A propos of nothing really, I just wanted to put this here for artists, art-lovers and anyone interested in contemporary painting. Lucie Geffré is from Bordeaux (like me and Odilon Redon) and I think her work is pretty fantastic. https://www.luciegeffre.com/
Lucie Geffré — Jane Dougherty Writes
Uncategorized
Badger 3
Badger
trundles, snout-striped
masked mugger with spade paws,
rootling worm galleries,
taking lip from
no one.
Two Chopsticks and a Pencil for the Hyacinths — Josephine Corcoran
A lovely neighbour brought over the gift of a bowl of hyacinths when the year was brand new, and now, in the very last weekend of January, three pale yellow flowers have bloomed gloriously and our hallway is filled with a sweet and spicy scent that we have grown to appreciate (we weren’t sure, at […]
Two Chopsticks and a Pencil for the Hyacinths — Josephine Corcoran
A Dream
-
Odilon Redon, “Red Boat”
I dream of water–
tiny sea-tongues lick and spray the rocks,
and purple shadows prance;
a sparkle-dance, in blue expanse,
the gulls’ wings in white flutter.
From a red boat,
the laughter floats,
turns clouds to golden-yellow flowers.
And if the wind whispers,
what do you want?
I’d say all this–
and a thousand pink-petalled springs,
the light of peace,
and you.
My collaborative poem with the Magnetic Poetry Oracle and Odilon Redon. The Oracle seems to be in a good mood today.
Sunday Poem – Sarah Littlefeather Demick
I’m tentatively starting this blog post by saying I’m feeling a lot better this week. It’s been two weeks and 5 days since my emergency operation, but I’ve been gradually getting back to normal for most of this week.
I’m the first person to admit I’m not the best at taking it easy but I’ve been left with little choice after my recent adventures. The strangest thing has been limiting myself to doing one, or at the most, two activities a day so I don’t get too tired. Normally, I just charge about from one thing to the other, but this level of normality is not possible yet.
Monday was supposed to be a day of working on the RD1 form, but I got distracted by a poem. It’s been sitting in my folder for a while now in first draft form, but it suddenly felt ready to be worked…
View original post 1,692 more words
January News
Plans For The Blog
I’m hoping to be posting here at least once a month with a poem from a collection that I’ve loved. Now that my PhD is finished, I’m finally finding a bit more time to read poetry collections and I’ve read some amazing books this month. I used to post a poem every Sunday, but I can’t keep up with the pace of that any more. But I think I can keep up with posting one poem a month along with an update of what I’ve been up to.
January Freelance Life
MENTORING
January has been absolutely full-on. In a normal year, January is usually a pretty quiet month in the life of a freelancer. Most literary organisations are making plans for the rest of the year – there’s not many gigs around as people recover from Christmas (or at least this is what I’ve found in…
View original post 2,281 more words
Ekphrastic Challenge: Day Twenty-Four
For Paul Brookes’ Ekphrastic Challenge, Day Twenty-four, my poem responds to the work below by Kerfe Roig and Christine O’Connor.
-Kerfe Roig, “The Heat Breaks” 
-Christine O’Connor
Color Wheels
In autumn chill, leaves flame
against the bluest blue, then
the moon whispers the sky to violet hues,
“Be still,” she calls out to the wind,
but he doesn’t listen, just roars winter in.
I knit a blanket of grey-wooled dreams.
I window-gaze, wrapped up in it,
till I can open the panes wide
to greenery and pink-tipped spring,
and listen to the mockingbird determinedly sing.
Review of ‘Honey Dew’ by Darren J Beaney
In Darren Beaney’s ‘drop in’ last week he explained that his intention in writing Honey Dew (Hedgehog Poetry Press, 2020) was to produce a series of poems about his relationship with his wife, Jo, without being ‘too schmaltzy or soppy’. There’s no doubt that he succeeds, for Honey Dew is a collection that explores the many-faceted nature of love in ways that the reader can readily connect with.
All the positive phases of a love affair are here. The first awkward meeting and initial attraction (Let Your Heart Dance); the dates when this attraction grows into affection as they get to know each other (Playing Banjo on Brighton Beach, First Date Merry-Go-Round); the thrill of falling in love (Let’s Start Something We Won’t Want to Finish, Finding the Fit of Each Other, Now it Make Sense, Still Falling in Love, And She Said); the decision…
View original post 683 more words
Books to read for 2021: Things My Mother Left Behind by Susan Richardson (Potter’s Grove Press)
The first thing I noticed when reading Susan’s writing is the descriptive imagery, she makes you feel every emotion she feels. This is a trait in writing that I admire and her telling of loss and depression at times returns me back on imagery I rarely see outside of Anne Sexton or Sylvia Plath. The poetry reads like the story of her life through the love, loss, grief, the screaming pinches in the soul that losing a parent, child, or sibling staples-in forever. She also hauntingly describes the progress of losing her sight as she has gone from a sky full of stars both sentient and still to the ones who blink out erratically til there is nothing left to burn. These are not just some poems. These are her life. Emotions are hers. When you read this collection of poetry the Emotions are yours too. “Between Sight and Blindness”…
View original post 161 more words
Wolves Howling at the Moon – A Triolet, Ekprastic Challenge, January 29
The wolves are howling at the moon
Witches dance to silvery tunePraying for Freya’s bountiful boon
The wolves are howling at the moonReading the cast pathfinder runes
Offering their minds to attuneThe wolves are howling at the moon
Witches dance to silvery tune©RedCat
Read all poems and see all poems at The Wombwell Rainbow.
The Wombwell Rainbow 