisher, if they want to make the grade, and get their work published.
I have done these things, and have been published, and still receive royalties for my work, many years after publication … So with all of my experience with books, and also as the Editor of the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle, a monthly newsletter that is distributed in Mallala and beyond, as well as being available at the Facebook page. This newsletter has been going for fifteen years, and I have been the sole editor for most of those years. It is a popular item and well received indeed.
I have also been the President of Adelaide Plains Poets from it’s beginnings, it is a great group, a writing group that meets every week. The Adelaide Plains Poets also has an annual Poetry competition, and a Festival of Books too. These popular avenues assist in bringing the love of words to many others, both local, and all around Australia.
So there are my credentials regarding creative writing. The reason I want to make this clear, is that I want people to feel confident in sending me their own creative words, to be involved in being published in an Anthology. I have put together poetry collections of my own, and have also had my own creative words published in other Anthologies with other editors. So I know a bit about both collections and anthologies.
my most recent poetry collection
And if I’m going to put my attention, and my money, into putting together a Creative Writing Anthology, I want it to be something that is likely to attract attention, both of writers initially, and of book readers, once it is published. And what is the thing that is taking up the attention, and time of us all at the moment? It’s the coronavirus, or Covid-19.
The working title of this book at the moment is “Plague Invasion”. Does this get your mind working, thinking about possible ideas? A poem about being in Lock Down, and finding it so dreary you turn to creating a vegetable garden? Or an article on the same topic, perhaps. Or you may think about the work being done to keep us all safe, and the craziness of wearing face masks, whether they’re needed or not.
The uncertainty of the whole thing, and the stupid risks being taken by some levels of society, could become an article or a flash fiction story perhaps, of one of the risk takers, whether an eighteen year old person sitting closely together with their mates, or a more mature person just back from their most recent cruise, and infecting others and bringing about the closing down of some small towns.
All of these topics would be suitable, and more. You may have knowledge of all of this from a medical viewpoint, or perhaps you have knowledge of previous plagues from the past. These would be suitable too. I will be looking for as many different ideas, and viewpoints as possible. And as an avid dog lover, I would be very interested in having a look at all of this Locked Down situation from a pet’s point of view.
The memes I’ve seen about this indicate dogs loving having their humans present more often, while cats very much dislike it. What do you think? Write about it and send it in! Anything you have that may fit into this theme, that’s what I want you to send to me.
So, if you have something, please get it to me before 31 July 2020, by sending it as an attachment, to kittycordo@gmail.com, using the subject of ‘submission, Plague Invasion’ If you would like to know more about this, feel free to send me a query, at the same email address, with the subject of ‘query Plague Invasion’.
I imagine there will be around 70 to 80 pages in this anthology, it would be wonderful if it got to 150 or so pages, the answer to the size of the book depends on how many responses are received.
Carolyn Cordon - Creative 