My favourite Green Pants- an Ekphastic poem

 One type of poetry I haven't tried before is an ekphrastic response or Ekphrasis. This is where you give a widely detailed commentary or imaginative response to a painting or picture.

I am not sure what prompted me to remember this photo but back in 2014, CBC and I visited Croatia for some 10 days or so and our final two days were spent in Dubrovnik and as we walked around the city walls, we spied a solitary pair of bright green pants hung from a washing line, high, high above the roofs, with an excessive 5 pegs.  Hilariously, when I think of Dubrovnik's city walls, I immeditately think of these green pants! Sorry to all the wonderful history!  

So, for some reason, a couple of weeks ago , I started writing a poem about these pants in response to my photo.

Oooooh, oooh, I've just remembered what it is!!! My insta poet friend, Amanda MacKenzie, fellow poet in the magazine with my recently published peom, posted a picture of an large number of pegs on one item.  Which then reminded me of the pants!

So, without further ado, here is my ekphrastic response to my Dubrovnik photo:

Panther Attack

 Quite a few of my poems are anecdotes that have happened to me or people I know.  Last week, for the Toy Press prompt word, Swipe, I immediately thought of when animals swipe food from where they are not supposed to.  

Suddenly, I remembered an incident that occured when I was a teenager.  We looked after one of my best friends from orchestra, Marianne's cat, Teddy for a couple of Summer holidays.  

One day, I came home with some Southern fried chicken, of the variety that KFC serve.  I was really looking forward to that chicken...

Panther attack

 

I was hungrily eating chicken (KFC), 

Eyed up by panther-grey cat Teddy.

I could blatantly see that he was ready,

And longing share this treat with me.

 

Each time he leapt up to the table

As fast as I was physically able,

These attempts I would hastily disable,

Yet he seemed imperturbable.

 

Now clearly the great smell had him hyped

My prized, crispy skin he deftly swiped!

Oh, this manoeuvre really griped! 

So I wrestled, retrieved and ate (once wiped!)

Yes, I did.  Before you ask.

I was SO annoyed at Teddy, that I did indeed wrestle him for my prized piece of chicken skin which I had been saving for last. He absolutely was not going to stop me from eating it!

xx

Break time Brouhaha

 Brouhaha (noun), a word meaning a loud outcry or public commotion. I first heard this word as part of A'Level History. My teacher, Mr Plumbe, would come out with these words I'd never heard before that I loved the meaning of. I kept a glossary or some of them and whilst some of them, I never use in common parlance (nominal vassal, anyone?), this one cropped up as the word of the week for The Toy Press last week.   Funnily enough, I immediately thought of children all crowding around and causing a brouhaha and it brought me to mind of something that happened at school last week...

I was really sad about this as two weeks ago, what looked like the same slug had made an appearance outside the music room. I pointed him out to my children (Year 2 I think) and told everyone to be careful of him/her/it/ as they went past. I got paranoid about him getting stepped on so I placed a chair over where he was as a sort of warning.  The slug stayed generally put and was the cause of much discussion.  Later, when I had got a chance, fearing for the stampede of lunchtime, I decided to relocate the slug out of danger. Job well done.

When I saw what looked like the same slug on Monday last week, I told everyone in Year 4 to mind the slug and they were all very excited about it.  Sadly, I got distracted and forgot to put protection for the slug and when I came out at lunchtime, the slug was mashed into the ground, no doubt trodden all over.

Thus, I felt it needed to be immortalised in a slightly embellished version of the story.

For the record, slugs are usually my bitter enemies due to their fondness for the contents of my veg bed but in this case, no vegetables were at threat, so I feel much more benevolent towards my slimy friends.

On the subject of poems, I had another piece of joyous poetry-related news. I had another poem accepted for a print literary magazine called Little Thoughts Press in America.  I've made three previously unsuccessful submissions to this magazine so I am really happy they have accepted the poem I wrote for their Rituals and Traditions issue.  This poem was one I wrote last Summer which I am actually going to be using for a school performance in July as it is Performance Poetry, designed to be spoken aloud.

Hope you are having a great week.  I had an irritating day as we had a polling day at school for the local elections so we were given training to do from home which would have been fine except that the internet would not work on both my laptops and I spent about 2 hours trying to troubleshoot and make alternative devices work.  Our service providers have a lot to answer for making us swap to fibre cables from our old copper ones which worked perfectly well.

xx

Slippery Frippery

There's been a few weeks without an inspiration word from The Toy Press so I was happy to see a new word last week, 'Slippery' but I was not finding much use for it! Everything I tried felt contrived and I dropped all attempts. 

Finally, I came up with the first 3 stanza but when CBC heard it, he said I needed to make more of the recovery, so I edited and extended. 

What do you think? I'm not that enamoured by it but I don't hate it! 

Slippery Frippery

The playground was icy

I had no grip,

Precariously walked, 

Took a slippery dip!

 

Head over heels,

Landed in heap,

Dignity destroyed

Embarrassment deep.

 

All Year 6 watching, 

They laughed in glee, 

Tears in my eyes, 

Really riled me. 

 

The need to save face, 

Was to style it right, how? 

Crack out the moves, 

Own the stage now! 

 

Stood up and shimmied 

Hopped and spun, 

Slid to the side,

Waved to everyone! 

 

I pranced and twisted, 

Raised arms and paused 

Smiled like an actor,

Bowed for applause. 

 

Try January

Ang was talking about her word for the year of 2026. She has a word she tries to make the focus of her year. I've not really done one before but as I read her post, I had a feeling that mine should be either be Gentle Gratitude or Reconnection.  Funnily enough, I saw the word reconnect in several contexts that day. 

Later on, I was talking to my Headteacher and Assistant head in the staff meeting on Wednesday about an assembly they did where they talked about not having resolutions but having something called Try January where they said you could try something new in January but it didn't necessarily have to stick or be permanent although you might find something that DOES stick.  (Hilariously, one of the teachers thought they were talking about Dry January to the children, which caused some consternation!).  I mentioned that I have been thinking about gratitude and saying I had decided to try and write a minimum of 5 things or small moments, most days, in a notebook so I could try and focus on positives which then gave me something to read back on when I wanted to. They liked this idea.  As I took the train home, having left my phone at home and not having my book, I decided to write a poem with some ideas for the children.

I hope you enjoy Try January and perhaps you might get inspiration from it, even if perhaps tying shoelaces isn't a new thing for you!

Try January

 

In January, I always find I fail at resolutions

They pile the pressure, hard to maintain, too much expectation.

This year, I think, I’d rather choose to ‘Try January’ instead.

Try something new for a short while, perhaps this attempt might spread?

Doesn’t have to be a forever thing, be open to giving it a go.

If you fail, don’t have to tell, no one has to know.

A gratitude diary for example, write 5 small wins each day.

Caught your bus, yummy wrap for lunch, scored a goal at play.

Try reading 10 pages most days, or talking to someone new.

Sign up for choir, learn to love peas, try a new hair do.

Try wearing yellow, draw a horse, learn times-tables, 5’s and 2’s

Try chess, go swimming, bake a cake, aim to tie my shoes.

Phone an old friend, reconnect, ACTUALLY practice the piano.

Learn to write calligraphy, choose a plant to grow.

Try meditation for quelling anger, attempt to sew a button on.

Visit the library, write a poem, learn the lyrics of that song.

Speak positively rather than moan, put my hand up if I’m shy.

The aim is not perfection BUT the aim’s just try, try, try!

If the new thing doesn’t stick, that’s fine, you knew it was only temporary.

But you might just be at the start of something great, if you just TRY January!

Gingerbread Fugitive- - a poetic anniversary!

 It's a year since I've been writing weekly poems inspired by the Toy Press's Word of the week. Here was my first one, an ode to the humble Sleigh Bells. I think I only missed one week in all 52 weeks (the word was routine!) even if I haven't posted all the poems I've written on here. It's also a bit of a milestone that I reached having written 150 poems in the past 14months or so. The good, the bad or the ugly, the process is the valuable part even if most of you don't really have much interest in children's poetry.  Many thanks to any one who has commented, positive or negative but especial thanks to my dedicated commenters who have often given me feedback over the year, Ann, Kelly, Ivana, Vix (who confesses to hating poetry!) and Sheila. 

This week's word was 'dough'.  The other poets on Insta did some really fun poems about playdough and baking. For me, I thought of that naughty traditional story character, the Gingerbread man. And then I looked at the 'ough' phoneme and it reminded me of that poem that begins, "I take it you have heard of...' which then bemoans all the words that don't follow the same pronunciation. I can't remember who it is by but I always liked it.

Gingerbread fugitive

His body was dough, 

He was baked to be tough, 

Ginger filled his veins through and through.

The cook thought she was thorough, 

But she made a real hiccough.

For he did not await his fate in furlough, 

He escaped through the door, she cut it rough.

Along the lane, he did quickly plough, 

He passed a pig, wallowing in a slough, 

A horse joined the chase, abandoned his trough,

A boy desired a taste, also not fast enough! 

Until in a moment, a snap, bite, cough,

As he was carried across a deep, deep lough, 

He was swallowed by a crafty fox (pity though).

Hope you are well.

xx

Brainteaser

 I've talked about our dear family friend, Norma in various posts on this blog.  Norma was such an interesting friend and a great story-teller.  One of Norma's stories, which I loved, was the inspiration for today's poem which began from the Toy Press word of the week, Track. I'll give you the backdrop to the poem once you've read it as I don't want to spoil the ending.

Brainteaser:

We’re going to track a criminal

Of the most heinous kind.

They’ve done the deed most foul,

The culprit will be charged and fined.

They’ve licked off ALL the chocolate

On every birthday Malteaser.

Left me soggy honeycomb pips,

But WHO, is the great brainteaser?

We’ve scanned the crime scene, looked for clues,

Seen footprints brown and small.

Let’s follow the trail to catch the fiend,

I’ll soon reveal all…

In the corner of one room,

Sucking and spitting them just like that.

His whiskers all chocolatey, looking guilty

Is my Loathsome Lenny Cat!

 

As a child, I delighted in her tales of her cats.  In particular, were the many stories of her Burmese cat, Lenny, known as Loathsome Lenny due to the many crimes he committed!

She told me the story of having a box of Malteasers which she had opened, put in a glass bowl for some gusts and was really dismayed to find that she'd found many of them bereft of their chocolate and some of them abnormally shiny.  She discovered that one of her cats was indeed getting the Malteasers in their mouth and then spitting them out when she caught them in the act! I'm not sure that it was Lenny, I can't remember which of her many feline residents it was so I decided to atrribute it to Lenny as it is absolutely the type of crime he'd commit!

I wish I had written down someof the stories Norma told of her cats and her life working for the Sound Archives department at the BBC. She was such an interesting person.

xx

Update:  Apparently the culprit was JIM!  I'll leave it as Lenny though as I had such affection for that cat that he deserves to be preserved in a poem!

15 minute bookshop owner

A couple of years ago, I had an unexpected experience. I blogged about it but I cannot find the post.  When it was National Bookshop day 2 weeks ago, I wrote this poem in recognition of the joys of bookshops and was based on that experience! 

I hope you like it!

15 minute Bookshop owner

I'd always secretly had a yen,

To work in a bookshop,

But my life path had led elsewhere, 

This dream I'd had to drop,

Till one day, waiting for a friend,

Near King's Cross I was lurking,

I came across a place of dreams,

Where I'd long to be working.

Called, "Word on the water", looked with delight,

And browsed each treasured shelf, 

This barge on canal, a ship of joy, 

I had it to myself. 

I smiled and bought a book, chatted, 

And paused a mo to savour, 

When the owner asked if I could do him

A very great favour, 

Would I mind minding the shop?

For he was much in need of food, 

Oh frabjous day, Calooh Callay! 

My dream at last came good! 

So for 15 blissful minutes then, 

I worked as a bookseller, 

I strolled my barge of books with pride, 

Even sold to a fella!

The owner returned with gratitude, 

Took over thankfully, 

But to this day, I'm quite sure, 

The most grateful one was me!

 

Just Sing

 Here's the poem I wrote this week for The Toy Press prompt.

Actually, I tell a lie. I wrote it last week for my year 2 children for later in the term as their current unit of work is all about the interrelated dimensions of music and understanding all the different components/dimensions of music and how they can relate and interlink (for example, when you have a thicker texture, e.g. more instruments playing, the dynamics (loudness) also gets relatively louder. And similarly, when you use shorter notes, it seems like the tempo is getting faster, although it isn't). I thought about changes and then thought about a poem with a repetitive starting word.

And then, when this week's prompt word turned out to be 'smooth', well, it seemed serendipitous that I'd already got a poem with 'smoothly' in.

Just Sing

Sing fast,

Sing slow,

Sing high,

Sing low,

Sing alone,

Sing as a crowd,

Sing quietly,

Sing loud,

Sing happily,

Sing sadly,

Sing mysteriously,

Sing madly,

Sing spikily,

Sing staccato,

Sing smoothly,

Sing legato,

Sing one note,

Sing many,

Sing in unison,

Sing in harmony,

Sing a solo,

Sing in parts,

Sing at the end,

Sing at the start,

Sing short,

Sing long,

Sing right,

Sing wrong.

Sing operatically,

Sing wailingly,

Sing breathily

Sing nasally,

Sing tinily,

Sing GIANTLY,

Don’t sing at all,

Listen silently.

 

Whatdaya reckon?

P.S.  On the subject of poems, my Big Sounds poem has been included in Tyger-Tyger's free-download pack for World Poetry Day on the theme of 'Play' on TES here

Show time!

Hi there, 

I've had a great weekend away at my music course playing Light Orchestral music.  This a particular genre of music which hails from earlier in the century. It is utterly joyful to play!  Weirdly, I was playing my viola, which I don't do very often!  We ate lovely food and I talked to lovely people, had a nice walk and played Qwirkle.

Here's a sample of two of the pieces we played- Fiddlefaddle by Leroy Anderson and Edward German's Nell Gwyn suite.

The return to school last week was ok.  We had 2 inset days and then I had two days of doing reading with Year 3 children (which was quite nice) and then I covered year 6 on Friday but did manage to do a music lesson as part of it. So hard to get started again. I always feel like I can't teach again when I go back- it all feels weird!

This week's Word of the Week for The Toy Press was 'Prop' which was quite hard to use. I've been trying to think of what to write all week and it's only last minute desperation and a sheer stubborn determination not to renege on the target I set myself to not fail on this challenge, no matter how bad the attempt, that I came up with this poem.

Thoughts?

I'

Hope you have a good week!

xx

 

Last day of the holidays

 And just like that, it's the last night before we go back to school. The 5 weeks and 4 days (you can tell I'm resentful about that one missing day!) holiday is over and we return to the throng in the morning. Bright and early!  I'm trying not to feel anxious and in the doldrums about it but it is looming in a lugubrious manner!

I wrote a little poem to amuse my little sister who is also a teacher who is also feeling the gloom and sent it to her:

First Day back

We come sulking and snivelling,

Dragged reluctantly and quivering,

Into school gates yawning

When the day's barely dawning, 

Kicking and screaming,

Cos the sun is beaming,

Whilst we’re imprisoned inside,

We've been sentenced and tried, 

Made to share facts about our holiday

Cringing when it's our time to say,

Brains trying to kick-start,

Whilst trying to look smart,

Studying maths strategies,

But dreaming of beach breezes, 

Wishing we were still home,

Suppressing a groan,

Whilst trying to name fiction text features. 

And that's just the teachers! 

• CBC and I have had a great holiday in so many respects.  
• I had 10days at music camp, CBC had 12 days in France.
• I got to play 1st flute in Shostakovitch's beautiful 6th symphony.
• Played fiddle in a ceilidh band
• Swam in a lido
• Explored a new public transport route back from said lido- felt adventurous
• Made a lovely new flute friend who is curiously similar to me in many ways.
• Wrote lots of poems.
• We had 4 days in Hexham
• 4 days in Hebdon Bridge
• 3 days at my Dad's in Kent
• Stayed over at my Mum's
• Saw quite a few friends.
• The pond is finished in our garden.
• Went twice to the localish beach and and once up north.
• Hoovered and cleaned the floors many times (and they still look dirty!)
• Performed a flute recital
• Eaten lots of nice meals not cooked by ourselves including Thai, Indonesian, Malaysian, Persian, Mexican, Lebanese, Italian cuisines.
• Picked lots of nice fruit and veg from the garden AND foraged
• Eaten lots of fresh fruit and veg
• Seen interesting fungi
• Had some delightful walks
• Relaxed
• Slept
• Cycled
• Played Games

It's been a joy in many respects and I am grateful for this time.

The Song of the Tumble Dryer and other holiday stories

The weeks are passing quickly!

I left you in my last post on our Anniversary meal on Saturday.

I discovered I had won an Instagram competition from The Emma Press to win a poetry book for me AND my work colleague John called 'Mates Arias' by Lewis Buxton.

The next day, I got up to go to church and was there for 9.10 and played flute for the service. It was really lovely to see Richard, the pastor from the Baptist church I used to go to when I first moved to the area.  He likes to come to our Anglican church for services when he is on holiday but not away.  The funny thing is, as I was cycling to church, I wondered if he might be there!

We had a nice service with some visitors.

I headed off swiftly after gulping down a cup of tea to head home. I finished off packing when I got home as well as eating some breakfast.

Finally, after pestering CBC, we headed off to my Dad's house in Kent where we were to stay for three days.  We enjoyed a lunch of bruschetta with mozzarella and then my sister and I headed into the garden to pick some apples from their lovely trees - there are these amazing modern variety ones which have pink flesh and are so sweet and delicious!   

In the evening, we enjoyed a barbecue.

The next morning, I woke up at 7.30am and went out into their beautiful garden for a wander and a wonder at the beauty of creation!  Went to chat to my sister in her bedroom and then we had breakfast. CBC was going to help my dad in the garden with some work and A and I went to process apples.  A gardener was in to heavily prune back their two beautiful cobnut trees which I was extremely upset about as these are beautiful and provide much shade as well as sustenance for the squirrels (and me!) .  I decided to try and collect as many of the cobnuts as I could to dry out in a box and probably collected several hundred!

We went out to go and pick blackberries from the brambles at the end of the garden to join our apples and then we went to the kitchen to peel and chop and cook apples - they smell so sweet. A and I  managed to stew about 7 large containers of apple and blackberries to go in the freezer.  We had a delicious lunch of picky bits including an amazing antipasti platter they had from Costco that only cost £6.  We started to build a new shed for their garden (well, I didn't do much!) and then we headed out to dinner at a lovely pub by the river called The Lion. It was really relaxing and I had  delicious Katsu chicken curry and a Chocolate orange mousse bombe for dinner! CBC and my Dad were really pleased with their progress in the garden.

The next morning, having not slept so well, I woke a little later but went in for my customary chat with my sister in her room. Monty the dog was hilarious as he took up half her bed!

We had bacon sandwiches for breakfast- my stepmum KNOWS how to cook it properly and then my Dad and Chris headed off to the Dump with a lot of cob tree foliage and then A, T and I headed off to the Eco Pantry at Chart Farm.  The Eco Pantry is a brilliant Refill shop and I really recommend it if you are ever in that East Kent area.

I came out with red lentils, farfalle pasta, jasmine rice, chocolate covered pretzels,  Thai green curry rice crackers, Sesame Oil, Rape Seed oil, some Magnesium butter (supposed to help you sleep if Perimenopausal!) and some other stuff.

When we got home,we had some lunch and then continued with apple processing.  I peeled about 50 apples- the sweet ones for juicing and Bramleys for an Apple Crumble AND an Apple and Cinnamon Upside Down cake.  The juice was PINK- it was so delicious and the Apple Crumble too. 

As we worked, my Stepmum's tumble dryer was working industriously.  It has SUCH a musical sound which I can't help humming along to.  Appropriately, The Toy Press's word of the week was Tumble so this inspired my poem. I would have liked the word to go in a spiral around the circle but I wasn't sure how to do this.

Some games of Qwirkle were had

We had a barbecue after some MORE shed work and another dump visit by C and my Dad. 

After the barbecue, I got straight on with the washing up and then A and I headed into the hot tub. FINALLY.  We had been saying for 3 days that we would use it!

CBC and I headed home about 11pm!

The next morning, we got up and frantically began cleaning and tidying as my sister and her boyfriend were coming over to HELP US FINISH THE POND!

We managed to get tidied and cleaned in tim as they were an hour and a half later than anticipated! 

We borrowed a shredder from my neighbour Martyn and had a very merry time pruning and shredding the Laurel bush in our front garden. We then headed to the Aquatic centre to choose some plants for the pond and other items.  

When we got back, A and I made lunch for everyone and then Operation Pond continued.

I didn't contribut much to this process other than making tea and started to prune back the  Brambles behind our Bamboo- this is a den of pure devil that we can't get to as the railway line backs onto our garden so it is a constant fight against the brambles, ivy and Bindweed behind.

After this, we got changed and went out to our favourite Thai restaurant for dinner. Whilst waiting, A and I played our very own variant of Qwirkle that we devised last Summer! We still like it!

They have NEVER come over to our house without going out for Thai for dinner so Joy, the lovely waitress recognises THEM now!  A and I played lots of Categories Alphabet games in the car which I love.

The next morning, I awoke and had to console CBC over something he was upset about and I suggested we spend our day in the garden to forget about it which seemed to do the trick.  I ate a gorgeous breakfast of entirely foraged or homegrown fruit- apples from Kent, blackberries, golden plums, purple plums, homegrown blueberries and blackcurrants.  For lunch, we ate left-over Thai from last night AND five days ago. Everyone was sceptical about me eating the 5 day old stuff but I can confirm that I am fine one day on!

I spent several hours face first in the bamboo getting scratched to pieces trying to cut back the brambles and other evils- I filled the wheelie but it is still very much there!

For dinner, CBC and I made rice and lots of vegetables. Our fridge is really full of veg whether homegrown, from Riverford or from a visit to Barleylands farm shop.

This morning, I ate more fruit, CBC got some good news to console him and I am typing this. Later, we are going to a Barbecue and possibly over to our friend N's house to wish him a happy birthday!

 

Monkey Puzzle Tree

 Because I shared my news about my poem being published last week, I didn't share my poem of the week.

So here, is my poem from two weeks ago:

Monkey Puzzle Tree

The monkey was confuzzled

by the  Monkey Puzzle Tree,

He tried to scale its spiny boughs,

Got skewered in the knee

Its scaly leaves were lizard-like,

He thought, “I’m scared it bites!

But I want to solve this puzzle,

Persevere to reach the heights!”

So he clasped his arms around its trunk,

It spiked him when he nuzzled.

He gave up, bruised, and limped off home

(The tree remained a puzzle).

 

The prompt word for the week was, Puzzle.  I immediately thought of a Monkey Puzzle tree. There was a particularly fine example of one of these near where I grew up and I was always fascinated by this tree and equally enamoured by its name.

I imagined, in this short poem, what might happen if a Monkey encountered this tree.

My sister in law, who loves monkeys, commented, "Poor Monkey!" on the post!

xx

My secret news!

 A few months ago, I alluded to something exciting (for me) that had happened, but I was not able to say what it was.

Well, today, I can finally say.

One of my poems, Big Sounds, was selected for inclusion in Issue 9 of Tyger Tyger magazine!

This is a lovely online poetry magazine for children aged 7-11 which is free to read, has free teaching resources with it and includes poets from all over the world.

I wrote this poem last September (2024).  I was in  Forest Philharmonic rehearsal, playing Shostakovitch's Symphony no.9, 2nd flute.  Unfortunately for me, the second flute part is very sparse, doesn't play in two whole movements whereas the first flute and piccolo get all the glory.  Even more irritatingly, I had forgotten my book, must have left it at school and I had nothing to do.  The first flute player doesn't like people sitting on phones in rehearsals too so I couldn't do that either (and to be honest, is not a thing I'm prone to do in rehearsals).  I had twice, unsuccessfully submitted poems to Tyger Tyger.  A poem about Mud and about Sums had both not been chosen and I'd received the email that day saying that the new theme for the next issue was Big Things.  As I sat there in the rehearsal, I started thinking about big musical instruments as at that moment, the Bassoon had a massive solo.  And I started writing the poem about big instruments.  The poem came to me really quickly and by the break, I already had a finished poem.  The lovely piccolo player, C, had seen me writing and asked me what I was doing. I bashfully mentioned I was trying to write a poem and mentioned this issue's theme.  She asked me if she could hear it and I read it to her. When I got to the final line, she roared with laughter and told me she loved it.  The deadline for submission was December.  I sat on the poem for a while, thinking that I wasn't sure whether to submit but I also wondered if I could write anything better- you can submit up to three poems per issue.  By the time the deadline was looming, I'd written two other poems, one about relatives and one about a Giant and submitted them.

Oh, the months of waiting felt long and in the meantime, I'd written many, many other poems.  I knew it was probably unlikely I'd get chosen though I knew I liked me first poem very much.  It was also very much inspired by that thing my work colleague John had said at the Testing Ground open mic night I'd attended at Bard Books that very week.  He said, "Write about what you know."  Music is what I know best.  Part of me had a flame of hope.

Finally, back in March, I received an email from Rachel Piercey, editor of Tyger Tyger and to my delight, told me they would love to include my Big Sounds poem if it were still available.  I cannot tell you the utter joy I felt at that time. Having had a very difficult start to the year in terms of personal anxiety and depression, this was an exquisite ray of hope and sunshine.  She asked the chosen poets not to make any announcements on social media until the issue launched and so  I sat on the news, only telling CBC and C, my piccolo-playing friend who had been my first reader.  C was delighted for me.

I've noticed a curious coincidence today, as I write this.  My poem includes reference to the Contrabassoon.  Interestingly enough, the only other time I have been selected for something when there are a huge number of submissions is when I was chosen up as a runner up out of 29,000 people who entered a Blue Peter competition to design a cartoon character for Oscar's Orchestra for my depiction of Cassius the Contrabassoon. 

Rachel was very busy and the release date was put back but we exchanged several emails over the months regarding a few edits and things and FINALLY, yesterday was publication day!

Here was Rachel's post announcing it:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Rachel Piercey (@rachelpierceywriter)

You can see all the poems here including mine:

Big Sounds:

I want to learn the Double Bass!
Big Granddaddy of the strings.
I’d grunt and growl and scrape and scowl
And play the deepest things!

I want to learn the Contrabassoon!
The size of a rocket ship.
It farts and parps and plops and honks,
Each note I’d just let rip!

I want to learn the Tuba!
It’s a chasm of shining gold.
Like warthog snorts and elephant trumps,
It’s big and bass and bold!

I want to learn the Big Bass Drum!
The vastest of all drums.
The thud and thump, rumble and boom.
I’ll startle everyone!

I want to play the biggest sounds
And shake the entire house!
But sadly, it seems that wishes stay dreams,
Since I’m only a tiny mouse!

Having received a rejection again this week, for another submission, it was lovely that this publication coincided with that.  I am aware that is is probably a one-off and I won't be lucky enough for this to happen again, if I do submit any poems to any publications (I've only tried 3 different publications) but for this moment, I shall rejoice in Big Sounds x Tyger Tyger!

Chips!

I missed sharing this the previous week! The word of the week was 'Chips'.  I thought about the fact that chips often accompany many meals and thought of all the possibilities.

And once I'd written/typed the word chips that many times, as is often the case, it started to look like not a real word- it just looked strange! Do you ever get that? Is there  a term for it?  Apparently so, according to the internet.  

If you keep 'hearing'  a word over and over again, it's called Semantic Satiation but apparently when you see it over and over again it's called Orthographic satiation! 

I had a busy weekend. Saturday morning, I got up at 6.45am, as I couldn't sleep and I ended up booking to go swimming at 8am. I cycled the 1.5 miles or soo in warm sunshine and swam for an hour. It was a joy! I had a bacon sandwich in the cafe and then cycled to church where as part of our eco team (I am one of them)  activities, we were upcycling some of the chairs that were looking a bit old which included reupholstering and sanding, priming and painting.  I started by cutting the new pieces for the seat cushions and then I went and did some priming in the sunshine under a tree. And got pooed on spectacularly in three places by a Wood Pigeon. Straight onto my left leg, onto the right leg of my shorts and then onto my white t-shirt. Gross!  After this, I cycled home, via Londis to pick up some ice-cream.  I did some washing up, had a snooze on the sofa, attempted to do some marking and then in the evening, had Chinese.  CBC was in Wales doing a multiday cycling camping trip by himself.

Sunday morning, I got up at 8.30 and then got the 9.30 train into London to Edgware Road for a 6 hour rehearsal with Orchestra of the City on Mahler's 9th symphony.  I then went straight to Gray's Inn for another rehearsal with another orchestra for a fundraiser on Tuesday for scholarships.  I cycled back to Farringdon and got the train home and ate more left-over Chinese!

Tonight, I met an old work colleague (my old drama partner in crime who left last year) and then had another orchestra rehearsal.  This week is full!!!

xx