I had an email today, and I’m happy. For the next month I am going to be on the front page of contemporary haibun online. It feels a bit like being famous, as I’ve actually heard of the other two who are on there. However, to drift back from dreams of fame and success for a moment, if you are reading this in March, you will ned to use this link as I fade back into obscurity and gradually become part of the clutter at the back of the internet.
I’ve just realised that I’m back in drifting sands haibun. I had been rejected for the last two issues but manged to pull something out of the bag for this one. It was mainly written before I became ill in the autumn and I managed to get it polished just in time. Same with the cho submission. Now I just need to get back in my stride for the spring.
I’ve developed some bad habits while I’ve been taking a rest from writing – spending too much time on eBay for instance, and thinking about the problems of the world. I need to get back to poetry and away from real life.
Last night Julia kept twitching in bed, and every time she did so, the covers acted like bellows, drawing cold air across my shoulders and waking me up. It wasn’t all bad, because as I lay awake I invented a new way of keeping warm at night.
Unfortunately, in the cold light of dawn, I realised that the Reheating Hot Water Bottle wasn’t going to be a goer. It would have been OK in the 1920s when it would have been fine to link a container of water to the mains electricity, using that braided brown flex favoured by our grandparents. But Julia doesn’t think they would allow it now. She also points out that electric blankets are easier and safer and if I feel cold in bed maybe I should buy one and stop waking her at 6am to discuss my ideas for new inventions. I’m afraid she isn’t always open to new ideas, like the one I had about her adding “the famous poet” after every mention of my name. I mentioned that after showing her the cho page. She’s not keen . . .
The top picture is one of Simon Wilson, the famous poet.It’s the unedited version of the one in cho and you can clearly see that my “office” includes a microwave, a kettle and a coin cabinet.
Does a fortune come with the fame? Or is being admired by others wealth enough?
I am sure that any fortune is going to be smaller than the fame, and that is small enough to be almost non-existent. I suspect that the only people to see the page, apart from Julia and my six actual followers here, will be the other two people pictured on it. But it is enough . . . 🙂
Doesn’t every office have a microwave?
Possibly. But note I also have a toilet door behind my head. 😉
Congratulations!!
Thank you.
Congratulations – at least your fame will last more than 15 minutes. This is what I put on the site: Excellent verses – and fine prose description of the trout/weed
Thank you Derrick. Yes, famous for a month. And not even a Leap Year! 🙂
Congrats, congrats! A very nice picture. And the poems have such a mood along with precision. Beautiful.
Thank you. 🙂 Not sure about your taste in photos though.
Congratulations, Quercus! I enjoyed the poems. That is a nice photo of you, too.
Cats are better than hot water bottles. 🙂
Thank you. One of ours used to sit on my chest and make me wake up dreaming of being crushed . . .
Well done that famous poet. At least it’s better than a tattoo.
Thank you. 🙂