a dictionary of spectral curiosities
As you may well have imagined, I have been away and - alas! - out of the reach of a decent internet connection. Nevertheless, I got to meet some wonderful people and see some wonderful sights in Cardiff and Tintern, so I can't say I'm sorry for that. Actually, if you ever find yourselves in …
Continue reading "Making up for Lost Wifi – Days 9, 10 and 11"
Phew! Long day today. Very long. And not over yet, as I've still much work to do. The day 8 prompt invites us to try writing in ottava rima — an Italian form that, in English, usually takes the form of an eight-line stanza of iambic pentameter, with a rhyme scheme of a-b-a-b-a-b-c-c. I can't …
Here we are on day seven of NaPoWriMo - every time I realise a full week has actually gone by, I end up asking myself: where has it all gone to? what do I have to show for it? And I guess NaPoWriMo helps to make me feel slightly better about myself, because no matter …
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 …
For the fourth day of NaPoWriMo I decided to have another go at one of my favourite forms of poetry, the triolet (I wrote another triolet for last year's NaPoWriMo as well, here). Why is it one of my favourite forms? I suspect I may have an unhealthy obsession with circularity and repetition in poems... …
It's day three of NaPoWriMo and I feel like I'm starting to get into this, so today I've completely ignored all prompts and just went with the flow. Spinning poetry out of absolutely nothing sure is a messy business, but then again, what better way to celebrate Spring! [Poem currently under submission.]
I have had a rather full and stressful day today, I'm afraid, so you must try to understand (and not judge too harshly) if my attempt at poetry for the day has come out slightly...flavourless, in spite of my best efforts. 😦 The NaPoWriMo prompt for today was to write "a poem that tells a lie", …
I realise I haven't posted anything on this blog in too long, but it seems rather fitting that my first update of the year should be a poem. In a moment of suicidal optimism I decided to jump on the NaPoWriMo bandwagon for the third year in a row, so there we go, I'm afraid there's no …
Short nonfiction piece, triggered by my nostalgia for childhood summertime. It was inspired by this post, which I heartily recommend. In fact, I recommend the whole On the Borderland blog, it is a fabulous read. I remember summer. The slow breeze of the hillside, the warm rain, the soothing perfume of linden flowers and playing …
A bit late, but here it is, the very last poem for this year's NaPoWriMo. It was fun while it lasted, so I decided to take on the last official prompt as a sort of homage to the project: Today’s prompt asks you to write a poem incorporating at least three “I remember” statements. This …
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