Resolutions and Bits of Poems

I am doing well with my new year's resolutions. I have sent some work out - not much - but some. I have been doing my morning pages most days and I have started a visual diary too. I started the visual diary for two reasons: 1) I miss making art, and 2) I want to see if it enhances my writing. More creative stuff has got to be good right? I have also been trying to put whole days aside to work on my poetry, although I think it would be useful if someone confiscated my broadband modem on those days!

Today I had the bright idea of writing a small poem about writing every day and posting it on my blog - well realistically it won't be every day, but a girl can try...

Here is today's effort:


Memory fragments -
the way smells can take you back
and fill your head with words.

Creative Block

I once read an article that claimed that there was no such thing as creative block. At the time I wasn't sure how I felt about what the author was saying - I certainly experience times where I am less creative. Often these times correlate with other stuff that is going on in my life - I might be stressed, busy with work or preoccupied with something with that take up all my creative energy. I also have times of extended procrastination - sometimes I think that during these times my brain is working silently away on something. Before Christmas for instance I was thinking a lot about the order of my collection, it took up a large amount of my creative energy until I came up with a new order. Now I know that I need to re-order it again, and what is more I also need to produce some new work - but since I was ill over Christmas my creative juices seem to have dried up.  I have experienced these creative deserts before - sometimes even reading favourite or new authors isn't enough to inspire me. I know it will pass - the worrying thing is that I have a deadline to work to. I find myself longing for another writing retreat in Wells...

BOOKS READ IN 2012

111) Maybe This Time - Alois Hotschning (fiction)

110) Search Procedures - Erin Moure (poetry)

109) Carrying My Wife - Moniza Alvi (poetry, re-read)

108) The Storm House - Tim Liardet (poetry, re-read)

107) The Bridle _ Meryl Pugh (poetry)

106) Stag's Leap - Sharon Olds (poetry)

105) Swimming Home - Deborah Levy (fiction)

104) Open Door - Oscar Guardiola-Rivera (fiction)

103) Portrait of My Lover as a Horse - Selima Hill (poetry)

102) The BBC International Short Story Competition 2012 (fiction, short stories)

101) Cosmic Ordering for Beginners - Barbel Mohr and Clemens Maria Mohr (non fiction)

100) Unleash Your Creativity - : Secrets of Creative Genius (52 Brilliant Ideas) - Rob Bevan and Tim Wright (non fiction)

99) Spider Bones - Kathy Reichs (fiction)

98) Little Gods - Jacob Polley (poetry)

97) Burying the Wren - Deryn Rees-Jones (poetry)

96) Stone in a Landslide - Maria Barbel (fiction)

95) Beside the Sea - Veronique Olmi (fiction)

94) The Beautiful Indifference - Sarah Hall (fiction, short stories)

93) Pelt - Sarah Jackson (poetry)

92) Nameless Earth - Robert Gray (poetry)

91) Swift - Jennie Feldman (poetry)

90) The Book of Blood - Vicki Feaver (poetry)

89) A Little Book of Meat - Selima Hil (poetry)

88) Lunar Moths - Jo Haslam (poetry)

87) 81 Austerities - Sam Riviere (poetry)

86) The Polish Boxer - Eduardo Halfon (fiction)

85) Recyclopedia: Trimmings, S*PeRM**K*T, and Muse & Drudge - Harryette Mullen (poetry)

84) These Days - Leontia Flynn (poetry)

83) Tender Buttons - Gertrude Stein (prose/poetry)

82) Cobweb Walking - Sara Banerji (fiction)

81) Arguing with Malarchy - Carola Luther (poetry)

80) Clueless Dogs - Rhian Edwards (poetry)

79) Grace - Esther Morgan (poetry)

78) The Underground Man - Mick Jackson (fiction)

77) Wild Abandon - Joe Dunthorne (fiction)

76) Profit and Loss - Leontia Flynn (poetry)

75) Fall - Amy Newman (poetry)

74) For the Good of the Earth and Sun Teaching Poetry - Georgia Heard (non fiction)

73) Misadventure - Richard Meier (poetry)

72) That Awkward Age - Roger McGough (poetry)

71) A Light Song of Light - Kei Miller (poetry)

70) The Keys of Babylon - Robert Minhinnick (fiction, short stories)

69) 26a - Diana Evans (fiction)

68) Maggot - Paul Muldoon (poetry)

67) The Wasteland and Other Poems - T.S. Eliot (poetry - re-read)

66) Ramshackle - Elizabeth Reeder (fiction)

65) The Opposite of Falling - Jennie Rooney (fiction)

64) Occupation - Angela France (poetry)

63) Down the Rabbit Hole -Juan Pablo Villalobos (fiction)

62) Jack Straw's Castle - Thom Gunn (poetry)

61) Salt Rain - Sarah Armstrong (fiction)

60) Jo Shapcott - Tender Taxes (poetry)

59) Jo Shapcott - Phrase Book (poetry)

58) Jo Shapcott - Electroplating the Baby (poetry)

57) Best American Poetry 1997 - edited by James Tate (poetry)

56) Broken Things - Padrika Tarrant (Fiction - short stories)

55) Of Mutability - Jo Shapcott (poetry - re-read)

54) Best American Poetry 1992 - edited by Charles Simic (poetry)

53) The Water Babies - Charles Kingsley (fiction)

52) The Last Falcon and Small Ordinance - Paul Perry (poetry)

51) It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be - Paul Arden (non fiction)

50) London Bridge - Simon Smith (poetry)

49) Anvil New Poets 2 (poetry)

48) Peter Pan - J.M. Barrie (fiction)

47) Waffles - Matthew Welton (poetry)

46) Before I go to Sleep - S.J. Watson (fiction)

45) Legato the Ju-Ju's Cure - Simon Parsons (poetry)

44) The Departure - Chris Hamilton Emery (poetry)

43) All That I Am - Anna Funder (fiction)

42) Glad of These Times - Helen Dunmore (poetry)

41) A Bowl of Warm Air - Moniza Alvi (poetry)

40) Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe (fiction)

39) Carrying Rain - Karen Dennison (poetry)

38) Carrying My Wife - Moniza Alvi (poetry)

37) Sidereal - Rachael Boast (poetry)

36) Mangoes and Bullets - John Agard (poetry)

35) Selected Poems - Elizabeth Jennings (poetry)

34) The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins (fiction)

33) Devil Bones - Kathy Reichs (fiction)

32) 206 Bones - Kathy Reichs (fiction)

31) A Smell of Fish - Matthew Sweeny (poetry)

30) Remember - Agnes Lehoczky (poetry)

29) The Dark Film - Paul Farley (poetry)

28) Flatlands - Victor Tapner (poetry)

27) This Line is not for Turning: An Anthology of Contemporary British Prose Poetry - edited by Jane Monson (poetry)

26) Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson (fiction)

25) The Book of Matthew - Matthew Welton (poetry)

24) Intimates - Helen Farish (poetry)

23) Domestic Violence - Eavan Boland (poetry, re-read)

22) Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen (fiction)

21) Stonepicker - Frieda Hughes (poetry)

20) Wintergirls - Laurie Halse Anderson (fiction)

19) Spilt Milk - Sarah Maguire (poetry)

18) Homesick for the Earth: Selected Poems - Jules Superviele with versions by Moniza Alvi (poetry)

17) Ariel - Sylvia Plath (poetry - re-read)

16) We needed coffee but... - Matthew Welton (poetry)

15) The Knife Drawer - Padrika Tarrant (fiction)

14) Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (fiction)

13) Wordsmithery: The Writer's Craft and Practice - Edited by Jayne Steel (non-fiction)

12) The Range-Finder's Field Glasses - Graham High (poetry)

11) Collected Poems 1968 - Roy Fisher (poetry)

10) Fiere - Jackie Kay (poetry)

9) Glad not to be the Corpse - Lydia Harris (poetry)

8) Appearances at the Bentinck Hotel - Tim Cockburn (poetry)

7) Divining for Starters - Carrie Etter (poetry)

6) Black Juice - Margo Lanagan (fiction - short stories)

5) Public Dream - Frances Leviston (poetry)

4) Birthday Letters - Ted Hughes (poetry - re-read)

3) Birmingham River - Roy Fisher (poetry)

2) Standard Midland - Roy Fisher (poetry)

1) Salt - Jeremy Page (fiction