I was speaking with someone recently, a person who is newly in my life, and she has a medical problem which is keeping her inside, and bored. I mentioned writing about it, to help ease her boredom.
I mentioned poetry, and in particular Acrostic poetry, and while my husband, who was in the room with me when I was talking with this woman on the phone, kept on making fun of me. I know poetry is far more important in my life than it is to him, and I’m ok with him laughing at me, it isn’t done with any malicious intent. We both know this poetry, and other writing is an important thing to me, and that’s fine.
So this woman listened to me, and mentioned she used to write a bit, way back in her past. I suggested if she was thinking of giving it a go again, now would be a good time for it, and she agreed.
I expect to be seeing this lovely woman again soon, and I can’t help wondering whether she may bring a brand new poem with her, to show to me. If she does, and enjoyed writing it, that will be a great thing. If she didn’t write anything, but enjoyed the possibility of doing it, that is still a good thing.
If she gave it no further thought, it won’t be a disaster, but that doesn’t mean it may never happen! I realise not everyone is as ‘into’ poetry as I am, we all have our own interests, and things we like. I just hope that some people find poetry, and see the way it can be so helpful in many different ways! Poetry and therapy, such a fine and healing combination!
I don’t know if there’s a ‘rule’ on how many pages an anthology is, or should be. And if there is such a rule, I’m not going to follow it. I am creating an Anthology, with the help of lovely poets and writers who are sending me their words.
The title of this book, is “Plague Invasion – Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19”, and at the moment it is 76 pages, in total. I know there are at least three more pages being worked on now, and hopefully there’s another page of two, these are from members of my writing group, some of whom have already submitted work, and had it accepted.
So if I add those pieces to the current total, that would make a book of over 80 pages, but only just. I’m certainly happy to have received so many wonderful words, but I want more. I want to hear from someone who’s had to cancel things, sport, theatre, school, business, whatever. If it relates to Covid-19, it deserves a place in this book.
A friend of mine has declared this work to be a needed historical record, or words similar to that, and he is a man of much knowledge, and I respect what he says. And so the anthology will be more than eighty pages, how many more could I or should I expect it could be? I put the call out for responses to this Covid-19 crisis we’re currently working through, in a variety of different ways, and I put a closing date of 31 July for accepting submissions.
Shedding light …
Reading the variety of words that I’ve received so far has been wonderful, and it’s been humbling. The honesty in the words I’ve read has been soulful and I hope those who need it will find comfort in reading their words in this book, and the words of others living through the same thing, in a similar or quite different way. We all do things in our own way, and there is no one way for anything in life, really, and certainly not for getting through what could have been tragic circumstances.
If you have words you feel you need to write about all of this, because they’re filling your brain and you can’t even think straight, write them down, a story shared, can be a healing thing. And of course, if you’re happy with what you’ve written, and think the quality is good enough, feel free to submit them for possible inclusion in the “Plague Invasion” anthology Send them to kittycordo@gmail.com and see what happens. All contributors of accepted words will receive a free copy of the book, and will be able to puchase further copies if they wish to, at a reduced cost.
I wrote my first poem that gained acclaim back when I was in my early years of High School I don’t actually remember which year it was, but I was around thirteen I think. It was History class, and we had to do a project on a particular historical place. I don’t remember which place it was, but it was in Europe, in the olden days, and I’m almost certain it started with the letter ‘C’. It may have been Carthage. It may have been somewhere else entirely.
And when I say ‘gained acclaim’, I mean my mother liked the poem and I suspect I got a good mark for the project, enough to impress my mum. Anyway, the important thing is that I learned that poems can impress people, if they are good enough. I didn’t immediately start penning more poetry to attract the interest of others, because life especially when you’re at school, and then work, life takes over many creative aspirations, giving way to financial ones.
But I did get back into writing poetry, particularly after I quit work, and became a ‘stay-at-home mum’. Being stuck at home with this new creature in my life meant I was home, with not much to do beyond caring for this new baby, as well as the dogs we had. It was a whole new world, as I quickly realised having a human baby was not the same as having puppies. Some of the processes are similar, but the care and love is so much deeper when there is your child involved.
I’d gone from being a worker, five days a week, travelling with my husband from our home in a rural area, to the office job in the city of Adelaide, our state’s capital. In the early times of being a mother, I had no car, and I have to say, I felt lonely, even with that baby present 24/7. There was some post natal depression happening, and I was certainly not feeling like a person who was capable of doing anything that deserved public acclaim.
To find some sense of worth, I eventually began a TAFE course – the Advanced Diploma of Professional Writing. I enjoyed this, going out at night to classes, where there was no child depending on me for everything, and I could talk about writing in its many forms, rather than talking about nappy changes … It was a blissful ‘grown up’ thing to do, finally.
I never finished that TAFE course, but I had begun doing many more interesting things relating to writing, in particular poetry. I didn’t feel I needed more information, although, in retrospect, I could have been wrong to thing I was fine. I’m OK with that idea though, and will just do my best to keep on taking up learning opportunities as they come along.
Anyway, back to my first poetry collection. This collection, titled “damage children, Precious Gems”, deals with extremely personal things in my life. I was sexually abused as a child, and then teen, and probably, as an adult too. Being a woman, sexual abuse is always a possibility. I used the writing of this poetry collection as a form of informal therapy, and am glad I have found an audience of people who have also been or still are, victims of sexual abuse. I set up a blog with the same title as this poetry collection, where I look at abuse, in particular sexual abuse, and many things related to it.
It sounds like a gruesome thing, I know, but my collection follows a line from terrible, to good, or even excellent. I was a victim, but I am now thriving in my life. Being able to say that means much to me. I am happily married, have a child who is a fine person, and my life is a good one. Not bad, for a person who went through abuse from a person who was supposed to be ‘a friend of the family’.
The writing of this poetry collection has been a healing thing, a therapeutic thing, and I firmly believe in the idea of therapeutic writing. It can happen in an informal way, as in my case, initially, or it can happen in a more formal way, but however it is, it can be a healing thing, for sure. I have a strong interest in this form of writing.
Being able to find myself in this position is a wonderful thing, a liberating thing, and I hope my words in this first collection can help many more people who are living troubled lives because of abuse. Nobody deserves this, no-one ever. If you are struggling with abuse in your life, I urge you to seek assistance from those who can help. Your doctor, trusted person, authorities, whoever, there are many people whose task it is to help people …
There are many organisations here who can help, please go to these people if you need them. Nobody deserves to live in fear of abuse, and anyone who has been abused deserves to get help when they need it.
Carolyn Cordon - Creative 