So today I just wanted to have a little fun with the poem, since I felt like I've been much too serious these past few days. Of course, though, my definition of "fun" includes some grotesque imagery of nineteenth-century inspiration. In fact, my main source of inspiration for today's poem was the brilliant novel that …
Smooth and Claustrophobic
I'm afraid today's poem isn't particularly cheerful (not like the previous ones were drops of sunshine either). Well, I suppose all the stress is finally catching up with me... Now then, a lune, as per today's prompt. I wrote another couple lunes two years ago, and those have a considerably more hopeful tone to them, …
Mental Collage
So I started day three of NaPoWriMo with every intention of following the (non-compulsory) daily prompt, which was to write something in the vein of an incantation or a nursery rhyme, which I thought was a great idea. I had great fun writing something like this a couple of years ago. But I actually wasn't in …
Hurried Exchange/ Day 29
Almost there, folks, almost there... You're one day closer to the end of my lyrical spamming... [EDIT] This poem can now be read in an edited version over at the wonderful Eunoia Review.
Baron Samedi/ Day 21
I felt like writing a love poem today, so I did so. However, since my understanding of the 'love' bit in 'love poems' tends to be rather questionable, I named my lyrical attempt of the day after the Voodoo Loa of death and sex. (Which reminds me I definitely need to read up more on …
Haiku/ Day 12
Today, I decided to just settle for a haiku. Haiku is another one of my favourite forms of poetry - deceivingly short and uncomplicated, it is actually never easy to write. Sure, it's not difficult to come up with a bunch of trite 5-7-5 syllable lines, but to somehow fit a whole lyrical world into …
Slipstream/ Day 5
Today, the NaPoWriMo participants were challenged to write a cinquain, a form of poetry requiring a stanza of five lines, in which each line consists of, in order, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 2 lines with, again in order, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 1 stresses each. (Phew, that rule was a challenge just to …
“But if I’m not the same, the next question is, Who in the world am I?”
Ah, here it comes then, finally, a proper blog post. Many of you will probably recognise that title quotation as lifted whole out of one of the most famous books in the world, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. That's when Alice, frustrated and confused by so many (rather brusque) changes in height, and puzzled by the anthropomorphic White …
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I was never so fond of cataloguing…
This will be more of a memento than a regular blog post, I suppose. Last week I got a chance to see the art collection at the Nottingham Castle Museum. It was only a brief visit, yet I made a point of jotting down the titles of all the paintings that caught my fancy for …
On the Margins of an Unspeakable “Something”
Please try to ignore my almost fetishistic love for abstract and/or metaphoric titles. This post is about a lovely little art exhibition at the Walker art gallery, Liverpool. I'm talking about The Living and the Dead, an exhibition of some of visual artist John Kirby's paintings and sculptures, which is on until the 15th April …
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