March Wrap Up

NaPoWriMo has begun and while I embark on that, I look back to the month that was. The highlight was my reading at the Madras Street Cafe on 31 March. I stuck to time, I stuck to the script and the feed back was good.

I forgot how much I miss performance, used to sing a lot and haven't done so in many years. From hearing others read, I've learned what works and what doesn't. There is an immediacy to a public reading. As a listener I don't have time to decode hefty scholarly works. Or am I just shallow? Anyway, I chose poems that have performance value and imagery I could bring to life with nuanced tone and interpretation, much as I would a song. I also thought about the structure of the set. Take the reader on a journey, balance long and short, emotionally challenging with levity and at the end set them down gently and leave them wanting more.

In March I also evaluated my work based on the critical framework I've developed with Kerrin P Sharpe and more recently, Joanna Preston. Two very important influences on my writing. I've slowed down a little, set things aside to view with fresh eyes at a later date. It means I wrote fewer poems, with more consideration.

Having said that, NaPoWriMo is in full swing and I'll blog as many as I can. These are not finished poems and I look forward to the comments and critque of others. Even better than writing is reading the work of others, following the trail of crumbs left in the comments from one blog to another, discovering some great writers out there.

That's quite enough from me, back to writing everyone.