Storytime

I have just come back from spending ten wonderful days in Vanuatu. It was truly inspirational in so many ways. Beautiful climate, beautiful country, beautiful people. We did the usual touristy things. Snorkelled, swam, walked the beaches, zoomed on buggies and water boats, ate fresh seafood every night. But we also had the chance to get off the beaten track and see how the locals live. Just off Melee Bay Steve got to plant taro and dig holes for the yams. I got to get down in the dirt and plant the yams, right way up, the right depth, and to make sure the earth was fine enough for the plant to grow well. And to get the mound the right height. (I'm so used to planting in a drought and created wells around each yam mound, you don't need this in Vanuatu) We also went to Tanna for four days. Tanna was amazing. We stayed in a beach side bungalow on the south east of the island, away from the main town, away from it all. We also got the chance to walk along the rim of an ac...

I will say up front I love a bit of nature. Am happy to spend time watching birds and animals...have been known to stop the car to watch an echidna scramble up a bank, to help a blue tongue cross the road, to stand in awe as the wedge tailed eagles soar over the house. I'm captivated by spiderwebs glistening with dew; the silhouette of birds nests in winter's trees; enjoy the scrape of beak on palm as I hand feed the king parrots. But I can never capture the experience on paper. I'm forever with a camera in my hand. Trying to get a glimpse of what lies before me. For that frame to share the smallest part of what I have seen. It rarely works. But that is nothing to the frustration I feel when I try to capture some natural occurrence. The words become thick with clunky cliches, purple prose trips off my tongue....and I am left with a pile of nothing. And yet I keep trying. Inspired by poets such as Anthony Lawrence ( I fell in awe of his poetry many years bac...

I don't rhyme. Actually that is a lie. I can rhyme when I do a  Storytime or Tinies Time- even invent my own version of Polar Bear Polar Bear turn around etc...but these rhymes are created in mere seconds and are for the enjoyment of children. There is no depth involved at all. What I can't do is rhyme for a 'real' poem. (notice the word real). I have attempted to write rhyming poetry, perhaps once or twice. I seem to lack the rhythm and meter- or perhaps it is an integral part of myself that is missing. The rhyming factor. Whatever it is I don't have it. And it became very obvious at a poetry afternoon I went to on Sunday. A friend of mine hosted an inaugural Poetry Afternoon - she wanted to show her 'group' that poetry is more than the rhyming couplets they learnt at school. Have I mentioned her 'group' consisted of nearly 30 senior citizens?  They were eager for an afternoon of poetry and when it began with a co-hort reading Banjo Pa...