Happy Christmas!

Hitching a Lift on TFE's Poetry Sleigh

I've awkwardly flung myself onto
TFE's Santa poetry sleigh (thanks for flagging him down, TFE). Luckily, Santa is a nifty driver, otherwise I would have been flattened...try as I might, this is all I could come up with. (If anyone else fancies a go, it's all here at TFE's...go on you know you want to, you've got till Christmas Eve, still time! ; ))
Happy Festive Season everyone. ; )

A Not-So Christmas Poem

What happens when you sit to write a christmas poem and one won't come?
What happens when thoughts of mulled wine and redemption and the colour
red and even Mrs Claus all want a look in and you are too glad for any such
look-ins that you stick them into your christmas poem. Then you read it over
and you immediately want them out. Only how do you go back on your word?

You don't. You keep going. You leave them in the poem. As the poem moves
on maybe they will move out and you can have the christmas poem you really
want but don't yet know. Then Santa clamours for a piece of your poem. He
moves his sack in. He hurls the sleigh into the main part of the poem. The part
you were keeping for the important message of your christmas poem. Before

long the reindeers are striding long-leggedly onto the edges of your poem
looking for a tiny piece of the action of your christmas poem that in your
estimation has not yet started. At this stage you want out of the christmas
poem that you haven't yet started. You had not bargained for a no-exit claus
(e). You might have known. You wonder how to make the best of being in

a christmas poem that acts as if it is your christmas poem. You bring your
husband in. He starts calling the upside down quarter moon an arabic moon.
You like that.You settle into your christmas poem. The arabic moon makes you
think of Aladdin and his genie. Aladdin makes you think of a red hard-back
story book you once got for christmas. Inside you find The Snow Queen and

Puss in Boots. Now you are skating on ice. Then you are inside your christmas
poem. The arabic moon moves behind the chimney pot. Santa steadies his feet.

(Photos: Christmas 07)

Time Travel with the Maximus Miracle Virtual Book Tour

Being 2 places at once is not a problem for The Maximus Miracle Virtual Book Tour.

Seeing is Believing as they say, so there I am in Johannesburg, South Africa with Michelle yet still managing to be in the United States with Serena. Being two places at once is child's play for The Wrong Miracle

This is the latest from OtherNews and Quantum Physics on exactly how The Maximus Miracle Tour managed to be in 2 places at once, thus making shares of itself.

'The re­search comes from the edge of quan­tum me­chan­ics, the sub­mi­cro­sco­pic realm of fun­da­men­tal par­t­i­cles.There, things be­have with to­tal dis­re­gard for our com­mon sense...This, he added, fo­cus­es on sub­mi­cro­scop­ic de­vices called nanome­chan­i­cal sys­tems, “poised mid­way be­tween two seem­ingly an­ti­thet­i­c do­mains” of size: fun­da­men­tal par­ti­cles at one end, the ob­jects of eve­ryday life at the oth­er.'

So let's see, in Serena's round two of Maximus Miracle, we talk of writing groups, writing routines, writing friendships, writing space, writer's block and future writing projects. Take a look just here.

At Michelle's, we talk of life on the Canaries(with photos included), the writing process (another mention of 'mental rioting') and SANDS: the Stillbirth and Neo-Natal Death Charity. If you fancy a look, it's all here.

And just to say that after all this time travel and due to over-stretching of itself to be at two places at once, The Maximus Miracle tour will be having a break over the holiday period and hopefully returning for the penultimate visit to
Jim Murdoch's place on the 11th of January and the grand finale will be at
Jeanne Iris Lakatos' very stimulating Blog on the 18th of January.

Looking forward to seeing you here, there and everywhere...time travel can be fun once you get the hang of it...(not boot strap hanging though ; ))

(Photos: time-travelling shoes and boots, plant and sky)

Interview at 'Savvy Verse and Wit'

I am across the atlantic again visiting Serena at her very popular
Savvy Verse and Wit Blog.
We talk about obsessions, 'exercising' ; ) the myth or not about poetry being elitist and how I ended up writing poetry in the first place.

I will be staying a while longer at Serena's and actually returning there next week too as before the idea for The Wrong Miracle Virtual Tour came to pass, Serena and I had already planned the interview and that we would use her selection of 10 questions....that is why it is longer than my other Blog visits. ; )

Hope to see you over there...it is a very interesting Blog with all sorts to look through, apart from the interview. ; )

(Photos: Summer 09 Flatlake Festival and Temple Bar Stroll)

Tales of Mere Existence: Procrastinating

`

There is a whole series of these 'Tales of Mere Existence 'which are really brillaint....this one is ringing bells, bells, bells for me...I know Christmas is around the corner and bells are right and fitting at this time of year but yes, got to admit I've been doing the above...seems the longer the weekend (and this weekend lasts till Wednesday), the more I procrastinate...how is everyone else with procrastinating? I used not be one, a procrastinator, that is, it seems to have 'snuck' up on me...!

The Wrong Miracle Virtual Book Tour: Stop 5

(Ms. Alien)

(Pressie for Rachel)

(Images got from here)


I am at Rachel's More About the Song Blog today. Rachel is the perfect hostess and she came up with some very intriguing questions. Her experience and flair for interviewing shines through...even if she initially left me a little open-mouthed and thinking 'Not sure, if I can answer this...' : )

So what do we talk about? Well, it's more like 'Who do I talk to there?' (apart from Rachel, of course)...so it's a case of me and a Ms. Alien having a chat about poetry. Ms. Alien is of a curious nature and wants to know what all the fuss is about, poetry-wise...She also wants a 10 book reading list on what she should read if she(Ms. Alien) takes the notion to investigate poetry further for herself...

Then Rachel and I talk about why and how poetry is important in my life....and last but not least, I have to imagine The Wrong Miracle was written by someone else and in doing so say what I think of it! Ahem! If you are in any way curious about any of this, why not pop over to Rachel's and read our chat for yourselves. ; )

Succulent Plants and Visit to Rachel's

Images from here.
Have just spent the week-end 'idling' (ha! as if! ; )) which included planting some of the beautifully-named succulent plants above, aren't they amazing? The grow real fast and need very little water so we are covering parts of our little farm with them. Next job: vegetable planting this weekend as it is a long, long weekend.

And a Virtual Book Tour Visit to Rachel's More About the Song Blog on Thursday the 3rd of December is a great start to the long weekend. Rachel asked me some unusual and intriguing questions which after the first oh dear and yikes! I actually enjoyed answering very much...thanks Rachel! ; ) The talk at Rachel's will be of Aliens who know nought about poetry on planet earth and want to be informed and I get to help them...(well her...as for now there is just one Ms. Alien )....and I have to imagine that someone else wrote The Wrong Miracle and give my opinion on what I would think if that were so....tricky one??

(** Note to Host Bloggers of Virtual Book Tour: Salt has assured me that they will get the information about the Virtual Tour and the Host Bloggers up pronto, as in today, on their Salt Blog....(not sure why they didn't do so before now ...I sent the relevant info. in August but they have been updating and re-doing and the likes and some things got stuck in 'to do' land ...but all hearts involved have been and are still in right place...thanks for patience on this, Host Bloggers : )
Editing in to say that the info. about the tour is now up on Salt's Blog Yipee! ; ))