Tag: poetry

covid 19

Poetry and Prose in My Life

carolyncordon

The first time a poem I wrote gained attention, was when I was in high school, in year 8 or 9, when I wrote a poem about a farmer who was talking to his god, and asking whether the god wanted him to kill his wife as a sacrifice. What a sweet thing that is, not …

It was a rhyming poem, not in any particular style, and not very many lines. But it had pathos, and clutched at the heart in the plea the man was making … I think I was supposed to be writing prose, rather than poetry, and I’m not sure which country’s history this was set in, but I do have a strong memory that it was somewhere in Europe that began with a ‘C’, and it might have been Carthage … I’m not sure.

I’m was more interested in writing poetry, than studying history, and this was a way I could do both of them at the same time, but the ‘writing poetry’ bit is the part that has stayed with me into my life, after stepping away for a time after school, and then stepping back in, when I needed it, to help me get through post natal depression …

And now of course, eight books later, I’m a writer, and while not earning a living with my writing, at least making a little money from it. I sell books, sometimes, and I receive royalties, and both PLR and ELR payments. Not huge amounts of money, but nice little payments any way. As someone I’ve met recently said, not a poet for the money, but for the fame!

And yes, I’m a famous poet, to some extent, for sure. I have several poetry collections to my name, plus other books in prose. I’m also the editor of the popular newsletter “Mallala Crossroad Chronicle”, as well as the president of the Adelaide Plains Poets writing group, that meets every Thursday (Online only at the moment, but at the Prince Albert Hotel in Gawler, usually). So yes, words are my thing, poetry and prose.

And now I’m doing something new, that will bring another book to add to my current list of books published. This book will be “Plague Invasion – Creative Writing in Response to Covid-19” will be an anthology containing the words of many others. and I’m currently asking people to send me poetry and prose, for consideration of possible inclusion in this anthology, which I feel will be an excellent book, with a broad range of responses from a broad range of people, from a broad range of places.

There will be some silly things, some serious things, poetry in various styles, and prose, both fiction and non fiction. These will be considered responses in prose, heartfelt poems, song lyrics about silly things, and quirky words about this strange time. Collecting together all of these words feels like a further extension of my lifelong love of words, and my life as a poet and writer, a wordsmith.

I hope many more people will join in, and help me put out stories about how ordinary people have managed to get through this Covid-19 time, when we are having to stay away from the things we love, in most unusual ways.

So feel free to submit your words for consideration for publication in this worthy anthology: send via email (kittycordo@gmail.com with the subject ‘Plague Invasion submission’), up to three poems of thirty lines, and/or three pieces of prose of up to 2,000 words in total.

I look forward to reading your submission for consideration.

Writing, writing exercise, writing prompts

Fab Feb Writing Prompts – Day Five

carolyncordon

As they say in the James Bond movie – Never Say Never!

Actually, feel free to say Never, say the word, and write about it! Today is the day for it, because the word NEVER is the writing prompt for today, the fifth day of February. It’s a trick word, never. We may say, in our earlier lives would never do this or that or the other, in our lives. But we grow up, see things, like things, accept things, and our thoughts  grow, and change, as we get older, living, leaning, losing, lazing about!

As youngsters, we have we may have declared, ‘I’ll never ever do that!’, only to realise, as you’ve aged, you’d be quite happy to do that thing now, because you can see the wisdom of doing that very thing, whatever it is.

For me, my personal most unfavoured food that I now love to eat, is mushrooms. I hadn’t self-declared as a no mushroom eater, when I was a child, as such, I simply never ate them, if and when, they appeared on my dinner plate. Then pizzas came into the world (or at least my pre-teen world) and I discovered that mushrooms are actually quite tasty!

food wood kitchen cutting board
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

So I went from never eating mushrooms, to eating these tasty and healthy foods quite often. So much for that word, never! 

Is there anything you never do, or never have done? Personally, I’ve never bungie jumped. I’m not saying I’ll never done it, and it’s difficult to see any circumstances occuring where I’ll have the opportunity to do it, but who knows, I might well give it a go!

Last year, I certainly learnt a lesson in using that word Never. My mother and I were chatting at our usual Friday catch up, about how neither of us had ever broken a bone, even though there were certainly times when we could have. And then, the next day, what did I do? I fell over and broke my ankle – in fact two bones in my ankle!
(If you want to, you can read more about it here, at another of my blogs.) That blog post, and many of the ones that follow are about my ankle, it was my major focus for the three months that followed. I’m going to be more careful about using this bog word, Never, in the future!

20191114_111847

ouch, my poor ankle! But hey, I’m a writer, and I wrote about my ankle, and had a book published with the poems I wrote when I was laid up, with instructions to not put any weight on my right foot! And here it is, my beautiful little book!

20191122_122645

If there’s anything you’ve never done, or would never do, are you sure about that? Never vote for ? or never have a ? as a pet? You never really know what might happen, how circumstances might change, and how your knowledge about things may change too, based on further relevant information. 

 

So today’s prompt, is ************** NEVER************ 

 

You could write a list poem, containing all of the things you would or wouldn’t ever do. 

Or you could write a list of ‘Never Do This’ things, make it sensible, or funny, give examples, save lives or make people giggle, take this any way you want. I would say ‘Never break your ankle!’

Or you could do something else entirely, based on your thoughts about that word, ‘Never’.

writing prompts

Fab Feb Writing Prompts – Day Three

carolyncordon

Things are coming along well, with this writing prompt month, words are being written, some good some maybe not so good, but it doesn’t matter, does it, because as long as they’re written, they can be edited and made better!

I’m keeping up, and writing my own new poems too, and hoping for the words keep on happening, both mine and those of others.

For the challenge today, there’s something a little bit different, it will be a phrase, rather than a single word, I don’t know how that is going to go, but the only way to find out is to try it, is it?

I’m accustomed to responding with creative words, or to phrases – our writing group does that every week, for the writing exercise we do on the day, or for homework, or both. So I hope you will give it a go, read the given writing prompt, and respond with creative writing!

I don’t have anything written in response to this prompt yet, but you can be sure I’ll definitely be writing something for it later on in the day … I have an appointment, and maybe it the wait goes on for a while, I’ll have my chance to get it written! Waiting acround for something, is never a bad thing, when you have some writing you want to do!

***************************************

So enough of the idle chit chat, time for the prompt for this third day of the Fabulous February Writing Prompt challenge, and here it is:

                                   Maybe I will, or maybe not …

 

Have fun, and let me know how you feel about this, rather than a single word, if you have an opinion about it, one way or the other …

poetry, writing prompts

Creative Writing Prompts, Soon!

carolyncordon

Yes it’s true, a month’s worth of Creative Writing Prompts are starting tomorrow, the 1st of February! I jumped the gun a little yesterday, and the first prompt, which I will be showing on this blog tomorrow, the 1st of February, very much is to blame for the previous post. I was very excited and got mixed up with my days, yesterday. Under control again now though!

I’m going to explain it in a poem, which I’ll post on this blog site, for the big announcement tomorrow morning! There are no special prizes offered by me, not financial ones anyway. Connecting with other writers who love to write, and who also love to help others to write, that is a prize worth having, I say!

I am that writer and an informal teacher, and the thougth that other poets and writers may write some fantastic work, if they take part in any or all of these writing prompt challenges geiven here this month excites me and fills me with joy! So, if you love to write, or think you’re love to, then please log in here every day, if you can, see what the writing prompt for the day is, and write!

If you can’t log in every day, you can still take a look later, see what you think, and write when you have the time, and inclination. I’m going to try to write something new, in response to the prompts, every single day, and I hope I can write some fine poetry!

I hope the same thing for anyone else who takes part in this month of Prompts – together lets all make February Fabulous!

If you think ypu’d like to take part in this Fabulous Fun February, why not leave a comment here, and we can get to know a little bit about each other, and what, if anything, we wish to achieve.

I’ll get things started:

I am Carolyn Cordon, President of Adelaide Plains Poets, who meet every Thursday afternoon for a writing meeting, in a particular hotel in Gawler.

I have written and published eight books, three of them poetry collections, and I wish to have another, bigger poetry collection, later this year, or next year. (My most recent poetry collection was a chap book, with only 21 poems in it, all on one subject matter, and I plan for a larger and more broad-ranging collection for my next one.

I wrote my first decent poem in my early years of high school, then poetry fell off mostly, until I had a huge life challenge,and needed poetry again. After that, poetry and creative writing have taken over more and more of my life, and I love it!

**************************************************

Your turn know, please leave your own message, telling your poetry story!

inspiration, Uncategorized

It All Starts Tomorrow

carolyncordon

Today is the penultimate day of January, and I can almost say that tomorrow will be the first day of February, and that means it’s also the first day of February, and the first day of the month of creative writing prompts! I’ve been talking with members of my writing group about this, and the blog posts I’ve written about it, are on my Facebook page, and being read by some people.

I’ve put some links on my twitter accounts, and who knows how many people may have seen the information there. I’d like hundreds of people to be reading this blog post, obviously, but life isn’t like that – you have to work hard to get stuff like that happening in your life.

And my life is full of lots of different things, and I don’t have the time or the knowledge, understanding, or inclination to get all of those kinds of things done. In my ideal life, I’ll have a p/a, who will attend to the details, and I’ll be able to concentrate on the big picture stuff only. I’m not living that ideal life though.

Puss in Boots and I hape we all have a great creative month together, for February, with lots and lots of words written!

So I do what I can, what I want to do, what interests me the most, and what ‘floats my boat’. I get a huge kick out of inspiring other people to write, when they never realised creative writing was a skill they had. Giving feedback and encouragement taught me these things, and I’m grateful to the people who helled me in these ways. This February writing prompt idea is a way of giving to others.

Giving to others, helping them to write better, inspiring them to write, as a writer, of course I want others to write too, they’re my peers, and writers, are also readers, and of course writers and readers have a symbiotic relationship, giving to each other …

So the month of February will be a month of exploring ideas, writing on the new prompts I’ll be handing out, a new one every single day … And I’ve just today discovered that Writers’ Week starts in Adelaide, on the last day of this project, and that seems so appropriate to me, a month of new writing, ending with a great writing and listening and learning, as well as chat and schmoozing event, that brings together writers and readers from around the world, all getting together in the that little grassed space …

I’ll be there, for some of the event, not sure how many days, but at least two days, hopefully more. Writers Week always feels like I’m ‘one of the gang’ the gang of writers, sharing with others, and learning more and more about this writing world …

So this month of writing prompts starts tomorrow, the fun starts tomorrow (I hope!), and with luck, by the end of February, I may have enough poems for my next poetry collection! Or I may have a breakthrough and really truly get to work on my series of Cosy Murder Mysteries, or I may even turn the first draft of the novel I’ve written into the second draft, and have begun giving it to readers to make it into a publishable book, perhaps! You never know what might happen, when inspiration is in the room!

So I hope you’re feeling inspired for February to bring good writing, as I am, buckle in and be preapared to write and write and write!