poem a day - day 2 Postcard

Greetings from Darwin

I have been turning over the veggie patch
half of it in fact, two square metres of dirt
riddled with roots from nearby palms
I could hardly get the shovel in.

A cloudy morning and the cyclone
that was flirting is still just a low
skirting the coast headed west.
I have spread the compost too
the other half still to do next weekend.

Poem a day - day 1

Just call me crazy!!
It's poetry month in America, the poetic asides blog is doing a poem a day challenge and I'm going to have a try. Here's my day one poem.

How I got here

By the power of my two legs
not fast from A to B
but allowing time for thinking
for noticing - the garden
with a cloud of cream flowers
open in the morning twisted shut
by afternoon, how I first saw
a double-barred finch flit
down to the footpath and up to the fence
I learned to look for them.
On windy mornings I long
to spread my arms out
dive into it like a wave
and ride the current.
I get to work knowing
I'm alive.

domestic...laundry

Just dropping by to show that I'm still keeping up with the sketchbook challenge. This month's theme is 'spilling over' and eventually I came up with this -


I also did a colour version with gouache which you can see over on my flickr page.

Flower Gardens

The last couple of weeks I've been painting flowers. When I think about it lots of flowers grow her - frangipani, hibiscus, bougainvillea, just for starters. Not to mention all those gorgeous helliconias and gingers. But I haven't been painting any of them, I've been painting sunflowers (I think, they're not very realistic!) I was inspired by a lovely photo on flickr by Dalbhat - if you've never been on flickr take a look around it's vast and inspiring!!


In my Mum's garden in England I imagine the snowdrops and crocuses are up, and the daffodils soon to come. Here the seasons are all upside down - it still feels that way after 20 years. And in the tropics it's even more confusing - this is summer but it feels like winter, not because of the temperature but because of the rain. Soon will come winter that feels like summer with blue skies and sunshine everyday. We're about three quarters of the way through the wettest wet season on record. Maybe the flower paintings are just to cheer myself up mid-deluge.


I'm re-reading Barbara Kingsolver's 'Animal Vegetable Miracle', and thinking about another attempt at veggie gardening when the dry comes, maybe I'll plant some flowers too.

Deadlines...

Everytime I say I'll be back in a day or two with something, it never happens. Once a week at best seems to be all I can manage with blog posts - sometimes blogger is so slow I start and then give up. Today it seems to be behaving so here are the sketch book pages I wanted to share.


Drawings of a tea cosy I was given for xmas, the colours are brighter even than my acrylic sketch...I think I prefer the charcoal drawing though. Being part of the sketchbook challenge is keeping me inspired to keep drawing and playing. I've also been enjoying dropping by their blog, especially the interviews with artists.



It looks like being a busy couple of weeks I seem to have a few deadlines looming, most of them are optional things but I really want to have a go, I will maybe say more as I leap through the hoops!
Best wishes to all!!

Bus blues

Here's my effort for the big tent poetry, it didn't come so easy this week!

An antidote for the blues

On Monday
someone will flip the switch
the bus driver will be smiling,
passengers will embrace
like long lost friends
the security guy and the office worker
the chef and the shoplady
will clasp hands
and meet the other's eye.

Serene as a cruise ship
we will glide in and out
of bus stops
no one will have to run
no one will be left behind
and at the terminus
a round of applause
for the driver
a brass band playing and fireworks
for a safe trip on schedule.



I'll be back in the next day or two with more sketchbook pages.

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