Light

I've come back to the most beautiful weather in Portugal and the sunrise was so bright this morning that I thought I'd left a light on all night. The skies are wide and blue with a feeling of space that I was starting to miss in the UK.

Before leaving, I went to my graduation at Lancaster, which was great fun. I wasn't quite the oldest, but getting there. I had to tell myself not to feel foolish. Anyway I enjoyed the whole thing, especially catching up with my tutor group who I'd only met at summer school. We've built up a great rapport over the past two years and can talk writing for hours.

My notebooks are bursting with ideas and so is my brain but they're going to have to stay on the back burner until after Christmas. I like working that way as I'm a slow writer and love thinking time, eventually getting everything onto paper in some sort of order. I couldn't cope without notebooks and take them everywhere.

I'm now going to decorate the tree and see if I can stop it wobbling... and will the lights work this year?

Spells in Norwich

After a week in Portugal I whizzed back to England for a poetry workshop at the Writers' Centre in Norwich. I'd never been to Norwich before and had time to visit the Cathedral which is stunning. Why Norwich? I saw that Esther Morgan was giving a workshop and her book Grace is one of my favourite poetry books. I dip in and out of all the time. In fact I have two copies, one in London and one in Portugal as I got fed up with taking my copy backwards and forwards.

The theme of the workshop was Rituals and we also looked at writing Spells. It was a wonderful day in a fabulous house in the old centre of Norwich. I have a notebook full of ideas generated from this day with Esther. 
I started a spell poem on the bus in London yesterday when I got caught up in the snarl around Chelsea Football Club: Take 5 hairs from a player's leg/bubble in a vat of ivy/at the time of the World Cup/and chant  "off-side off-side". 

Off the subject, but, in my insomniac hours, I noticed that Magma has put a link to my poem '&' on Twitter, that is certainly a first for me and I'm chuffed. I just need to learn how to Tweet although I do have a Twitter account and cheer from the sidelines.

Poetry&Poetry

I've had a poetry bonanza in England for the last few weeks. Firstly with the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival which was as wonderful as ever. It started with a fantastic workshop with Robert Wrigley who, with his charm and humour, had us all writing away. I attended a talk on Poetry Travels with Olivia McCannon and readings by Richie McCaffery, Kim Moore, Shazea Quraishi and Luke Yates. Close Readings, Craft Talks, Discussions and Short Takes. It was exhausting and exhilarating and the only problem was not being able to go to everything.

Back in London it was my turn to read. My first reading in public was at the wonderful Troubadour Cafe for the launch of the latest edition of Magma, number 57, one of my favourite poetry magazines. I had one poem in the magazine called '&' which I read, plus one other poem which I chose, called 'If I were an Animal'. The theme for this edition of Magma was The Shape of the Poem and look at the fabulous cover! It was an exciting evening with lots of poets reading some inventive and wonderful work and the atmosphere was warm and vibrant. I imagined that I would be terrified, and was certainly nervous, but the atmosphere carried me along and I had a fascinating evening.

My second reading, was a few days later, for Second Light, a network of women poets. I'd had a poem commended in their competition which was then published in their magazine Artemis Poetry. I love this magazine for its selection of poetry and for its articles which are hugely informative. I was given a 7 minute reading, which doesn't sound much, but seemed quite a long time to me. Strangely, I found this reading unsettling, as the room was small and the audience very close. I think I galloped my way to the end, but, as with every new experience, I learnt a lot, mostly about how not to read. I found it a very interesting event held at The Art Workers' Guild with some powerful poems being read. Moniza Alvi, who had judged the competition then read from her moving new collection At the Time of Partition.

So now I'm back in Portugal, in the middle of making turkey gravy to freeze for Christmas. There's not much poetry in that.

Where has it gone?

Once again I'm moaning about 'time'. I haven't posted for 9 months, enough time to have a baby, but my baby has been my poetry portfolio. The MA is finished and my portfolio is sitting on a desk somewhere in Lancaster. I thought I'd feel bereft after the MA but I'm writing as much as ever and starting to send poems out to magazines and competitions. It takes a lot of organisation to keep track of them all. I don't want to get in a mess sending copies of the same poem to different magazines at the same time. I keep a sort of running commentary on Excel that seems to take care of it all.

My Stanza group is going strong. We've been meeting for two years now and we have a wonderful time together. There is a lot of talent there. We are feeling brave enough to give our first public reading, so hopefully we'll have it organised for the New Year. The hardest thing is to find a venue for free.

Meanwhile I'm just back from a holiday in Fort William, via the lake district, which was magic. Having lived out of the UK for so long I'm starting to feel like a tourist in my own country.The photograph is of the gatehouse at Milton Lockhart near Carluke, which is being restored. The old house was moved stone-by-stone to a theme park in Japan. The new owners of Milton have built a wonderful looking new house which doesn't clash at all with the feeling of the place.

It is still boiling hot in Portugal and so dry that I'm permanently sniffing the air for the smell of smoke. The other day there were two fires, which looked much closer than they were, but I had to get into the car, passport and wallet in hand, and go and make sure that they weren't just around the corner. The smell of burning travels for miles. Luckily the fire station is very near to us and a siren goes off to gather up the firemen when they are needed. They are volunteers and do an amazing job.

I am now resolved to get back into blogging. I don't think I've really sussed out how it all works but I'll get there eventually.

New Year

This time last year I was getting ready for my trip to New Zealand and now I'm off to Australia to see family. I'm not looking forward to the unusually high temperatures they're having at the moment, but I'm longing to return there again. I wish it wasn't quite so far away. 

I'm not happy at my lapse in blogging but I'm working hard on my poetry portfolio and the tutorials come round very fast. I know I shall miss it all when it finishes in July. I then have until September 1st to submit. I'm aware that the time will pass very quickly and am trying not to panic. I would love to learn how to add all sorts of wonderful pictures and links to a blog and that is something else I plan to work on after my course has finished.

I'm still in a poetry wonderland, reading lots of poetry books and trying to keep up with the new writers emerging daily. I've also started to submit poems to competitions which is exciting and then humbling! I look enviously at the winners and am always astonished at the high standards. I'm also amazed by the unusual slants people take when there is a theme. I will never get published unless I try, so I think it's the route to take. After September I'll concentrate much more on submitting poems.

I did a fabulous online course with The Poetry School on the poetic line and learnt a lot. There just doesn't seem to be time to put it all into practise. I will certainly continue with The Poetry School once my MA has finished.

I have a poetry workshop tomorrow and the group is working very well together. We've been going for 18 months and have moved out of the Church in Estoril to a local coffee bar, or rather 'Tea Room'. It's very elegant with a tantalizing choice in hot chocolate.

I leave in two days so I'm off to pack. I hope to get back to my blog on my return, meanwhile a Happy 2013 to everyone.