Saturday, February 5, 2011

A Few Things Poetical...

On my wanderings around the internet I came across Big Tent Poetry, a poetry site that posts a prompt on Monday, then you can post your poem inspired by the prompt on Friday and over the weekend.
This week's prompt was a wordle (I'd never heard of this - it's a group of words) you could include one or as many of the words as you like in your poem - I think I managed to use about half:-

Skatepark

Not exactly fearless
but determined,
gripping the handle bars
poised at the lip of the ramp
alert to other riders
timing his launch
into the flow.

His scooter is
an aluminium blade
slicing the air, down the ramp
across the flat, left foot pumping hard
to make it up the slope
get air, rotate 180
maybe.

And repeat
until his shirt
is drenched with sweat
and the sky is darkening
storm clouds banking up
and we run
at the first drops.


For xmas I treated myself to a book of poetry by Adrienne Rich with essays and criticism. I think I'll be dipping into it all year, there's so much to get my teeth into! I was attracted to some of her poems I read in anthologies. I've been trying to work out what it is that hooked me, and I think it's the imagery, the way she describes things is striking and beautiful, also the feeling that there's a lot more going on in her poems, they're full of emotion which made me curious about the underlying themes or meanings - the essays are really helping with unravelling these. About being a woman, and a woman in relation to a man/men, and being a creative woman. I'll point you to - Storm Warnings, The Roof Walker, Diving Into the Wreck and Integrity, as a taster!! I think I'll be back to talk about these more another time!!...


The paintings in this post are the ones I did a week ago. Yesterday I did some monoprints which you can see on my flickr page, I also finished carving a wood-cut that's been on the go since September...hopefully I'll print that next week.

I hope you've had a productive week.
Best wishes xx

9 comments:

  1. I love how you used the wordle words in such a creative way- a scooter at the skatepark... how fun!

    And your paintings are beautiful!

    ~laurie

    www.lkharris-kolp.blogspot.com

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  2. Very nice - the imagery is vivid and brings the skatepark to life. I can see the action. And your paintings are wonderful.

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  3. I like what you've done with the wordle.

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  4. Glad you stumbled over the Tent, Kate.

    Love the energy in your poem. Feels so natural -- wouldn't know the words were prescribed!

    Lovely art, too. I adore (!!!) birds, and these are gorgeous. I'm off to your Flickr page!

    http:/stoneymoss.org/

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  5. "His scooter is/an aluminium blade" - Awesome!! You did great for your first wordle :)

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  6. You've seated the words really well in this vivid narrative. Not an easy task!

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  7. Many thanks for all your comments, I really enjoyed the wordle prompt - my kids got scooters for xmas and I've spent many hours at the skate park since then!!

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  8. Great wordle .......Jim used to skateboard so I have spent time at skateparks too ....Love the bird paintings ......would love to do another swap with you sometime for one of your coloured monoprints or anything of yours in fact i just love your work ....xx

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