So I have the makings of a chapbook, with the title and front page image all organised, and that is a good thing, of course. It would be a good little book, with poems inspired by the recent trip to the Murray River at Mannum South Australia.
I took lots of notes on that trip, and gained many inspired thoughts, and yes, poems came of it. But as yet there are not enough poems to fill a chapbook, and even though there are still parts of those notes not squeezed out, to find their poetic essence as yet, I was wondering, will there be enough.
But today I went for a much shorter drive, to attend another event at St Kilda, that included water, and birds, and even though I didn’t take notes while there, I did some thinking, and now some couple of hours later, have one brand new poem. This poem includes some of the Black Swans I saw today, and the link of water and birds is there …
Then I remembered the partly written poetry collection I was working on last year, or possible the year before (that Covid year has mucked up my understanding of what the calendar says …) So that previous, unfinished collection is about some of my thoughts, inspired by our pond that i have spent time sitting near, since it came into my world. And I’m pretter sure there would be poems there about birds.
So, yes, aqua and avian connections are very much present in my world, and if I were to add all of those poems, plus a few more, that are sure to come, if i think further on the subject of ‘Words On The Water’, which was the name of the Murray River event, and will be the name of this new chap book I’m thinking hard about creating, well it all goes together, doesn’t it?
Even though the St Kilda, and pond-side poems, weren’t written whilst physically ‘on’ the water, they were definitely about water related things, or inspired by times spent near water, so could be said to be ‘on water’ …
So my idea of a little chapbook about the River Murray cruise/writing inspiration event Words On The Water, is shaping up to be about some of the Water in my life, pond, nearby coastal area, and the River Murray, a waterway that has relevance to my life, my mother being born, and living in Renmark, in her earliest years, a thing I think I’ve always known about. (and curiously, my father’s first name was Murray!)
I only got close to one bird today, and it kindly stayed still so I could talk to it, and snap a pic. So here is one of the Silver Gulls, otherwise know as a seagull, that I saw today, there were quite a few more around the place. This is one bird species that I certainly don’t expect to see anywhere near my place, or not until the sea level rises a fair bit more, in who knows how many years time …
I saw other kinds of birds today at St Kilda, but only one kind of bird that I ever see at my home in Redbanks, and that was the ubiquitous little Willie Wagtails! I saw two quite young ones, down on the shore line, below me as I was stand and chatting with some people who’d come along for this interesting shorebirds day. I never would have thought about the Willie Wagtail as a shorebird before, but there you go, there were those two cheeky little creatures, right before my eyes. I wish I’d thought to snap a pic of them too, for proof!
I suspect a poem written about them will have to do … perhaps a task for a bit later on today, after I’ve finished my quite late lunch …
So this little book is heading toward a goodly number of poems, and who knows, it may be ready to be launched this year? If I self publish it, which is my intent, it can happen … I was at a book launch last night, the launch of Judy Gillett-Ferguson’s book “The German Teacher”, and was impressed by the idea of having a choir sing, as part of book launch event. Some of those singers are friends of mine, and I’m now thinking that surely every book launch should have a choir there, to sing a couple of relevant songs!
I spoke about this idea, with a couple of them, and they said they were always happy to perform, so from now on, I won’t have a book launch without factoring in a choir! There are lots of songs about both birds and water, so I’m sure the choir and I could come up with something great for the launch of my next chapbook, “Words On The Water”!
I’m a teensy bit excited about all of this! Do you get excited when you think about your new project? i think it’s important to have these things in our lives that get us at least a bit excited, from time to time! Do you agree? Tell us about what floats your excitement boat, what gives your inspiration wings!
I’ve written more about this idea on another platform I’ve just started writing on, Medium.com, the link is here, if you wish to read what I wrote there
Carolyn Cordon - Creative 