Patricia M Osborne

Z – Zip it up

Well here we are on the last day of the challenge which I’ve managed to complete. I hope you’ve enjoyed the last 26 days of poetry.

So what is ‘Z?’

Z is for Zipping up  this challenge

so today is a bit different. Some visual poetry from me and a poem from my guest Corinne Lawrence.

I don’t have a poetic term beginning with ‘Z’ but if you pop over to Dr Wheeler’s website I see he has a whole lot of literary terms.’

When I was looking for a poem beginning with ‘Z,’ fellow writer, Corinne Lawrence, came to my rescue. Here’s what she said when I asked for her help.

“I’d be delighted to donate a poem but I think it may need some explanation.”

Explanation:

In 2016 as a response to success of the Olympics, Cheadle Hulme Writers produced poems under title of ‘A Manchester Alphabet’, which I compiled,  illustrated with watercolour paintings from Manchester artists.

Originally I was given ‘E’, but nearing the end of term when we were wanting to send it off to be printed, there were still no poems for ‘A’. ‘Y’ & ‘Z’, so yours truly (Corinne) wrote three more for these letters.  So, here is a poem for ‘Z’  – with footnotes.

Z – Zincography

 

Z is for Zincography

The unlucky person who has drawn a ‘Z’
will approach this task with a degree of dread.
However, I can report, with a degree of dittography*
that Manchester’s quite notable for zincography.*
Our famous sportsmen, so at home
in stadium, pitch or velodrome,
will often require the skills and services
only found on the engraver’s premises.
Famed this year of Olympc records
Manchester boasts a host of awards,
and has to take the all round prize
for a successful city, in my eyes!

 

* zincography ( the engraver’s art)
* dittography (the act of repetition)

***

About Corinne

Corinne is not only a fantastic poet but also a very talented playwright and her stage plays have been performed at Swanwick Writer’s Summer School on more than one occasion. Her poems have been published in Reach Magazine, (Indigo Dreams), Writers’ Forum Magazine, and Writing Magazine. Many of these poems have taken the winning place.

***

Z – Zip up

As I mentioned earlier, ‘Z’ is for zip up. I thought I didn’t have a poem beginning with ‘Z’ but then I remembered I had a visual poem titled Zigger Zagger – Well actually I lie, it’s titled A Stitch in Time but for the purpose of today it can become Zigger Zagger. This poem is a visual poem  and I’ll do my best to keep its form correctly on the page but I’m not the best at techie stuff. I was inspired to write this from a prompt on an online visual poetry course with Open University tutor, Mike Johnson.

 

Zigger Zagger
(Stitch in Time)

Chigga chugga, chigga chugger
off we go
ziggy zagger, ziggy zagga
as we sew

Chigga chugga, chigga chugger
take our time
ziggy zagger, zaggy zigger
keep in line.

PUSH foot on the pedal
not too slow
push the pedal, push the pedal
as we sew

Chigga chugga, chigga chugger
sew we must
ziggy zagger, zaggy zigger
earn our crust

 

Chigga             chugga,
chigga                   chugger
ziggy              zagger,
zaggy            zigger
ziggy                  chugga,
chuggi             zagger
ziggy                   zaggy,
zaggy                          zigger
zagga                      chuggi,
chugga                    chiggi
chigga             chagga,
zaggy             zugger

 

Chigga chugga, chigga chugger
from morn till late
ziggy zagger, zaggy zigger
that’s our fate.

 

Ding aling, clangy clong
bingy bing, bongy bong

 

Chigga chugga, chigga chugger
ziggy zagger, zaggy zigger
pull out the plug and turn off the switch
that for the night is our last stitch

 

Chigga chugga, chigga chugger
ziggy zagger, zaggy zigger…

 

‘someone turn off the light!’

 

***

And I thought as it is ‘Z’ the last day of the challenge that we will zip up this blog with a couple more of my visual poems. Once again the form isn’t quite correct but hopefully it won’t spoil them too much for you.

The first is The Blue-Ringed Octopus, again I was inspired to write from a prompt on the online visual poetry course with Open University tutor, Mike Johnson.

 

 

 

Blue-Ringed Octopus

A blue ringed beauty
inhabits the Great Barrier Reef
camouflaged in a brown coat
it waits for prey.

The seven-inch Deadly Demon
with eight soft arms
and a small sharp beak
crawls the rock pool bed – for unsuspecting prey

 

Lying amongst the coral
disturbed, becomes irate.
A spectacular brilliant blue is born
now fatal,

too –
late
Its venomous glands
Eject
saliva
to the prey

Numbness
catching…
breath…

her … huh…

her… huh…

her… huh…

her…. huh…

lub      dub

lub      dub

lub     dub…

heart !!!!!!!!!!!!!…………_______________________________________

***

And finally The Journey Home was created while on the same course. The form for this one just won’t go correctly for the top part but hopefully you’ll get the gist.

 

 

The Journey Home

I
w
a
nd
er

 

d
o
w
n

the                                               road

a small road in Pound Hill

r
a
i
n

is

dr
ip
pi
ng

d
o
w
n

on                               me

and the mad man’s using a

l
i r
d l………………………………………

 

a
t                       p

     a
t                       p

sounds a

mm
ha                             er

pitter
patter

taps               the

r
a
i
n

… greycloudsmoveswiftly

as I make my way home again

 

I hear a

S ! I ! R ! E ! N !                                                             in the distance

it is coming from a

// // // t // r // a // i // n // // //

 

builders Bang!                      and                       knock quickly

with the need to escape the

r
a
i
n

sunshine peeps from the sky,

r
a
i
n

still
pitter                                                                    patters

and
people                     with

l
o
n
g

f
a
c            e
s

me
pass                                 by

 

A few more                               yards

then I’ll be home

soaked and

s
qu
i
gg
y

WET

 but I’m not one to moan

 

***

If you have a poem beginning with ‘Z’ and you’d like to share it with my readers then post in the comments section and I’ll move it onto the blog for ‘Z’ for others to see.

Thank you for staying with me through the ‘A-Z Blog Challenge,’ I hope you’ve enjoyed it. I know I have. It’s been great fun. And thank you to my guest poets, Colin Ward, Maureen Cullen, Shirley Ann Cook and Corinne Lawrence.

Do keep an eye out on the blog as there are lots more features to come.

***

 

Y is for You

Y is for You the reader. I hope you’ve enjoyed this A-Z blog and if there’s anything you’d like to know about my writing then please ask.

Y is for YEW

Now I do have a poem about the yew tree but unfortunately I can’t share it with you at this stage. What I can do is tell you about the collection I am compiling to fulfill my portfolio for my MA dissertation.

I am looking at Fairy and Forestry Folklore so knee deep in a number of books. My favourite to date has to be Tree Wisdom. It has many wonderful details about the Yew which involves fairies and folklore stories. Watch this space.

Other books I am studying for my MA Dissertation:  (including Tree Wisdom) – luckily I’ve managed to pick them all up secondhand.

Tree Wisdom – The definitive guidebook to the myth, folklore and healing power of trees – Jacqueline Memory Paterson (if this sort of thing interests you then this book is a definite must.) Don’t you just love trees? I know I do.

The Folklore of Sussex – Jacqueline Simpson

Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore – Steve Roud, Jacqueline Simpson

Folklore – Tim Atkins

Fairies and Chimneys – Rose Fyleman

Sussex Folk Tales – Michael O’Leary

The Forest IN FOLKLORE AND MYTHOLOGY – Alexander Porteous

The Complete Book of the Flower Fairies – Cicely Mary Barker

Wildflower Folklore – Laura C Martin

The White Goddess – Robert Graves

I can’t comment recommend all of the above books because some of them I still have to dive into but they certainly look like they are going to be resourceful.

I also plan to pick up:

Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream (I’m hoping to go and see this at the local theatre)

Shakespeare’s Sonnets

And I’m sure there’ll be more to add to that list once I get into the study more. As you can see from the above list this is an exciting study time for me.

Y – Why

You as a reader may wonder why my writing is mainly fiction. Very rarely do I write life writing. Why? Well up until a few years ago I struggled with fiction writing and used to write poetry from my own experience. However, once I started to explore fiction I loved it. I can still use what I know from my own memories or stories I’ve been told plus research but the bonus is that I can escape into any world I want to be and I can become anyone I want.

When I first started my MA I had just lost my mum and understandably I wasn’t in a very good place. The strange thing I found though as I no longer had a mum or dad alive was I didn’t know who I was. I questioned my identity. For this reason I explored Lost Identity in my first assignment for the Narrative module and what I uncovered was by giving these characters pain it kind of took it away from me. So writing is a great therapy.

Anything else you’d like to know about my writing then please ask.

I hope you join me tomorrow with ‘Z’ when we will Zip up this A – Z blog challenge. After that, what is there you might like to see on my blog? Do let me know.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

X – Xtra

So I decided today would be x for xtra (Extra) and thought I’d share with you one of my closed forms – a sestina, On the Green. This is one of my favourite poems that I completed for a poetry assignment when doing the advanced creative writing course with the Open University. I found this form sent me to places that I normally wouldn’t have gone. I hope you enjoy it.

On the Green 

Memories flock my vision as the sky turns red
to mark the end of this day. I sit still,
reminiscing the time you lost the key
to my car and stood shaking in a tea-green
dress. I wiped your tears after what appeared an age
had passed and for the first time you kissed me.

My pulse sped as I inhaled your perfume
and watched your face turn raspberry red;
I held back, so not to take advantage
but your soft mouth opened. You stood still,
waiting, my dark haired Elsie Green
in cotton, I was glad you’d lost my key.

Under a cloudless sky you turned the key
to my sun when you smiled and kissed me.
I lowered you onto the checked green
cover, your sparkling wet eyes mirrored
my image as you lay, serene and still,
staring into my eyes with a message

written in code, a foreign language
to me. You consumed me, held the key
to my sanity and caressed me as I stayed still,
possessed, then asked you to marry me.
I traced letters on your back as I mastered
seduction skills amongst the evergreen

trees. Those virgin days on the green,
the days before your first miscarriage
and the days before the venomous cancered
cells took hold of you, I turned to whiskey
but you stopped me, stayed strong for me,
my fortress, refusing to stand still.

If only you were here as I sit still,
rewinding the reel of our time on the green,
here as my pillar, here to strengthen me.
If only I could flip back the page
to the time when you turned my key –
instead I’m left alone with unanswered

questions as you lie still, never to age;
and I sit by the green mound where the key
to my sun is lost; leaving me –bewildered.

***

If you’d like to have a go at writing a sestina yourself here’s a couple of websites to try out

The Poetry Foundation

poets.org

baymoon.com

Have fun.

***

And as another extra I thought I’d share  some  poetry text books that I’ve found invaluable.

Recommended Books for Poetry

The Art and Craft of Poetry – Michael J. Bugeja – World of Books 

next word, better word – the craft of writing poetry – Stephen Dobyns – Amazon

Best WORDS, Best ORDER : Essays on Poetry – Stephen Dobyns – Amazon

POETRY IN THEORY: AN ANTHOLOGY 1900-2000 – Jon Cook – Amazon

Craft of Writing Poetry – Alison Chisholm – Amazon

A year of poetry-writing prompts from the 52 Project – Jo Bell – Blackwells

The Poetry Dictionary – John Drury – Amazon

A lot of the above books may be purchased secondhand to avoid high outlay.

 

 

 

Today we are lucky enough to have a return from the talented short story writer and Poet, Maureen Cullen. Here’s another of her poems, Wee Wifie, which may be found in Volume One, Primers, 2016, Nine Arches Press

 

Wee Wifie   

Puddle milk on her worktop
she’ll curdle it wi an eyebrow.

Leave trainers in a heap
pick your way ower hot tracts.

Answer her back
dinnae hang about.

But when the headmaster
said my impertinence

was in the genes
she minced his tongue

wi her high speed
rotary mammaries.

***

Thank you, Maureen, for sharing another of your poems.

 

About Maureen

Maureen writes poetry and short fiction. In 2016, she was published along with three other poets in Primers 1, a collaboration between Nine Arches Press and the Poetry School. She has poems published in Prole, The Lake, The Interpreter’s House, Ink, Sweat and Tears, Reach Poetry, Salopeot and forthcoming in Amaryllis.

***

 

 

Today we are lucky to have another very special guest, talented poet, Shirley Ann Cook. And Shirley kicks off our ‘V’ today with her poem Verdun.

Verdun

Walk as far as you’re allowed.
‘Interdit. Verboten. Forbidden.’
For the earth still yields
a deadly iron harvest.

Stop and gaze around.
You’ll see green undulating hills,
but they were not always there.
A hundred years ago this place was blasted
with explosives and millions of shells.
In their wake a desert terrain
of pockmarks and craters,
brimmed with soldiers’ shattered remains.

Go there today and remember,
those lush mounds shroud a living hell.

***

 

Thank you Shirley for allowing us to share your very moving poem, Verdun.

 

About Shirley

Shirley Anne Cook is a poet and children’s author. She writes poetry for adults and children. Her poems have been published in a wide range of magazines and anthologies and have won or been placed in many competitions. Her first poetry collection, Turning the Map over is available for purchase on Amazon. She is a teacher and lives in Buckinghamshire.

You can find more about Shirley on her website  where she has lots more poems you can read and lists her many books written and their availability.

***

V – Visit 

This short little poem is one that I was inspired to write when waking from a dream shortly after I lost my mum.

The Visit

I
had
a dream last
night, you came to me
and blew in my ear, I spoke to
you but you never said my name.
I went back to sleep,
you returned
later
to
me

***

A couple of Poetic Terms

Villanelle – A villanelle is ‘a form, usually nineteen lines in length, consisting of five tercets and a quatrain. (John Drury, The Poetry Dictionary)

If you move back to ‘M’ on the A-Z you will find Magnificent Majesty which is a villanelle.

Versification – ‘The art of writing in lines; in particular, the technical aspects of doing so; rhythm and meter, rhyme, enjambment and end-stopping, alliteration and assonance.’ (John Drury, The Poetry Dictionary.)

Verse – ‘In a song, a stanza that has different words whenever the same music recurs.’ (John Drury, the Poetry Dictionary.)

 

 

U – Uninvited

Uninvited is a short poem that came from a prompt. I’m afraid I can’t remember what the prompt was but most likely something creepy.

 

Uninvited
Wooden floorboards creak,
the wind blows,
bedroom door bangs closed.
She buries her head under the pillow;
heart ticks loud as fear grows.

***

 

U – Upwords

Upwords is another poem that I wrote about Mum. I wrote this earlier in the year following a prompt at a uni seminar when I had to look back at something I missed doing with a loved one.

The majority of my poetry and prose writing is fiction but occasionally I shift into a little bit of life writing.

 

Upwords

A seven-letter word,
Imagine…

Mum lifts the tiles
into place,

we nibble on chocolate peanuts
and raisins, chat about TV soaps,
children, anything goes.

Letters build walls
on the Upwords board,
a challenge we adore,

Scrabble dictionary
Opens – Closes,
defines words, true or false.

Who wins today?
Me or Mum?

A treasure I hold forever in my heart.

 

 

T – The Colour Purple

The Colour Purple is one of my poems where I was inspired simply by ‘the colour purple.’

 

The Colour Purple

He gives her bluebells,
neat stems tied
with satin ribbon.

He takes her for a stroll
to a lavender garden,
bees hover making honey.

He leads her by purple
and yellow croci,
next to violets and pansies.

He eases her down
onto a mauve sheet,
pours two glasses of wine.

He kisses her hand, neck, lips,
dips into his pocket
and pulls out an amethyst ring…

***

T – The Gambler

The Gambler is another poem of mine that I wrote for an Open University Creative Writing Assignment. It’s a sonnet.

 

The Gambler

Crowds gather as he enters the blurred place,
the game begins as cards are flipped and laid,
kibitzers nod heads and scan his rat face,
as he sets down his tall tower to play.
A black ace and picture card call the tune
on the table where he makes his first stake,
the squeezing masses mutter its Pontoon
and snigger as they observe this sport snake.
His pile gets high and the pack all cluster,
twist again, twist again, twist again more,
he bites his lips and eyes up the structure
his head throbs as he notes it’s twenty-four.
The gambler’s face pales and his heartbeat pounds,
his legs crush as he cascades to the ground.

 

***

Some Poetic Terms

T – Tanka

A tanka is a Japanese verse form consisting of five lines with a syllable count of 5-7-5-7-7.

T – Triplet

A triplet is a three-line stanza rhymed AAA.

T – Tercet

A Tercet is a three-lined stanza that may be rhymed or unrhymed.

S – Suzi Bamblett

Today we have another very special guest: Suzi Bamblett and although Suzi’s main genre of writing is novels, she occasionally likes to dabble in a bit of poetry and a very talented poet she is too. Suzi’s  talented in many areas and in particular I see her as an expert in creating quilts. Check out the memory quilt she created for TAMBA last year.

Suzi’s agreed to share her poem Fire and Rain. Fire and Rain was inspired by James Taylor and first teen love.

***

Fire and Rain

Stones thrown at my window
Whispered promise raw
Teenage dreams and tie dye jeans
Lay crumpled on the floor

Teardrops roll down windscreen
‘He’s no good,’ they say
Never knew the boy I knew
Before you went away

Dance around my bedroom
Words can’t heal the pain
Vinyl on the turntable
As James sings Fire and Rain

***

About Suzi

Suzi Bamblett is currently working on her dissertation for her MA in Creative Writing at Brighton University. She recently completed the first draft of her novel, Pearl Seekers, and hopes to publish this towards the end of 2018. Her genre includes books for YA as well as psychological thrillers, she has three further novels in the pipeline.

Suzi has had work published in University of Brighton anthologies, Small Worlds and Reflections and BrightONLINE.

In spring 2017, as part of her MA, Suzi undertook a community project with TAMBA (Twin and Multiple Birth) Bereavement Support Group and created a Memory Quilt to help raise awareness of baby Loss.

The novella Suzi is working on for her dissertation is a psychological thriller entitled Three Faced Doll. This piece combines life writing with fiction writing.
Reflecting on memories of her own teenage experiences generated the idea for her poem, Fire and Rain.

Keep up with Suzi’s progress on her novel and other writing on her blog: facebook: and Twitter

I’ll tell you now that I’ve had a sneaky preview of Pearl Seekers and readers are in for a treat so do keep an eye out for its publication date.

Thank you for joining us today, Suzi.

R – Rivals

Rivals is an old poem and it was inspired from a prompt at my first Open University Creative Writing Tutorial. I love to paint but because of writing there never seems to be the time. So here’s my paintbrush complaining.

 

Rivals

Rivals
I stand alone in a colourful pot,
bristles, dry and crispy,
why do those inky
rivals get attention
and not me?

Dip me in blue,
paint a cloudless sky,
orange, a fire burnished sun.
Dip me in green, paint a land
with tall trees, mounds on moors
but instead she chooses the pen.

Abandoned I stand and wait for the time,
when her words too, will become dry.
Until then here I am, stiff, rigid and cold,
watching and envying the pen.

***

A few Poetic terms

R – Reader

Although a poet writes for him/herself first and foremost – poems need to be heard – they need an audience – they need a reader.

R – Refrain

A refrain is a bit like the chorus in a song.

R – Repetition

Repetition works well in some poetry and of course the refrain comes into that.

R – Rhyme

And we mustn’t forget rhyme. Sometimes though the rhyme isn’t always obvious, but you need to listen out for it. You can have internal rhyme or slant rhyme  such as brake/brave.

When using end rhyme the poet needs to take care that the poem doesn’t become forced, it has to be natural. My favourite form to write is free verse. I like to listen out for sound echoes by using internal rhyme and heightening the images with the use of imagery. However I do enjoy writing closed forms too and see them as mathematical challenges.

***

 

 

 

Q – Quatrain

A four-line stanza that can be rhymed or unrhymed (or partly rhymed) (John Dury The Poetry Dictionary)

Q is for my poem,  ‘All Change’ – an even-rhymed quatrain.

All Change

Oblong at first,
hairy and small,
lived on a leaf,
curled in a ball.

Slithered along
in search of food,
to build myself up,
ate all that was good.

Then came the time
to close my eyes,
cocooned in a cover,
quite a long while.

Along came Spring,
told me to wake,
time to push through,
make my escape.

Re-emerged with wings
in soft burnished gold.
transformed in sleep
to a beauty I’m told.

In summer I flit
from flowers to trees,
but the buddleia bush
is the best home for me.

Q – Question

Question – ‘What does Ice Make me Think of?’ was a prompt for a poem. 

 

 

What Does Ice Make Me Think of? 

Ice makes me think of fruit sorbet
and vanilla ice-cream. It reminds
me of Alice Hoffman’s magical Ice Queen.
Heat ice and temperature rises, liquid
forms. Wait a while longer and mist
appears, to blind and burn. Ice
makes me think winter and bitterly cold,
when I want to be warm. How I may slip over
if not alert and have to stay strong.
Ice is wet, cut in blocks like small square bricks
immersed in cold drinks. An Inuit Eskimo
may live in an igloo made from ice and snow.

That’s what ice makes me think of.

***

Before I leave today’s blog I would like to move back to yesterday ‘P’ and the Penta Decima. Corinne Lawrence, a poet, responded to my Penta Decima post and I thought it deserved to be featured rather than tailed on in comments. So here’s Corinne’s response with her poem and I’m sure you’ll agree with me that she’s made a great use of the form in this very moving poem.

From Corinne:

I think the Penta Decima seems to lend itself to an elegiac mood, and I have to say I found it a challenge to write, but very rewarding. The rhyme scheme is quite subtle and understated – nice.

Here’s my Penta Decima, written after a second trip to Grindleford in Derbyshire in August/ September 2017.

 

The Return

The poem is dedicated to the memory of our dear friend Gina Bunbury (January 27th 1943 – August 8th 2017)

We might have touched down just yesterday
to the same butterflies, the same bees — the sky
as blue, tea roses still in bloom, the bench free.

Two months, but we might never have been away
from our mini Provence. Only the gunnera
shows the passing of time: brown-edged,

shrivelling, it has shrunk back, giving way
to the river. Water music weeps over stone:
a requiem for summer. Still, as before,

we soak up sunshine, savour the bouquet
of lavender riding warm air, and try not to think
sadly of September, or the week to come.

We both knew, but found it too hard to say:
our last time here was before we heard she’d gone,
making this quite a different sort of day.

***

About Corinne

Corinne is not only a fantastic poet but also a very talented playwright and her stage plays have been performed at Swanwick Writer’s Summer School on more than one occasion. Her poems have been published in Reach Magazine, (Indigo Dreams), Writers’ Forum Magazine, and Writing Magazine. Many of these poems have taken the winning place.

Thank you for commenting on the Penta Decima, Corinne, and allowing me to share your poem.