NotYetHere
Monday was the centenary of the Edward Thomas poem Adlestrop, and the Poetry Society has been celebrating with a wide range of activities on-line and with readings around the country. One of my poems, This is Carriage D, has been put up on the website with other members poems, train themed and Adlestrop related. The page is here. Very pleased to get my name mentioned, so just a little happy post today.
Enjoy every season, sun, rain or shine, it’s all good weather.
It’s over, NaPoWriMo has run its course and I made it to the end, 30 days and 30 poems posted. I’m not sure how I feel at the moment, it’s poetry cafe tonight, we have friends visiting for the next week and I can step back to look at everything I have written, see what I like, salvage what I can, and start moving on with it all.
Thanks everyone who has kept visiting, it has made a difference to know someone else was out there looking in. For all the comments, likes etc. much appreciated. I may slow down the posts now, although I have a couple of walks to catch up on, and some pictures to post plus a new camera I have been trying out.
Today is World Poetry Day, so I feel duty bound to post something. It is a day when we celebrate poets and poetry around the world, here’s to you all, I raise a glass in your honour.
In other poetry related news, I have signed up for NaPoWriMo, National Poetry Writing Month. Doesn’t really trip of the tongue does it? With the idea of wordsmiths scribbling they could have tried harder. Anyway, it means that during April I will be trying to post a poem a day for each day. It remains to be seen how I get on and I’m not sure of the rules, whether they need to be brand spanking new, or are rewrites acceptable, maybe never seen before work. Can you cheat and use fragments and in progress. I’ll see how it goes anyway. Wish me luck.
Todays offering is short and sweet, inspired by a post on the words and photography site of In My Back Pocket Photography
There Will Be Other Sunsets.
There will be other times
when we stop on the road
and look into the sky.
When we rush from the house
down to the sea on a stormy day
to see the waves crashing over.
There will be other sunsets
we will stand watching,
waiting for the last light
to dip beneath the sea.
There will be other moments
we remember when night falls.
Today’s Daily Prompt, Far from Normal, tell six things about yourself. Unusual, unique or odd. What a way to go.
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/daily-prompt-abnormal/
1. Left-Handed. The best always are.
2. I’ve jumped out of an aeroplane. Because everyone should do something stupid once, as a learning exercise.
3. I’ve slept on the top of a mountain. For the silence and the sunrise.
4. I own too many books. Or not, you can never have too many books.
5. My talent is fixing things. I have usually taken them apart first, to see what is inside. A compulsion I have.
6. I want to know everything. So much interesting stuff, places, people. Where do you start?
January 1st, 2013. The weather window arrives and I can walk. Time passes, it is now the 10th and I am only now writing my first post of 2013. It seems that suddenly the year has rushed in, I have had the operation on my shoulder, and we are dealing with what happens next.
Typing one-handed is slower than I thought, and as my wife has pointed out, I don’t make a good patient. I really need to sit back and let her look after me for a while. The operation was successful, but the anesthetic left me groggy and grumpy. And I can only sleep on my back which is not my natural spot. The up side is the pain should be gone in a few weeks and I can start building back the muscles to reach full strength over the next 4 – 6 months, allowing us to get back to work and play.
Back to the beginning, The Raven, a walk I did on new years day. Cold and clear with some wind and an exercise in creating space for the things to come. Across hilltops, through woods and urban places the Raven walk uses the South Wales Valleys to lead you on a short history of man in the area, stone age, to the industrial revolution, to modern leisure at the Cwm Carn tourist centre. The route has several sculptures scattered along it, as well as around the centre itself, I recommend a visit. Anyway, here is my first poem of the year.
Always watching, birds are the first to warn of danger, when other signs cannot be used their noise is a background to the world.
The Raven.
The Raven has been
watching the forest track,
silent and oblivious, his disregard
for any single moment is obvious
and now the violent rattle of
branches, waves chasing
the wind over the long grass
of Mynydd y Lan.
In the valley, empty eyes
and reaching beak,
with reason for glaring
out at the world.
When the wind blows,
the confusion spreads
quickly through the trees.
And the binding will not release
your wings to fly.
I’m not writing much about the walk itself today, this is such slow work, maybe next week? For now, pictures and Happy New Year everyone.
A walk through the world between places 