Last night I went to a performance poetry event in the Purcell Room- the finale of a three year BC project to encourage young poets in South Asia. If this were a public blog I'd put a link here to the RFH website and this Poetry International week. But as it is private I'm going to try to pull out three creative things:
1. Meeting up with old friends and colleagues - being reminded of creative things I have organised in the past. Just because my present job is so dull doesn't mean I can't be creative again in the future.
2. Watching these poets from Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, the Phillippines and the UK (via Guyana in one case) was inspiring - it wasn't all brilliant but it was new. It was more about the voice than the usual poetry reading - something to think about for the thesis. A new way of helping others find their voices.
3. I found myself thinking, could I do this? should I? I quickly told myself 'no' - and threw in a sobering memory of a drama class gone badly wrong - but the idea is there. Perhaps, one day, in a different life...
Friday, 31 October 2008
Thursday, 30 October 2008
Well now you know
It's been two weeks since I last blogged. This is proof again that any kind of internal, creative life cannot be expressed , even in 5 minute blogs, if there are too many external pressures - in my case work and a nasty flu type bug that hung around far too long. I haven't even had time to think about my blog - this state of emergency cannot continue. I promise to myself that I will do a daily blog and kick start my creative life (I drive an automatic). No point in doing a boring blog though (and at some point this will turn from private to public) so can I find anything creative inside me at all?
1. I have been noticing summer turning into winter on my daily dog walks. I don't turn these into words (could be because I'm too busy thinking 'bitch coming into view, turn left quickly and distract with stick'), but I do appreciate the visual images. Maybe I should aim to capture one of these in words each morning.
2. When I changed the hands on my alarm clock, watch and kitchen clock I remembered other autumns in the days before digital clocks. Rituals bring up memories. I've bought my pumpkin to carve as usual, though in my childhood it would have been a swede, much harder to carve and smellier even if the faces were more distinctive (because harder to carve).
3. I started 2 paintings last weekend- one was supposed to be my farewell to twenty years commuting to work, and it didn't work. Canvas too big, not thought through, too squarey. But the other did: not planned or thought about at all. In oils, my blue hungarian jug and a bunch of pink and purple hebes and white something or others from the second blossoming in my front garden. I discovered a nice X shape with the diagional of the table top crossing the diagonal of the branches. I should finish it.
1. I have been noticing summer turning into winter on my daily dog walks. I don't turn these into words (could be because I'm too busy thinking 'bitch coming into view, turn left quickly and distract with stick'), but I do appreciate the visual images. Maybe I should aim to capture one of these in words each morning.
2. When I changed the hands on my alarm clock, watch and kitchen clock I remembered other autumns in the days before digital clocks. Rituals bring up memories. I've bought my pumpkin to carve as usual, though in my childhood it would have been a swede, much harder to carve and smellier even if the faces were more distinctive (because harder to carve).
3. I started 2 paintings last weekend- one was supposed to be my farewell to twenty years commuting to work, and it didn't work. Canvas too big, not thought through, too squarey. But the other did: not planned or thought about at all. In oils, my blue hungarian jug and a bunch of pink and purple hebes and white something or others from the second blossoming in my front garden. I discovered a nice X shape with the diagional of the table top crossing the diagonal of the branches. I should finish it.
Tuesday, 14 October 2008
Creativity bites the dust
!. when I am so busy I can't even think, no time to be, while I am juggling 5 jobs, a daughter, a dog and 2 cats (also a broken oven, a jammed lock, a broken marriage, a jammed career etc)
2. when I am too tired to read on the train. And the window has been shattered into mosaic so I can't look out either.
3. when my best thought is to put the bin outside on the days we are both out so that we don't come in late and find well licked rubbish all over the floor and a guilty looking dog.
2. when I am too tired to read on the train. And the window has been shattered into mosaic so I can't look out either.
3. when my best thought is to put the bin outside on the days we are both out so that we don't come in late and find well licked rubbish all over the floor and a guilty looking dog.
Thursday, 2 October 2008
Catching fluff-puffs
I remember that scene in Amarcord (?) when the whole of the screen is full of fluff-puffs and people admiring them. I am walking past some rosebay willowherb, all white and fluffy, while some of them blow over the path; and then later in the top filed, the sky is suddenly full of yellow leaves from the oak trees. Here are three I caught earlier:
1. the name of a blog that caught my eye - 'rockpool in my kitchen'.
2. a long thin picture - journey home, with all the icons from my daily commute: tunnel under the downs, lavender field, Tonbridge lakes, cemetery, canary wharf, dome, eye, river. Find a plank of wood?
3. I glimpse a patch of wallpaper on my way back from the park, Morris's squirrel and remember that story idea about William Morris: do it in 2 voices and Jane's response to them both.
1. the name of a blog that caught my eye - 'rockpool in my kitchen'.
2. a long thin picture - journey home, with all the icons from my daily commute: tunnel under the downs, lavender field, Tonbridge lakes, cemetery, canary wharf, dome, eye, river. Find a plank of wood?
3. I glimpse a patch of wallpaper on my way back from the park, Morris's squirrel and remember that story idea about William Morris: do it in 2 voices and Jane's response to them both.
Wednesday, 1 October 2008
Creativity in Autumn
For me creativity and autumn go together: in the summer I feel I should be outside doing something, and when I go outside I get hot and dreamy but not productive. Autumn is full of colour (painting ideas), and long hours inside while it rains. You don't have to plan holidays like you do in the spring, and christmas is months away. No excuses then.
1. I had a tutorial about my PhD - now I've got a proposal and a plan. And an excuse to do new writing - though I will keep tinkering with the NIP. Like an old car, it might work one day when I've replaced every part.
2. I taught my first class of the term: we discussed voice, and the importance of trying other voices in the search for your own. We looked at Queneau's Elements of Style. Created a story for your group and tried writing it in different voices.
3. Went to hear some singing at lunch time and jotted down notes as I listened. I can feel ideas flowing under the glacier. If only I wasn't at work. I have scribbled down some notes though...
1. I had a tutorial about my PhD - now I've got a proposal and a plan. And an excuse to do new writing - though I will keep tinkering with the NIP. Like an old car, it might work one day when I've replaced every part.
2. I taught my first class of the term: we discussed voice, and the importance of trying other voices in the search for your own. We looked at Queneau's Elements of Style. Created a story for your group and tried writing it in different voices.
3. Went to hear some singing at lunch time and jotted down notes as I listened. I can feel ideas flowing under the glacier. If only I wasn't at work. I have scribbled down some notes though...
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