Crazy English

Have been sorting through some old Writing Magazines and found an interesting article on Richard Lederer's Crazy English (see:www.verbivore.com/arc_ceng.htm).  Richard's book argues that English is a Crazy Language - in case you didn't know - and Writing Magazine: July 2009 (www.writingmagazine.co.uk) reproduce the list 'Reasons why the English language is hard to learn'.  I have highlighted some of my favourites below:

• The bandage was wound around the wound.
• The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
• We must polish the polish furniture.
• I did not object to the object.
• The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
• The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
• Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
• They were too close to the door to close it. 

Poetry and Motherhood

Was interested in a recent interview in Mslexia (Mar/Apr/May 2012) with Alice Oswald.

Part of the article reads; It's clear to me that being a wife and mother as well as a poet is an incredibly important aspect of Oswald's writing practice. She describes being 'determined from the start that motherhood would help my writing, and that I wasn't going to resent childcare. I thought: I've chosen to do this and I'm going to make it a positive contribution to poetry, by bringing that kind of unusual world into it.'

I could not have agreed more when she said; 'One of the main features of motherhood is interruption'. Her solution? 'I incorporate interruption into the structure of a poem. Poems are all about intermittency and interruptions, so that became a kind of aesthetic for me.'

'If I'm beginning a new poem, my best way of attacking it at the moment is to get up at around 4 or 5am and go to my shed with an extremely strong cup of coffee. My life is so scattered with children, that is the only time I know I will not be interrupted.' I know what she means, but working as well, I think 4am is far too early - even for an early bird like me!!

She does say that 'Every task - cleaning, cooking, walking the dog - is exercise for the non-literary side of my mind', which she hopes feeds into how she writes.

Poetry....Part 2

Took the poem (revamped) which I had taken to the Lindum Scribes (http://theonlyconsequence.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/poetry.html) to the Poison Pens group on Saturday. This week Richard was in the chair and he was good enough to give me enough time to share three of my poems. I read 'New Job', 'Funeral Poem' and the revamped poem which is currently called 'New Beginnings'. The group were a lot more poetry friendly and made some useful comments; including asking what New Beginnings was actually about! Following the first reading I had gone back and changed it considerably. This meant I had lost sight of the original meaning of the poem. One more go I think!!

Reaction was mixed to all three poems and, as usual, there was a lot of discussion with regards to punctuation etc. Everyone there agreed that 'New Job' was the best poem - except Barbara who liked 'Funeral Poem' the best. All three still have work to be done on them but I am happy with the reactions so far!

But it just goes to show; in the words of the poet John Lydgate (see: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/john-lydgate), later adapted by President Lincoln - and appearing in various permutations: “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”.