poetry

Gothlist

This photo was only taken ~20 years later. So beware kids – this recipe can have long-lasting effects.

Recipe for a goth teenager c. 1994

Hair dye

Booze – beer or cask wine

Long black skirt – essential if female, optional if male

Fishnets

Ribbons – purple, royal blue, crimson, green or silver

Acid

Nitrous Oxide

Tattoo/s

Piercing/s

Band T-shirts

Studded wrist bands, belts and collars

Industrial music: see Wax Trax! Records

Fairy wings

Glitter

Black eyeliner: pencil and liquid. Lots

Lipstick

Peroxide

Directions hair colour

Silver jewellery

Ability to travel to/from Newtown and/or Glebe Market

Cigarettes: standard, menthol or clove

Speed

Weed

MDA

Butane

Canvas shoulder bag with band names

Doc boots

Stripy socks

Underwear as outerwear

Safety pins

A corset or something resembling a corset

Lace

Hair spray

Leather jacket: essential if male, optional if female

Mild-severe melancholy/ teen angst

The Cure, Bauhaus, Siouxie, Nick Cave, etc.

The Crow: movie, soundtrack, poster

Night clubs

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Deep insecurity coupled with awareness of own superiority

Interest in vampires / the occult

Optional extras: pet rat, dreadlocks, boy/girlfriend who wears black, playing in a band, friends who are also goths, interest in the fetish scene, an attitude

We had a lot of fun, really.

Today’s NaPoWriMo post was to write a poem inspired by, or in the form of, a recipe. Mum & Dad – please don’t read this one.

It’s poetry month again!

I’m doing GloPoWriMo / NaPoWriMo again this April, since I had such a great time of it last year.

It’s kind of fitting that I’m at a writer’s retreat this weekend. So I’m looking at the Alps (above) from my hotel room window, but I’m thinking about my life back in Sydney because I’m doing this writing course about memoir.

This poem came from the GloPo prompt, which was to write a poem in the style of Kay Ryan, the US poet laureate from 2008-2010. According to GloPo a Kay-Ryanesque poem is: short, tight lines, rhymes interwoven throughout, maybe an animal or two, and, if you can manage to stuff it in, a sharp little philosophical conclusion. (I actually think a lot of my poems work out like this anyway, so this wasn’t too big a stretch!)

My course prompt was to write using your special knowledge of something. I thought about the walk I used to do everyday from home to school along a straight street, listening to my music. Then, a few years later, my walk from home to work along another long, straight street – Wilson Street in Newtown/Redfern – usually listening to Elephant by the White Stripes. At the end of this walk, one morning in Februrary 2004, I passed through the aftermath of the Redfern riots over the weekend.

Plus – the added bonus of spoken word! (link below)

After today, I’ll put this explanatory stuff at the bottom, underneath my poems. Enjoy!

Elephant

the steps I took

to walk to school

were only mine

no other fool

could walk it as I did

listening to songs

my footsteps

tapping along over

concrete where

my name was scratched

several times

then

on another tread

the street beside

the railway tracks

where at the end

the bricks

did meet

and clash terrible

while

(and Jack & Meg)

strode on by

with our nice lives

Soundcloud link: https://soundcloud.com/user-808707280/elephant

Work the numbers

Been trying to work the numbers

a thousand words

ten thousand hours

the rays of light blur and I snatch the curtain closed

concentrate, mother

I spend my time guzzling water

coffee, cakes

I know I’m smart but

sometimes I just sit here listening

to the whine of the drill

from the building site

gristling and

grating on my ears

and I don’t know how I’m going to write

all the things I want

both failure and its fear

hover heavily

like a blight

This was a poem from a writing prompt – grab the nearest book (Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake), turn to page 29 and pick ten words that resonate, then use them in a poem. I only used nine of the words as one was “pigoon” and ain’t nobody got time for that.

Like a Lover

Image: John Towner https://unsplash.com/@heytowner

Sometimes he treats me
like a lover
the drape of coat on my shoulder
finishing touch, perfect object
of affection

the night where
we fell
no, not like that, but still

I wonder if it
could have all gone to hell

the patched-up,
still-brilliant tooth smile
of shared belonging

our concurrent ways
hurtling through space

time spent, time wasted
so wasted…
the wax and wane of
sun, moon, stars
and
guitars

My sometimes brother
my almost lover
we are

like sibling planets
whose
orbits align

Hello WordPress

Author selfie

I’ve been on a slight hiatus this past week or so. With Spring arriving, it feels like time to pause and check in with myself. I’ve had a bit of success with my writing. But I’ve also made a few rookie mistakes and started grappling with that learning curve. Basically, I found that I really wanted to submit my work to a bunch of literary journals because I’m used to the Shoot! Cut! Print! mentality of working in media and I find it really hard not to have a “finished” product for my work. I’m trying to wean myself off this feeling as I think it means I sometimes send stuff off a bit half-baked in my desire to be done. That said, completion is no bad thing. DONE IS BETTER THAN PERFECT is a bigtime mantra of mine.

I wanted to talk a bit about WordPress as well. For those who don’t know – WordPress is the blogging platform I use here for Clairevetica. Around Christmas time, I took Facebook off my phone which has meant that now, instead of noodling around on the ‘book, I tend to read a bunch of blogs instead, which is nice. Although I do find the WordPress phone app does some odd stuff with its feeds. So, if I followed you but it seems like I never ‘like’ your stuff – it might be because I never see it? My feed seems to be full of the same 10 or 20 blogs even though I follow a few hundred. Oh well.

In writing news, I’m doing two things in the next few weeks. One – I’m starting an online writing course, which will be interesting and hopefully valuable. Two – I am planning to participate in GloPoWriMo again – the Global Poetry Writing Month that last April kind of kicked me into a new dimension of creativity. If all goes according to plan, both these things should help consolidate and advance my writing. Or it could all fall in a screaming heap because how tf do I have time for both these things?!

Anyway, I have at least one more story that’s being published but not until end of April so I’ll wait and tell you about that when it’s live. And I’m planning to keep submitting stuff but it takes ages – not just the actual submissions but reading the journals and trying to work out if my stuff will fit (usually, I think yes? But it’s hard to know for sure). And then you get into this weird rabbit-hole of all the short story and poetry competitions – most of which you need to pay to enter. So it becomes a situation of do I put my money where my mouth (or pen) is? And, although the rewards could be huge (comp winners often find agents and book deals come knocking), it’s also stressful and a bit distasteful. Like – what an indication of privilege to be able to enter stuff and pay… and the other entrants will surely just be other rich first worlders so where’s the diversity in that? But, if I CAN afford to enter a few things and I really believe in my work… argh… you see the dilemma. Maybe once I’ve done this course and got some genuine feedback on if my stuff is “ready” I will be able to judge better whether it’s worth entering competitions. Anyway, hence the attempt at another author selfie. I don’t know about the sunglasses. A bit too closed off, no?*

PS: Do you guys want to read some flash fiction writing prompt stuff on here? I’m not sure if it’s really worth publishing but trying to ‘keep the hand moving’ and, as stated above, I feel the need to cut, shoot print.

*Sometimes my inner voice goes a bit Karl Lagerfeld

The first half of March

So… I wrote this cool poem and I wanted to record it. But only the first half came out right. Anyway – so you, dear readers, get the full thing and those who listen only get half. But please listen anyway, because it sounds just how I want!

March

I’m just trying to know things

trying so hard

like, is February always difficult

and March always sad?

or is it just this year

and has something gone bad

cos I hope

it’s just my brain

come to trick me again

and maybe the dark

is always

just a lack

of light

I wait

in shadows, hoping

for something

to come out right

WordPress link (for the first half only) https://soundcloud.com/user-808707280/half-of-march

Giggle Quadrille for dVerse

A study in squares
Four by four
They go
Ho ho ho ho
Books on a frosty morn
As I proceed to my pond
Scribbles over the aircon
It looks a bit forlorn
Ho ho ho ho
The tiny legs made
Me giggle though

This is a Quadrille written for the dVerse poetry prompt. A Quadrille is a poem of 44 words (not counting the title) and this week’s prompt was to write one that included the word ‘giggle’. Right after I read the prompt, I happened to look back on the four photos I took today, which were, randomly, all squares. 4×4 and 44 lines – it seemed too perfect!

Magic

Zan Zig performing with rabbit and roses, including hat trick and levitation. 1899 advertising poster for the magician (who seems to have left no other trace behind) . Copyrighted by The Strobridge Litho. Co., Cincinnati & New York. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Zan_Zig_performing_with_rabbit_and_roses,_magician_poster,_1899.jpg

I haven’t changed my habits
Merely shuffled them around
Dealt myself a new hand
From the same pack

Pick two cards
Don’t show me which two
Are they…
Alcoholism and nail biting?
Yes!
How did she do that?

Ok, next
Give me your watch
Don’t worry, you’ll get it back at the end of the show
See how the time tick, tick ticks away
When you’re
Checking social media in bed?
Bingo!

I will now saw this lady in half
Because she’s not always ‘present’ and mindful!
This half – the parent. That half – the worker.
And that’s it folks, I can see you’re astounded
By this completely ordinary woman performing two diametrically opposite roles
But I’m afraid
A magician never reveals her secrets

For my next trick. Handkerchiefs! How many can I pull from my sleeve?
One – grocery shopping.
Two – cleaning the oven.
Three – the park.
Four – can there be more?
Five – how is she be so busy?
Six – oh, oh stop you’re making me dizzy.

Abracadabra one two three

Boom

Magic me.

Notes on a suspected suicide

Photo: Greg Ortega @https://unsplash.com/@antisocia1

I am an arrogant twit

But I know that woman was in a bad place

I knew

and I stepped back

Because I didn’t want to be drawn into… something

Self-preservation

Or cruelty

I guess we’ll never know

But she’s gone now and I could have-

I am an arrogant twit.

(*I since found out she had a heart condition but that doesn’t make it any better or worse)

Spoken Word collaboration

Image: Riccardo Annandale @ https://unsplash.com/@pavement_special

Pic by Riccardo Annandale @ https://unsplash.com/@pavement_special

Well this is exciting. My first spoken-word-poetry collaboration!

I came across Kate Duff’s poems through the blogosphere a while ago and they really resonated with me. I approached her about doing a reading of one of them and she was kind enough (and brave enough!) to say yes.

I enjoyed reading someone else’s work and -ahem- it may have even provoked me to try a bit harder and do a few more takes than my usual slapdashian approach!

I’m really pleased with this one. Have a listen (it runs for about 1.5 minutes). And throw some blog-love towards Kate over at https://athousandbitsofpaper.com/ Thanks Kate!