Experiments.

Over the last few days I have been experimenting with Haiku. I'm not sure if the experiment is working well or not. In other words, I'm not quite sure if I am grasping the straws correctly. Here are a couple of the Haiku I have scribbled:

Day the first:

Sleek, black, prowling cat;
Graymalkin - do you come?
Magical Moll-cat.

Day the second:

LCD screen.
Giggles and shrieks of delight;
computer literate.

Day the third:

1.
Glistening white weight;
curvature of lifeless bough
magical winter.

2.
The angry sun
gold and red in cloudless skies.
Beauty - a statement.

I think I like the last two. Oh, but would number 1 work better as:

Magical winter;
dormant boughs bow beneath
glistening white snow.

Oh, maybe that one! Yeah, I think that one sounds much better. Wow, blogging helps me edit. Didn't think that'd happen!

Why do I crucify myself?

Wow! It's been so long since I've listened to Tori Amos, let alone the album Little Earthquakes. I'd forgotten how good it was. I'd forgotten all the memories that comes with it too. Wow! All I can think of now is the start of a poem that I began years ago, that might now need looking at and rewriting because I really liked the first two lines:

Orcs and elves and Tori Amos
Let's not talk now about my demons

Yep, I still like those lines. Reading them back now, though, and remembering back to the time I wrote them, it's almost like I lay myself on a slab to be dissected. Eek! I'm sure there was another line in there somewhere that went something like:

Pysychology, Endocrinology
I'll know you inside out.

Slightly sinister, me thinks!

Hold on... just listening to Silent All These Years... Fantastic! That song still takes my breath away.



So, today is another day of combing the essay. I did a little yesterday, ended up more or less rewriting the conclusion, just to include why the two pieces are still relevant today, taking into account the masculine/feminine attributes and comparing them to modern day cultures. Hmmm, I hope it sounds okay. I've just got to make the rest read fluidly now. Maybe I should put some more references in. Not line references, I have enough of those, but references as to where I got the info for the rest of it. Wish I wouldn't panic so much!

Happiness is...

Playing with Wordle. I had a mess about with it earlier, and I have made this 'postcard' with the Wordle result from one of my poems.


(Click for larger image)

Possessed!

He's at it again! Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is just a fantastic player. He is battering Nadal at the moment. Don't get me wrong, I love watching Nadal play too, but over the last few years where it has been just Nadal and Federer at the top it did get a bit boring. But now we have Nadal, Federer, Djokovic and Tsonga. That makes all the difference.

(Right now, Tsonga is 2 sets up and 5-2 in the third. I can't see him losing this. BRB, have to watch this now!)

Match Point! ... And gets it with an ace! Absolutely stunning! Take that, Rafa! Sorry, ever since seeing Tsonga play for the first time I've been waiting to see what he can do. Smacking Nadal down in the semi-final of the Aussie Open is just an amazing achievement. Wow!

Principessa has been bitten by the tennis bug, too. She dug out her little Wilson racket and one of the red tennis training balls and we spent about half an hour to fortyfive minutes playing thow and hit. To begin with I was counting to three so she knew when the ball was coming to her, then I stopped counting and let her practice keeping her eye on the ball. She did quite well.

She made me laugh yesterday. She was playing with her back to me on the floor in front of my chair. I noticed that she was trying to take the paper off a crayon, so I told her to stop. She turned around, jumped up on my knee and said;

"Silly Mummy!"

She grabbed my face in her hands, and she had a weird smell on her fingers. I said;

"Eugh! Your hands smell! What have you been eating?"

"Crayons," she said.

Hmmm, honesty!

Still not going anywhere with the story writing, but poetry is a different matter. I suddenly seem very inspired to write poems. I started writing one last night about abysses and demons, and it ended up having a feel of Doctor Who with the appearance of fragments of Gallifrey in there. Took me muchly by surprise as I wasn't thinking of that when I started writing. I am going to sit and work through it later and tidy it up a bit. I might even post it up here.

I need a cuppa fennel tea.

More excitement and disappointment.

In the tennis, that is. I watched the Ivanovic/Wozniaki match last night. I'd heard of Caroline Wozniaki as she had won the Liverpool tournament two years ago, so I was interested to see how she played. The first set was a complete whitewash, the score 6-1 to Ivanovic. In the second set Wozniaki changed. She was not the same player. She really tested Ivanovic, taking her to a tie break. She played some really fantastic shots, and she's definitely someone to watch over the coming years.

I am still collating my poetry. I've got poems written in books all over the place, so I'm trying to find them all. I've got poems dating back to 1991. Once I've got them all sorted out I'll ask Kirst and Gaz to read through them and pick a few, and I'll put them all together and send them out to the Templar Poetry competition. Let's see if anything happens.

Principessa was a funny girl this morning. She was still sleeping at 9am, so I woke her up. She jumped up in bed, pulled her dodie from her mouth and said;

"Oh dear! I have sloppy chops! I have to dried off, Mummy Fish!"

Don't know why I became Mummy Fish this morning. Maybe it was because Principessa was pretending to be a fish in the bath yesterday.

She was also very caring today. She came downstairs with Nanny in tow, calling for our cat Molly. Then Nanny and Principessa went into the kitchen, got a fork and a tin of cat food, and Principessa fed the cat. She was very upset with Molly when she wouldn't go and eat her food (probably because I get upset with Principessa when she refuses to eat), then she was happy when Molly went to eat, then she was again upset when Molly got upset with her bugging her while she ate!

Oooh, talking of Nanny... or Mum where I am concerned. Mum sent an email to the Alkazi Foundation to ask if they could send us copies of some of the photos they hold in the Tressider album. They got back to her this morning telling her that they would ask the Foundation's owner about her request, that an answer would take a few days, but that the answer may well be positive. They also said something about how it was a fortunate time for the contact. Sounds intriguing!

Exciting tennis match.

Wow! What a match! Who'd have thought Janko Tipsaravic could take Roger Federer to 5 sets and four and a half hours and nearly win the match! As much as I enjoy watching Federer play, I would have loved to see Tipsaravic beat him. It would have been fantastic. You've got to feel for poor Janko after that.

This morning, I found a site that, I suppose you could say showcased, a short story by Haruki Murakami. It's an interesting way to display a story (just click on the illustrations to read through the story). The story itself is really good too. I think I will be reading a lot by Murakami-san.

I have started organising my poetry. I am just transcribing stuff I have in books onto the computer. I think 2008 should be the year I start sending things out to competitions, magazines, whatever. I missed the opportunity to send the LRRH short story out, as I hadn't finished rewriting it before the submission closing date. I'll try and find somewhere else to send it though.