Poetry is something I should do more of. The problem is that the fictional ideas and characters tend to muscle their way to the front, drowning out the voices of any poetic inklings. Bullys. Can't they form an orderly queue? When I do write poetry I love it. The words fill my mind for days on end and I walk around trying out rhythms and rhymes in my head when I should be concentrating on other things ...
As it happens I was rereading some of my earliest poetry the other day. Now it all looks rather naive but there are some good moments. I still like this couplet from my first ever published poem, In the Peak Forest :
And hill-top copses are the havens of ravens
That curse cultivation with primitive croaks
You get the idea. There were several verses of sing-song iambic tetrameter like this. Still, I loved it. Bringing things up to date, I thought I'd reproduce my most recent poem, which was published on the wonderful Bolts of Silk site earlier this year. Typographically it's a bit hard to reproduce as the title is supposed to be a single, large opening quotation-mark. So it may not come out properly on your display. But here goes :
ʽDefinitely, definitely I need to write more poetry ...
Curled up asleep there
as seraphic as
the furled e in serene.
Crossed feet for
perfectly drawn serifs,
your soft body
a rune of tightly cuddled limbs
as you revert to
the bliss of the huddled womb.
A quiet quotation mark
at the start of a life's long speech,
the hushed susurrus of a slowly drawn breath
Wow! Superb poem. I won't be able to write dialogue today without thinking of it.
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