April, a month of poetry…I need your help!

Robert Zimmermann's avatarA Life Among The Pages

As many of us poetry people know, April is National Poetry Month 
(though in today’s globally connected world, it should be international since it unofficially kind of is). So I want to set a goal: I want to write a minimum of…um…two poems every week in April.

I know this might not sound like much of a goal, but I haven’t written many poems in way too long of a time. I need to ease into it, and I need some help getting back into the writing mood in general. This is where you all come in.

I know many people who follow the site are poets in one way or another, whether published or more closeted poets. So I want to ask a few things of you:

  • What helps inspire you out of a writing slump? I’m sure there’s no definite “cure” for a writing slump, but maybe some…

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Hanging my head in failure

Hanging my head in failure.

Putting my tail between my legs and running away.

I’ve decided to opt out of the 2014 WordPress 365 writing prompts. I’ve only managed to do 36 of the 75 so far. I’m going to actively participate in the Daily Post Weekly Writing Challenge & Weekly Photo Challenge instead; also I’m going to attempt the Friday Fictioneer 100 word story challenge each week.

I want more time to concentrate on my poetry and fiction. I’ve got courses booked in poetry, prose and marketing this year and I’ve pledged to read 60 books (on Goodreads). I’ve read eighteen so far, yay me. I think it is imperative to my development as a writer that I read MORE and as much as I can.

I’ve closed down my Facebook page because running the Blog, Twitter account and two Facebook’s (personal profile and writing page) was really feeling OTT. I set up the FB page so I could keep my personal profile and writing separate. I’ve since come to the conclusion that it’s little silly since I am my writing. I figure when I post something Blog or Poetry related to FB I’ll just make it a public view post, hmm yeah that’ll work LOL.

So I’m still planning to be busy – you’ll still lots of posts from me! All the above, as well as any little amusing antidotes I dream up.

choice

2013 The Year That Was

20132013 The Year You Were Born. 2013 on an early June morn, well before dawn.

I Wrote this as a time capsule, a snapshot of the year that my son was born, you never know it may be extremely interesting in 30-50 years.

2013 (MMXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2013th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 13th year of the 3rd millennium, the 13th year of the 21st century, and the 4th year of the 2010s decade.

Monarch was: Queen Elizabeth II

Prime Minister of Australia was: Julia Gillard (until 27 June), then Kevin Rudd (until 18 September), then Tony Abbott.

Price of Bread was: $1.50-ish (You could buy fancy stuff for upwards of five dollars, but good old plain Coles home brand bad arse white bread was only $1)

Price of a newspaper was: $1.20

Price of a movie tickets for an Adult was: $11.50

Music: One Direction’s Midnight Memories was the biggest selling artist album of the year.

Movies: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire was the top grossing movie of the year.

January: On the 4th to 20th a heat wave in south-eastern Australia resulted in several bushfires in Tasmania, but in good old Australian style on the 23rd a monsoon trough passed over parts of Queensland and New South Wales, causing severe storms, flooding, and tornadoes. Ah beautiful unpredictable Aussie weather.

February: On the 17th Australia won the 2013 Women’s Cricket World Cup in India, although I doubt most of Australia realised this as they only seem to care about Male Cricket!

March: On the 21st Prime Minister Julia Gillard made a speech apologising on behalf of the federal government to families affected by forced adoption in Australia. On the 30th The Murrawarri Republic declares its independence from the Commonwealth of Australia.

April: On the 17th Australia’s greatest racing horse since Phar Lap and one of the greatest mares in world history, Black Caviar was retired on an unbeaten record of 25 wins. Which was Good! Because the old girl deserved to live the rest of her life happily.

May: On the 3rd Harrison (Harry) Miller was born giving Jaxson a little Brother and Carissa and Danny a second son.

June: On the 26th Kevin Rudd defeats Julia Gillard 57 to 45 in an Australian Labor Party leadership spill and takes over as Prime Minister. On the 27th Riley Paul Fairbairn was born at John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle, Australia, 3.15am, 4.3 kilos.

July: On the 9th the Giant telescope Murchison Widefield Array telescope in Western Australia, goes online. On the 17th the Queensland Maroons win the 2013 State of Origin series, the team’s eighth consecutive win (Rugby league). Oh Well there’s always Next year for the New South Wales Blues! On the 22nd Prince George of Cambridge was born; Prince George of Cambridge is the son of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, and the only grandchild at the time of Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales. He was born in St Mary’s Hospital, London in the United Kingdom. On the 23rd the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s AUD $630 million New Central Office is opened in Canberra.

August: On the 3rd Simon Kruger, a seven-year-old boy, goes missing in the bush after wandering away from a family picnic. He is found by searchers the next day, and claimed that a kangaroo had kept him warm as he slept under a tree. On the 12th the Euahlayi Nation declares its independence from the Commonwealth of Australia.

September: On the 7th The Liberal/National coalition led by Tony Abbott won the 2013 federal election. Bustard! Give me back the Ranga Gillard Thanks!! (but that’s just my opinion).

October: On the 6th the Sydney Roosters defeated the Manly Sea Eagles 26–18 in the 2013 NRL Grand Final. On the 13th the 2013 New South Wales bushfires begin. The fires were the worst New South Wales had seen since the 1960s. As of 19th, 248 houses and other structures were destroyed across the state. Two fatalities were attributed to the fires and it was estimated that claims would exceed $94 million. The 2013 New South Wales bushfires were a series of bushfires across the state of New South Wales starting or becoming notable on 13th; followed by the worst of the fires beginning in the Greater Blue Mountains Area on 16th and 17th. At the peak of the fires, on the morning of the 18th, over 100 fires were burning across the state. On the 22nd the Marriage Equality Act 2013 was passed in the Australian Capital Territory, making the ACT the first state or territory to legalise same-sex marriage in Australia. But the High Court chucked out ACT’s same-sex marriage laws. After being married for less than a week, same-sex couples who wed in the ACT will have their unions annulled after the High Court ruled against the laws. Very Sad! That the Australia government is so full of morons and small minded people. One day hopefully this will change.

November: On the 5th Fiorente, ridden by jockey Damien Oliver, won the 2013 Melbourne Cup. The first Melbourne Cup horse race was run in Melbourne cup 1861, so that’s 152 years so far!

December: On the 10th the analog television signal is switched off in Victoria, completing Australia’s digital television transition. On the 11th Aussie Car manufacturer Holden announces it will cease production of vehicles in Australia by 2017. Crushed, by this news I was. On the 17th Australia regains The Ashes for the first time in seven years, after winning the first three tests of the 2013–14 Ashes series (Male Cricket). On the 28th Wild Oats XI takes line honours in the 2013 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, the yacht’s seventh win. The First Sydney to Hobart was in 1945 and the fleet comprised 9 starters and of those 9 starters, 8 yachts completed the race. The inaugural race, like all those that followed, began on Sydney Harbour, at noon on Boxing Day (26th), before heading south for 630 nautical miles (1,170 km) through the Tasman Sea, past Bass Strait, into Storm Bay and up the Derwent River, to cross the finish line in Hobart, Tasmania.

Weekly Writing Challenge: Golden Years

In this week’s writing challenge we are being asked to explore what age means to us.

I always wanted to grow up, to be older. I looked forward to each birthday with great enthusiasm. I think the turning point was when I hit twenty four. As a teenager I’d told myself I’d get my shit together as an adult and it’d be awesome. When I turned twenty four I really struggled and had a life crises in my head, I tried to keep it to myself and not let on how much I was freaking out inside. At twenty four my life was nothing like I had planned! And I couldn’t handle that fact. I’ve always been obsessed with age and am terrified of death. Since having my son at twenty six, I got over my whole life not as I planned issues, because he’s better than anything I had planned. I have to remind myself daily that I’m not old. That I’m still young at twenty seven and can still accomplish all the things I want to. My dreams have changed since having my son and I really do think they changed for the better. Before having my son I dreamed constantly of being nineteen and carefree again! But I wouldn’t go back now. I really wish I could slow down time, so I could enjoy my current life and my son’s for two life times, because one will simply not be enough for all the love I have and all the things I want to do.

I guess age is just a number and it’s all about how you feel. Well some days I’m still that carefree nineteen year old. Some days I feel one hundred and some days I’m still a fucked up scared little fifteen year old who’s experiencing the real world for the first time.

I think I freak out the older I get because I’m pushing the risk factor, like every year I survive the universe is compounding more ways to take me out before I’m ready. I try to live my life with no regrets, because when I’m lying on my death bed at hopefully a ripe old age, I don’t want to be afraid, I want to say ‘’Yep I had a good time, I accomplished all I wanted and I’m reading for the party to end’’.

I am working towards my dreams and my goals. But just like telling myself every day I have time, I must tell myself to be patient because these things will not happen overnight.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/weekly-writing-challenge-golden-years/

Playlist of the week

Playlist of the week. Post 66 of 365 post prompt 2014.

Today’s post asks us to write about how our week went putting together five songs that represent it.

Well I’ve decided I’d sum up an average seven day week in the life of me:

Manic Monday. Swimming Lesson. A hard day’s night. Money. Stuck in the middle with you. Family of noise. Stand by me.

MONDAY would be represented by The Bangles ‘Manic Monday’. It’s just another manic Monday. Everyone can relate, no one likes Mondays. Everyone still wishes it was Sunday ‘cause that’s our funday, when we don’t have to runday.

TUESDAY would be represented by The Eels ‘Swimming Lesson’. It’s a downer of a song and I’m only choosing it because of its title. I take my son to swimming lessons on Tuesdays.

WEDNESDAY would be represented by The Beatles ‘Hard Day’s Night’. Wednesday. Hump Day. Who doesn’t feel like they’ve been working like a dog!

THURSDAY would be represented by The Beatles ‘Money’. Thursday is payday. I want money, that’s what I want. Enough said.

FRIDAY would be represented by Stealers Wheel ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’. Because by Friday sometimes I do feel like there is clowns to the left of me jokers to the right.

SATURDAY would be represented by Adam Ant ‘Family Of Noise’. Saturday normally the three of us get to be together and go out and do something as a family. So I’m picking this song for its title, because with my son and I, we definitely are a Family of Noise.

SUNDAY would be represented by Ben E. King ‘Stand By Me’. Stand by me is one of my all-time favourite songs and it suits a loving, lazy, snuggly, family Sunday.

 

 

VIP

VIP: Post 65 of 365 Post Prompts for 2014.

Hey, only 300 more to go LOL!

Today’s post asks us who is the most important person in our lives and how would our day-to-day existence be different without them.

Well that’s an easy question for me = My Son.

Riley and Me

Life without my son would be; quieter, cheaper, I’d get to sleep in, I’d have privacy and time to myself. But I wouldn’t have as much love or as many smiles. There would be a hole in my soul, so large I couldn’t control and I think my existence would fade away.

Buffalo Nickel

Today’s Post entitled Buffalo Nickel asks us to dig through our couch cushions, purse or the floor of our car and look at the year printed on the first coin we find, and then write about what we were doing that year.

Hahahaha well the first coin I pulled out of my wallet was a twenty cent piece from 1967.

I wasn’t born in 1967; in fact my mother was only 9 years old and would have still been attending Toronto Primary School. My mother, my Aunt Sharon and my Grandparents would have only recently moved from their small flat in Victory parade above the Workshop that was owned by my great grandfather at the time, to their first real family home, which is where my grandparents still live in Carey Bay. So 1967 was probably a very good year for my mother.

My father, well he would have been 9 years old also, but I’ve never heard any particular stories about that year. Most of his childhood stories are along the line of catching snakes in the bush. He tells stories of getting bitten and getting sick, stories of putting the captured snakes in his dad’s bird cages, then getting in trouble when all his dads birds started to disappear, but none of the stories have a date.

So I thought I’d see that was happening in Australia in 1967 – Here are the things I found interesting:

On the 7th February Massive bushfires devastate much of the Tasmanian capital of Hobart and surrounding areas. Well nothing much has changed there we are and will always be a country ravaged by fire.

On the 1st March the Royal Australian Navy replaced the British White Ensign flag on all its ships with the Australian White Ensign. Woo Hoo we’re Aussie and proud.

On the 4th April the Australian government announces it will not ban the oral contraceptive pill, maintaining that the risk of thrombosis is “very slight”. THANK GOODNESS FOR THAT!!

On the 27th May Indigenous Australians are given the right to be counted in the national census after a national referendum and legislation changing citizenship laws. IT’S ABOUT BLOODY TIME!!!!!

On the 1st July the postcode system of postal address coding is introduced throughout Australia. Wow I’d never thought of a time when it didn’t exist! How on earth did they get the mail to the right people?

On the 1st August Qantas Airways drops the word ‘Empire’ from its name.

On the 1st October the NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service is established.

DRAMA!! Our Prime Minister was Harold Holt in 1967 until 19th December, when Holt disappears while swimming in heavy surf at Cheviot Beach in Victoria. Following the disappearance of Holt, Country Party leader John McEwen is sworn in as interim Prime Minister pending the election of a new government leader by the Coalition parties. BUT 20th December John McEwen announced he will not serve in a government led by Liberal Party deputy leader William McMahon, Harold Holt’s presumed successor, triggering a leadership crisis for the Coalition.

AND the most important thing that happened in 1967 and my ‘Tory’ loving daddy will agree: General Motors Holden exports its 100,000th car and launches its first compact sedan, the Torana! Yeah Baby!!!

Post 52 of 365 Writing Prompts 2014 (M29)

My Mind The Menace Compendium

I was working on my “My Mind The Menace” compendium for publication yesterday, getting the poems in some sort of order and self doubt crept in and I started telling myself I was wasting my time and nobody would like them anyway. I told myself NO you like them so in this world there has to be someone else who will. I’ve freaked myself a bit reading back over them at how raw and truthful some of them are, I’m praying that the fear I’m feeling from not censoring myself won’t be for nothing.