Seeds

Today is my birthday. It is also the first day of spring and so I thought, rather than getting all depressed in a blog post about being older, I'd simply share a poem.

Seed - by Paula Meehan

The first warm day of spring

and I step out into the garden from the gloom

of a house where hope had died

to tally the storm damage, to seek what may

have survived. And finding some forgotten

lupins I'd sown from seed last autumn

holding in their fingers a raindrop each

like a peace offering, or a promise,

I am suddenly grateful and would

offer a prayer if I believed in God.

But not believing, I bless the power of seed,

its casual , useful persistence,

and bless the power of sun,

its conspiracy with the underground,

and thank my stars the winter's ended.

'Seed' was taken from Poems on the Underground (tenth edition) and is edited by Gerard Benson, Judith Chernaik and Cicely Herbert.

Thank you for reading,

Lara.

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One Candle

A year ago this week, I found myself sitting in this very same chair, thinking exactly the same thought as I have for, oh, about a year. What in hell am I going to write for this blog? It is a question that has plagued me since the off- right from that very first post when I confidently predicted to “have no idea what you can expect to read on these pages” and one that still itches away beneath my skin now. Yet weekly, I put both you guys and myself through it. There have been some funny old posts, some downright ridiculous and some we can all look back on with pride.

In that first post I promised we would have some punchy wordsmiths. Well, aside from our own blogging just have a look through some of the guest bloggers we’ve had this year. I said there would be group news on here and we have aimed to inform you of the events, to report back and at the same time, keep poetry and Blackpool current.  I feel, as a site still cutting its milk teeth in the scheme of things, we have done a pretty good job. I know of very few sites trying to approach poetry blogging like we do, so to all the other bloggers, thanks for making me feel such a pressure to write every week- you guys set the standard so high!

Finally, I’ll just say how proud I am to have been a dead good blogger this year. Long may we continue and, short of doing a birthday speech, I’ll leave it at that.

Thanks for your continued support and a very happy birthday to us!
S

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Nightmares Before Christmas

My creative brain is currently dormant; like a sleeping dragon it is producing no sparks or fire. It is stressed, overworked, exhausted and stuck in practical mode.

I have to-do lists in my notebook instead of poems:

• Make an 80th birthday cake for my Nan's birthday on Saturday
• Clean flats for visiting family members
• Organise a buffet
• Buy Christmas presents
• Buy, write & send Christmas cards
  
• Put up Christmas tree (ideally before Christmas Day)
• Write something for poetry event on Friday
• Get my car radio decoded

And, as is always the case when you have a lot to do, things continue to go wrong.

My car radio was meant to be ready for me to collect yesterday lunchtime, but apparently it is "proving difficult to decode". So, I now have a gaping hole instead of a radio and still no music. And if this doesn't seem like a big enough nightmare, I have a section of our basement flat covered in towels because of all the rain. I can safely say, if the rain continues, I'll be living in a swimming pool...

I will stop listing, moaning and depressing readers of this blog, and move onto my actual post.

An Amazon Dragon

Knights like to fight giant lizards and dragons

so give them the opportunity


.

The above is a 'found poem' that I found on Amazon (click here)

Thank you for reading,
Lar

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