Fox on a Boat

A storm - but not in the hills I haven't been spending much time on poetry outside of my university course in the past few months. Two days ago, however, I was searching articles on jstor , for my essay, when a title jumped out at me. It was about a poet named Henrikas Radauskas. I had never heard of him, so did a quick research. And quick it was - there isn't that much information about him in English, apart from the usual stuff about personal life, and books published. Henrikas Radauskas was born in Poland, but his family moved back to Lithuania after WWI. I found a web page with some of his poems translated into English. I read a few of them, and straight away felt an interest. It's rather strange, the way the poetry journey goes sometimes. I've often had trouble with English poets, trying to become interested, trying to understand.. It's not always easy. But here I was, reading translated poems by a Polish/Lithuanian writer, and I wanted to read more. ...

I was 'tagged' by this blog . Normally you answer the questions at the end, then make up new ones, but I won't be tagging anyone - I just really liked these questions. However feel free to use these questions on your own blog. Spine Poem by me 1. What in your opinion do you think YA (or fiction in general) needs more of? Right, to be honest, I probably don't read enough YA to know what's missing, but I'd say fiction in general could do with more.. honest harsh realities? Something like that. People with problems - not to make the book exciting or give it a plot, but to show the truth of it. Mental illnesses that aren't linked with murders, kidnappings, violence.. There are already books with those topics, but I don't think it would hurt to have more depressive, bipolar, socially anxious main characters. But it would have to be done properly. 2. What is something you would absolutely love to see a book about? (Be specific if po...

CC image  courtesy of  ilouque  This week I have yet again been confronted with a question about my abilities: am I just not 'meant' to write fiction? Is it somehow just not possible for me? This has been a recurring question in my life, though perhaps only for the past six years or so - it could possibly be longer but I'm not entirely sure my memory of my pre-teen years are reliable. I can say with great certainty that I did not always feel that way - I remember writing one of my favourite stories when I was 11, and being proud of it for a very long time. Now it seems to have become some sort of fight, with fiction constantly winning, and me constantly asking for a rematch. So what does the fact that I can't give up say about me, my writing abilities? I'm not too sure, to be honest. Perhaps I should accept defeat. I do not have this problem with non-fiction, and even poetry (which I struggled with for a while, feeling as though I'd never 'get it')...

A huge storm is headed this way, it seems. It hasn't arrived yet, and has already been described as the 'storm of the century' . The wind has been rather strong today, already. And I've been staying at home, thinking about how much I want to write, without knowing what to write about. Now and then I looked out the open window to observe the surroundings. A branch fell off our tree. The wind blew in my face but it wasn't cold. In a way, it was all rather exciting. There's something rather awe-inspiring about strong winds.. Without the damage, of course - but observing the effects on nature is interesting. I've been wanting to write some poetry, but I'm not finding a lot of time for editing - editing poetry is definitely not an easy task for me, so you could say I'm avoiding it.. I've been toying with another idea I had - writing a short instalment of a story once a fortnight, maybe once a month, depending on how busy I am. I've already s...

"The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls." -Pablo Picasso Postcards now available for purchase.

Little boat on the Thames National Poetry Day is nearly over already. The theme this year was 'water', and I have shared a couple of watery poems on my page, and will now share some more here. I hope you all had fun today - possibly some of you attended poetry events. I didn't go anywhere this year, but I still had some poetry fun at home. Without further ado, here are the poems I picked: First in line is Seamus Heaney's Storm On The Island . A very watery poem, but hold on to your hats - it's no breezy sailing.. (ha..ha..) Next up is Edward Lear's The Owl and the Pussy-cat . I'm very serious. It's a water poem (well, all right, not all of it...), but it is fun. And finally, T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land There is a lot of water in there! In part  'III. The Fire Sermon', there are quite a few lines about the Thames - oh, I love the Thames!  I wish I could have picked more poems, but oh, I don't know enough watery ones! I will...

Battersea Power Station  This weekend was London Open House , and one of the buildings open to the public was Battersea Power Station. Love it or hate it, it is an iconic building. Pink Floyd used it as cover art, and recently it appeared in a Sherlock episode.. I am using these two examples because they interest me personally, but of course it featured in other films - Hitchcock's Sabotage , for example.  BPS, as I like to affectionately call it, is seemingly a magnet for all types of artists. Personally, I painted it for one of my graded art pieces in college. It pops up in the painting of an artist friend of mine.   Michael Collins takes some exciting pictures of it.. There is something for everyone. Being busy all day yesterday, I only had today left to go. As I got ready this morning, I was told there was a five hour queue - I nearly gave up on the idea. Finally I did set off, and it all turned out pretty well. The queue went through Battersea Park, so we...