Poem of the month December 2013: a nod to New Men

The Da
 
Dinner was cooked by my (fair) hand
then dishes, cutlery, pots, other various bits’n’bobs, left
youthfully expressed as
‘if you end up leaving them, we’ll do them when we get back.”
 
Almost gratefully
my hands are immersed in suds
Da
cook, washer-upper, New Man
the father of daughters, unleashed
equal.

 

To Live With What You Are

For any writer, the search for an agent is a hard one. I have recently started and have three rejections to my name to date. I feel confident that the novel To Live With What You Are will fire an agent’s imagination. Till then, I am in good company with the best of novelists facing a similar journey.

So, a positive message taken in the rejection message from Rogers, Coleridge & White of  London whose submissions team described the novel thus: “To Live With What You Are is intriguing and original”. Let’s hope the next time it is original, intriguing and spot on for us.

More to follow, folks

 

Poem of the month for March

Follow the link to see February on the Moss, the poem for March 

You can also find out more about West Moss-side, a farm transformed by Kate Sankey to create a high-quality venue for a range of get-togethers, meetings and craft events. Plus the Trossachs Yurts – a low impact, slow get away. Well worth a visit!

It is a place of real beauty, a “vast expanse of all things damp and wonderful.” (NNR site)

Feb on the Moss photo of wall poemFebruary on the Moss is seen in the photo on the wall at West Moss-Side.

 

Poem of the Month for February

A departure this month. Follow the link to the Red Ensemble video of their interpretation of my poem Right. The ensemble used a recording of my recitation of the poem and Palestinian poet Ghazi Hussein’s recording of his Arabic translation as part of their improvisation. The piece was recorded at Glasgow City Halls.

The accompanying film features dancer Joan Beattie of the Vito Dance Theatre.

Right was originally published in “Chapman” and is in my collection “Good Morning“.

Review of “Good Morning”

A short review of the collection in the latest edition of Northwords Now.

Guest reviewer Lesley Harrison writes:

“Charlie Gracie’s poems aim to capture the clear, tender moments of beauty around us – how rain brings light with it, the warp and weft of a single-track road, Tam o’ Shanter at bedtime. Good Morning (diehard, 2010) is a quiet celebration of life and living:

“and even when the sunshine bakes us / the rain is only hiding / smirring off the surface of the sea /gathering its breath / for the big Heave Ho”.”

Poem of the month for January 2013

Haiku for Andy Murray

The start of a new year and hopefully more joy for our country. Katrina Shepherd’s haiku series was first published in Poetry Scotland: Luckie Mucklebackit (Winter 2012/2013). She celebrates the success of Andy Murray and his visit back home to Dunblane.

With a love of the living beauty of the natural world, Katrina is often inspired by people and nature.  Her haiku are published in Canada, the USA, Australia, New Zealand and Europe.  Some have been given awards.

Katrina’s poem In the stillness is now a Christmas carol with music composed by Sally Beamish.