My last post was in July, so where did I go? Absolutely nowhere! I've been writing poetry every day and getting lots of rejections, but nothing makes me want to give up. I've been continuing with online courses with the Poetry School which are always inspiring and I've also sent poems to Katrina Naomi for critiquing. She was so perceptive with her comments that she helped me enormously. This, I think, is the way forward.
I've fallen in love with a pamphlet 'What I Saw' by Laura Scott, published by The Rialto. There is a short poem in it called 'Poems' that has been pinned up in my study for the last couple of years as it inspires me. The other poems in the pamphlet are beautiful and I wish I could write like that.
Last week I read a couple of poems at the Poetry Society Stanza meeting, at Keats House in Hampstead. I'm ashamed to say that I've never been there before and it was wonderful. I met Stanza 'leaders' (I don't like the word 'facilitator') from all over the UK and further afield. It was refreshing to be able to talk poetry and discuss how we all manage our Stanza groups. I was interested to talk to two leaders from Spain to see how their meetings compared with ours in Portugal.
There have been weddings and funerals, births and deaths, and many plans for 2015. First up is a trip to Colombia, Ecuador and the Galapagos in January, and, less formed, plans to spend 6 months in Porto (beautiful city) in the Autumn, sell the house in Sintra and move nearer the sea, and a tutored poetry retreat at Moniack Mhor in September. I'll be needing it, as hopefully, there'll be poems to work on that emerge from the cloud forests of Ecuador.
Resolution: Blog more often ;-)
