More to Life than Poetry!

I try to write something new every day. I mean something more than tweets and posts on Facebook pages, mine and other people's. Today though, I ended up writing a piece of non-fiction.

This piece isn't suitable for this Poetry Blog, but it is suitable for another of my blogs. I have too many blogs, and some of them are terribly lonely. I was slightly addicted to Blogger for a while at one stage and went way overboard with creating new blogs.

Now I mostly post to this blog, because poetry is one of my main interests. Dogs, and family life are other strong interests. Living a Creative and Positive life is another one. The non-fiction piece I wrote falls into the scope of the Positive life blog, so I posted the piece there. If you're interested in reading it, go here.

Death of a Mouse

This morning, it happened again. One of our mouse traps did its deathly business. I wrote about it on my Facebook page, and I felt I had to write a poem about the poor little creature.


This is what I wrote on my Facebook page, and the poem I wrote for the little mouse follows that. My Facebook post caused others to comment on the unwanted little creatures that visit them.

RIP to the mouse that was caught in the trap at the same moment Jake walked in the front door a little while ago. And RIP to all of the mice who have died in my kitchen mouse traps. I wish you hadn't been caught, but I also wish you'd stayed out of my kitchen.

When I finally become enlightened, this will stop happening, but I'm not there yet. Sorry

To the mouse who visited uninvited,

I’m sorry. You snuck into my kitchen

and nibbled where danger lurked.

The quick trap snap probably took you

by surprise, as efficiently, it took your life.

My eyes prickled with tears as I watched

your death spasms, your little legs twitching.

I'm sorry. I wish you’d never visited at all.

I disposed of your soft, still body, as I’ve

disposed of so many of your kind. 
My kitchen isn’t your larder, and I’m not here

to keep you and your kind fed. Goodbye.

If you have little creatures who visit you, please tell about them here. Mice, lizards, insects...

Ways to Write New Poems

I'm a member of a group of people who write poetry. We meet once a week, in the home of one of the members. Sometimes we talk about writing related things, sometimes we read our poetry to the others and critique the work that was read. Sometimes we do writing exercises.


Last Thursday night, one of the members gave us a writing exercise. We had to think of a word, then write down words that related to that first word. Then we had to write a poem using as many of those words as we could.


The exercise was a good one. All of us there gave it a go, and came up with a new poem, which we read to the others. I felt my effort was lame, and not worth much, but when I read it aloud, and received feedback about it, I could see some merit in my efforts. I may take that baby poem soon, and work on it, drawing out the metaphors there, and making it more than a lame little baby poem.


This is one of the things that being a member of a writing group can bring you. Different ideas can help to encourage you to tread different paths, try new things, or try doing old things in new ways. If you're in a rut with your writing, having a new kind of exercise can be just the thing to jump start you out of the rut!

Why I'm Not Posting My Most Recent Poem Here

I sometimes post my poems here, and I certainly write about my poetry interests here. I wrote, or rather finished the first draft of, a new poem recently, but I'm not posting it here.

I've been thinking about and working on this little poem for about a week and yesterday I got to the last full stop. I'm not going to post that poem here though, not yet. I have other plans for that poem, a plan that will lead to reasonable money, if the poem is accepted.

That's why I'm not posting this poem here. If I were to post that poem here, on this blog, that would mean the poem has been published. Posting work to a website that is open to other people equates to publishing, for that work. And lots of potential publishers aren't interested in work that's already been published.

If a writer is interested in gaining mainstream publishing, it's important to consider these issues. If, on the other hand, writers are interested in getting their words 'out there' and aren't chasing widespread mainstream publication, then blogs can be a godsend.

I've tried to be a little choosy with my words, in particular poetry, and so try to remember to think of the possible opportunities for each poem. I say 'try to remember', as I've proven many times, I'm not perfect. I make mistakes, the same as everyone. And of course, just sharing my words with others is a fine thing. There's no shame in posting poetry to a personal blog, because that's just another, and sometimes very effective way, to share your words.

Anyway, once the little poem that prompted this discussion has been considered and published, or found to not meet the publisher's requirements, then the poem may be posted to this blog. When that happens, my followers, and others who happen to find their way here, can read the poem. It's nothing life changing, but I like to think it's cute. I may be completely wrong about that, you can be the eventual judge, when it appears here.

As always, I welcome the thoughts on others on this blog post!

Someone's Son

This morning I saw a young man risking his life. Knowing there's little I can do to save him, I felt I had to put something down in words. 


A poem then, for that particular young man, and for all of the others who risk their lives on the roads. There are so many...

Someone’s son

He went past, faster than the speed limit says

and not as safe as the law says he should be.

No helmet, hair blowing in the wind, his

motorbike is a weapon of mass distraction

from life’s rules. I can only ponder the mind

of one so clueless and hope he has a lot more

good luck than he has common sense.

And I fear for his parents and others who 

love him. Every man is someone’s son…