Planting and poetry

Crouching down low to use a trowel to make drills made me smile. Maybe because it felt like planting hope. My daughter helped me sow beetroot seeds or 'tiny stones' as she called them. I took my daughter home then went back to the allotment and dug a trench for Charlotte potatoes. Then I sowed kale, brussel sprouts, broccoli parthenon, iceberg lettuce, parsley and rocket. A guy who has an immaculate plot stopped by to give me a yellow courgette he'd grown from seed and told me how good my plot was looking and said to keep up the good work. It made me see how much I'd done instead of worrying about all the stuff I haven't done yet. My broad beans have germinated - so exciting! I usually plant them in November but planted them late so I was very glad to see they had germinated. Our local mayor staged an exhibition of portraits of poets by Peter Edwards in the council chamber and invited a few poets to read including me. I felt quite intimidated by the chamber as it looked like a court room but I loved performing. Got such an amazing buzz. We read surrounded by paintings of Carol Ann Duffy, Penelope Shuttle, Peter Redgrove, Wendy Cope to name a few. Happy planting everyone!

small stone

the beauty of a moment
that changed the past and present
tilts hot tears.

They gathered inside my untight skin.
Now I know they aren't just mine
but that the lament of unmet relations distilled in me.

Thanks for reading though I feel it's not quite there yet but I guess that's the point of the small stone - not to be too precious.

Small stone

The wooden kitchen counter is dry
she has conserved her oil
in five jagged flakes that sparkle at me.

small stone - bath time

Water rushing down to
meet itself.
What chaos repulsion would cause.

c Sonia J

small stone ©Sonia J 2011

Thank you Fiona Robyn for getting me to take time out at this fag end time of year (I refuse to believe New Years start in January).

Green velvet strokes its way up branches
thinning and disappearing as its routeways taper.
Christ crucified at every twigs' termini.

small stone

trying to win me back
the local grey mac wearing shops have jostled apart
to a new bead shop singing and banging colours.

Happy New Year! Writing and Allotment news.

Wishing you all wealth, health and happiness.

It's taken me three days to add the picture of River of Stones to my blog. Hopefully it won't take that long before I come up with a small stone. If you don't know about river of stones hop over to Fiona Robyn's blog and take a look. I could add a link but that would probably take me a month to work out so have a look at the blogs I follow.

I don't cope with transition well (probably something to do with my star sign) so new years eve is always torturous. Now we are in the year properly I feel fine.

I suddenly finished the first rewrite of my novel. But arghh it's only 63,000 words and a load of them are slashable. I'm not going to panic. After 6 years of producing half assembled poems I managed to finish 13 into as near as possible finished poems after attending Katherine Gallagher workshops at Torriano House. The only thing that worries me is that the poems all ended up much shorter when they were finally finished. I just hope it's different for novels.

End of the month I've got a spot reading my poetry over jazz in a pub - bit nervous as they weren't written with jazz in mind. Well it's an adventure....

The allotment has been neglected- I've not been for 3 weeks but the weather has been bad for most of that time and when it improved I got a nasty cough that required bed and films back to back (ohh it was lovely). My strawberries were terrible last year and I just let them run riot afterwards. I don't know whether to just rip them out. I keep being advised to grow them in pots but I am a lazy waterer. Any ideas? I still have some leeks and parsnips to harvest but they don't mind the cold so that's ok. I still have frozen french beans but the turn out really watery - is there a secret to freezing them that can keep them nice. They are ok in soup and stews etc.

I've ordered my seeds for spring and they have arrived. Another mother and I have been doing some gardening with the kids at school - any ideas for stuff to do in January. We've already done compost- very messy and enjoyable. Is it too late /early to sow sweetpeas or herbs?

Have a fab 2011.