‘Take it easy and writers.... write!’That was the advice from fellow blogger and Novel Racer, Lisa Ratcliffe in her final blog. Lisa’s posts shone with a zest and a love for life even when she was so terribly ill. I’ve thought about Lisa a lot this week, and the family she left behind. In one of her last posts she wondered how many books she might have written if she’d ‘let it fly rather than immediately believing it to be crap and binning it’. It certainly struck a chord with me. So, I’ve got on with it; FTT is back out in the world and I’ve been getting on with some OU work. Letting fly with poetry has been very hard and I’m still circling warily round my next assignment but here’s a piece I wrote for a tutorial based on a photograph of a mother showing her daughter how to knit. The rules were that only two adjectives were allowed and no more than 30 minutes to be spent writing it (ok, I ran over on that by five minutes as it was so hard to let myself go in the time.)
Casting On
A lightning flash of silver needles
pierce the cloud of wool.
Twisting the mist into a waterfall,
she glimpses another storm warning
on her daughter’s face.
Small hands paddle,
scoop up net and needles, slippery as
mackerels in the basket of her lap
where stitches fall.
Knit one, purl one. Together they catch them.
It’s not brilliant but it did show me that you can put something together in 30 mins – now all I have to do is write the assignment. Gulp!
And sometimes when you let fly... it works!
Honno Welsh Women’s Press recently ran a competition to tell a ‘Coming of Age’ story in one sentence. I went for a run this morning and when I got in I checked the Honno site but couldn’t see my name in the ‘highly commended’ – that was because I was the winner!! Yay!
There is a currently a typo on the site which Honno are going to fix tomorrow, so there’s an ‘a’ where an ‘I’ should be... but if you want to take a look...
it's here.
Today's painting is 'Dinas and Carn Ingli from the sea' (a view I know a little too well!) by Tom Tomos.
Comments
How sad for you to lose such a friend.
Sorry to hear about your friend.
Love the poem. I couldn't write that if you gave me a week to do it.
(And your poem is gorgeous... write some more!)
Your poem went right from the screen to my heart and a long ago memory of sitting with my great aunt.
Please accept my sympathy on the loss of your friend. She surely does sound like a very inspiring person.
Best wishes for more writing and more excellent responses to that writing. xo
I'm sure Lisa would be thrilled to bits for you. x
Congratulations.! how wonderful, I love your Poem.
So sorry to hear about the loss of your friend.
Best of luck with more writing Chris.
xx
Elizabeth, thanks. And to all of you who have expressed sympathy about Lisa, I was never fortunate enough to meet Lisa but I met her as a blogging friend... or as Lisa put it, 'a whisper in the ether', but I was very engaged by her vibrant, warm posts and longed for her to beat the terrible odds that were stacked against her. Her zest for life touched me deeply.
JJ, thank you.
Mountaineer, thanks for your faith.
Fennie. So true about deadlines!!
Bradan, thank you - will have to hold a purple party if that happens!
Debs - yeah you could! Give yourself a scary 30 min deadline and see what happens!
Mummy, if I was doing everything you're doing at the moment, I wouldn't be able to remember my name!
Ladybird, Lisa managed to touch a lot of people in her too short life. I feel for her family.
Lampie, shucks! Thank you!
SBS, it's a b*gger isn't it? So far I've produced ONE couplet... only another 38 lines to go then!
Frances, that's a very kind thing to say. Thank you.
Lane, thank you - I think we'll all be doing it for Lisa now.
Countrymummy, thanks for dropping by and for your kind comment.
Mags, thank you. It IS a nice prize so I'm very happy! (we have the marauding hordes next week but I haven't forgotten coffee!)
Oh, and you're a poet too! :)
x x x
First, sorry to hear about the loss of a friend - not matter how we make them they are precious.
Your poem was lovely - don't downplay it. Any mother who's sat patiently helping little hands to make the stitches will gulp on reading your poem.
Congrats on the one liner - you're on a roll........
Flowerpot - We'll get there, you mean! Let's just keep picking ourselves up until someone catches us!
Wordtryst... I'm going to yours after seeing Hunk of the Month! Thanks for the nice comment.
Muddyboots, much appreciated, Thanks
LBD, thank you, dear heart.
Nimblejacks - that sounds like a very good time saving idea, I do hope you'll come and visit me in hospital!
Pondside, how very kind you are, and a true friend across the pond.
Kitty, watch out or I'll do another pome!
I disagreed, your poem is brilliant. And how good are you to have been tackling TMA3. I love poetry but hasn't it all been cold, disecting everything? For me,it's taken the joy of out it. Roll on the next section.
So sorry about Lisa. Awful.