A river of small stones

30th September 2011

After a nine month break I am back with the small stones and have started Kaspalita’s ‘Experience the world more deeply in seven days’.

Day 1 – Go to the world

Step one Take the time to really look at something today. Go into the natural world (a park, your garden, your neighbour’s garden) and let something catch your eye. Examine it. Write it down:

The twisting fronds on the sweet peas grip the stems of the plant’s own blooms and loop and weave around the fragile shoots that hold the fragrant heads. We cut the blue-rinsed flowers on stalks like the bent backs of old women; tired and frail.

31st January 2011

Today is the final day of the January A river of stones challenge and thanks to Fiona I don’t feel a failure for not managing to post up a ‘stone’ every day this month. I managed 15, which isn’t too bad and although some of them are pretty poor, there are a couple I think I could take somewhere.

I have really been impressed with the contributions of some to the project and look forward to reading more when Fiona and Kaspa pull their collection together.

It has definitely been a great challenge and as there will be another one in July I think anyone out there with ambitions to write poetry, or good prose, should sharpen their pencils and get practicing!

Anyway, my final offering :

On Friday he was fifty/My heart has been with him/for nearly half my life and still/beats on as we slip into middle age/and watch the leaves fall softly, slowly/drifting into autumn in our midst

26th January 2011

I’ve won a competition/Fairy and a voucher for baby/clothes or nappies/happy but my kids are in their teens/Perhaps I’ll have another…

22nd January 2011

Well we are encouraged not to think of a gap in entries as failure, but for me this lack of ‘stones’ is something of a disappointment. There have been days off before but five in a row is much longer than I hoped to go when I started this project. However, I have had a stressy piece of work to get done and a tax return so I must not be too hard on myself. Instead, I will endeavour to post one a day at least until I go away on the 27th and after that -well I have a notebook don’t I?!

A stripy tea cup full of stone cold tea/a film of milky scum drifts on the top/a testament to time spent half aware/of all that comfort life can offer me

17th January

Lost/my fingers unrecogniseable as they tap the keyboard/my heart full, my head empty/I cannot speak

13th January

A million drops of water linger/on the window/behind my eyes/ and in the wide, grey ocean

12th January

Two days have passed/no stones have turned/upon this blog/I noticed…

9th January

A creme egg nestles next a tub of blueberries/Parsnip soup unmade/How does the diet start tomorrow?

8th January

Rain falls from blue sky/a chill breeze lifts the leaves/the door is open/but I cannot join the crowd

7th January

Soft grey, dark grey/a tight black cap/alert to every sound/it takes the chance/pecks daintily at the grubs/and leaves my sight/to sit upon a branch somewhere

6th January

Last crumbs of cake and chocolate/cards are down and tree outside/It’s Twelfth Night/Now birds sing again

5th January

A dreary day/so wet, so grey/the dark sky weeps/ for December’s joy/I long for May

4th January

The two birds,a magpie and a wagtail/vie for crumbs/Similarities belie difference/I watch in awe…

3rd January 2011

“The Christmas tree, tho’ still sparkling, looks melancholy./ Needles litter the floor/and the day on which it will be discarded creeps closer.”

2nd January 2011

“Like dominos the frail firs fall/ They leave a scar across the forest canopy/healed by the newly opened view across the valley.”

1st January 2011

“The muddy pigs range freely in the field on the edge of which a large billboard sells a bacon sandwich and the tastiest pork in Suffolk”