Notes from a KTM – December 2019
https://nosuchthingasordinary.wordpress.com/2020/01/03/notes-from-a-ktm-december-2019/
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Shanghai
Tonight
I’m in a city of 14.50 million
souls. I know no-one
here. I’m a nano-human, a speck
in the smog. I make myself big
riding the subways with no-one
with light-coloured hair. No-one notices
the gweilo; the ghost-person, I think,
until I step into the deluge at Shanghai
Library, and a dark-haired
girl steps in time beside me, her umbrella
banishing the rain, her words, my ghostliness
“Where are you going?
Can I take you there?”
***
“They’re irresponsible”, my husband says, “sending you there on your own.“
“It’ll be fine. I’ll be careful”, I say. I have an unspoken list of no-go countries for work, but China’s not one of them; my 8-year-old self has waited a lifetime for this. From a young age through most of my teens my dreamscapes were exotic places far from my home in Africa, in particular, somewhere intoxicating called the Far East. There…
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An Umbrella on the Wind
I was in primary school when I heard that crazy laugh for the first time. Other girls in the class tittered and giggled in typical 8-year-old manner: Janine Scott’s laugh was anarchic, dangerous and often inappropriate. I loved it. Sharing an absurdist sense of humour and a love of dancing, we became firm friends.
Frequent sleepovers at each other’s homes were spent choreographing our latest dream dance production and laughing for hours at nothing in particular, amusements in an era devoid of personal computers, internet and smartphones.
But one Friday night, as we lay about her bedroom, chatting, she became increasingly agitated as I mindlessly threw her small brown Teddy bear into the air.
Stop that!
What?
Stop throwing the Teddy around.
Me, laughing and dangling the bear upside-down by one leg: What’s wrong?
Janine, almost crying now: It belonged to Morgan.
Who’s Morgan?
Morgan was…
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Poetry Challenge – Form and Style Assignment from W.H. Auden
Calling all poets! Pop over to 👉 Gabrielle Bryden’s blog and take on the challenge.
Famous Anglo-American poet W.H. Auden once taught in the 92nd Street Y’s Unterberg Poetry Center (officially known as the New York City’s 92nd Street Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association).
Here is a copy of an assignment he gave to students, in January 1956, who were attending his ‘Form and Style in Poetry’ course.
Do you want to give it a go? 😉
I’d love to see what people come up with. If you feel the urge to complete the assignment you can email me (gbryden at bigpond dot com) the ‘result’ in the next couple of weeks and if it fits the bill I will post it on my blog.
I’ll throw my hat in the ring and then we can say we were taught by W.H. Auden 😀
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‘not looking back to wave’: A Book Review (Poetry)
Thanks, Gabe 😀
‘not looking back to wave’ by Karen Price
We’ve all been waiting a long time for the release of Australian blogger beeblu’s debut poetry collection and now that time has arrived.
Don’t tell anyone but we now know that beeblu has another name – Karen Price! I told her not to disclose her real name but did she listen? There’s even a lovely photo of her in the book – the cloak of invisibility has forever been thrown into the laundry basket.
Anyway, they’ll soon forget 😉
Those who follow beeblu’s blog (those discerning readers) will be familiar with many of the poems in her collection. I love it when poetry bloggers collate their poems into a book – blog’s can disappear but a printed book can sit snugly in one of my bookshelves without fear of banishment.
Beeblu’s collection is very beeblu! The cover is black with white lower…
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Kill Your Darlings Not Your Editor
Given the grammar and punctuation transgressions on this blog, you’ll probably find it hard to believe that I qualified as a book editor over a decade ago. *Sharp intakes of breath around the Blogosphere* Yes, you know who you are. 😀 Breathe easy; I’ve yet to give up my day job.
What I do know is that editing is critical to the writing process and essential for, at the very least, published works and professional documents. And what I did learn in studying for my editing qualification is the need for tact when dealing with authors and their work, no matter how awful either.
At work, I edit my own writing before and after I get someone else to edit it. Even so, when I do the final edit, I’m often bemused to find a number of errors remaining. When it comes to prose, I know my weak areas: omission of functions words, homonym misuse and comma confusion, to name but a few, so I know what to look for. But, poetry? I really have no idea.
So it is with heartfelt gratitude, appreciation and admiration that I thank Linda Cosgriff (a.k.a. The Laughing Housewife) for the gift of her editing expertise on my first poetry collection.
Linda is what the publishing industry (if she were to put herself out there) would consider an exceptional editor: she knows her stuff, and she is unafraid to say what needs to be said on both form and style but does so in an encouraging, tactful and respectful manner. And she sends gifts. 😀
I’ve taken most of her advice…
..OK, I admit I’ve granted clemency to some of my poor darlings.
Any errors remaining in the book are purely mine.
You have done me an immense favour, Linda dear. Thank you for the gift of your friendship, your valued input and the Olympic Games bookmark with the inspiring quote. ♥♥♥
Weekly Photo Challenge: Zigzag
Exquisite Botanical Art – Ho Chi Minh Square
I missed last week’s photo challenge…
..and my 4th blog anniversary.
And because of M-R’s powers of suggestion, I got only as far as selecting three instead of the usual five photos for my list of favourites on the WPC theme.
Just as well I’m not OCD. 🙄
For more entries to this week’s photo challenge, see The Daily Post.
Five Three standouts from this week
Dadirridreaming
RIP Christine.
😢
Weekly Photo Challenge: Habit
It’s our habit, on a Saturday, to head out early for breakfast at our local, and then to the golf course for 18 holes.
We got more than we bargained for today – on the fourth, a thunderstorm so powerful in its rain and wind action that we struggled to run against it to seek shelter from the lightning spiking all around us. The golf course was flooded in a couple of minutes – it’s frightening how quickly the weather can turn deadly.
For more entries to the WPC Habit theme, see The Daily Post.
Philippines – Typhoon Haiyan
If you can, please help the people of the Philippines – see link below:
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/11/how-to-help-philippines-typhoon-victims/?smid=pl-share
http://www.smh.com.au/world/haiyan-leaves-trail-of-grief–and-despair-in-its-wake-20131113-2xgvc.html
Weekly Photo Challenge: Eerie
Weekly Photo Challenge: Horizon
Smoke Eclipse
This is a snapshot of the skies towards the Blue Mountains, which were ablaze with raging bush-fires last week – and there is more of the same on the horizon for Australia. Today, a week later, Sydney is blanketed in smoke once again, and Summer is not yet upon us 😯
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Didn’t get time to do my usual 5 favourites, but love these two entries to the Horizon WPC
Weekly Photo Challenge: The Hue of You
I’m a night person – shadows and light – chronotype: late
What chronotype are you?
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For more entries to this week’s WPC, see The Daily Post
My 5 favourites
Broken Light: A Photography Collective
Weeky Photo Challenge: Good Morning, Big 5Oh!
“If one is lucky enough to be blessed with good health, growing older shouldn’t be something to complain about. It’s not a surprise, we knew it was coming−make the most of it.”
Betty White
“Just remember that a 6-year-old would get tired from doing a lot of what you do. I don’t see no 6-year-olds walking the golf course! Hell no!”
My niece Jayde
Like any self-preserving 50-year-old, I partied yesterday so I could have today to recover
For more entries to last week’s WPC, see The Daily Post
Weekly Photo Challenge: Saturated
On a grey, saturated day in May,
the trees at a local nursery delight
with their saturated colour display
As does a sunset in the Blue Mountains
Little moments of the right kind of shock and awe
For more entries to this week’s challenge, see The Daily Post.
My 5 favourites:
A Meditative Journey with Saldage
Blurb blurble bloop… Help! One-Sentence Biography Competition
I’m trying to get my first poetry book completed and self-published on Blurb. One of the elements I’m still missing is a short blurb/biography about me in relation to poetry – I don’t want to write this myself, and if I asked anyone in my family or non-blogging circle of friends, I’d get something along the lines of:
“‘x‘ is my ‘insert relation type here‘ – she writes poetry, but I’ve got no idea what she’s on about.“
So I’m looking for some help from you—the esteemed Blogging community (how’m I doing on the sycophantic flattery front?) for something short, and not necessarily serious, and thus am holding a one-sentence biography competition:
Post your entries in the comments section of this post.
I will include the kindest best ones on the front flap and may include any snide irreverent blooper blurbs on the back, all attributed of course.
Payment?!
Don’t be silly! We all know poetry books don’t sell!
The winner will, however, receive a mystery prize. 😉
Weekly Photo Challenge: An Unusual Point of View
Traffic
There is traffic
and, then, there
is a galaxy. Traffic does not move
at the speed of light, like a flash
of rage. Step into space
without the gravity suit
and you will see
there is traffic
and the oh so important
corporate man
and, then, there is the universe. I don’t look
at the pegs as I hang
out the washing. I look
for you
beyond the moon.
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For more entries to this week’s photo challenge, see The Daily Post.
Creosote
Is the scent
of an ancestor’s skull kicked
down a bush runway –
an elephant remembers
bones and dust,
the echo of hyena
comedy nights, jaws
on buffalo bones
chalk and dust,
a tall silhouette beyond the runway –
a blind man – inhales the dusk
for ghost-lions
before crossing to light
the camp fire
blood and dust
in the dark, leopards
gaze at embers
of an ancient story
fate throws the bones,
a plane flies
into a hillside
flesh and blood,
bones and dust,
and creosote.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Focus
When I did a B&W photography course some years ago, our instructor provided a simple but effective mnemonic for remembering how to create depth of field:
- F-stop 2 = 2 fence posts
- F-stop 22 = 22 fence posts
I’ve never forgotten it.
For more entries to this week’s photo challenge, see The Daily Post.
My top five:
Postcards from…around the world
Weekly Photo Challenge: One Shot, Two Ways
Do you think that context changes meaning in the two shots of the same subject above? What about the two shots below?
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For more entries to last week’s challenge, see The Daily Post.
My favourite five creative takes on this theme:
beeblu blog 
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