Tag: chap book

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Expand Ideas, Go from Good to Great

carolyncordon

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 …

Hello Silver Gull, lovely chatting to you at St Kilda today!

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

Philosophy

Looking Back, and Satisfied!

carolyncordon

It’s been an interesting year, this year. 2019 – it was filled with opportunities, those taken, those left, and I’m satisfied with what I achieved, even though there could have been more.

There can always be more, of course there can. But less is another option, and sometimes taking less leads to deeper, more meaningful things instead of the big and shiny things. And of course, there are the things that life throws at us, unexpectedly, and we have to try to deal with them, in the best way we can.

So in this year, I attended book launches, included my own, I lead a writing group that put on monthly Poetry Readings, sourcing Guest Poets to bring new interest to the event. The group Adelaide Plains Poets Chapter and Verse, also successfully put on out fifth Festival of Words. Good things happening, with words, are excellent!

I wrote much poetry, and probably have enough quality poetic words for a new full size poetry collection, and will  into taking that further in 2020. I also broke my right ankle, in September, which could have been terrible, but instead lead to a completely different kind of poetry collection being written, and launched in this final week of the year of 2019.

“Angles on Ankles” is a chap book, all about my broken ankle, and contains my thoughts about this whole broken ankle ‘thing’, all written poetically, 21 poems in fact. This book has been declared to be a good little book, and given I only wrote it initially as a kind of therapy as I was in rest and heal mode in October after doing the damage, I’m happy to have got the book published commercially here, or by leaving me a comment below.

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Other members of the writing group have also had success with their own writing, and I am so glad for them for what they have achieved. What else? Well after breaking my ankle, I have begun an exercise/rehabilitation program, using exercises given to me by the physio I saw when I was actually able to stand up and walk.

I added in a couple of my own physio kinds of exercises, including using our family Wii Fit exercise machine. I’ve been doing most if not all of these exercises every day now, for the past week or so, and I hope I can keep this habit going, because it is certainly a good one.

I have also got more into the habit of blogging much more often, on at least a few of the blogs I have. This blog, focused on me as a ‘wordsmith’ – writer, poet, blogger, etc, is my most important blog, but the blog I began when I was diagnosed with MS, has morphed into a blog that took on things related to my broken ankle, because of course both MS and a broken ankle have mobility issues happening, and falls can be lessened with strengthening of the body …

I was going to work at becoming a writer of Cosy Murder Mysteries this year, and did in fact do some planning, and writing in this particular genre. But it was bad timing, because that broken right ankle happened, and my brain couldn’t focus on fictional problems, when my own physical problem was right there with me … But 2020 is a new year, and certainly I’ll be looking at getting back into my “At Talloola”  murder mysteries!

I am happy with all of this, for sure. 2019 has also been a year of becoming serious about becoming a Stoic. Holding to Stoic thought, thinking about things and acting in a Stoic way has certainly aided me in my life, this year. As I was ‘getting over’ this broken ankle, I had a Stoic outlook, rather than a ‘woe is me’ outlook, and so the time went well for me, with the poetry happening, and then the book.

Stoicism helps in so many ways. Thinking things through, then acting in wise ways, rather than acting with no real thought at all, is almost always the best way. It is a work in progress, and I know some of my thoughts are still far from in keeping with Stoicism, but my actions almost always are more considered than those initial thoughts may have been.

I was pleased that a bit of Stoicism made it’s way into that ankle poetry book, and hope to continue working hard at moving upward and onward with my Stoic Wisdom. This is my Stoicism blog – My Stoic Life. I will be using it more and more, and will endeavour to post there much more often, as I go … I look forward to reading comments on my blogs, often! I will follow, if you give good and thoughtful comments

The theme for our writing group’s Festival of Words next year is “Vision”, and I have my own personal vision, of 2020 being the year my writing really takes off!

poetry

Add Another Book to the List!

carolyncordon

I now have another book to add to my list of books written, this most recent book is the smallest, but by no means the least. This means I now have eight books published! “Angles on Ankles” is a book of poetry, a chapbook, of around twenty poems, all focused on my most recent life challenge.

This challenge was the breaking of my right ankle, on AFL Grand Final day, a painful challenge for sure, but one which gave me plenty of resting times, which I used to write poems about the whole new experience.

There are poems that rhyme, others that don’t, there are Senryu poems, and there longer and more prosey kinds of poems, all about my right leg! And on the front cover, what’s in that photograph? Well it’s a photo of my broken right ankle, encased in a moon boot!

Before this challenge occurred, I’d barely ever even thought about moon boot, now I’m writing poetry about them. I love the way our life experiences can add brand new subjects to write about! I had the chance to try out some of the poems in this new collection, and I was happy with how it all went.

It was my first time for going out to attend a writing related event, rather than a medical appointment, since I broke my ankle, and it felt great! It was a poetry reading, a monthly one I almost always attend. I wasn’t able to go last month, but a dear friend offered to take me there, and bring me home again.

Thanks Colleen, you were awesome! Colleen and I have been friends for about twenty years, and I was thrilled to be attending a poetry reading, with her as the guest poet! Colleen came to my place to take me there, put away my walking frame, and getting it out for me as needed, and I was so glad to have here there.

The poetry she read was great too, her poetry collection is a terrific book of poetry, about the small but so important things in life. Her work is so true, and finely written, it’s like she is sharing her many wisdoms learned through her life. If you like poetry, I strongly recommend you get a copy of her book!

Back to my own collection, I included a page of Senryu in this collection – I tried them out at a poetry reading today, and they were very well accepted. Senryu is a Japanese form of poetry, very similar to Haiku, but is is about people rather that about Nature, as Haiku is.

I found Senryu was just the best poetic form to comment on a few aspects of my broken ankle …

poetry

Sorry for Being Late!

carolyncordon

Well, I’ve been steadily writing, and posting my Poem a Day, for February, as my part of the #poemadayfeb challenge, writing a new poem every day, and posting it to my blog, on this, my Writer’s website. But sadly, yesterday things went a little wrong.

Things got busy, devices weren’t available, so that, while a new poem definitely did get written for the 7th day of February, it didn’t get put on my Blog page here … Never fear though, as soon as I’ve finished typing up this, I will put up that new poem, for the 7th day of February, on the blog!

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Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

I wrote the poem on my phone, and so had it with me when I visited my mother today, and I took the opportunity of having the poem with me, and so I read yesterday’s poem aloud to her. She liked the poem, and was impressed by the way I tied all of my important points together.

Well, I’m sure that’s pretty well what she said, something similar to that anyway. It was certainly approval she gave, for sure, and not wishy-washy approval either, but intelligent relevant kind of approval. Hey, I’m a mother too, I can tell the difference!

I haven’t checked out the prompt for today, but rest assured that I will do that too, after this particular post is finished. I am definitely going to write a new poem, every day in February 2019, and I am going to get a chap book published with all of the poems, whether mainstream publishing, or some other kind. I am impressing myself with the poems I’ve been writing, so far, and I can’t see why the quality would drop!

Once I’ve checked out what the prompt is, I will get going with writing my new poem for the 8th day of February, then post is on my blog page here! Then I will post a link to it on Twitter, and one on Facebook, and how knows perhaps a publisher will see the quality of my poetry, and snap me up as one of their poets!

This has been such fun, I’m almost feeling like a real poet, oh hang on, I’ve been writing poetry for years, I already am a real poet … I have poetry online, in books, in libraries, as well as scribbled on a gazillion notebooks and scraps of paper. Published in books is the best way for poetry!