More News on Published Poetry

I do seem to be spending a lot of time at the moment editing and formatting my short poetry collections for publication on Amazon in paperback format. This of course is affecting the amount of time I have for new, original poetry. But I hope this process will be completed soon (after all I don't have that many books in hand) and that I will be able to get back to writing new material.

This post is to release the news that I now have a second poetry book available on Amazon. It is actually the first in the series but for practical purposes I published the second volume first, if that makes sense.

This new collection is based on older poems which I have edited and converted from song lyrics originally written in the sixties and seventies. I am surprised that the range of topics is as wide as it is considering their origin. That is not to knock the poems but simply to state that the range of themes is wider than the usual stuff of pop-songs.

• Paperback: 42 pages
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform; 1 edition (29 April 2014)
• ISBN-10: 1499294905
• ISBN-13: 978-1499294903

 You can see this book on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk or alternatively I shall let you into a little secret - keep it to yourself - for a while it can be found on Scribd for free download. Same book different cover.

The table of contents, in four sections, is as follows.

POEMS ON ENDINGS AND LOST LOVES 
SILENT LADY
SING ME A SIMPLE SONG
REFLECTIONS FROM THE PAST
YOU WERE HERE ONLY YESTERDAY
MISTER WILLOW
MEMORIES

POEMS ON ATTITUDES TO LIFE 
THE WICKED MAGICIAN   
PUT DOWN YOUR GUN   
IS THE DAY TOO LONG?   
THE WATERFALL   
PATTERNS ON MY MIND  
YOU'RE IN A RUT BOY 

A POEM
THE WIND

POEMS FOR CHILDREN   
IF ALL MY FRIENDS COULD TALK
YOUR FURRY OLD FRIENDS

 I have one more collection of poetry complete and ready for publication. I shall include details next time.

A new companion site to this blog

With the imminent release of my second book to be published on Amazon, I have decided to set-up a new static web-site to  promote any and all of my boooks which are currently in the pipeline.

The second published book (of 32 pages) will be live on the Amazon site this week.

In the book I share my experiences over the last 25 years as an amateur artist who has been helping to run a local art group. The past 5 years I have been the treasurer and now act as membership secretary and take the chair at group meetings. Although I do have support in many areas, I am working hard for the continuation of the group. I hope that this book might help thoseartists who for one reason or another cannot find a suitable group in their own location.

The web-site will be part of my promotional activities to drum up potential sales for my books, and although I will continue to post new books on this blog, I do not want to swamp my readers with continued reference/links to these publications.

For your reference the site is called "Poetry By John", not terribly original but all I could think of in a rush. Must have had an off-day, LOL

My First Volume Of Poetry, Now Available On Amazon

I have just published the first volume of my poetry, it is now available on Amazon - or at least as quickly as their system processing will allow.

I was really pleased with the proof copy of this book (32 pages) which I received over the weekend, a real "feel-good" feeling to hold the book in my hands. But I actually wrote the book some time ago and decided there were some changes which I had to make to the text that I had not really noticed on the screen. A learning point for myself there - always print and check major documents.

There are 16 poems, some short, some longer and all have short notes included which describe why and often how I wrote that particular piece. I hope this will prove of interest to readers.

Anyway, I did the editing and received the "OK to print" signal from CreateSpace. I pressed the button and am now waiting for it to appear on the site. (now available)

CreateSpace is owned by Amazon and takes you through the process for publication one step at a time. It is very easy but do be careful about images. CreateSpace says it requires images to be 300ppi. But what they really should be saying is that the images should be of a certain size. I believe it is the size in pixels whixh determines whether or not it will print. I had the same issues with Zazzle.

Anyway there it is, a paperback version of the book. I have also opened my Amazon author's page.

It just remains for me to go through the same process with my other two completed poetry books and complete the fourth. I also have two non-fiction, tutorial books available. One of these has also been through the CreateSpace process and is waiting for the proof copy to be reviewed.

It feels good to be an author at last, rather than just a writer.

Published My First Book Of Poetry

I have finally done it!

I struggled through the process at CreateSpace, the site owned by Amazon to publish my first poetry book. I am waiting anxiously to see a proof copy before it goes on sale.

I say I struggled, but really the process itself is quite simple however I have always struggled with the images which accompany my poems. I originally posted copies of my first three ebooks on Scribd anad made them freely available for download. I have also embedded them into posts on this blog in the past. The images did not create a problem either on line or in printed copies.

They are mostly my own photographs which are at a resolution of 72dpi, but they are large so need to be considerably reduced for the ebooks. However, CreateSpace prints books at 300dpi and so rejected the intial images. I had to create images which were reduced but by a smaller amount for the createSpace proofs. hence I want to see how they really look.

Next time it should be much easier, having understood the issues. Or I could simply publish without the supporting images, which I don't really want to do.

I have selected my second volume (as published on Scribd) to be my first on Amazon. I have my reasons. However, I will be making the Scribd ebooks available for a fee once the physical books appear on Amazon. The e-books contain 37 - 40 pages but some of that is photos and notes about why I wrote a particular poem. If you want a copy of the ebooks then head over to Scibd and download soon whilst they are still free.

I don't honestly believe I will sell many copies of these books, although there are a couple of useful non-fiction books which are already written and which I will be adding to before publishing as physical books. I have higher hopes with these.

I would love to have a decent physical copy of the poetry books in my hands however, call it vanity but I do love books and have a large library. Much to the chagrin of my long-suffering wife.

I will mention this again when I get the proof copy of that first book, so don't forget. If you are interested, head over to Scribd and download whilst still free.

A New Collection of Poetry (Free Download)

Some of you may have seen the free e-book at Scribd which I blogged about on this site and which contains an embedded copy of the Scribd book.

This contained a number of early lyrics, edited to pass as poetry. I have now taken poems written since then and created a second collection which I have called, "Poetry From A New Beginning". The reasoning behind the title is explained in the e-book itself, so I will not re-iterate it here. It is also available on Scribd as a free download, and again I am posting an embedded version of this e-book in this post here on the blog.

Read it here, or go to Scribd to download it, it is your choice. The difference in style seems obvious to me. Not least is the widening of the subject matter. I would love to hear what you think of the poetry. It has become very important to me but I am struggling to write as much as I would like. Here is the e-book:-

Poetry From A New Beginning by John Dyhouse

My first collection of some older poetry.

I have pulled together some poetry from the 60's and 70's and published it as my first collection on Scribd. It is available for free download on that site.

Poems on Endings and Lost Loves by

And still the Haiku come forth

Just read the haiku from the last post and decided to alter the last one in that post. It was originally:-

Winter night comes early

Cloaking day's end silently

Until tomorrow

 

But upon reflection that second line simply sounds wrong, I have re-written it thus:-

Winter night comes early,

Silently cloaking day's end.

Until tomorrow.

 

Does it make a lot of difference? I would argue that it is the little things which make a difference, perhaps you agree, perhaps you don't, but it is my poem.

 

 

And by the way, this is a new pastel painting from my own fair hand, except for a little post processing from photoshop. You can see it and an explanation of how it was completed on my blog, painting with John. I will be creating a series of Zazzle products with the resulting images, find them soon in my Zazzle store. 

So, advertisement break over, here are a couple of new Haiku.

Sixteen wheelers rushed

drove down the road before me

hurtling far too fast

Driving in convoy

too close to one another

there's trouble ahead

As you might imagine, these were written after seeing too many lorries from the local factory rushing down our road in the morning rush hour. Not typical Haiku material, am I cheating and just creating fragments of poems, which I am trying to get away from. perhaps I should play safe and stick to nature and natural subjects?

Creative writing prompts for poems

I am really suffering from a bad case of writers block. Nothing is happening for me at all this month. I have become so desperate that I have been searching for poetry prompts on the internet and thought that I would share a site with you. Creative writing now.

Let me give a couple of examples, I hope that the site owner won't mind:-

9) Write a poem from the perspective of a character in a fairy tale.
10) Write a poem using all of the following words: moth, angle, cloth, tangle.
11) Write a poem that tells the story of a specific love affair or marriage.
12) Write a poem in the form of a message or letter to your future self.
13) Write a poem about the color red or another color. (Some ideas for brainstorming: How does the color make you feel? What things do you associate with that color?)

Go to Creative Writing Now for many, many more examples. Oh, and wish me luck using a few of these.

Free Poetry E-books

Nothing to post from my pen from over the holidays but I have come across a site, Poem Hunter.com which publishes collections of poems by some very well known poets, not sure of how they work exactly but it is free to download thousands of poems in collections by author/poet.

It is an educational site and has the following nnote about copyright:
PoemHunter.Com is a non-profit site. Poems are published on this site purely for educational reasons, for the purpose of information and with good intentions. If the legal representatives ask us to remove a poem from the site, this will be done immediately. We guarantee to fulfill such demands within 48 hours. (PoemHunter.Com reserves the right to investigate whether the person submitting that demand is authorized to do so or not.)

I know that I read lots of poetry both classical and new, I think this will be a wonderful resource to make a note of. They do seem to make it difficult to copy poems from the e-books (I am not very tech savvy) so I cannot post a few snippets/samples of the poetry as I had intended. I can see how by printing and re-scanning/etc it would be possible but the effort would probably not be worthwhile. You will have to visit the site yourself and  download your own e-books.

I shall certainly enjoy reading some of the poems and adding to my own poor skill set by the examples set by the poets whose work is being made available.

The works available as downloads run from Shakespeare to Wordsworth to Frost to Spike Milligan; you can see that there is a very exhaustive data base.

More poetic fragments

I am still not finding the more weighty themes which I need to get my teeth into. I am finding it difficult to find time to write poetry and am looking for inspiration as I walk to the local shops or on my way to work, about the only free time I can use for poetry at the time.

I need to schedule some quiet time to see if I can get over this lack of progress. Six months ago I was finding themes which did provide me with enough material for a poem - at least one per day when I started the project. I must decide wether this is important to me and if the answer is "yes", then I must find the time.

Some of the fragments are given here:

Walking home from work in the dark:-

I walk a long and lonely road,

I carry a weight, a heavy load.

I walk towards the dream.

The same again:-

Night dark

Shadows stark

trees surround me

like some unseen enemy

Walking TO work in the rain:-

Rainfalls

with dragging feet he trawls

puddles on the ground

Walking along a beach at Shaldon:-

Don't swim here!

Exclaimed the warning signs.

Dangerous tides,

Was the reason to fear

Who would not heed

that advice for their safety.

But it happens you know,

as we all to often read.

Walking to the local shops:-

I walk along a tree-lined road

with head raised to the sky

there a bird atop a tree

watched with critical eye

Once more on the way to work:-

The autumn trees in colours bright

orange, red and yellow

such a sight, to his delight

an artists' dream 

to see them row on row

Walking on a sunny November morning:-

The day had just begun

I walked head bowed, by the morning sun

accepting shade from each tree I pass

relief from that blinding ball of gas

There is a definite lack of variety in the situations I am finding that first stanza for. As before, I have more for each start but do not think that they are worked up far enough to post them for the world to see.

I will be trying to write in a specific time and place to see if I can do something about this "writers block" if that is what it is. I also have found a good book which offers advice on how to go about overcoming this issue. If it works I will write about it and let you know the book next time. But for now - I am going into battle.

If that is the right attitude?

Links to poetry sites and useful resources

I am having a very barren few weeks with no new poems, as I mentioned in the last post I am recording snippets in my note book but nothing is really gelling and I am not finishing anything. So today I am going to list a few sites which I have been looking at for inspiration and new skills/etc.

Poets United - a community for poets who blog

Can U Write, naming a poem

GypsyWhim - a new artists community

Poetic parfait - poetry (what else?)

Haiku Heights - weekly prompts for Haiku

Poetry Foundation - poetry, articles resources

Poetry express - imagine, create, connect

Creative Writing Now - prompts for poetry

Just a contest - poetry competitions in the UK

Well that seems to be a good start and of course many of these will suggest other links for poets.

Why Is Writing Poetry So Difficult At the Moment?

I am having trouble with writing poetry at the moment, I want to know why. A few months ago I was able to get some down, two or three at a time. But at the moment, I can start off with a couple of lines and then dry up. One thing is that I am writing about things which happen to me and unlike those first few weeks I am not doing much, I guess. And a reservoir of ideas and creativity seems to have dried up.

Too many starts and not enough finishes / completions. I mean what can you write about a leaf falling:-

A leaf falls

A cloud crawls

Across a darkening sky

The year turns 

My heart yearns

For a summer lost, I sigh

 Or a bird which gets itself stuck, in a chain link fence:- Not even to enough to bother with yet.

 What about a sunny morning in October:-

Languid lazy water

Reflects the morning sun

A chill hovers before that disc

Waiting soon to run

A house for sale sign:-

Down our road houses marked

Signs proclaiming house for sale

Appearing like new flowers at dawn

On fertile hill and dale

Too many promising starts, most of the above actually run to three or four verses but at the end, I am thinking, "SO WHAT?" I saw this in one of the how to poetry writing books I have been reaading and it has bothered me ever since.  So the point of a poem has become more important to me, and most of mine are simply descriptive of events which happen to or around me. How can I make them more relevant. To what I ask? and the answer is I don't know. I must try and read that book again.

The other thing is bothering about small words and making poems more noun orientated. However, I am getting over that - if it works then so be it whichever it may be; but I do still prefer my lines to scan properly.

A bit of a rant and just wanted to show I have been thinking about poetry, just not getting very far.

The Clerihew - another poetry form

 Well if I have to say so myself, writing poetry to a different format seems to have released a torrent of new ideas.

I decided to try another form and see if the change did me some good creatively. Which one I wondered. The answer was presented in a new Squidoo Lens on the subject of The Clerihew, I came across whilst browsing. It is a humerous or whimsical format a format invented by a Edmund Clerihew bently. Basically it is a four line poem, with a rhyming sceme of AABB but no metre or syllable count restrictions, the lines often having irregular length.

It is often biographical; written about a person, and the first line should contain, or consist solely of that persons name.

So, my first two examples are from the world of pop music:-

You'll be aware that Mick Jagger

Despite his wrinkles has a swagger

But looks are deceiving

Just look at the attention he is receiving

and the second uses the cockney rhyming slang, Hank Marvin = Starvin'

Starvin' Hank Marvin

Gets my feet tappin'

He's my guitar Hero

All others rate zero

And this one in honour of the olympics

Consider Sir Roger Bannister

Raised to knighthood from just a mister

In championship style

He ran a four minute mile

I will be looking hard at other forms to widen the scope of the poetry I am writing. The discipline seems to work for me.

New poems, The Thursday Bus and A Water Fountain

I am posting new poems here (of course) and also on Squidoo, A poem every day explains the project and why I started it but also has a few new poems which are not to be found on this blog. THis is because of the need to minimise the same text on different sites which Google does not like.

There are two new poems in this post, the first is another which came about because of a dearth of ideas -however I think it has actually come out very well. This was one where I wrote out the structure (the main ideas) without considering the poetry. The editing later brought the poetry into existence. This is not my usual way of working and happened because I wrote it walking from the bus stp to my home, a walk of about 20 minutes. I would never have remembered the ideas if I had not noted them down in my handy notebook. It has been through several edits so far and may under go more, but here it is as it exists at the moment.


THE THURSDAY BUS

Every Thursday without fail
I catch a bus at eight;
Unless the bus is not on time
And then I have to wait

When I board the Thursday Bus
I always see this man;
Born in the Caribbean,
He’s far older than I am.

We nod and greet each other
Because we share the bus,
And for a few short minutes
Are friends, the two of us.

The differences are obvious
Nationality and years,
But one more differential,
A belief in god he wears.

I’ve never understood the need
Although sometimes I’ve tried
To believe in something greater,
 A supernatural guide.

He sees his Lord in everything
So should I envy him?
For old and poor, or so it seems,
He wears such pride within.

In the little time I see him
He seems to be fulfilled.
A wonderful achievement
To be so strongly-willed.

The Thursday Bus soon stops for me
I leave him on his own.
His journey takes him far away
On the Thursday Bus alone.
As the poem says, Returning home from work on a Thursday, I have to catch a bus and I always meet this old, West Indian gentleman. We make small talk to pass the time and he often brings Jesus into the conversation. I only travel a few stops before alighting and leaving him to travel on.

The second poem  was inspired by a photograph I took whilst on a weekend trip to Yeovil, Somerset. Seen at Lytes – Cary Manor. Somehow the poem doesn’t seem to be finished, I may yet come back to it complete the piece.

On Seeing A Water Fountain
Water bubbling from an urn
Falling in an arc returns
To the pool from whence it came.

Splashing on it’s joyful way
Wets the statue in it’s way
Singing as it finds its home.

Such a peaceful, calming sound
Glad am I to be around
That fountain calling to me.

Water pumped from holding pool
Sprays the air and makes it cool
Offering tranquillity.

The days at peace, so am I
Watching water from so high
Cascade tinkling down again.

From that urn held up so tight
Stony grip maintains the height
Water falls like silv’ry rain
Playful in it’s merry game.

Addendum: I have decided that the third line in the three line verses, should be two syllables longer. Just found that this helped to make the whole poem flow better. I will be editing and reposting in my next post. Simply shows my writing procedure, if it doesn't work then alter it.

New Poems; A Poem and Nearly Roused To Action

Well the project is faltering but I have had a very busy and difficult time at home.

But here is my answer:-

A Poem

To write a poem about a poem
Almost seems incestuous
But right now I need a subject,

It’s really quite innocuous.

I gave myself a challenge
Write a poem every day.
At first it seemed quite easy
But today, who knows, OK.

Where to start? I need a theme
That I can write about
And then consider what to say
Make it novel so it stands out.

The first line is the hardest
And then others follow on,
The rhymes provide ideas
Until the game is won.

So please excuse this subject
I‘ve struggled for so long;
I’ll write a poem about a poem
It’s really not so wrong.

Well the poem says it all. I have gone a few days without writing anything (or at least anything poetical) and needed to end the dry run. Why not write about the difficulty I have been having. This was the result. It certainly seemed to work since the next poem came in the afternoon. There were quite a few changes as I wrote it and again when I typed it up, but that is to be expected. Hopefully the continual editing is beneficial.

The second piece today:-

Nearly Roused To Action

Nocturnal cries

Eternal sighs,

Dark nightly sobbing.

Unknown sad song

Who knows what wrong

Has been committed?

In the distance,

Some disturbance

Rends the quiet calm.

Should I worry?

What can I do?

Just raise an alarm?

Another witness

To this sign of distress

Will surely make that call.

Safely in bed

Hey, sleepy head;

Pull the covers up!

Not sure where this one came from. I had been reading some “abstract” poems on the internet and thinking about pairs of words which sounded good together. The first lines came together very quickly but I did not plan anything. In fact after the third verse, I completely changed the direction of the poem. Not sure if I like it but it certainly makes me think, “What would I do?”

New Poems: The Artist's Role & Buddist Chant

Back in quickly to post two more of my daily poems. Not sure that I would rate any of these as world beaters but it is beginning to be easier to start writing on different subjects. Today, I focus on artists and buddhists. Also I am developing a process or/and a routine which I am sure will benefit me in the days (months ?) to come. I would love to know what you think of them, and look forward to any criticsm in your comments.

The images are often of the subject of the poem but the monk was selected rather than the cover of the CD I was listening to at the time.

26^th June

 The Artist’s Rôle 

 

Abstract abstraction

Collage perfection,

From imperfect parts

To a meaningful whole.

Textures contrasting

Directional casting,

Calm and contentment

The artists true goal.

A skilful creation

By well practiced action.

A bold affirmation

Of the artist’s proud ole

A colourful flourish

But never too garish.

Artistic appraisal?

It’s food for the soul.

 This is one of two pictures hanging on a hotel wall by the same artist. I enjoy creating collages and rather liked these works. What better way of celebrating them than to write my next poem on the subject of art.

 I found this more difficult to write because I had actually chosen a subject this time. Lots of editing and rewriting but eventually arriving at something I can live with.

In trying to find a rhyme with “whole” in the first verse, I actually found lots of possibilities and decided to make this a feature of the poem. I used a rhyme on the last line of each verse. A different rhyming form for me but one I think works quite well.

27^th June

A Better Life

Shining sounds

Of people singing

Clashing gongs

And bells a-ringing.

Imagining

Some far off temple

Mystic views

A world of fable.

Holy monks

Will chant and raise 

Voices aloud

In simple praise,

To their God

Whose all forgiving

Goodness

Will reward them all.

Alternative last line for this poem:-

“Their reward will bring”

The song came to mind whilst driving back from a short break; my wife had put on a CD of Buddhist Chants and this set off a few thoughts which I completed after the journey.

I will be saying more about my process in the very near future, although I may well be writing a Squidoo lens (=article). I will be posting  the  link on here though.

Spelling and grammar in poetry - is it important?

Quite a bit has been written on this subject of correct spelling and grammar in poetry around the web, but I wanted to put a personal slant on to the subject.

To this end, I have just published a lens (= web page) on squidoo which addresses the subject, Spelling and grammar in poems. Basically it is possible for us to separate the two topics. I do not believe that there is any case for not using correct spelling, whether or not we are discussing "creative" writing. With dictionaries easily available and on-line if required, it is sheer laziness not to check up on words which a writer is not confident about.

I have to put my hand up and saythat sometimes when writing on-line I press the publish/post button before I should. It is so easy to get carried away, BUT there is really no excuse. I would never consider a painting complete until I have left it for a couple of days and checked upon it with a fresh eye. I need to remember this with my writing sometimes.

Grammar is another matter. I think that where necessary for understanding (and after all writing is about communication) then the writer should consider this as a matter of some importance. On the other hand rules are made to be broken, but like sos many things make sure that you know why you are breaking the rule. Know it before you break it is a good way to look at this topic. I have touched upon a number of specific examples in the squidoo lens.

Find My Poems.
I have also re-published most of the poems from Trion on a Squidoo lens, Poems On Attitudes To Life. The rest will follow soon.

Changing the published addresses of my poems

This is just a very quick post to explain why there may be broken links in the previous posts. I started to publish my poems on a site called Triond, however I have found that the site has many "spun" articles. It was not poor english as could be expected from non-native speakers but definitely spun rubbish. I did not want to be associated with the site so have cancelled my account there. I understand that Trion was hit very heavily by the Google Panda update and that the site have done very little to counter the issues. This has resulted in very little traffic from Google, so this is anonther reason to leave the site before It would be a major setback.

I will republish the poems on Squidoo and correct the links as soon as the new ones are available.
Update : links now point to correct url's

Apologies for any inconvenience caused. I should have done more to assess the site before starting to publish but there are people who have been on the site and have earned money in the past with good solid original content. A very quick assessment seemed to show it would be a good site to make use of. As I read the forums and found the spun rubbish, I became very disappointed. Still, we live and learn.

Still excited about this new venture into poetry.

I have had a little time to think about the offer of a free e-book and unfortunately I have come to the conclusion that I mat have mislead in my first post. I was thinking of selecting some 40-50 poems but in reality I will  only be able to find time to post 4-5 a week. They were written as I said many years ago, and probably never really edited at the time so I will need to review them all before posting for public consumption. This means it will take a little longer than I at first anticipated. Blame it on the excitement of the project, and nnot carefully thinking about it. One possibility is to publish in two (or) more volumes. This would certainly be a quicker way to make the e-book available. I will have to see how things work out.
Also it was a very poor idea asking interested readers to leave an e-mail (on a publicly viewed blog? OMG what was I thinking?) I will make it available in PDF format somewhere on the web when it is ready. In the meantime, if you know of a site where I can do this, please let me know in the comment box. I have never used such a facility before,

But now to the real purpose of today's post. I want to post another three excerpts from my back catalogue of poems. As I said yesterday, I have about 200 filed away, well stored in notebooks really, and am beginning to post them on line. This blog is really a central file system as they are being posted on different sites. Hopefully to earn a crust or two, so if you like the excerpt please support a straving artist. Well alright, I am not starving but who knows when the worm will turn.

The Song Of My life.

The song of my life has been long
But now it is finally sung
And I sang it to you,
As I bade you Adieu.
Yes the song of my life has been sung.

This has now been published in this blog

Put Down Your Gun

Put Down your gun, you’d better run,
You can’t have it all your own way.
You never know when you might need a friend
So put down your gun today.
Banish all thoughts of vengeance.
“Live and let live”, don’t they say.
You can’t come up number one, everytime.
So put down your gun today.

read the whole poem and notes in poems on attitudes to life

The Wicked Magician

The wicked Magician,
He cries in the night.
For the wrongs he has done
And the wrongs he can’t right.

read the whole poem and notes in poems on attitudes to life

So there we have it, there are now six of the poems published, and at least another two which I haven't excerpted here but their turn will come. I have also found a couple of sites which allow uploading of files but not sure if thi will count as duplication of content and so will be looking at all the options very carefully before I decide to use their services and post my e-book with them. Don't want to fall foul of the TOS of the sites which I am suing for publishing on line.

 

Poems and Poetry

I find that I need to start another blog. I have separated my painting and mixed media collage art work, started other blogs for my photography and musical interests and also another which is basically to promote my Zazzle store but now I need a blog as a home for my creative writing which at the moment is basically poetry. My poems are basically about life and the way that we live it.

I have a fairly large back catalogue of unpublished work, written mostly in my younger days. And that is sometime ago, LOL. I have used much of it to set to music and sung those which I think of as my favourites, because of this the structure and wording of some of the examples may well seem odd. However, now that I have "retired" from the day job, I am refinding and starting new interests.

So I am looking to get some exposure for some of the older work and will be adding new poems more and more frequently as the time passes. I need to get back into the frame of mind which enables me to start writing poetry again.

Just as a taster, here is an original poem and a couple of excerpts with links to the full text elsewhere on the internet.

Is The Day Too Long?

Is the day too long

To hold to what you’re crying for?

Is the day too bright

To see just what you want?

Is the time too fast

To make your mind up anyway?

Is life just a dream,

You cannot hold?

Have you seen the sun,

When up above’s a clear blue sky?

Have you felt the rain,

When the sun is beating down?

Can you reach the sky,

“Oh no”, this time I hear you say.

Can you really say

You’ve ever lived?

You’ve never seen the sun,

The clouds of doubt obscure your mind.

You’ve never felt the rain

You’re too insensitive for that.

You’ve never touched the sky,

Your crookedness is stopping you.

Oh no, you cannot say,

You’ve ever lived.

The River (excerpt)

Cold, silent river

How I long to be free.

You ask no questions,

Just roll on down to the sea.

Coloured lights reflect in your water,

I reflect in them too.

But I’ve so many questions,

I don’t know what I must do.

See the full version in my Squidoo lens  How To Write Memorable Song Lyrics

The Wind (excerpt)

The Wind sighed,
And the world turned.
The Wind whispered, "Why?"
But no one heard.

Read more about this poem and why it was written with illustrations of wind/storm damage in the article. A poem: The Wind

I hope that will will take the time to read the full poems, otherwise you will miss out and that would be a pity. I hope to create an e-book with the large back catalogue and will be making this free to interested lovers of poems and poetry. I cannot promise when this will be available, I need to assess which poems I think are worth being included and hopefully it will contain 30 to 40 examples of my poetry. If you think you might be interested in this collection please leave a comment and I will be pleased to email it to you when it is completed.

ADDENDUM: On re-reading this today, I think asking for e-mails was wrong. Leave a comment please, but when the e-book is ready I will find somewhere to post it in PDF format (probably) so that it is downloadable. At 4 or 5 a week it is going to be  a little while until it is ready if It is to include as many of the poems as I would like. So depending on the way it works out there may be fewer poems than I at first anticipated. Maybe two volumes would be more convenient.

"The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft aglay" - Robbie Burns