(bow)

It's been a while since I came up with a list but this week I have been going about crafting a poem in a very methodical fashion.  It's a new approach for me but having slowed down lately and as part of my gradual shift towards a more ordered life I have decided to apply my new found skills to poetry.  So I have a poem on the way but at the moment it is nothing more than a couple of pages of words and associations, imagery and rhymes.  I've thrown in a couple of lofty ideas but will try to ignore those, focusing instead on the details to see what shines amongst the ink.

Since I have this opportunity, I thought I'd use the blog post as part of the creative process.  I hope you don't mind.  It will only hurt a bit.

The poem I have in mind has, at its heart, a web.  It's a web that catches the light to appear then is blown by the wind and disappears.  So I need a list of words which might loosely relate to the wind, the web, or the garden.  I want those words to have a lightness about them too, to reflect the nature of the web and the wind.  Easy peasy.  I'm off to scan my dictionaries and thesauruseseses....please enjoy this music while I'm gone.

OK, miss me?  Here are some words:

whiff - sift - fragrant - hymn
silk - lavender - smoke - sash
weft - warp - wasp
lint - bits - string - fluff - twist
itch - tits - which -
twinkle - sprinkle - spray - rain(bow)
pin - tip - nib - dip
lofty - shaft - heat - channel

shred - tatter - fray - fingers and toes
filament - coil - glass - twist - wire - thin

veil - sail - arc - bark

trickle - slips - creep - snail - silver
seed - pin - fluff - tip - basket - pod - pip


OK, that'll do me for now.  Please feel free to pass on any words or observations that jump out at you.  I need all the help I can get!  Thank you :)

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David Cameron's Things To Do List

by Ashley Lister

 sell some UK assets

help an oxbridge chum

screw the country's voters

soundly up the backside

line the bankers’ pockets

get Nick Clegg on his knees

sanction fuel price hikes

make the old folk freeze

give away Royal Mail

make sure my friends get stocks

keep employing Georgie Osborne

keep sucking Tory lollipops

help my friends dodge taxes

do my business chums a favour

advise the poor to buy jumpers

blame it all on labour

beatify dear Maggie

locate George Osborne's brain

kill more old folk than Harold Shipman

screw Nick Clegg again

destroy a once proud nation

reside at number 10

screw Cleggy for one final time

get voted in again

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Brain, don’t fail me now! Oh! You just did!

I had always thought I was good at remembering things, but when the time came for me to do my own grocery shopping for the first time, my brain decided to step out for a while.  That’s how it has been ever since.  It will generously allow me to remember stuff like Birthdays, Anniversaries, appointments, telephone numbers and Bank Account details most of the time.  But items needed from the shop?  No!  Not a chance! You know how guys hate going shopping?  Well that’s my brain!  I once bumped into Ash in a certain well known supermarket.  I was in a world of my own desperately trying to recall what I needed when he said hello.  It took me a minute to realise that someone was talking to me, then another moment to realise who it was, my brain struggling to switch between my own little world and the real one!  I seem to recall an amused expression on his face at the time.
 
I’d never been one for writing lists, but as I’ve got older, I find it has become a necessity, mostly To Do Lists and Shopping Lists.  I also write my appointments on my calendar, although that didn’t stop me forgetting one last week.  Thank God for my Mum, who reminded me in the nick of time!  I’ve come to the conclusion that it all boils down to age, and tying in with last weeks’ theme, information overload!  As an advanced society, we’ve managed to complicate our lives to the point of ridiculousness.

One of my favourite poems’ is “Leisure” by W.H.Davies.  So taking his words on board, I’m making time to “Stand and Stare” and have a little chill out time to clear my thoughts and remind myself of the simpler things in life.  I think we all need to do this once in a while. De-clutter, de-stress and the mind flows much more smoothly.  Perhaps then I’ll be able to remember what I went shopping for ….. 

I must, I MUST remember …….

Why is it I can remember Birthdays?

Bank account and telephone numbers,

Anniversaries and appointments?

But when I’m shopping my memory slumbers?

 

It abandons me quite suddenly,

While I’m standing in the supermarket,

I stare blankly at the Brussels Sprouts,

As my neurons spark and then short circuit.

 

What did I come in for?

I’m sure there were at least a dozen things!

I wander the aisles aimlessly,

In the hope inspiration springs.

 

Was it: eggs, potatoes, milk and sugar,

Ham, Apples, juice and spread?

Or was it none of the above at all,

Just toilet rolls and bread?

 

As a result I end spending money

On items I didn’t need to buy.

At home I’m well enough stocked in ketchup,

To keep me going ‘til the Apocalypse is nigh!

 

I must, I MUST remember

To write a shopping list

And when completed, pop it in my purse

So, when I go out, it can’t be missed!!

 

 
Lists, I’d be lost without them!

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I just haven't got a clue what to do

This weeks theme is LISTS.

To be honest, I'm not very good at TO DO LISTS. If I  make one, I forget to look at it, or I forget to make one in the first place.

This is the only way I would ever succeed with a TO DO LIST

1. Make a TO DO LIST
2. Do at list one thing on your TO DO LIST
3. Go to the pub to celebrate crossing 3 things off your TO DO LIST

I'm not very good with other kinds of LISTS either. SHOPPING LISTS make me buy stuff I haven't written down. FAVOURITES LISTS drive me mad because I can never choose a top 5 anything without arguing with myself. Sometimes my personal discussions escalate and I end up taking myself outside for a fight, which I'm also not very good at and have lost the last five times this has happened.

I tried making a HIT LIST, don't kill anyone. I had a go at a BUCKET LIST but gave up after I'd acquired a yellow one with a blue handle. I even wrote a THINGS TO DO BEFORE I'M 50 LIST but then realised I'd actually achieved most of them already.

It's safe to say that LISTS and me do not get on. It's just not how my mind works.

LIST OF LISTS (found in this blog)

1. TO DO
2. SHOPPING
3. FAVOURITES
4. HIT
5. BUCKET
6. THINGS TO DO BEFORE I'M 50

LIST OF LISTS (not found in the blog, but are now in this blog due to this LIST)

1. WORST
2. WISH
3. WAITING
4. PROS & CONS
5. CONTENTS
6. NEW YEARS HONOURS

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A country road. A tree.

 

The scent of pig is faint tonight

as the lime trees hang their heads against gradations of blue,

looking at the lone suitcase in the middle of the farmyard

with a sense of solidarity. Also forgotten. 

 

From Gradations of Blue by Matthea Harvey (2000)

There are many vivid images in this poem on memory and ageing.  Memories are described as weights that are carried with us as we age, a journey suggested by birds, a barge, a plane, trucks, a suitcase, a colony of ants etc.  The poet has described herself as "a general gatherer" and her poetry often contains collections of objects, glimpses of items retrieved from a shoe box. 

The first two couplets in Gradations of Blue remind me of the stage directions for a Beckett play.  An incredibly efficient use of image and word which perfectly sets a scene.  In fact, in the style of Hemingway's 'baby shoe' story, there is an entire narrative contained in those four lines, should you choose to imagine it. 

It strikes me that we could write similar scenes by creating a list. So, let's have a pop at it.  Here's what we need:

• a scent (pigs - faint)
• a time of day (night)
• a character/s (lime trees/suitcase)
• a colour (gradations of blue)
• an object (suitcase)
• a location (farmyard)
• a feeling (solidarity)
• a statement (Also forgotten)

You might like to start with the location and work the other details out from there.  Here's my list:

• a location - bathroom
• a scent  - bleach
• a time of day - mid-afternoon
• a character/s - skirting board
• a colour - metallic silver
• an object - lock
• a feeling - shame
• a statement - impersonal personal space

And two couplets:

The skirting board is no longer white, though bleach foam
eats at its feet. A crack where the door fits, slip of light;

cold afternoon.  Steel bolt points down in shame, to the sickened
board.  Off-white: no colour at all.



Give it a go.  See what you come up with then please do share.

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