Turquoise Monster

This is my entry to the ESA (European Space Agency) art competition Create Your Space. If you like it you have until the beginning of February (2011) to vote for it. You vote by liking my comment on the ESA image on their Facebook page – here is the link you’ll need to tell you how to vote ;). I hope you all like it. I believe you need to “like” the page before you can vote. I am Sarah Snell-Pym and this entry is linked under the image of Christer Fuglesang’s Space Walk – it is quiet a way down their wall on Facebook.

Did Life fall into this cradle
This Earth, this home –
We now attempt to climb out of?
Or is it more than a cradle
Some crucible or potters wheel
Shaping and baking us in forms renewed?

Maybe in truth it is a bit of both
And as humanity takes its first toddler steps
We begin to see the variety that our world holds

LIFE –

Life here investigated
In case of alien brethren
Life searched for by the heart if not the mind
As the astronaut steps out into the void
For themselves, for us, for a future
A future – As yet unknown
A future for us all
As we grow too large for this world to contain
A cradle we have explored from end to end

But it is only with eyes freshly opened
To the wonders beyond
That we begin to see what we have missed
That which hides in plan sight
The beauty of our world
We seek its twins, our mirrors –
Its twisted folly of form

OUT THERE

And if we are on our own?
Then look at the wonders the search has wrought
And if we are not?
Then maybe we will truly see ourselves
For the first time

Until then the void is calling
And all these things?

These investigations
These satellites
And images –
Are our jumping off point
Our call to the unknown

Do you wonder what it will answer?

I am starting by saying I am definatly doing WoPoWriMo in February and NaPoWriMo in April! I found these two writing challenges so useful and inspiring last year 🙂 I have also found MoP (Month of Poetry) which is January – I am using this to work on my children’s poetry over at Orange Monster.

I am also going to sort a second collection of poetry out and get the next stage of the Little Books ready for publication! I would love to write a Little Book of Easter Poems this year to go with The Little Book of Spoogy Poetry, The Little Book of Festive Poetry and The Little Book of Sparky Poetry! And if that goes well maybe a second Little Book of some kind but not sure on that one.

I am also amassing enough poems that I am planning to start entering competitions and things again a bit more seriously.

There is also the Cheltenham Poetry Festival in April which I am looking forward to 🙂 I am also planning on producing some hand made visual poetry greetings cards which I may or may not sell 🙂

Hope you all have a good writing year.

Well it’s the end of the year and I didn’t achieve everything I was hoping too with my poetry but I have got several collections ready if not all published, took part in readings for Oxfam and things like the Piaf evening. Been invited to event as the guest poet and began to get invited to contribute to anthologies!

I was also a complete nut and took part in two different Poem A Day (PAD) challenges both of which I completed.

So this year has gone pretty well what with the whole now being 8 months pregnant and thinking I had food posioing which prevented me getting to alot of the events and the poetry festival I was so excited about being moved to next year – it’s gone as good as it could and I can’t ask more!

See you all in the New Year!

Nerves
Acrid spiced oil
Coconut in sweet fizz
Bile
Electric tang
Salty palpitation
Followed by
Celebration
Creamy fire
Cold on ice
Warm molten
Golden
Music thumping
Microwave pings

Sticky drab concrete cage
Laughing minions
Autonomous noise
Muffled thudding heart
Fingers grip cold glass
Smooth oily, acrid spice
Coconut fizziness
Overlays bile
Electric tanged salt
Panic shears
Crescendo found
Unbelieved
Giddy hunger sickens
Glasses clink
Malted honey burns throat
Molten warmth
Annihilation
Though incomplete

Light crystal shard
Shattered light
Absurd dream
Feeling tight
Lost touch
Lost life
Lost song

Warmth evaporated Love trapped Structural cage Growing crystal lath Pierced heart Tears stain Beyond me Beyond us

Robot butterfly

Turn leach

Tendrils reaching

Till mosquito

Injecting

Wasp sting

Bruising

Flutter away now

Please?

This poem originally appeared on my personal blog here.

My Google-Fu
Does Work for you
I writes to my MP
I helps my community

Remember
TheyWorkForYou
And MySociety

Helping you to say what’s wrong
Which is why I made up this song
To let the people know
About how and where to go
To set things straight
To fix things
B4 it’s to late

When I sees things out of place
I writes it on MySpace,
Live Journal, Blogger, WordPress and twitter
Yes I’m a social media witter!
Citizen journo of the worst kind
Google and you will find

ME

Doing electronic rants
For my community

Cars crawling, grinding gears
Honking, spitting, spilling beer

Insectile crowd with tailored cut
Irish flushed winning nut

Damson-jowled drunkard with evil sneer
Puking, blustering, scaring leer

Pushy Posh in plush pink hat
Shoving, pinching, demanding ‘I want that!’

Rude Rupert with bacon sarni
It’s enough to send one quite barmy

I entered the Oxford International Women’s Festival Poetry Competition – the theme was Women and Well-Being. After checking that it was allowed to enter stuff already live on the blog I entered three poems. I would have entered more and the best poem I had for the subject matter had to be pulled due to number of lines! i.e. I was well over the max line count!

One of poems has been short listed so I get to go to the Prize giving on Wednesday 17th of November 2010 at the East Oxford Community Center 7pm – 10pm. Tickets are £4 on the door. I will be performing my poem which as I’m pregnant and on crutches should be a sight to see in itself :/ There is also an open mic and the guest poets. To read in the open mic section I believe you have to let the people running the event know – for details go here.

The Guest performers are:

Joan Barbara Simon
Kimberly Menozzi
Charlotte Geater
Ellie Tranter
Christi Warner