Uh-oh, more poetry

Today the view from my window has been: darkness, rain, darkness. But I love the rain, so you find me in a better mood than the last time I was writing.

Despite what I said previously about being busy, there has been time to do a little writing. I’m one of those people who believe poems can be crafted and that you don’t have to sit around and wait for the muse to stick her head in the room and give you a good opening line. I’ve set myself a target to write a fresh book of poems that aren’t rubbish or too self referential, Picking up on an idea from the hugely successful American poet, Billy Collins, I’ve also tried to make the main thrust of the poems fairly obvious. “Is this poem about the writer’s love of rain or is it a yearning plea for world peace and more biscuits?” is not a question you should have to ask. If I don’t think it’s clear I’ll make the title more obvious (Poem about the Scarcity of Biscuits) but hopefully there will be enough vagueness to make the poem interesting.

As with music, I don’t expect anyone to like what I do, but like music, this is in area where I’m being driven to do something, rather than doing it to fulfil a plan or [bangs head on wall] meet a target.

Today I wrote a poem on friendship and trust which did not work. I was ready to write a second version, or to scrub what I had and start again. But I found by adding the phrase “inappropriate vegetables” I could change the poem's meaning, mood and tone.

This is why I love poetry.