These past few months seem to be becoming more and more poetic, and I'm excited about it all. My excitement is shaded a little by sadness, but more about that later. Why has poetry been happening more? I'll tell you all about it.
I've involved in a group - Adelaide Plains Poets. I'm the President of this group, and have been since the group began, back in 2004. The stated role of the group, according to our constitution is to further the interest in poetry of those living in the Adelaide Plains. The group has certainly been involved in doing that, off and on ever since.
Over the years members have come and gone, moving away, getting a job, losing interest, having other things take precedence and so on. Fortunately, I've been able to maintain, or in fact increase, my passion for poetry. At the moment, as well as being the President of Adelaide Plains Poets, I am also a member of the writing group - North Eastern Writers Inc, I am one of two co-coordinator of the poetry reading group Gawler Poets at the Pub which meets once a month.
I have also just finished presenting four workshop sessions about poetry as part of a Pathways to Success program. Adelaide Plains Poets has run an annual national poetry competition since the beginning, and entries are coming to me in the mail most days now because I am the competition secretary as well as President. On a more personal note, I have also recently submitted a poetry collection to a publisher, which was accepted and will be published next year.
Prose is there in my life too. The Adelaide Plains Poets has a splinter group that meets once a week at the same hotel the Gawler Poets at the Pub event is held - P/A Hotel (Prince Albert) in Gawler. This writing group held its first Festival in the middle of the year - Gawler Festival of Words. This Festival was a success will be held every year now. We are already busy planning the Gawler Festival of Words for 2016.
I am also the Editor of the Mallala Crossroad Chronicle, which comes out once a month. This newsletter for people living in the town of Mallala is a spot where I can sometimes publish a poem if I wish to. I don't do this too often, but every now and then it seems relevant to other things published in the Chronicle, so I do.
So it's a busy life for me, but an enjoyable and satisfying one. Writing is my major love, and I am glad to be able to have lots of writing in my life. This is probably a part of the reason why I love another of my roles in life at the moment, that of Writer in Residence at the Poetic Justice Cafe and Gallery. I attend the cafe twice a week, to sit and chat with people, talking about whatever people want to talk about, life, writing, art, food. It's a lovely friendly place, and I am very much enjoying being there.
I will be running some poetry events in the cafe soon, poetry readings outside of the cafe where there are tables and chairs, that would be great for some poetry.
Surely the poet with access to the outdoors will never be lacking in topics to write about. Personally, I certainly find much poetic inspiration in what Nature gives, from the soft and fluffy clouds making fantastical shapes in the sky, to the angry lashing rains and storms that excite and revitalise the venturesome spirit! Lightning strikes, and the mind springs to life.
The transitions of the seasons bring interest too. At the moment, our relatively new mandarin tree is doing interesting things. There were the lovely flowers, and today, when I inspected the little tree in the morning, I noticed there are fewer petals on the tree, and where flowers had been there are now tiny little green blobs. I'm hoping and assuming these little blobs will become fruit. Super fresh mandarins plucked from the tree seems like a wonderful thing as the current Spring transitions into Summer!
If you've never thought about the weather as a topic to write poetry about, perhaps today is the day to start?! From a pithy little 3 line haiku, to a heartfelt 14 line sonnet and beyond, Weather can be a fine topic to consider when you next want to write a poem! I've written many haiku about the things I see outside, some of them fine, some just of interest to me perhaps, but either way, still worth writing.
That's another important thing to remember when writing poetry - not every first attempt should be expected to be perfect. We creative writing people can be so unkind to ourselves at times. Do violin players berate themselves for every off note played, and vow to give up the violin? Or do they keep on with the practice and get better and better? Of course they keep on with it, the good ones do, anyway.
Aspire to become a poetic maestro, and write and write and write!
Many thanks to all of the lovely poets who visited this site and entered the 2014/2015 poetry Competition on the theme of 'Climate'. There have been some interesting interpretations of the theme, and I am excited when I think about which poems and poets will be chosen by the judge.
The winners will be announced at the March Gawler Poets at the Pub event, which will take place on 29 March at the P/A Hotel (Prince Albert Hotel) in Gawler. I hope the winning poets can be there and read their own winning poems, and collect their prize, and I hope many others will be there to find out what the judge thought of the competition, and the competition entries received.
This competition received a reasonable number of entries - not the most ever, but certainly not the least ever, either. The theme obviously appealed to some poets, judging by their well thought out and passionate entries. I hope they can maintain that passion whenever they think on the theme, and do their bit to further the cause of assisting in slowing climate change.
The winning names and at least some of the winning entries will be posted on this blog after the winners have been announced. I hope many of you come back after the end of March to see who won and with which poem, and what the Judge thought too.
Many thanks to poets all around Australia, you're all wonderful!
So the word is now out concerning Adelaide Plains Poets new poetry competition! The theme is "Climate", and the poet is welcome to use it however they wish. Climate Change is certainly the big one at the moment, but there are other ways of using the word.
http://www.yourdictionary.com/climate gives this definition:
the prevailing or average weather conditions of a place, as determined by the temperature and meteorological changes over a period of years
any prevailing conditions affecting life, activity, etc.: a favorable climate of opinion
a region with certain prevailing weather conditions: to move to a warmer climate
Origin of climate
Middle English climat ; from Old French ; from Late Latin clima ; from Classical Greek klima, region, zone ; from base of klinein, to slope (see incline): origin, originally , slope of the earth from the equator toward the poles
The meteorological conditions, including temperature, precipitation, and wind, that characteristically prevail in a particular region.
A region of the earth having particular meteorological conditions: lives in a cold climate.
A prevailing condition or set of attitudes in human affairs: a climate of unrest.
Origin of climate
Middle English climat, from Old French, from Late Latin clima, climat-, from Greek klima, surface of the earth, region; seeklei- in Indo-European roots.
climatographythe science of the description of climate. —climatographer, n. —climatographical, adj.climatologythe science that studies climate or climatic conditions. —climatologist, n. —climatologic, climatological, adj.cryptoclimatethe climate of the inside of a building, airliner, or space ship, as distinguished from that on the outside.hyetographythe study of the geographical distribution of rainfall by annual totals. —hyetographic, hyetographical, adj.meteorologythe science that studies climate and weather variations. —meteorologie, meteorological, adj. —meteorologist, n.microclimatology1. the study of minute gradations in climate that are due to the nature of the terrain. 2. the study of microclimates or climates of limited areas, as houses or communities. —microclimatologist, n. —microclimatologic, microclimatological, adj.phenologythe branch of biology that studies the relation between variations in climate and periodic biological phenomena, as the migration of birds or the flowering of plants. —phenologist, n. —phenologic, phenological, adj.
Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
climate
Noun
(plural climates)
The long-term manifestations of weather and other atmospheric conditions in a given area or country, now usually represented by the statisticalsummary of its weatherconditions during a period long enough to ensure that representative values are obtained (generally 30 years).
(figuratively) The context in general of a particular political, moral etc. situation.
Industries that require a lot of fossil fuels are unlikely to be popular in the current political climate.
From Frenchclimat, from Latinclima, from Ancient Greek κλίμα (klima, “inclination”), from κλίνω (klinō, “to slope, incline”) (from which also cline), from Proto-Indo-European*ḱley- (English lean).
English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.
This part of Arkansas had a mild climate, winter and summer.
Your shell has to shed wind, water and snow to maintain a warm and dry climate inside.
The climate in the south at this time of the year was probably hot, but surely it couldn't hold a candle to the week she had spent in the desert.
They exchanged news and details on the climate differences and finally, when they were talked out, they said their good byes.
It is the chief health resort of the state, and its climate is one of the finest in Australia; it has a mean annual temperature of 58.6° F., and the summer heat is never excessive.
Well, the poems have been sent in and judged, with the winners announced at the Gawler Poets at the Pub event at the Prince Albert Hotel, Gawler. Two of those receiving a Special Mention were there on the day, to receive their certificates, and to read their poems to those in attendence.
Cheques and certificates for others will be posted out tomorrow. Many thanks to those who entered this annual competition. There will be consideration soon on the possible theme for the next poetry competition, and the entry form and guidelines will be posted to this site later on this year, probably around August.
This is what the Judge had to say about this poetry competition:
Judges Comments
“My
Passion” Poetry competition run by the Adelaide Plains Poets Inc.
General Remarks.
Firstly let me say that I was very honoured to be asked to
judge your competition and I undertook the task with a certain amount of
apprehension for while I have entered quite a few poetry competitions, I have
never judged one before!
That over I'll commence my task. Overall, I was very
impressed with the general standard of the entries, especially those of the
younger writers which augurs well for the future of poetry writing in this and the wider community.
I do have some general comments about poetry writing which I
hope you won’t mind me passing on as they come from my own experience!
Firstly – try to avoid rhyming, as this can be a trap
for the unwary. If you are a very experienced and established writer by all
means go for it but its restraints are humungus! It prevents a free flow of
emotion and ideas unless in very skilled hands and an inexperienced poet
quickly finds that the rhyme dominates their thought processes and feelings
which is death to a potential poet, I believe.
Secondly rhyming can turn your poem into something
lightweight when you really want a greater impact and at its worst can create
what started off as a good idea into doggerel – so all I'm saying is – beware!
Poets from all age groups fell into this trap I think and did themselves a
disservice in the process.
My next comment is about relevance. Your competition clearly asks for poems about
“My Passion” and a couple of entries made only vague reference (if any ) to
this and that didn't help their cause.
Lastly about passion – all poems should have this as
part of them, it's what makes them a good poem, I believe and that quality
finally is what helped me make my decisions - that and good writing.
What is good writing? That is a subjective view but I think
it's writing that makes you think, sit up and feel and it does it by the way
words, phrases, lines, imagery are mixed, blended, juxtapositioned and created.
Primary Section.
One poem stood out as winner of this section – 'T
– Ball Knight'. Matthew Elkins
The whole poem is a passionate metaphor of knighthood which
is sustained throughout the poem by taut line length, economy of words, imagery
and internal metaphors and similes. A fantastic piece of writing by a primary
school student.
Who would've thought that a passion for T – Ball could
produce a literary work of art?
Secondary Section.
This section proved difficult to judge because there were a
number of very good entries. Unfortunately some entries disqualified themselves
by straying from the topic or not removing typos and spelling errors! Others
found the limiting bind of rhyming hampered their efforts. I was finally able
to select four poems deserving of special
mention. They are – 'A Kiss in an
Hourglass' Lauren Davidson, I Do NOT Want To Participate' Jemimah Bye, 'My
Passion' Meg Eichmann and 'The Whisper of Words' Brynnie Rafe.
They all addressed the topic of Passion in an amazingly
diverse way – passion to write, passion for life and ideas, a passion to be
true to oneself and romantic, physical passion. They all used imagery, line length and blank verse poetic structure
to great advantage so that the message of their poem is impacted on the reader.
However there has to
be an outright winner for this section and it is, 'A Kiss in an
Hourglass' Lauren Davidson. This
poem also carries a metaphor throughout and the writer continues to refer to
this imagery throughout what is quite a short poem. This poem intrigues with
its deceptive simplicity of structure but depth of sensuality. The poet uses
the hourglass image to evoke a sense of time savoured but also lost in an
intensity of momentary physical love. I think it is a very mature poem for this
age group and the topic is handled sensitively and beautifully. Well done!
Open Section.
I also found this section extremely difficult to whittle down
to a short list. Once again the
temptation to rhyme plagued this section too with similar consequences.
However there were a number of excellent entries and I have
to make special mention of the following – 'I caught Enthusiasm' Alison
Barker, 'Viva Verdi' Shelley Hansen (a rare example of rhyming well handled!),
'all passions spent' Avril Bradley, 'Occasionally' Jan Price, 'Tea Leaves' Darrelle Spenceley,
'My Passion', 'Arrival of the Lost Sketch Book' Anna Jacobson, 'Passionfruit'
Bruce Greenhalgh and 'The Quest' (also a well-structured rhyming verse!) Shelley
Hansen. Which only goes to show you need to be an experienced poet to rhyme
successfully and produce good poetry – it can be done!
I finally came down to
two wonderful but very disparate poems one of which – would you believe
rhymes!! They are 'The Quest' Shelley Hansen and 'Arrival of the Lost
Sketchbook' Anna Jacobson. I believe they are equal first prize winners in this
section.
Firstly 'The Quest'. This poem is very reminiscent of the
skill, style and language mastery of the famous English poet Rudyard Kipling.
The poet's management of rhyme, metre, metaphor and alliteration creates a
propelling rhythm and a passionate philosophical message that races along
carrying the reader with it.
The poem appears
deceptively simple in structure but is in fact quite complex. It uses an
a,b,c,b rhyming pattern and a terse alternating10 syllable/9 syllable line in
each four line stanza in this ten stanza poem. To sustain this throughout the
poem while retaining the emotion, narrative and impetus as well as the reader right in there with
you, is a great achievement I think.
''Arrival of the Lost Sketchbook' is quite a different kettle
of fish. Where 'The Quest' was fast paced, forthright and propelling this one
is the reverse. It is reflective, reminiscent and quiet, yet full of brilliant
colour and passionate memory. The poet uses many beautiful descriptive phrases
to bring the thoughts of the subject of the poem to life.
The writer portrays in this narrative poem an elderly artist
crippled with possibly arthritis who was once a painter of vividly coloured and
exhilarating works. She discovers an old sketchbook and her memories of her
past skills and achievements come flooding back in the excitement of her long
remembered creativity and the rainbow hues she used.
The writer has captured not only the brilliant colours but
also the textures and mediums the artist used to work in. The poet give the
reader a sustained portrait in which the subject of the poem traces over the
pastels and paintings and charcoal drawings captured in the sketchbook reliving where she was and how she felt at
the time she did each piece captured in it. The poem ends as the artist closes
the sketchbook, her fingers imbued with the colours she's been tracing. This is
a moving poem of talents lost and memories retrieved told in simple but
luminous three line stanzas.
