Year of Poetry Update - Week 29

First attempt at carving hiking stick
from Tasmanian Oak

Reading back through my reflection journal I categorized myself this week as slack and distracted. Chiefly because I began teaching myself how to relief carve. This after viewing the ceremonial walking stick that the New Zealand Poet Laureates receive when they are awarded the position.  

Personally I think its a great shame that we don't have one in Australia ( A poet laureate that is) the arguments people have against it are not particularly convincing to me.

On reflection though "slack" is perhaps just me pushing myself too hard again. I still manged nearly 10 hours around all the holiday running around  (a  trips to the framer to help my wife prepare for a SALA exhibition).

Two of my recent bargain purchases from Booktopia also turned up on Monday and I haven't counted any of that reading toward my stats.  I have almost finished Andy Jackson's Immune Systems, I'd recommend it at the full price of $22 but Booktopia still have it going cheap (under $5).

The Writing

After a casual reading of Kathryn Hummel's collection Poems from Here, I stumbled across her poem  Villanelle - Don't kill yourself but the hours instead. This gave me an idea to rework an early prose poem into villanelle form and now I think I prefer it this way. 

I took some time to review and edit the last couple of poems that had reached first draft stage in week one of the holidays and ended up happy with those results too.  

The end of the week saw me fleshing out one of my fleeting breakfast thoughts into poem form.  

The Study

I continued with Mary Ruefle's, Madness Rack and Honey and it continues to tackle the writing of poetry in wonderfully indirect ways.  The later half of the week saw me refreshing some grammar rules in preparation for conducting a style analysis as part of my review/edit procedure.

Close Reading

This week I did virtually no close reading about 15 mintues all up of David Brook's, Broad Bean Meditation.

For the Statbadgers:


Total time: 9:51 (351:27) hrs


poem writing = 6.26 (157:02) hrs

close reading = 0:15(71:36) hrs

technique/theory 2:35(81:19) hrs

reflection = 0:45(27:02) hrs



Poetry written:

1(29) poems completed


(1)15 poems in draft


1 poem abandoned


1 poem facing execution at dawn



Poems Submitted:


0(16 in total) poems



Poems Published:


0(8) poem



Live Performances:
0(2)



Rejections:



0(8) poems