Song for the Sky

NaPoWriMo #8

By Kylie, on April 9th, 2012

We walk out to get breakfast
the day is hard-to-get-at-beautiful
shimmering blues, gauzy yellow green
high contrast, even at this early hour
I am sharpish too
and I cannot wear this day
I am muddied and muddled
And so, though the day is wide
and fluttering like a scarf
I notice the bird shit all over the post box
and the spot brown bodies of dead moths
in the light fixture at the cafe
Worse still
I am jammed in my head
eyes like anchors.

NaPoWriMo #7

By Kylie, on April 8th, 2012

Turquoise

some might say
not sure blue not sure green
but you carve out
a territory all your own
away from sure firedness

of sky and marbled waters
veined with the earth
golds, greys, bubbling blacks
you encircle
our breath
and our molten cores

mingling strands
luminous and deep

NaPoWriMo #5

By Kylie, on April 8th, 2012

Remembering “Spring” (or I Draw the Line at Hearts)

Do I remember the first poem I wrote? I do.
It was my first year of high school (a first within a first).
We were in the demountables.
Demountables. What a strange word for a classroom.
Sounds like a euphemism. I don’t think that occurred to me at the time.
They were meant to be temporary, the demountables, they weren’t.
They were: flat roofed, with puckered metal external walls
and thin sheets of biscuit brown wood on the steps.
The class: Japanese? The teacher: a woman, forgotten now.
The behaviour: mine, talking, disruptive.
Which seems impossible to me now,
I’m such a dam people-pleaser.
I’m . . . → Read More: NaPoWriMo #5

NaPoWriMo #4

By Kylie, on April 7th, 2012

Yes, I am behind. Yes, I am struggling. But. I will not give up. (Self, I hope you are listening).

Enough of my whimpering.

The prompt was to write a blues lyric. I only managed a stanza, and it’s nothing great, but I’ve decided to hit publish and move on, since I need to hurry the hell up.

We sit on the train, all facing the same way
We die on the train, all facing the same way
Lord knows my song is in here, but I sure need . . . → Read More: NaPoWriMo #4

NaPoWriMo #3

By Kylie, on April 5th, 2012

Poem for a wedding

Dust motes mill about in bands of light
we shuffle our feet
and wait
fingering loving lavender
orders of service
velvet print
like black ants swarming
The groom stands up front
jiggling one knee.

I, mote-like, am brightened
by the sunny ritual and
grin wide and hard.

The bride arrives, satiny perfection
highlights fresh
lips shining
Words and bands of metal
are exchanged
The minister makes a little joke
at one forgetting the words
or fingers that won’t work.

I cock my head
and keep grinning.

Later we will dance to all the same songs
and hold the new couple up
with our grins and hopes and
suspension of disbelief.
They will leave early
in a Hollywood ending.

Then as the MobyDisc is rolled out
and I . . . → Read More: NaPoWriMo #3

So it’s NaPoWriMo and I’d ummed and ahhed about doing it but decided not to – mostly because I’m terrified. But if life has taught me anything it’s that I get a lot out of doing things that I want to do but am totally shit scared about. So, here I am. Giving it a go. Bear in mind I am very much an amateur. Lots of roughness around edges.

My first offering:

Journey of a Lurgy

this lurgy first camped
in the base of my throat
where it crouched lumpen
over my voice box
it then found hand holds in
the fleshy folds of my oesophagus
and . . . → Read More: NaPoWriMo #2

The week in creativity # 1

By Kylie, on April 3rd, 2012

A new tradition in order to grease the wheels of creative practice, “The Week in Creativity” will be a weekly round up of my creative endeavours including snippets, slivers and small stones as well as attempts at interesting images and fully fledged Poems.

# this is a photo well & truly from the vault. It’s a little plain but I kind of like it – it has a certain Blue Velvet appeal.

# some small (& medium-sized) stones from March:

13.03.12
We, the day and I, are decisively blue
bright though not cloudless – with
a huff here and . . . → Read More: The week in creativity # 1

I am a hungry ghost: thoughts on overcoming craving

By Kylie, on April 2nd, 2012

I am a hungry ghost. Spindle neck, grasping mouth and a huge sagging stomach with never enough in it. I want to eat the world. I am restless. What I am is not enough. What I have is not enough. This moment is not enough. The tiny sliver of life I will get to experience is not enough. But if I could gulp down the world would I be satisfied? Would I then look at the other planets and feel I was missing out, that I needed to figure out how to swallow them up as well? And where . . . → Read More: I am a hungry ghost: thoughts on overcoming craving

Enjoy every sandwich #8

By Kylie, on March 17th, 2012

Time for the sweet stuff…

# Pictures of jellyfish. A no-brainer – so weird and beautiful. There’s lots more at the ‘Jellyfish’ Flickr group.

# This snippet from Winnie-the-Pooh completely charms me:

“It’s a Jagular,” he said.

“What do Jagulars do?” asked Piglet, hoping that they wouldn’t.

“They hide in the branches of trees, and drop on you as you go underneath,” said Pooh. “Christopher Robin told me.”

“Perhaps we better hadn’t go underneath, Pooh. In case he dropped and hurt himself.”

“They don’t hurt themselves,” said Pooh. “They’re such very good droppers.”

Piglet still felt that to be underneath a . . . → Read More: Enjoy every sandwich #8

River of Stones wrap up

By Kylie, on February 17th, 2012

My River of Stones wrap up, finally:

So it was fun! And hard. Most importantly I learned good stuff – some new ideas, and the further sinking in of some old ones.

What I learned…

How to draft. This is new for me and a revelation. In days of old I would write and edit/polish at the same time because, even though I had read, often, that it’s best not to let the editor in until the writer has had a good go, I just couldn’t seem to get in the swing of it. Writing small stones meant . . . → Read More: River of Stones wrap up