I’m back from holiday. We were living in a cabin in Sherwood Forest, not far from where my in-laws stay, but about 460 miles from here. My wife’s parents hadn’t seen our daughter for about 18 months, so it was good to bring them together again.
There was plenty for children to do – lots of play parks, nature trails and other children, so we could relax and the weather was good. It’s easily the most stress-free holiday we’ve had since our daughter was born. We had a log fire, which was fun to light (brought back old memories of scouting with two twigs and a single match), and we drank wine or beer in the evenings, read books, watched movies, and gaped at the fire burning. There’s something hypnotic about a real wood fire.
I wrote poems for NaPoWriMo in my notebook – I had no access to a computer. The drafts were such a mess! Scorings-out everywhere, along with arrows, asterisks, and big red circles to denote various ways I felt a given poem should be messed about with. A computer is much cleaner, but it reminded me that what I would produce as a first draft by computer is anything but a first draft on paper.
I read some excellent poetry, mainly from chapbooks:
Smoke – Jenni Daiches (Kettillonia, 2005)
When Now Is Not Now – Alastair Reid (The Poetry Trust, 2006)
Three Little Ninjas – Chloe Morrish (Dreadful Night, 2005)
First Blood – Patricia Ace (HappenStance, 2006)
Heaventree New Poets vol. 4 – Patrick Gilmore, Gregory Leadbetter, Jonathan Morley (Heaventree, 2006)
All of these were good in different ways. I’ll try to say more soon.
