Today…12th of August 2019
Was the day you should have retired.
The inglorious twelfth when the powerful decide
That the grouse have spent long enough on this earth.
It should have been a national thank you
For a working life spent caring for others.
You left school to work in a mill at fifteen
As a child paying her National Insurance,
A contract undertaken for fifty years hence.
You fulfilled your side of the bargain…
And worked each day of your life ever since;
Whether in shops caring for customers
Or on the road to care for the elderly.
And now, as best as you are able
You help them see out their days
So that other people don’t have to.
You paid your taxes throughout your life
And now at the whim of those who sit on their arse
Desperate to work out ways of not paying theirs,
You…

..day 111..

just words added together making phrases

slogans

programmed I guess
without anyone noticing

until they do
of course

then comes embarrassment
on realisation

it means nothing

we prefer it this way

i have been imagining and that is all it is

invented scenarios in my mind

james

how are you guys doing over there now?

at first here it felt difficult for me
for shopping and other tasks

gradually
we found our way
now it is the way

of life

rang the helpline about my laptop james
he says he thinks we are the virus on this
earth that kills the trees and animals

that kills each other

i walk each day
&
some days stay dry

forever imagining

I’ve been thinking and reading a little about the delivery of constructive criticism to creative writers. I’ve also been thinking about how an understanding of what constitutes good feedback can help us recognise quality and good practice and it’s opposite –  poorly delivered feedback which is potentially destructive and demotivating.  I’m not talking about what is said but the way in which it is said.  When I’ve had time, perhaps in a week or so, I’ll write my thoughts findings and ideas and share them here.

In the meantime I thought I’d start at the very beginning by looking closely at the meaning of the phrase ‘constructive criticism’.

I looked up the words separately and found a list of synonyms for each. When I put the lists together I found they dovetailed nicely and can be seen as providing a set of mini definitions.  This is the list I made. You…

Disillusionment Sutra

The smallest unit of hope
is fantasy—

I am wishing again for peace
though the razor, some minutes
ago, was pulled out of my right thigh,
stained. I

want to believe
loneliness, gutted, will reveal
the primacy of devotion, that
the body, in the absence of hands
holds itself. But look,

all this red, I am cordial with
disillusionment. Sometimes, all

a metaphor does is sharpen grief
or give it a new name. The truth is

all my life, even as I hewed
my childhood out of its innocence

I was a captive of tenderness
but mistook its shimmering
for the backside of an elegy.

The Sutra on Paternal Yearning

Always, I try to touch my father
but it is his religion I grasp, the insides
of his psalms, & benedictions.

My wet, tired, arms. It is their duty
to translate thunderous amens to warmth,

to echolocate his…

110..

yes. when i go visit, go further i shall stop counting

in wales it is hoped that this may be so
that we may visit one other household
be part of that .even stay over

the day is yet to arrive

i enjoyed my garbage run james
we call it recycling and very well
organised

another trip out that left me buzzing

things can change
and if they do

the counting stops then

the laptop is in disarray
so I tap here neatly by phone

it feels neat and particular
With little noises to accompany
james

and more help with the spelling

it gives me capitals so I change them quickly 

I wonder if I will visit tregaron this fall
go to lampeter to see if the walnut tree
has anything for me

betwixt the mobile and laptop
things come awry and we leave it so

the random nature…