I've been neglectful of posting recently. (And I'm going on 'Mastermind' next week: specialist subject will be stating the bleedin' obvious!) Thing is, after two and a half years of not working, I went and got a job which has taken up most of my energies whilst I get used to getting out of my bed at some ungodly hour of the morning again, and having a routine! Still, I'll (eventually) have a salary coming in again, so it's all good.
Anyway, on to the business of poetic ramblings. Despite the stresses and strains of being a wage-slave again, last week in particular was a high productive week, poem wise. I knocked out four completely new pieces; finished two poems I've been struggling with for a while; re-jigged two that some nice people at the writing group I go to kindly critiqued for me; and produced something from notes made at a recent workshop on using the second person. Some of them are even good. Go me! With knobs on!!!
More importantly, several of them are not of the 'prancing around the countryside with a flower behind my ear' variety. My mentor is encouraging me to move outside my safe zone (writing about how lovely the countryside is that I prance about in) and explore one of the other 'voices' that have percolated up: a political voice.
It's an interesting change. When I'm in my safe zone, I know when I've got something 'good' or at least something that has potential. Writing in another vein is slightly disturbing in that I don't feel I have any anchors to cling on to, or reference points by which to plot my course. Still, it's a challenge and one that I'm rather enjoying.
I'm off to a two day workshop on ekphrastics at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, later this week - writing poetry about some of the exhibits. Obviously, it's something I've done before at Swindon Art Gallery, but the Ashmolean is going to offer a whole bewildering range of lovely things to choose from. More another day. Probably.
Good luck on Mastermind ;)
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