The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing by Richard Hugo

The Triggering Town: Lectures and Essays on Poetry and Writing by Richard Hugo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This might seem like a writing book by a poet, for poets. But it is just as valuable for other writers.
If you took each lesson or tip, and replaced the word 'poem' with 'novel' or 'story' (I can't say so much for scripts), you would have some great advice.
In my opinion, more prose writers could take a few lessons from poets anyway.
Of all the lessons, the one I appreciated the most was Hugo's sentiment that he was teaching 'his way' of writing, or showing us new writers how to find our own way. And that is so great. From high school through a creative writing degree to Twitter and the blogosphere, there is so much advice for writers out there. So when someone says they are going to teach me how to teach myself, I welcome it with relief and a smile.

Like many writing books, Hugo includes accounts from his life, and he uses the parts that inspired certain poems. I enjoyed these parts too, I always like to see what kind of life writers lead before/during their writing career.
Overall, this book is worth reading although some of it I'd heard at Uni. But it's always good to be reminded.


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This is Halloween!

And it's also the last day of NaBloWriMo. How did those of you participating fare? I know I've been pretty lax, but at least I posted a couple of posts a week. I'm going to give myself a pat on the back for that.
Now, don't worry, just because I've got to the end of this challenging meme, doesn't mean I'm going to slack off for a few months. The opposite in fact. If NaBloWriMo has shown me one thing, it's that a post doesn't have to be deep and meaningful every single time. Sometimes people appreciate the fluff too :)

 I went to a Halloween party last night - you might recall my previous posts with parts of my costume. I won't be posting pictures today - uni work, cleaning, friends etc getting in the way - but if I can get my act together I will post pictures in a couple of days.

 A thought: I might start another blog where I can post little bits of fiction and poetry, that is separate to this one. This won't come to fruition for another month or so, after my assessments and exams are over for the year. What do you think?


Happy Halloween!

No Tener Pelos en la Lengua

I've been a bad NaBloWriMo blogger again *ducks head sheepishly*. Moving on.

For two years now I've been studying Spanish as an elective to my degree. We've only just reached the point where we have covered all the conjugations and sentence structures. A few days ago we learnt a few sayings and this one made us all laugh, but I think it has great relevance to writing, and it will be a little mantra of mine from now on. 

No tener pelos en la lengua is translated by the text book as meaning 'to be outspoken, to be frank'. Literally it means 'to not have hairs in one's language'*. Hairy language, eh?

While we were chuckling about this, I thought it was a good way to think about one's prose or poetry, and in choosing the best words, paring back the language. This is something that John Steinbeck first taught me when I discovered Of Mice and Men in year 11. He's still one of my favourite authors. Then this year I took a poetry class and learnt it again. Then last week, Sarah at The Unwrapping reminded me of it again (go read her blog, it's beautiful). Aqui es una escritora si no tiene pelos en la lengua. (Sorry if the grammar is incorrect).

And of course, I submitted the first draft of my CP for assessment (I got 100%). One of the things my supervisor told me to do when editing is to 'tighten the language'. Get rid of all the hairs. So that is my mission over the next two days. Take my draft and turn it into something concise and sin pelos. 

On another matter, I was reading another Sarah's blog. Her latest post is on something I posted about in the first week of NaBloWriMo, body image. The post touched me, and I was so glad to see someone else speaking about the many intricacies of coming to love one's own body.
Once again, this is a website, and organisation, that is doing wonders for so many people in regards to self-love:

www.thebodypositive.org 



*Something I've yet to master, however.

I'm thinking I should start giving my poems titles. Poem 3

Especially if posting poems becomes a regular thing. However, once I've gone through the poems in my notebooks, they'll grow more sporadic. I can always post short stories as well :) We shall see.

I won't explain this poem, it's elusive, but I hope it says something to you. It doesn't need to be profound, so don't worry too much :)

Poem Three

She sighs. She reads well, 

talks of poetry and death,

heaven, 

and its change from infancy.

What is this nonsense?

Outcries my brain.

I'm reading poetry 

now, 

and writing it. 

This one was written while critiquing Wallace Stevens' Harmonium. 

Yes, I have a new layout, it's purrty. Poem 2

This poem is an interpretation of my lecturer's dislike of the use of exclamation marks and angels in poetry. I get his point, there are times and places for these things, and never because the poet or writer is lacking the suitable word or metaphor. So, enjoy my little parody of what a poem shouldn't be:

Poem Two

Angels! Glistening
like turgid jelly
on the moss. Overpowering
with their poetic
grace. Look!
I say
they are angels!


In other news Astrid may actually be homeless in a couple of weeks... More on this later if the events I'm hinting at actually take place.

More other news: I've joined Blog Action Day 2010. This year's focus is Water.
Taking a gander at my profile, you'll see that I'm a swim teacher. More to the point, I'm an Instructor of Swimming and Water Safety, but just say I'm a swim teacher.
I also live in Australia, a country where there is almost always water restrictions in some part of the country at any given time.
My point to all this, is that Water is a simple concept that many people take for granted in terms of safety and as a commodity. So on October 15, I'm going to do a post about my passion for these two aspects of Water.
I encourage anyone reading this who has a blog, to join in. If you're doing NaBloWriMo, it will be a great thing to post about.

That's it from me until tomorrow, where I will return to the serious (but not too serious) with my poems :D

This one's a little dark. Poem 1

The following poem was written during a class where we were discussing The Well Mouth by Philip Salom, an Australian poet. It's a dark collection of linked poems all concerning death in one way or another. I'll try and post a link to the book on Amazon, if there is one*.

Poem One

Take my life

and keep it

It is my present

to you

Guard it,

so it's safe

I'll be gone awhile

*Here's the link. They misspelt his name.

Mini Poetry Posts

I have been thinking...

I have this poetry critiquing class at uni. Sometimes while taking notes, I will jot down a small, (ir)relevant poem. At the moment I think there are only three or so, possibly only two. But would any of you like to read them? Just for a laugh?

Ps I will post them anyway :)