Where I Go To Find New Poetry

For the writing of my own poetry, I like to look to Nature for inspiration. I don't always write about Nature, but the trees and clouds and creatures put me in a relaxed way of thinking, and poetry arrives in my head and my fingers type out the words. You could say that Nature is my muse.
I'm involved with the committee who organise Gawler Poets at the Pub. This event is on for the last Sunday of every month except December. The committee was formed after the previous person running the event, Martin Johnson, decided he wanted to follow his musical career.
Martin is now happily busking in Gawler, and doing other things, and the poetry continues on at the Prince Albert Hotel, on Murray Street. The next Poetry Reading event will be on this coming Sunday, starting at 2pm, and continuing until 4pm. It's always a fun and caring afternoon of words and hugs, and I enjoy words!
Another important thing that brings me poetry is the annual Poetry Competition I organise with Adelaide Plains Poets. This competition has been going since 2006, with cash prizes, and certificates for highly commended and commended poems. The prize pool, which was already generous, has been increased for this year, so if you're an Australian poet, why not have a go! 
The entry form and guidelines are available on this blogsite, so read all about it, and send your poems in! I love it at this time of the year, when the postie starts bringing me the new entries for the competition. The theme is The Elements, think about it and let your pen go!

If you'd like to ask anything about this, or about the Gawler Poets at the Pub, ask away, I'm here to tell you what's what!

An Update on My Verse Memoir

Verse Memoir or Memoir in Verse? Which to call it? At this early stage, does it even matter how to classify it?

No, I don't thinks so. Right now, the important thing is to finish the first draft, and then the second draft. After that will be the time to decide how to describe what this collection of words in verse really is.

All I know is that it's fun and exciting when it's going well, and frustrating when in it's not, the same as any other form of writing! I've written poetry, short stories, non-fiction, and I have one completed first draft of a novel. 

This is my writing range over the past whatever years - twenty years perhaps - plus bits and pieces before that. The past three years have been most often poetry, but I'm still playing with short stories now and then...

Some of my most exciting times have been when I sit at the computer and my muse seems to take over my fingers, writing wonderful words in a way that transcends time and limits... There's nothing better than being thrilled with something you've written!


This verse memoir I'm writing is to be launched next year, I hope, and is intended to be aimed at people trying to find ways to live with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). It also will give an idea to other people what living with this chronic illness can bring to those of us diagnosed with MS.

There are many false ideas out there about MS, and MS can be different, from person to person. My piece will be all about how it is for ME, with some thoughts from others where relevant.


Anyway, the word count for my memoir in verse is currently around 13600 words, and I'm more or less happy with how it's going. I have something written for every chapter, and I have a much better idea on what I should be aiming at, thanks to the feedback I've been receiving from my mentor, Ray Tyndale. 

I met Ray Tyndale when I was awarded a grant from the Richard Llewellyn Arts and Disability Foundation. This grant is to pay for my mentor, as well as a smaller amount of money for the writer (me). The relationship is going well - Ray gives me feedback and tells me things, I take in what she says, and work with that. Ray is honest, as she said at the beginning she'd be, and I appreciate her for this.

I've sent a chapter to Ray, and I'll see her tomorrow to find out what she thinks about it...

I've made it onto You Tube!

I was interviewed recently by a uni student, and he sent me the link to the interview, which he'd put onto You Tube. I've had a quick look, and apart from the facts that I feel funny listening to myself talk, and that my hair is it's usual mess, I'm thrilled with the result.

If you'd like to see it, and listen to me talking about my poetry things, I've put a link to the You Tube page on my 'damaged children, Precious Gems' blog - go here!

I was impressed by the students who descended on the Mallala Hotel the other day to do this interview. They were polite, respectful and professional. Well done to Zac Benn and your team! The three of them are studying Film and Television, and if they're an example of the quality of students doing this course, I'm impressed.