sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

Poetry Friday: Imperfect Poems

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I have to admit I make lots of mistakes. Little mistakes, like calling one of my children the wrong name (okay, that could be a big mistake, but in my defence there are SIX of them, and at least I rarely call one of them the dog’s name. Rarely.) and big mistakes like saying something truly horrible to or about someone I love. And when I make those mistakes I feel bad. The good news is that I have also learnt, or at least am constantly learning, that most mistakes can be either fixed or at least forgiven. Get a a name wrong? Correct the mistake and say sorry. Offend someone? Say sorry, but also know that sometimes it takes more than just words to actually show you are sorry and that the person may need time to forgive.

So where is all this leading? To poetry  of course (because today is Poetry Friday!).  See, I made a bit of a mistake recently. When I got home from my wonderful trip to Europe there, amongst the pile of mail waiting for me, was a copy of a wonderful anthology in which one of my poems was included. And I was really happy about that and browsed the whole anthology over the next week or so.

But my mistake was, in the business of my return, I forgot to post about that wonderful anthology here on my website, to celebrate it’s release, and let the world know about it.  Which is a bit bad, but also ironic, because, as it happens, the anthology’s theme is, you guessed it, mistakes.

So, to rectify my mistake, today I am pleased to announce (drum roll please ba da bada bada bada badaaaaa), the release of IMPERFECT: poems about mistakes, edited by the amazing Tabatha Yeatts, and with poems from many fellow Poetry Friday-ers as well as a bunch of other mistake-makers/poets.

Look at the amazing cover:

If you are very clever,  you will notice the vase is cracked. And, if you are even cleverer you might know about the Japanese art of Kintsugi, where broken pottery is repaired with gold or other precious metals, making a mistake a work of art. And this book is a work of art, made from poems which represent mistakes of all kinds and how to fix them. Some poems actually present solutions to the mistakes, and others, I believe, fix them by making us think about and learn from them.

I was delighted to see poems from many of my Poetry Friday friends, and poems that made me laugh out loud as well as ones that made me want to cry. The message of the book is that mistakes are everywhere and every one of us makes mistakes.

To give you a taste of the book, I would like to share my poem, which you will find on page 61:

Time Bomb

There’s a time bomb

in our letterbox

tick tick ticking

insidiously ticking.

No one can hear it but me:

tick tick ticking

counting down the time

till Mom checks the mail.

When she opens it

she will explode.

Letter from school.

 

(Poem copyright Sally Murphy 2018)

 

For my Australian readers, yes I know we spell it Mum not Mom, but  I haven’t made yet another mistake. The book is, at present, not available in Australia. The good news is, it can be ordered online here, and, if you want to read more about the anthology, and the poets and poems featured, head over to the special Mistakes Blog.

I started this post talking about making and rectifying mistakes, and I hope I have rectified mine by FINALLY sharing news of this amazing book. And, of course, because I always look for the silver lining, I guess it’s nice to be spreading out the love for,  and celebration of, a new book.

Congratulations to Tabatha for gathering, editing such a wonderful collection of poetry for young people, and thanks for letting me be part of the fun.

Today’s Poetry Friday roundup is being hosted by Molly at Nix the Comfort Zone. Head over there for lots more poetry goodness. And make sure you read Molly’s amazing poem, which I swear was written about me 🙂

Poetry Friday: Rug Hug

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Some weeks it takes me ages to come up with a Poetry Friday post. Other times it’s easy. This week was one of those.

Last Friday, as I read and commented on  fellow Poetry Friday-er Kimberley Hutmacher‘s  poem about her granddaughter’s Blanket Buddy (you can read her poem here), the opening line of my own rhyme about my own blanket came to me. See, although I am maybe too old (what? never!) to carry a blanky around me, I DO have a ruggy, which I make good use of cold days to snuggle on my recliner. So, I just had to write about it. Then, as I wondered how to get a good photo of my rug to go with my words, I remembered that only a week before I had snapped a photo of Murphpup who, very naughtily, had borrowed my rug for a hug of his own.  Perfect!

Here’s the result.

 

The guilty look on his face is because he was caught – but how could I growl at a (slightly scruffy but nevertheless cute) face like that? And its is very wintry here at the moment.

This week’s Poetry Friday roundup is hosted by Mary-Lee at A Year of Reading. I’m snuggled up under my rug, ready to explore lots of poetic goodness. 

Poetry Friday: The Apostrophiser

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Welcome to Poetry Friday. I’ve had a busy week this week, including a lovely visit to Helena College in Darlington, my first school visit for the term. The year ones and twos were very curious when I told them I was officially Doctor Murphy, and amused when I told them I’m a Doctor of Poetry  (weeeeell, it’s complicated to explain that I’m technically a Doctor of Philosophy, but that my topic was children’s poetry).  The rest of the week I’ve been busy with my university job and also preparing for my upcoming trip to Vietnam.

In all this busyness, I wasn’t quite sure what I would share for Poetry Friday. But, as often happens, a poem idea presented itself to me, this time as I muttered to myself about yet another misplaced apostrophe on a sign I read. As I muttered and grumbled to myself – and wished I could reach the sign to correct it – I realised that there was a poem just waiting to be written. So, instead of defacing the sign, I came home and drafted this little offering. I do feel better now, but can’t vow not to keep apostrophising (or de-apostrophising) when the need arises.

Image from clipart-library.com

The Apostrophiser  

She could never ever stand to see

A misplaced, misused apostrophe.

Hanging somewhere that it shouldn’t

Trying to do that which it couldn’t

 

To see this item thus abused

By a punctuator so confused

Left her feeling rather sad

Or, oftentimes, a little mad

 

Her editing hand would start to itch

An overwhelming symptom which

Would see her reaching for a pen

And correcting errors again and again

 

On pamphlets, posters, leaflets, signs

Apostrophes are everywhere!

Anything with errors in its lines

In menus, notes home, emails, books

Not caring if she garnered looks

 

From embarrassed kids, or passers by

Or angry owners who wondered why

She couldn’t let the errors rest

Instead of fixing them with zest

 

But her red pen was always ready

Her apostrophising hand  ever steady

Ridding the world, one at a time

Of dastardly apostrophe crime.

 

(Copyright Sally Murphy, 2018)

 

Today’s Poetry Friday roundup is at Reading to the Core, where you will find links to lots of other poetry goodness.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry Friday: Too Many Books!

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What I love about Poetry Friday is that bloggers from all over the world share their favourite poems and poets each week. What I am challenged about each Poetry Friday is the temptation to buy more poetry books, as my fellow Poetry Friday-ers give tantalising glimpses into collections, anthologies and verse novels that I haven’t yet read. And of course, I can rarely make it through a Poetry Friday without buying a new book or at the very least adding several to my wish list.

Of course, it’s a nice problem to have, but  my house is already overflowing with books, so each new book adds to the unending problem of where to shelve them and how to keep track of them.  But this week that problem lead to something else: a new poem about, of course, books.

Too Many Books

by Sally Murphy

“Too many books?

Too Many books?

One can never have too many books,” she said

And just to be sure

She added one more

To the teetering pile by her bed.

 

“Too many books?

Too Many books?

One can never have too many books!” she cried

As she purchased ten more

From her favourite store

Staggering home  with bookwormish pride.

 

“Too many books?

Too Many books?

One can never have too many books,” she stated

Cramming case after case

Filling every space

With books that she shelved, stacked and crated.

 

“Too many books?

Too Many books?

One can never have too many books!”  she boomed

Till  her house overflowed

And she finally knowed

That her book collection days were

.

.

.

.

.

On hold till she purchased a bigger house.

(And her rhyme pattern was doomed).

Poem copyright Sally Murphy, 2018

 

Have a great Poetry Friday. Today’s roundup (where you can find plenty of  poetry goodness) is hosted by  Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe. I’m off to see what my poetry friends have been up to and buy more books. 

 

 

Poetry Friday: A Shelly Monogram

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It’s Poetry Friday and, after a long, unscheduled absence I am delighted to be back posting a little something – an impromptu poem, written in my head on my morning walk yesterday after I snapped a photo of  something I found on the beach.

See, when I spotted a curly squiggly piece of shell (or coral? I have never quite figure out what makes these squiggles), I stopped to take a picture – then realised that it looked remarkably like a letter S. And, since everything is about me, I decided it was an S for Sally;  but as I walked along, I started thinking about all the other things at the beach that started with S. And, by the time I got to the stairs, a poem had started to form. Which was wonderful, because not only did I have little poem to go with my photo, but I had something to post in time for Poetry Friday. And here it is:

Have a great Poetry Friday. I’m off to check out what my Poetry Friday friends have been up to this week. Can’t wait to catch up with them! You can, too, by visiting the Poetry Friday roundup, which this week is hosted by the team at the Poetry for Children blog, who are celebrating a Great Morning.

 

 

ANZAC Day 2018 – an Overdue Report

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It’s been nearly three months since I last posted here, and since in that last post I shared how excited I was about my upcoming visit to Villers-Bretonneux, it’s been very remiss of me not to post sooner. But of course I was on the road, travelling Europe for six weeks (how lucky am I?) and then, once home, there was so much to catch up on, and then I started to wonder how I could possibly capture the awesomeness of that visit to Villers-Bretonneux. And then I realsied that I could never capture it, but that doesn’t mean I can’t give you a glimpse. So here it is.

Here I am rugged up in about a million layers waiting for the dawn service to start. You can see that even though I was freezing, and had been up since 1 am, I’m super excited to be where I am. It’s been a long long time in the planning to be here.

Here are a couple of snaps of the service and the crowd. Because of the light it was difficult to capture the scene or even the size of the crowd (over 8000 people). And, of course, what no photo can capture is the feeling – the most emotional dawn service I have ever attended.

 

And, of course, the school. Surreal to visit a place I have researched, written about, and longed to see for so long.  What you can’t see in the photos is that I had to stand in the rain to get these pics – but I didn’t care a jot!

Only a taste of my visit because oddly, I think the experience was so emotional that, for once, I am lost for words when trying to describe it.  But that doesn’t mean I will ever forget.