Poetic Pause

Someone's Son

2012-02-01T21:17:00.000-08:00

This morning I saw a young man risking his life. Knowing there's little I can do to save him, I felt I had to put something down in words. A poem then, for that particular young man, and for all of the others who risk their lives on the roads. There are so many... Someone’s son He went past, faster than the speed limit says and not as safe as the law says he should be. No helmet, hair

My Very Own Sestina

2012-01-31T16:40:00.000-08:00

Well, it took longer to create than a haiku would have taken, and it covers more ground, with many more words. A fortnight of my life went into the writing of this complex poetic form. The sestina certainly isn't for cowards! It's a good way to play with words though, and I enjoyed it all immensely. I'm using poetry to keep my brain ticking over and making connections, and so warding off

Death Comes As The End For Us All

2012-01-27T19:31:00.000-08:00

The poem below had its beginning is a blog comment I made to a friend's post. His words spoke directly to something inside of me, and I immediately felt what I had to write. The same friend left a comment on his blog, which challenged me to take my initial poem further. The poem below is the result, and it comes straight from my heart and mind. I encourage you to go to John Malone's blog

Celebrating 26 Years of Happy Marriage!

2012-01-25T15:36:00.000-08:00

I write poems for various reasons, this poem came about this morning after I read a Facebook comment. The person offered congratulations for my wedding anniversary, I immediately knew I wanted to write this poem. The commenter is a fellow Month of Poetry 2012 poet, and I'm thrilled to have been prompted to write this. This is a happy, happy, joy, bliss poem, and there should be more of them

Writing Better Poetry

2012-01-23T02:15:00.000-08:00

Do you think you're incapable of writing poetry? I don't agree. I think you're just looking at it the wrong way. When people begin to learn how to do something, they don't expect to be experts straight away. They might have lessons first, then practice it, and they will slowly get better at it. If they're really keen to improve, they might get further lessons, masterclass lessons

Playing the Pokies Game

2012-01-21T22:18:00.000-08:00

I have conflicting thoughts about the current political argument going on regarding pokie machines. I'm certainly away of the fact that there are people who have huge problems with losing too much money gambling on the pokies. I'm sorry for these people and their families. I hope they find help to cure them of their addiction. But I like playing the pokies, I find it enjoyable. Every now and

Finding Poems Wherever They May Be

2012-01-19T22:52:00.000-08:00

Different poets have different ways to find new poems. Some rely on their muse to drop by every now and then, and drop some words and hints that may become a poem. Others dedicate a certain amount of time every day, and struggle with putting words together to form a poem. In the past I've tended to let my muse come and visit whenever it can, and been thankful if I can write a poem eventually

Poetic Forms - the Sestina

2012-01-17T02:08:00.000-08:00

I had a thought today, that it might be fun to write myself a sestina poem for my poem tomorrow. Then I looked up the rules for the sestina. I'm afraid I got scared and chickened out. I've taken a look on Google, trying to find something that may encourage me to at least think more about the form. I found some guides that didn't interest me, even though they did a good enough job of explaining

My Life Gives Me Poetry Themes!

2012-01-13T19:44:00.000-08:00

As I've written previously on this blog, I'm currently committed to writing a new poem every day this month, and posting it to the Month of Poetry website.This has been going well for me, with at least one new poem every day in January. I find I'm noticing things more, every day things that might usually go unnoticed. In my quest for a new poem every day, I'm becoming more mindful. This is a

Another Day, Another Poem

2012-01-10T19:28:00.000-08:00

It's the eleventh of January as I write this post, and I've posted eleven new poems to the website, one a day. I've written more poems than that though, inspiration seems to be reaching out and hitting me far more than usual. I think this is because I'm open to it, and actively looking for more things to write about. What happened this afternoon is a case in point. You find inspiration for

A New Poem, to Post or Not to Post?

2012-01-09T23:01:00.000-08:00

Actually, I've made the decision already, but it's quite an important thing to think about. If a poem is put on a blog, that counts as being published, unless the blog is a closed one. If a poem is published, it becomes ineligible for many poetry competitions, and some publishers are interested only in unpublished material. I considered these issues briefly, and the outcome is that I will

A Poem About Oscar, the Escape Artist Who Didn't Escape

2012-01-07T18:04:00.000-08:00

I wrote this poem for my poem for day 8 of my Month of Poetry. The idea for this poem came to me as I was writing a response to another poem on a friend's blog. http://mistakenforarealpoet.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/on-goolwa-beach-audio-visual/#comment-149 This poem that started me thinking isn't about dogs or a dog, but it uses 'dog' as a metaphor, and the poem is also set out, cleverly, in the

I'm a Poet, I Wrote a Sonnet

2012-01-05T15:19:00.000-08:00

Hello, this is the sonnet I wrote for my Month of Poetry challenge. There are many people around Australia and beyond trying to write a new poem every day for the month of January 2012. They then post their poem to the Month of Poetry website. So far I'm keeping up with the challenge - I've written a new poem every day, and duly posted it to the website. The quality of my poetry is a little

2012-01-05T14:52:00.001-08:00

I wrote this and posted it to the Month of Poetry website for Day 5 of the month. This has been a fun challenge, and so far I'm keeping up with the posting of a new poem every day. So here's the sonnet I wrote, it may not be perfect, but at least it's written and posted. If you have any thoughts on how to tidy this sonnet up and make it better, please, please, please leave a comment and let me

My Month of Poetry, Day 4

2012-01-03T15:16:00.000-08:00

I've been writing a new poem every day in January and posting them to a website that was set up for people to do this. It's been challenging but fun, having to produce a new poem every day, and remembering to post it on the website. The poems posted there have been terrific. The poem I did today is, I feel, the best one so far. It's not finished yet, needs some tweaking perhaps. Any feedback

January 2012 will be Poetry Month

2011-12-31T20:12:00.000-08:00

This month I've committed to writing one new poem every day. I might be posting rubbish some days, first drafts in need of feedback and more editing, but I will post a new poem! This was all brought on by reading about Month of Poetry 2012 I've met up with Kathryn Apel, who is organising this poetry jaunt, previously, and I know she is legitimate and devoted to poetry. I'm the same, and I'm

Headlines as Poem Starters

2011-12-27T17:42:00.000-08:00

Today I read of a woman who threw a puppy over a balcony. The pup is now being cared for by a vet clinic and looks like it will be OK. I am an avid dog lover, and I'm concerned that someone would do such a terrible thing. Puppies need the love and help of caring owners, and certainly never deserve to be so badly treated. I don't know too much more about this case of animal abuse though, because

What to Write a Poem About?

2011-12-26T19:01:00.000-08:00

Do you ever want to write a poem but can't think of anything to write about? I used to feel like that sometimes, but no more. I studied at the Adelaide WEA college a couple of months ago, and I'll know what to write about and what style to write poems in for ever more. The subject was called 20 ways to write a poem and the lecturer was John Malone, who has a blog here. In this particular blog

Poems from my yard

2011-12-19T22:12:00.000-08:00

One of my favourite things to do is to sit down and watch Nature around my back or front yard. I have good spots to sit and watch, ponder and meditate. Sometimes inner peace may come from sitting and watching, sometimes I may just idly watch with nothing deep or meaningful occurring. Sometimes a poem may come of my time sitting and relaxing, and letting Nature entertain me. I like short

My Christmas Poem

2011-12-19T20:03:00.000-08:00

Christmas means many things to different people. As an atheist who is jaded by the 'Buy Now' consumerism that Christmas has become. I have my own thoughts about Christmas, possibly different than many people have. I've thought deeply about the whole thing, and last year I wrote this poem to read at a Christmas Poetry Slam/Party. I read the poem (with a couple of changes) again at the same event

Poem idea starters

2011-12-17T22:51:00.000-08:00

I've written poems for many, many years. I remember the poem I wrote in high school for Mr Scalzi's History class once. I was supposed to be writing something, not a poem but something else, about some part of Ancient History that began with a 'C'. I can't remember what the town or country was apart from knowing what letter it began with, but it was in Europe, which might as well have been on

Reasons Why I Write

2011-12-09T21:04:00.001-08:00

I write most days, it's not always creative writing, some of my writing is posting comments on Facebook or tweets on Twitter, nothing more literary than that. I try to give a piece of myself with my comments though. Other kinds of writing I do are these: Poetry, short stories, novel drafts, blogging, journal writing. I often write a poem when something major has come into my life. I wrote

What makes me happy

2011-12-07T22:11:00.001-08:00

It doesn't take much to make me happy. Basically if the day is pleasant, not too hot and not too cold, or if the day is too hot but I can stay home inside, where it's nice and cool, then I'm happy. Most days fit the criteria - if I have to go out on a hot day, well that impacts on how I feel. If I'm going out somewhere good, then I'll still be happy, because the car I'm likely to be driving will

Aiming at something like William Carlos Williams

2011-11-17T16:24:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I wrote another poem about my car crash from last week. The previous poem is quite different in style to this more recent poem. I was aiming at capturing just one important thing, and was thinking as I wrote and edited it, about the spare and clever work of the much loved American poet William Carlos Williams. If you don't know his work, and you like or love poetry, or even if you

Creative Writing is my Personal Healing

2011-11-15T16:19:00.001-08:00

I had a car accident last week, on Monday. Something went wrong, I lost the steering in my car and I crashed. The car was the first car I've ever owned myself, all the other cars have been in my husband, Graham's, name. When my car came to a halt, I realised I was pretty well completely unhurt. I thought about what to do, but a wonderful lady arrived to help me. She took charge of it all, and