Year of Poetry Update - Four Month Mark

Where the hell did four months go?  

The Eye of Auden

I usually sit down at the end of the month and read through all my past reflections for that month. I do this to remind myself how far I have come and to take note of issues that might arise between the lines/ underneath my surface thoughts.

I haven't done that for the last two months though, due to work and other commitments and I think it has had an impact on my confidence because this week was a bit of a struggle despite being the first week of holidays.

Total hours weren't much different to last week but writing the poetry was a task verging on the sysyphean.   I did mange to cheer myself up by reading some poetry commentary by Auden though:

"Most people enjoy the sight of their own handwriting as they enjoy the smell of their own farts"  WH Auden

He was of course talking about how typography often revealed a poem's weaknesses that were hidden by the poet's love for their own handwriting.  But who doesn't enjoy fart humour.

Four chickens came home to roost i.e. chickens being poems and roosting rejection but as I mentioned earlier in the week this didn't seem to bite as much as it usually does.  I sent one of these back out again to another market

This week's study was comprised of A Note on Non-Verbs by Mary Kinzie, Wrting by WH Auden and  Language wakes up in the Morning: On Poetry's Speaking  by Jane Hirshfield .

My close readings were Esther Morgan's This Morning and LK Holt's Playhouse, both of whom make me extremely jealous of their skill.

In other news I have taken a teaching contract on until the end of the year and while not too much work than I am used to throughout the term, it's the unpaid preparation time that all teachers do that I think may have an impact on the poetry plan.



For the Statbadgers:

Total time: 09:12 (236:00) hrs

poem writing = 4.08 (97:41) hrs
close reading = 1:47(49:50) hrs
technique/theory 2:35(57:05) hrs
reflection = 0:42 (19:35) hrs


Poetry written:


0 (18) poems completed
5 poems in draft
1 poem abandoned

1 poem facing execution at dawn



Poems Submitted:

1(13 in total) poems




Poems Published:


0(5) poem


Live Performances:


0(2)


Rejections:


4(6) poems