I'm hoping this type of announcement post will get extremely monotonous as I reveal a second poem has been accepted for publication (in a different journal to the first one). It turns out sending poetry and stories to publications occasionally works. It's simple but it's still true, and I have been guilty of forgetting this. … Continue reading Oh the monotony
Poetry
Something old, something new
I have news. It has been a long time coming. But after writing poetry for decades, finally, after all these years I've had one poem accepted for publication. It's in Trouvaille Journal right now. If you would like to read it, here it is. It sounds dramatic, doesn't it? Decades in the making, but it's … Continue reading Something old, something new
Disrupt this writer
You know how scientific analysis sometimes requires killing what it is seeking to understand first? I feel like this at the moment about writing. As soon as I talk about it, even here, the idea, or the impulse or the work itself is killed, stone dead. Sure, we can look at the structures of the … Continue reading Disrupt this writer
Posting poetry
I'm taking part in a month long Post-it Note Poetry exercise (#PINP19) on Instagram over February (organised by @Soullyrical). I'm taking part because too often I'm a bystander. Also, after all this time, I know inspiration works better with restraints, and a bunch of discipline, rather than the panic that infinite space induces. A Post-it … Continue reading Posting poetry
Refinding my words
One of my friends asked me towards the end of last year to find my words, if I could, and use them for solace, and sense and wonder. It turns out I couldn't and for that I'm sorry. Amongst other things, I am full of other people's words and stories and books and ideas. They … Continue reading Refinding my words
Physics of Writing
The writer's Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal: You can know where the work should go, but not if it is acceptable. If acceptable, you can't know where to send it. But once sent out into the world, Aeons pass. Stars are born and die. In the space left between atoms and galaxies, Writers are meant to maintain … Continue reading Physics of Writing
Tho’ much is taken, much abides
There's little profit for idle writers, By still'd in boxes amongst much barren tabs, Match'd with wage strife, yet getting not the dole Meted through unequal laws of preoccupied politicians, Who hoard, and sleep, and debate, and know not us... Such as we cannot rest from the will to think plots and words and resumes: … Continue reading Tho’ much is taken, much abides
Of nano, knowledge and social media
The below is a poem about a recent social media argument between science communicator, scientist and PhD candidate Upulie Divisekera (follow on Twitter @upulie ) and a very famous tech entrepreneur after he made some sweeping generalisations and dismissive statements. My little effort is styled upon Walt Whitman's When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer. When I … Continue reading Of nano, knowledge and social media
Under a spell
There is a final sentence in one of Tim Winton's short stories in his intertwined anthology The Turning that winded me with its beauty, poise and connectedness to what had gone before. I can't remember the story exactly, it was one of those grim seaside slices of life he is an expert at crafting, but … Continue reading Under a spell
unManley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins was an innovative and scholarly poet, if mostly unpublished in his lifetime. His unquiet poems, with their vivid descriptions in sprung rhythm still resonate with me. As an individual, he was a depressive, diminutive and devout man, out of sync with his world. Thus, he remains somehow familiar, and supremely current, except … Continue reading unManley Hopkins
