New Year

Several days have passed since my last post and I apologise for that. I have taken a decision that I will no longer try to post everyday. This was becoming a strain on me and over Christmas it really showed. So I still intend to regularly blog, just not every day.
Since the start of the year I have taken control of the library poetry group, which I really don't have time for but will do as best I can. The theme of our next meeting in February is love, as we are meeting close to Valentines day, which in the UK is a celebration of such things. I am already working on a love poem and would like to think that I could do several, time will tell. This one is a really mushy love you till I die type poem and is intended to be short. At the moment it is three stanzas long and I have no plans to lengthen it.
Our parish priest left as planned and was pleased to receive his poems. I had a very nice thank you card back from him which I will stash away and keep. My thinking at the moment is very much on the theme of love, the types and expressions of love. Any ideas please comment I always appreciate inspiration.

Skeleton Form

I worked nights last night and in my tea breaks I was able to work a little on my poem. I have taken quite a radical change from the way I normally write and I was thinking about breaking down the theme of spatial awareness into stanzas so that every stanza had something to say about it. I have decided to also not actually define in words what the poem is about so that the reader will have to work it out from the content, so this means that I will need to use language and phrases that will do that. The actual it that am attempting to define in the poem is the task of being a priest in a parish, which is a very varied task that has few set boundaries. So I have laid out a selection of stanzas that each portray a fragment or facet of this. For instance the opening line to the first of these stanzas is : It is a journey.

The stanzas are eight lines long (at the moment) and I have actually roughed one out completely. The others have a facet assigned, such as song, prayer, life etc but need to be properly populated with words. This is a bit exiting for me now as I can actually see something coming . The danger I think is making the words fit the pattern and not using the best or most suitable words because they they don't fit exactly. After all said and done only the best I can do will be good enough. I have a skeleton for this poem now I need to get some flesh on the bones, reminds me of Ezekiel in the Vally of the dry bones.

Peace Dave

Opening Line

Things are going well for the poem I am creating for my priest. You may recall that he is leaving the parish at the end of the year and this is my parting gift, hopefully. (Click the title to go to a previous post.)
I think that whatever the content I will use either separatly styled opening and closing stanzas or opening and closing quotes. My thinking here is to give a serious edge to a poem that really will be fairly light hearted. I always like the style of poem that attempts to define a surreal or sujective topic as if it were fact. Today I scribbled this line which in some form may be an opening line.

How close you are becomes what's key,
You cannot lead and still be free.

This sets a serious tone and steps for me neatly into the theme of spatial awareness in a purely abstract way which I can define later. I'm not happy with the scan at the moment and these lines will have to change before they are used. But this is a start, I have started to write and so things are underway. I have my deadline which is December 31st and all I have to do is create a suitable, iconic poem that he will enjoy reading - no problem. A few prayers needed I think.

Peace Dave.

Spatial Awareness

If you have ever seen one of those fake snow novelty gifts which works by shaking it to simulate snowing that's how poems come to me. My life is a hectic blur of activity which is constantly swirling all around me obscuring the poems that lie hidden within. Sometimes things clear a little and I can make out an image or a thought and that's just enough. It's enough to get me going and enough to remind me that it's time I got writing again. It's the writing part that I really love. Once I have an idea I can tease out a phrase or word or two and start building. I'm a bit like a manic builder using words like bricks to form things into shape and build structure. That's when I look for rhyme and make decisions like size of stanza or length of line. I'm a bit like a cow chewing cud, thing go up and down, digest a bit, chew a bit, digest a bit, chew a bit. I used to try and count beats on the syllables of the words but now I find it easier to read my lines out loud and see how they flow. I don't really have any rules for this, it's right when it's right.

You may recall that I wanted to write a poem for my priest who will soon be leaving our parish for another. I really wanted to write something iconic as I have known him for twelve years.

Right, back to the fake snow bit, I have published my book, I did my reading, I had a report for the Diocesan committee I attend - done, print work for our church - done, it's my day off, I'm at a loose end. Suddenly I'm walking my dog (check out the picture, Smudge is a good boy) and the phrase spatial awareness is in my mind. It's the usual trick my subconscious has clambered into my frontal lobe and scrawled graffiti inside my head.

Literally spatial awareness is the perception of yourself in relation to your environment and the ability to predictably adapt to it's change. As he will be changing environments and both he and those left behind will have to adapt this seems like a good theme. I've been chewing it over this afternoon and I think the angle to approach this from is the parallel of being present when you are gone by the impact you have when you were there. Something like a saint or a celebrity. All I need now is a really good opening line and a few words to get me going and I'm in business. If this gives you any ideas please contact me via the comments and let me know, I'd be interested to hear.

Peace Dave.