I have been working on my visual poetry journal again lately, this was last nights creation.
The text says:
Shopping!
For shoes, bags, Dresses – That just WOW number
Meaning Nothing in the empty dark
Sinking down on digitised Gold…
Give in and consume, be part of it and dream of meaning
After all there Are Bargins too
Be Found – money drips Away
This year is the fifth year (on average) of The Monster Blogs and so I am doing various give aways etc… March I decided to make a hand written and illustrated poetry book called Berries and Blood. There will only ever be a max of ten of these and only that many if I can source the gaze box card I used for the cover – at the moment I have enough for one other copy to be made. There will be other hand made poetry collections but not this one. It may appear as a print edition later but I’m not sure about that yet.
All my hand written and illustrated books are restricted to ten copies ever. Hand bound with extra hand done extras to the cover are restricted to 100.
To win this book you have to comment below on the thread and I will put all the names in a shaky bag and get one of the kids to pick at random at the end of the month 🙂
The danger of home schooling is that the kids only learn what the parents wants
The danger of forced schooling is that the kids only learn what the governments want
The danger of religous schooling is that the kids only learn what the religons want
The danger of military schooling is that the kids only learn what the soliders want
The danger of no schooling is that the kids only learn what the streets want
Teach the kids to think and question and root out the answers for themselves
Teach empowerment and watch them bloom
Teach don’t preach
Find the technique that fits the kid
In a group or on their own
A mix of both
Repeating, making, playing, mimic and more
The turmoil, the pain
The trials to fill in that form again
All your energy
All your time
Don’t you know being ill’s a crime?
Too ill to work
No one wants the lame
But fit for work
Hide your face in shame
And when the humiliation is done
When ATOS and the government have won
You’re not disabled come the sneers
Then a tide of tears…
Gets you harassed on the train
With hate crimes that snap crutches and canes
And yet the hunger begins to burn
As desperation kicks in
What do we learn?
That the Vulnerable are vulnerable
The Unstable, unstable
That those who with benefits could survive
Without may soon die
Skivers?
No… just Strivers
Who have fallen upon hard times
But never mind all that
Just pretend it’s all fine
I’ve been reading around the blogs again and finding out stuff I probably should have already known. First off I knew that poetry, even ‘professionally’ published doesn’t sell in huge numbers. You are looking at about 500 copies a title, today I found out that it is basically the same number for picture books over on the Creative Penn blog.
So it looks like my kids poetry picture books aren’t going anywhere fast!
The question is will they do better or worse for being a combination of niche markets? I don’t know and I am not going to give up on them just yet!
Being seasonal I do not expect to sell many until the autumn anyway but sold 9 last week though that is almost all the sales since the new year.
To write the words, I need the thought
To form the thought, I need the pen
To find the pen, I need to shop
The Stationers, aladdin’s cave
Which thoughts should I think
Pink glitter, or stealth nib?
I choose the pen to form the thought
That lurks in the shadows of my mind
Winkled into the light by a tip
Ink slick and smooth
It is an obsession – stationary
A longing for pens, different to hold
Forming different patterns as they glide
The ghost rattled the chimney
Chiming the dust of bricks
Blowing through holes made centuries ago
With nails cut into shape
Jagged and misplaced in darkened wood
Smoke curling, a hand for a moment
The draft from ill fitting pane
Scatters it before a hold could be took
We clogged the sole
With shreds of yesterdays news
You finally slept sound
Whispers of remembrance scorch my ears
Stories of lives left undone
An anchor for ambition
Sinking those that could have grown with the flow
Tears of the soul death
Eating away layers of veneer
Yep 🙂 I have 30 new shiny poems written this month – although they are not all narratives or stories as I had intended, which is the reason I will still be writing until the end of the month! I feel quiet chuffed to be at this point considering it is about half way through the month 🙂
And my husband liked the poem I posted yesterday for him 🙂
My 8 yr old is still going with her poems and is asking if we can make a book out of them 🙂 And Alaric (hubby) is also working away on his 🙂
This got me thinking that I might put some writing inspiration stuff on this blog for other poetry and song writers – I do this with my flash fiction blog Magenta Monster and in fact it is what the monster blogs started off as!
Possibly even set little homeworks for people 🙂
But for now I need to get back to the typing up and editing!
Good luck if you are still trudging your way through the WoPo poem a day challenge.
For Alaric and keeping going to be the person you need to be 🙂
You and me we had a dream
Do you remember?
Once we were so keen
Life excitement
The need for extremes
It poured forth
And we bathed
But responsibility
Made us cave
So we sink
Sunk by being brave
And we, you and me
Swam on unnerving wave
Pave the future
Spun on a curve
Dulled by pain
The passion waned
The dream to fade
We, you and me
Once more wade
Out from the shore
As we did before
The dream once more we build
Don’t let emotions kill
Motivation, we have the skill
Break the prediction
No blue pill, no red
Creative zeal
We had this dream you and me
Lets make it real
The kettle’s shrill
Note lets us know
It’s time for tea
And you and me
Will build the dream
That’s how it will be