Monthly Archives: July 2010

for Writers Island: http://writersisland.wordpress.com/2010/07/31/prompt-14-for-2010-the-journey/ Those were the days Are we nearly there, Mum? Are we nearly there? Ten minutes in to the journey, the mother is tearing her hair. I can see the sea, Mum, I can see the sea. … Continue reading →

For Big Tent Poetry. http://bigtentpoetry.org/category/ring-1/ I’m so old that nobody will have heard of my pop icons (slight exaggeration). Villanelle I’m glad I’m not young any more, no longer obliged to be cool, pop icons are such a bore. I … Continue reading →

This is for Rallentanda’s lovely musical prompt at: http://rallentanda.blogspot.com/2010/07/alfred-brendel.html#comments Tinnitus These hands that once caressed the keys, creating music with delight, rippling notes with careless ease producing airs and harmonies; unruly, they resist command. How sad that time deforms my … Continue reading →

I’ve now written three poems for today’s Writers Island prompt to link the titles of song tracks into a poem, none of which is pleasing to me, except perhaps the third. I find it quite distateful to use other people’s … Continue reading →

All this talk about favourite poems reminded me of how much I loathed Ted Hughes’ Crow, which seemed to reek of death. I wrote a poem in defiance of TH’s poem Examination at the Womb Door from Crow, which I … Continue reading →

For BigTent Poetry http://bigtentpoetry.org/2010/07/come-one-come-all-july-23/#comments Sestina – A Love Story I started reading poetry to learn, re-awaken my old interest in words, and found a subject I have grown to love. The distillation of mere words into a poem has aroused … Continue reading →

Bigtent’s prompt for July 19 asks “What is your favorite poem? What about it makes it your favorite? Try to use that in a poem of your own. And Rallentanda’s POW asks what’s on our minds, so the two prompts … Continue reading →

Flash fiction for a change. If Only ‘There must be some mistake.  They told me the train would leave at 18.30 when I booked the ticket.  Now you tell me it went half an hour ago.  Look. Here’s my ticket.  … Continue reading →

 I found this prompt incredibly difficult – I don’t have the sort of mind that can disentangle cryptic clues or decode a cypher.  So this is my personal interpretation of decoding. Need An old friend sent me an email, one of those … Continue reading →

The first is a translation of one of my favourite Prevert poems, and the second is a bit of nonsense based on a song from an operetta (I forget which!) but also local to where I live. To paint a … Continue reading →

Another true story: my husband, a retired dentist, converted an old barn into our previous home, mostly with his own hands and no help.  It took him four years.  In the process, he had to equalise the floor level by … Continue reading →

Phlox in Grandad’s garden, sweet vanilla-ed memory                         recalls a swarm of insects – as I thought, aged three  –                         twirling and buzzing up above: an aerial dogfight                         with Spitfires and Messerschmidts in July                         nineteen-forty. Sweat, chalk … Continue reading →

A fishy tale Continue reading →