Coming soon…

From Friday, April 1st, exclusively at Al’s blog…

 

And now, the end is near…

Not one, but two, big reveals today…

The first is the theme reveal for the forthcoming A-to-Z Challenge, where I will be blogging throughout April on the subject of…

How to survive a zombie apocalypse…
                                                                            in haiku!

(Who has time to read any lengthy survival guides when you’re on the run from the undead?)

Regular readers will not be surprised by this… and I still plan to try and manage most of the usual weekly prompts and challenges, although that may be foolhardy!

The second reveal is much more significant for me. I am moving to a self-hosted site, and will be completely migrating over to it over the coming weeks. My new home is http://www.alistairlanewrites.com/ – please go and check it out, and let me know what you think!

I will try and migrate all of my current followers over, but if anyone gets left behind in the move, that’s where I’ll be!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on either of these pieces of news in the comments below 🙂

Y is for Thorn / Word Economy (poem)

I recently completed the A-Z Challenge of writing a poem every day throughout April 2015 themed on a letter of the alphabet. Having the supportive friends that I do (!), one then pointed out that in Old English there was ANOTHER letter that slowly fell in to disuse through the middle ages, even though we still see it’s legacy today in English village signs. This letter is known as “thorn” and represents the “th” sound, originally written as “þ” but then mutated into a “y”. So, Nick challenged me to write one more poem for this alphabet collection and wrote his own too – check it out here: https://babbitman.wordpress.com/2015/05/07/y-is-for-thorn/

The deadline for this was the þirteenþ of May (unfortunately not a Þurþsday)…

Word economy
My good friend Nick has made a case
To crown the thorn back into place
As letter number 27
(Bring it back from letter heaven)

“Why use two instead of one?”
Is how your argument be-gun

I think you’re right! But let’s go further
And check that every letter’s worth a
Place in the new alphabet

(One in which our needs are met
Without the need to get upset)

So we’ll keep the thorn, but oþers go.
þis is how our language grows.

We’ll join the Yanks and drop most “U”s
Colour/ color – you can choose!
We’ll phase out “X” at þe start of words
(þat will please þe blogging herds)

We’ll drop þe “H” (so many do)
“C” kan go, and so kan “Q”
(þe “Q” of “quay” makes no sense to me.
Let’s ekonomise and kall it “key”)

Is this too much? Would you endorse it?
Or does language grow best,
If you don’t force it?

A to Z Blog Challenge – Reflections

During the month of April, I took part in three separate challenges – RhyPiBoMo, NaPoWriMo, and the A to Z Blog Challenge (see links in the sidebar). Apologies to anyone who tires of these endless, silly acronyms always ending in “-mo”, but they serve a purpose, and give budding poets/bloggers such as myself a challenge to rise to, and community to engage with, for a whole month (and hopefully beyond). As part of the A to Z Challenge, they invite you to post a blog reflecting on the month (http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/2015/05/wait-to-z-is-not-over-not-quite.html), hence this post.

I combined NaPoWriMo and the A to Z Challenge into one, setting myself the task of writing a new poem each day on each successive letter of the alphabet. I only stumbled across both challenges at the end of March, so had no time to stockpile any poems or content. Everything would have to be done “on the day”. Now, the alphabet being what it is, some days were significantly harder than others. What sadistic idiot designed the alphabet anyway? Who really needs the letter X? Or Z?

(If you’ve ever read a kids ABC book, these letters have always proved problematic… and I have a real bugbear about Dr Seuss and his “zizzer-zazzer-zuzz” effort)

On the other hand, I guess that’s where the “challenge” element comes into it!

So, what are my reflections on the month as a whole?

– I know now that I can write pretty much a poem a day, if I make the time for it. (Having enough of that time is a different matter!)

– My creativity is at its most… err… creative when backed into a corner. (For example, I was really struggling with J until I came up with this: https://altheauthor.wordpress.com/2015/04/11/j-is-for-poem/ – the poem is pretty autobiographical of this moment)

– I’ve tried a few different styles and themes, but my default is always rhyming (comic) verse. I would like to spend some time trying other poetic styles, just for my own entertainment and development, but I can’t help but think that more complicated structures are just not “for me”. (I always start with the idea, and shape the poem around that, rather than starting with a poetic form in mind and making an idea fit around it – this is why I couldn’t engage with the NaPoWriMo prompts, although have great respect for those that did.)

– I don’t like talking about number of visitors to my blog (more from embarrassment about the low numbers than through modesty, sadly), but I was hoping for a bigger spike in visitors than occurred. In the first half of the month, I did see an increase, and gained some new followers, but my visitor numbers at the end of the month are the same as for March. Perhaps this was because people found, as I did, that there are just so many blogs out there, that (a) finding the ones that fit my particular tastes and interests, and then (b) engaging with them, just takes time… more hours than are in the day, sadly!

– Numbers may not have changed much, but those that did come to visit have been amazing! One of them even wrote a poem in reply to one of my poems (see https://altheauthor.wordpress.com/2015/04/27/w-is-for-why-poem/ – and Jesi’s awesome reply at http://lunaticpoet.com/because-i-can-and-it-is-fun/). Others have taken the time to leave warm/ supportive/appreciative comments on a regular basis – thank you everyone! I dedicated my final themed post to all of these: https://altheauthor.wordpress.com/2015/04/30/z-is-for-poem/

Would I do it again?

It has felt like a bit of a slog on some days, but I am glad that I’ve done it… and already have a “theme” in mind for next year’s challenge! So that’s a YES! (https://altheauthor.wordpress.com/2015/04/29/y-is-for-poem/ – which is hopefully right about the secret of success!)

So, how was it for you? What were your thoughts on the month? Any great discoveries, either internal or on others’ blogs?

“Z is for… ” (poem)

Before I zoom off to the sunset,
Zigging and zagging away,
I wanted to say a few words,
To those who came to play

I don’t do this for the money,
I do it with joyful zest.
And though I’ve had a great time…
I’ll enjoy a few days’ rest!

I’ve written forty new poems,
Some of them better than others.
Some you can share with your children
Some you should share with your mothers!

One or two are darker:
There’s something for everyone here.
I love to do the whimsical:
A rhyming buccaneer!

I’ve visited a hundred blogs
(And have a thousand still to go)
There’s so much talent out there
And your warmth leaves me aglow

It’s been a long and challenging month,
But we’ve finally got to zed.
Time now to forget the alphabet.
Our interest in that is dead.

So, thank you to you, my zany friends,
For your comments and your likes.
Please zip back and visit again…
When inspiration strikes!

“Y is for… ” (poem)

Some will tell you that to go far
(By which I mean flash house and car)

That you will need a dose of luck,
To work like mad, with lots of pluck

BUT

The truest secret of success
Is knowing when to say
“yes,
yes,
YES!”

“X is for … (light)” (poem)

Alphabet rhymes lead to alphabet crimes
So a plea to you as a sign of the times:

No reasonable blogging blogger expects
A grown-up man to make a rhyme with X

I’ve written two poems for the letter X – one dark, one light. You can find the darker one here: https://altheauthor.wordpress.com/2015/04/28/x-is-for-dark-poem/

“X is for… (dark)” (poem)

Anaesthetised skin
Yields to the surgeon’s blade

X marks

Delicate incisions, then
Spreaders force ribs apart

I am open on your table

Deft fingers sew up the life blood arteries.
Forget-Me-Knots staunch the flow

The heart withers,
A blackened hulk,
Starved of oxygen

Tired hands lose their finesse
As the final cuts are made

The heart, lifted clear,
Inspected,
Weighed,
Logged,
Set aside

Black blood gushes.
Pain fills the void.

New flesh grows, timidly
Rising like a bile-bathed phoenix

Needing fresh anaesthetic

I’ve written two poems for the letter X – one dark, one light. You can find the lighter one here: https://altheauthor.wordpress.com/2015/04/28/x-is-for-light-poem/

“W is for… Why?” (poem)

“Tell me, Daddy, tell me why!
You’d put an apple in a pie!

“Where do thoughts come from?
Where do dreams go?
How do I know that I know what I know?

“How do clocks know what time it is?
When I have a cold, and I’m streaming with snot
Do I have inside me, a mucus-y pot?

“What does Santa do, the rest of the year?
Why is the moon as big as the sun?
How can battles be lost, and won?

“Where do my socks disappear in the dryer?
What is light made of? What does it do?
Why is my soul on the base of my shoe?

“Come on, Daddy, tell me please!”

“Err… maybe your mother can help you with these”

“W is for… Wilfred” (poem)

Heading to a meeting. I’m going on my bike.
Never met a ‘Wilf’ before. I wonder what he’s like

My granny always said to live life one day at a time
D’you think this is the sort of thing she’d have had in mind?

The A to Z story so far… https://altheauthor.wordpress.com/2015/04/25/a-to-z-challenge-recap/