Friction Magazine

I will never get the hang of this. I write so that people will read what I write... it's easy with poetry... I want you to read my poetry... And I guess I want you to read this too but it seems too much like drawing attention to myself (as opposed to my work).

Anyway, if I can just accept that this blog is probably going to be no more than intermittent and I don't have to blow my own trumpet incessantly then I can probably limit my discomfort long enough to tell you stuff...

I submitted some pomes (yes, I know it should be poems but if I make light of it it's easier... same as doing a spot of poeting sounds less terrifying than performing) to Friction Magazine a new online journal published by Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts and edited by PhD and MA students at Newcastle University and they've only gone and published one. I am pleased. Yes...

But I'm also having to beat down the vicious bastard that's loitering at the back of my head who is trying to get me to believe a number of reasons that I've been included in the first issue other than the one that goes 'they think it's a good poem'. The vicious bastard is called Evil Degs, I've had to battle her before... and I'll probably have to keep battling her before she realises that I'm not going to listen... or I am going to listen but I'm going to do choose not to believe her... or I will believe her but I'll get a second opinion from someone who doesn't live inside my head.

The poets in this first issue and are all worth a read, and then a re-read and then a trawl around the internet, bookshops and libraries to find their other work.

The Whale Road by Bill Herbert
Island Girl by Cynthia Fuller
Household Waste Only by Jake Campbell
At Longsands by Me :-)

I'm going to take time off from my evening facebook addiction and spend some time reading the fiction, non-fiction and reviews over the next few days... now if only I had an ipad to read it on...

http://www.frictionmagazine.co.uk/2010/11/07/at-longsands/

Deaf-Mute in the Pear Tree by PK Page http://ping.fm/7apmB

Chapbooks and Comedowns

I appear to be experiencing a massive comedown... I’ve had a fantastic week and if my brain functioned in a normal way I would still be enjoying the fact that I’ve registered for university and will begin my Creative Writing MA at Newcastle University on Tuesday, the fact that I had a wonderful time catching up with loads of old friends in Nottingham last week, the fact that the launch of my chapbook at the Lit & Phil went really, really well along, the fact that my daughters, my husband, my family and my friends are all immensely proud of me... but it doesn’t, and I’m not. Hopefully when I wake up in the morning my mood will lift...

I guess the main problem is that as soon as anything good enters the past I’m already aware that I need to move on to the next thing. It’s not enough to get on to an MA, I have to work really bloody hard to make sure that I get the best out of it and I suppose that’s probably at the root of why I’m feeling so drained... I wonder if I have the energy...

On the other hand... maybe I should just remember that last year I really had cause to feel terrified about the future and that compared to spending the last weekend in May wondering if my husband would survive three emergency operations all this is a doddle.

A poem about having my hair combed...
http://ping.fm/6Jgya

http://ping.fm/YGIDo

Is there a better way to spend a weekend than with a whole heap of incredible poets? After this weekend I'm not so sure.

Live Youth Theatre's slam poets on their way to Manchester! Sim, Bethan and Fed won the most striking line award for their amazing poetry and narrowly missed out on the title of highest scoring team. They are joining forces with the winners Mainstream Misfits to take on the rest of the country in the national final at the Contact Theatre in Manchester. Could I be more proud?... No I don't think so.

is it usual to get a post-award comedown? I'll probably feel ok by midweek... unless there are more druglike side effects to come...

Moth

http://listenupnorth.typepad.com/listenupnorth/2009/10/going-live.html

Resolution accomplished...

At the beginning of January I set out to complete thirty one poems; I knew that they would only be at first draft stage so I wasn't expecting brilliance, just the start of some poems that might turn into something good when I come to redraft and edit during February.

It's been hard work at times and I'm eternally grateful to three forms in particular which helped me to stick to my resolution even when I was short on time: cinquain; haiku (of course); and it's nature free cousin the senryu. I'm looking forward to taking a well earned rest and spending a little more time with my husband in the evenings... between my resolution (and the facebook group I set up to make sure I stuck to it) and celebrity big brother there has been little time for conversation.

I managed to write thirty two poems in the end and at the moment I'm feeling quite proud of myself - but we'll see if that feeling lasts when I come to reread and complete my poems! I hope so. (www.deseeded.blogspot.com)

This is the last poem...

All Things Must Pass

The first time you watch a film
that you’ll watch a hundred times more

The relationship with the boy
who took your virginity
and shared his record collection

The packet of Rolos;
give the last one to your lover

The second attempt at university
that will see you walk away
with a Drinker’s Degree (a Desmond)

The disastrous football season
that will end in relegation

Whichever war is currently
reported on page two
of whichever broad sheet

Your parents’ second marriages
to people they never liked

Club nights at World Headquarters
on Marlborough Crescent;
the Trent House Soul Bar

The brittle friendship with the girl
you partied and bitched with

Your student maintenance grant
that you never thought
Labour would steal away

The last day in an office job
you were never cut out for

January

Just a resolution,
a promise I promise
not to break...
until something else
attracts my attention -
Russell Brand on television
y'know, that sort of thing.

This is my first poem of 2010, I'm attempting to write a poem a day throughout January...