Blog: Change of Address

Right, I can post to this blog using Flock, but that's not a good enough solution, so I'm migrating manually (very low tech), meaning that this blogspot address has to change. My new address will be:

http://chroniclesofmark.blogspot.com/

There's also an RSS feed (you'll have to update this yourself) and an email feed (email subscriptions should be updated automatically). All further updates will be at the new address, and I'm sorry for any inconvenience.

Blog: Blogger Blues

"Woke up this morning..." with Blogger blues. I can't log in to Old Blogger, and I can't migrate this blog to New Blogger, so it's going to take a while to sort things out. I'll be back soon.

Senryu: Anticipation, Part 1

I can't believe it:
I'm looking at your picture.
When will you arrive?

Senryu: Great Surprise!

Great surprises run
right into your arms and knock
the wind out of you.

(For S, always)

Free Verse: Simplify

Sometimes, you need to simplify
your life and its surroundings.
Dismiss debris, direct disorder,
eschew extraneous efforts.

Sometimes, you need to cancel a subscription,
remove a feed, give up an addiction.
Sometimes, you need to examine your choices,
and think about what's really important.

Sometimes, you need to say "no"
to your boss, to your friend, to your partner.
Sometimes, you need to take some time
purely for yourself.

Sometimes, you might feel drowned
under the weight of all those demands
you've placed upon yourself--
uncalled for.

Sometimes, you need to allow yourself
to be selfish--
to put yourself first for once--
your friends will understand that.

Sometimes, you need to simplify
your life and its surroundings.
Sometimes, you need to take some time
purely for yourself,
and think about what's really important.

Blog: New Year, 2007

I've enjoyed writing haiku here. It got me out of a rut, where I wasn't writing anything because I never "finished" anything. I like the form of a haiku (and the other types of poetry that use the same form). Most of all, I like that it's short. It forces me to focus on the core message: what do I really want to say? Seventeen syllables does not accomodate much digression, I quickly learned, and it is so short, I could actually finish something.

I've actually enjoyed writing haiku so much, my new year's resolution is to write more poetry, and in different forms. I'd love to try my hand at a sonnet, for example.

Inspired by an interview with Stephen Fry about poetry, where he observes, amongst other things:

The interesting thing about poetry is that it is concrete. It is about the actual. People think of it as being ethereal. It's quite the reverse.

- which has been my experience. I never even wrote poetry before last month. My first ever poem was the haiku Wicked Winter Sun which, I think, captured a very specific moment in time when the winter started closing in here.

Another fascinating observation (earlier in the interview) about iambic pentameter:

And often you hear people speaking it in the street, or, I phoned somebody the other week and they said "I haven't time to take your call right now, so leave a message when you hear the tone." It's two lines, with perfect iambic pentameter. Exactly. It's the same form that Shakespeare used.

I never really thought about that before. The iambic rhythm is similar to the heart's rhythm. It's a very natural rhythm, I think.

So, that's what I've decided to do for 2007: write more poetry. I'll use Stephen Fry's book on that very subject, The Ode Less Travelled, for help, as inspiration, and as a suitable nag to actually write. I think it will be fun, and I hope you'll give me feedback and criticism (don't be shy; I can take it).

Haiku: Christmas Spirit

Christmas spirit and
seasonal cheer infuses
my work-weary being