Tag Archives: subjects

Composing, Cliches and Searching for Subjects

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I’m back at work and being creative. If you can call poetry “work” and if you can call my work “creative”. mainly I just feed off the work of other people and potter about in the middle of a shared cloud of words.

Spring is coming, flowers are coming out and trees are gently unfolding their blossom. It is a time of cliche for all writers of Japanese style poetry. That blossom will blow across grass and wet tarmac, will be picked up on shoes, will be trodden into oblivion and will fall into bad company as all the cliches come out to play. I can’t help it. I have a limited number of experiences to draw on, being a non-mobile urban poet.

Litter, discarded shoes and magpies make up a lot of my world. Delivery vans, memories and ragged gardens all play their part. I should probably go back to sitting in car parks and watching people pass by.

In an effort to return to previous times I have returned to composing on paper and copying to the computer. It’s a shame because I was just getting used to composing on the screen. However, needs must, and if the price of writing more is that I have to do more copy typing, that is the price I will pay. At the moment I don’t have much choice.

Last month was the first one in years where I submitted nothing and that clearly can’t go on. To write well, you have to start by writing something. Similarly, if you want ideas, you have to start writing, as it’s well established that the more ideas you use, the more you will have. I suppose that they will eventually dry up, but that’s a mawkish reflection for another day.

(Sorry, wrote this yesterday and went to bed before posting – more to follow today.)

Day 185

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During the day I had, as usual. several great ideas for tonight’s post. As the day progressed, also as usual, the ideas gradually seemed less good, or simply faded away. The one about plagiarism seems less interesting now that I am sitting in front of the computer, and the other two have simply been forgotten.

The result is that I have a blank screen and a blank mind. It is not unusual. If I were still planning to write the post on plagiarism I would have to point out that “It is not unusual” bears similarities to the words of a song by Tom Jones. It can, I imagine, be quite complicated.

It’s all a question of monkeys. With an infinite number of monkeys and a finite number of words, duplication would be inevitable. If they can write Hamlet, which always seems to be a favourite when discussing this subject, they could certainly manage some of my stuff, or the tedious instructions for jury service I was recently sent, or a shopping list.

However, if a monkey duplicates something, is it plagiarism? It’s much the same question as, if a monkey kills someone, is it murder? Murder requires intent, and it’s not likely that monkeys can form the intent to kill in the same way that a murderer would. People seem to see plagiarism as something that can happen by innocent coincidence.

However, other definitions refer to it as  a process of copying the work of someone else without giving credit. In that case the typewriting monkeys there is no copying, as, to the monkeys, it is an original work, even if they are the second ones to produce it.

In my case, the worry is that with a limited number of words, ideas and conventions, it seems almost inevitable that two people will eventually write the same haiku. It’s always worried me about haiku.

Then, finally, we come to the inevitable question of whether I am a poet or a monkey.

Random Thoughts

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I pressed the button on the random subject generator and this was what came up – “What does getting old mean to you?”

It wasn’t what I was hoping for. I could have come up with that on my own. I had honestly meant to write on any subject that came up, but as many of my posts are already on that subject I thought I’d try again.

So I tried again.

“Write about your feet.”

I am very tempted, but it would include thoughts about arthritis and about getting old so, again, it’s nothing new.

One last try.

“Write your obituary.”

You know, I sometimes wonder if the world really does hate me. I have recently had to help with my father’s obituary and I could have done without a reminder. It was bad enough this morning when someone came into the shop to buy a Father’s Day present. I’ll be cheerful again tomorrow, but for tonight I’ll pass.

So, one last try.

“What has made you angry recently?”

That’s easy, the random subject generator has been winding me up for the last half hour. I could, given another hair’s breadth of provocation, really let rip on the subject of random subject generators. It’s not much of a thing to get worked up about but it will do for the moment.

There other things to get worked up about but I’ll leave you with a quote.

“Mashonaland is ours, we conquered it, and have every right to be here…”

This could so easily be a quote from Cecil Rhodes, but it’s actually a quote from Umgandan, a Matabele induna.

Whatever today’s revisionists may think, not all the invaders in Africa were white.

 

 

 

The Posts That Never Were

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For some reason I’m totally out of things to say.

This is strange because I’m sure I have a list of subjects somewhere. I also have 15 part written drafts. All they need is a blogger with a work ethic to finish them off.

I say “finish them off” but in at least two cases all I have is a title. Two of the others are just pictures.

Pondering, Polishing and Plagiarising, for instance, has been waiting for 300 finely crafted words since 4th April 2016. Unfortunately, as I like the title so much, I haven’t felt any of my attempts have been good enough.

Cooking with Harissa has only been ready since June this year. I wrote it after using harissa for the first time. I used it as a marinade for chicken and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos and I haven’t made it again (I found an easier recipe I preferred). This is a shame, as I was going to pretend that Harissa was a celebrity chef from North Africa.

There are also several I’ve decided are too contentious.

British Values is one of them. There are, it seems, four core values that we should be ramming down the throats of school children. This becomes five when they put them on a poster depicting a hand, thus illustrating another core British value – messing about with education. Don’t get me started.

There are others, but they are too contentious even to blog about why I won’t blog about them.

That’s just the highlights – others are in limbo because they are boring – I have saved you from them.

A Poetry Sort of Day

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My copy of The Poetry Review came through today. It was accompanied by a copy of Poetry News and seven glossy leaflets advertising poetry competitions.

It’s fair to say, from looking at this pile, and skimming Poetry News, that poetry is popular at the moment.

I fear, looking at the pile of paper, that the rise of poetry may be linked to a decline in tree stocks. This wouldn’t be so bad if they were all limericks and light verse but there is a lot of very earnest poetry about. To be fair, we wouldn’t appreciate the humorous stuff without the serious verse, but there’s an awful lot of it.

It seems that the Grenfell Towers fire has been a popular subject this year. Last year Donald Trump was a popular subject. I remember that last time I took a serious interest in poetry the 2004 Morecambe Bay tragedy supplied the subject for a lot of competition entries. Misery loves company, as they say, and it seems to love poetry too.

If I’m going to be a proper poet I may have to ditch the clerihews and get serious.

Meanwhile, I also got a copy of Don Paterson’s 40 Sonnets. It’s looking good so far (I just had a quick look at the first two), so that’s tonight’s reading sorted.

 

Publish!

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I’ve been struggling today. It’s not that I’m short of subjects, but they are either not suitable, need more work or need photographs. (I have many of the photos I need, but can’t get the card reader to work).

It’s the same with time – I had a list of jobs to do and I’ve been behaving like a startled rabbit. The result is that I made more mess than I started with. Julia  brought back three wooden boxes from her friendly fruit stall, so we now also have more clutter than when we started.

In the end I decided that I’m the only one that demands daily posts so why make my own life a misery with deadlines?

In the end, at 11.59, I pressed the button, loaded the post and then carried on editing.

Am I the only one who does this, making a rod for my own back?

Please tell me I’m not…