Poetry Friday: Orange Cats

June 19, 2020 by Sally 15 Comments

I always love when one of my poems is published, ready to be discovered by young, and young at heart readers. Sometimes, that joy gets to be repeated when that same poem is republished, and shared with a new batch of readers. But how lucky am I to have that happen, with an extra cherry on top?

My poem Marmalade and Marmaduke was first accepted and published in the School Magazine Blast Off in 2015. I remember my delight at it being illustrated by the amazing Matt Ottley, and have shown it off many times since.

Fast forward to 2020 and I had an email asking for permission to reuse it in Countdown, another of the School Magazine’s publications. Of course I said yes, and was very chuffed. But mail is slow at the moment, and I wasn’t aware that the republication had happened – I am still waiting for my contributor copy.

So I was triply delighted when I was tagged in a Facebook post by the School Magazine alerting me to the fact that, to coincide with the publication, the poem had been recorded, read by Geoffrey McSkimming. What a fabulous reading – and a chance for me to share the poem here on Poetry Friday.

I love those cats – and yes, this is a poem about cats, and sunshine, and even punctuation, but it’s also a moment of coming together over finding something small in common. I’m working on gratitude at the moment, and today I’m grateful for poem videos, Poetry Friday and moments of peace.

Today’s Poetry Friday Roundup is hosted by Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect. Tricia is sharing a thoughtful Golden Shovel poem, as well as linking to the other poetry goodness around the blogosphere.

Poetry Friday: Angry Ocean

May 29, 2020 by Sally

If you drop here in often you will know that I love my beach walks and, in the past few months, especially, I have been incredibly grateful for being able to walk everyday. On Instagram I have been sharing one minute of my beach every day for two months. Until this week. This week a series of storms have rendered my beach inaccessible – because so much sand has been washed away that the stairs end well above the sand line, and the footings of those stairs are hovering mid air.

Versions of this problem occur right along the coast, but I did manage eventually to find the one point where the beach is accessible, about ten kilometres from here. You can imagine I was already feeling sad about my own favourite beach being out of bounds for the forseeable future, but when I did get onto this other beach, I was doubly sad when I saw all the rubbish washed up by the storm – plastic of all shapes and sizes, ropes, bottles, fishing tackle, you name it. I stomped around the shore collecting what I could and ferrying it up to the bin, and came home a little cranky about people who litter and pollute our oceans.

But later I paused to wonder if there was any good in this. All I could come up with was that I was giving back. The beach has been my sustenance these past few months, and now I was returning the favour with giving the damaged beach some care. From that, I was left with the seed of a poem.

Here’s that poem (or its first draft, anyway):

Naughty Corner

All summer

You have frolicked on my shore

Swimming splashing diving

In my nourishing waters.

You’ve felt my sand between your toes

And taken deep breaths of my essence.

In boats

On skis

And boards

You’ve glided across my depths.

And I have welcomed you.

But I have not been fond

Of your discards:

Wrappers

Straws

Rope

Baskets

Bags

Casually left

Carelessly left

Dropped

And forgotten

By all but me

(It’s hard to ignore the sick rumbling

Deep in your stomach)

Now, at last.

I’ve had enough.

All night I’ve raged and rumbled

and now your waste

Is spewed upon

Those very shores

You’ve wandered.

Take it back.

I don’t want it.

As punishment

I’ve also reclaimed some of my sand.

If you are very good

And show you’ve learnt your lesson

I might give it back some time.

Maybe before next summer.

(Copyright Sally Murphy 2020)

Funny how writing a poem always makes you feel a little bit better. I do still miss my beach though – so I went looking for another poem I wrote (and recorded for Poetry Friday) a few years ago about the things the sea leaves us:

I look forward to more treasures – hopefully I don’t have to wait till next Summer! (Although I do know, especially now, that being unable to walk on the beach is a very first world problem!)

If you want more poetry treasure, Mary Lee is hosting the Poetry Friday roundup at A Year of Reading.

Poetry Friday: My Shadow

May 22, 2020 by Sally

Last Friday I shared some of my favourite poems from my childhood. I chose just thre, but there were some really fabulous ones that didn’t make last week’s post, including one that ranked a few mentions in the comments: My Shadow, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Coincidentally, I’ve been aware in my many beach walks over the past few months, of how often I capture photos of my own shadow – either deliberately or not ( I call them shadow selfies, except, because they’re of me, they are SALfies). So, I thought I’d collect up some of those photos and share them, with the poem. As you listen, see if you can spot the dolphins – a mother and her new calf, who I spent an hour walking with a couple of weeks ago.

And, here’s the poem, which is in the public domain:

My Shadow

by Robert Louis Stevenson

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;

And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—

Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;

For he sometimes shoots up taller like an India-rubber ball,

And he sometimes gets so little that there’s none of him at all.

He hasn’t got a notion of how children ought to play,

And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.

He stays so close beside me, he’s a coward you can see;

I’d think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,

I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;

But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepyhead,

Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

When I came to post this video and poem I realsied I shared a poem with my shadow once before when I wrote a poem to a Stingray I met on a walk

– and the ray’s response:

Today’s Poetry Friday roundup is hosted by the amazing Carol Varsalona, who is offering gorgeous poems and images from her Nature’s Nurtures Gallery, as well as her ow not to Mother Nature. Head there now for your Poetry Friday fill.

Worse Things: The Great Unboxing

May 18, 2020 by Sally

Poetry Friday: Childhood Favourites

May 15, 2020 by Sally

It’s Poetry Friday and, in the midst of writing and talking and thinking about my new book baby, I’ve also been thinking about the poems that lead me to love poetry. I spent a lovely afternoon rediscovering my favourite childhood collection, and decided to share a few, and why they appealed to me.

You can find each of these poems, which are in the public domain, online:

The Purple Cow, by Gellet Burgess

Eletelephony (which I am sure I mispronounce in the video) by Laura Elizabeth Richards and

Forgiven, by A. A. Milne

There are so many more wonderful poems in this treasured collection that I would have loved to share, and perhaps will in future. There is something warm and comforting about poems from childhood. It isn’t just the words or the rhythms, it’s the physical sensation of the memories they invoke.

What poems do you remember loving as a child that have stayed with you?

And, speaking of warm and comforting, there are choc chip cookies on offer at Jama’s blog, where she’s hosting the the Poetry Friday roundup, with find links to loads more poetry goodies.

Worse Things: The Cover Story

May 12, 2020 by Sally

As part of recent Readalong, I reflected about each of the covers of my three previous verse novels: Pearl Verses the World had had two different covers, and two different titles, for different editions; Toppling had had three covers and two titles, and Roses are Blue just the one cover. Additionally, there was branding. As you can see from the three Australian covers, whilst there’s not a series, the cover design links them to me, the author,and to the style of the book, all verse novels.

Pearl Verses the World

I have always loved these covers, and the branding part was exciting to me, because it felt like the brand was ‘Sally Murphy’ – even though of course there is a lot more to it than that. I felt that the cover design was a perfect match for the illustration style and for the form and content of the books. And feedback from readers young and old matched that. My post about the Pearl Verses the World cover, especially, drew dozens of comments here and on Facebook and Instagram.

However, the cover of my fourth verse novel, Worse Things is different. Very different.

Everything is different – the colour pallet, the font, the and the illustration style, too. The illustrations take up the whole cover, with the title part of the illustration. But guess what? I love it just as much as I loved those other covers. Why? Because I think it’s perfect for this book. And I think Sarah Davis is a genius.

Although still a verse novel, and having some similarities in style and even themes, Worse Things is a bit of a break away from the earlier ones. The age of the characters is slightly older than the characters in the earlier books, meaning it is likely to be enjoyed by slightly older readers – although I think readers who enjoy the first three will also connect with the fourth, and vice-versa.

Worse Things is also a multi voice novel, with three characters telling the story, and I love the way Sarah has captured key elements of each character’s life and their story, and used them on the cover. Readers will hopefully come back, after they’ve read the book, and be able to see why those images are there.

I’d love to hear what you think about this new cover. If you haven’t read the book, what do you think is suggested by the images? You can comment here, or on Instagram or Facebook.

And, if you’d like to get better acquainted with the cover, I turned it into a digital puzzle for you to have a go at! You’ll find that here.

sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

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