Too easy

I don't normally write poems about writing, but this one wrote itself this morning.

Too easy

Once I wrote in language

dense as earth, full of words

gleaned from years of learning, reading,

and fancy turns hand-picked

from the poet’s holdall of tricks –

allit-, asson-, half-rhyme, and bucket-loads

of metaphor.

One critic said I was ‘showing off’

but I wasn’t. I took delight

in the possibilities of words, sounds,

ideas, special effects.

Still, the injustice stung.

I’ve pared down, am leaner,

but maybe I’ve gone too far;

too many simple gifts, too many

babies slipped through the shower’s

hair filter, too many straight lines.

What do you think? You were there.

What do you think?

Colin Will

01/01/2014

Changes for 2014

I started this as a private blog for NaPoWriMo 2013, so I could date-stamp the poems without making them public, which would have infringed the 'no prior publication' condition set by many editors.
However, I've decided to make it public, so I can put drafts up.

I'll also put up information, workshop tips, prompts and exercises here.

Changeable

This one came from last night's 10-minute exercise at the Dunbar Writers. My prompt was 'hot and cold', and this is what I came up with. It's unedited.


Changeable

It was a warm morning
then a front went through
leaving hours of cool showery air
trailing behind it.

We had lunch in the garden
sitting at the table
with the wine, salad,
fruit and cheese. Balmy,

and then, little by little,
the wind rose, the sky
greyed over, and we were back
in the Pleistocene, felt like it.

The first spots of rain
evaporating on the paving,
released that smell of warm stone,
and then the spots stayed, grew.

We rushed inside, in a flummox
of plates, glasses, salt and pepper,
bowls of salads and boards of cheese,
to continue our meal inside.

You can’t recreate a picnic indoors,
the light’s not there, the sunshine
and the warmth gone, the windows
streaming with rain, chilly.

Colin Will
09/05/2013

The first post-April poem

I've got an idea for a title for my next collection, due 2015. It's The bacon bookmark. (This actually happened, when I was a junior librarian working in Bathgate). I just need to write the poem now. I know how it will end:

It could've been worse,
there was no brown sauce on it,
and it could've been a fried egg.

(We had love letters, French letters, oily bus tickets, and suspiciously brown scraps of paper returned from branches and centres, so there is a poem there waiting to be written).

However, sitting on the train in Waverley Station, waiting for it to leave for Plymouth via Dunbar and other station stops, as the 'train managers' now call them, this poem came:

[Poem removed for copyright reasons]

I've since discovered the statue is called Everyman, he doesn't have a beard, and he has brown skin. So I may need to edit this one later.

NaPoWriMo 30

Poem removed for copyright reasons

NaPoWriMo 27

Death Valley


Poem published in Every Day Poems 2013

NaPoWriMo 26

I want to design a meal, that will move,
startled and satisfied, from one course
to the next. I won’t trouble
with an amuse-bouche,
that pretentious pre-meal trinket,
but go straight in to starter,
fish, main, palate cleanser,
cheese and sweet.

Let’s look for an active balance.
I like soups but they can be
heavy going. I’m less than keen
on frothy cappuccino concoctions
chased with a sheen of truffle oil.
Paté’s out, too risky for my gout.
I lean towards a tasty miso,
fragrant with coriander,
spring onions and clams.

A creamy sauce with the fish course
would be good. Sole Veronique’s nice,
or Bonne Femme, but I favour
the simple, flaky goodness
of cod in parsley sauce.

The main is simpler – you see
where I’m going with this?
A venison steak, flame-grilled,
fondant potatoes, baby turnips,
sprouting broccoli, red wine jus.

Ah yes, the wines.
With the fish, a steely Riesling,

and a big Rhône with the meat,
a Vin Santo with the sweet. Perfect.

A slice each of mango and pineapple,
with minty sugar, follow that.

The cheeses? Stilton – I can’t see past it -
St Nectaire, Camembert.

Et pour le dessert, je propose
a simple Crème Caramel.

Then coffee and cognac
will take you to Heaven.

Colin Will
26/04/2013