sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

Poetry Friday: Winter is STILL Here

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It’s been over a month since my last Poetry Friday offering and, in that post I was complaining about the cold, and looking for reasons to LIKE winter.

Fast forward to today, and its cold and wet and wintry – and, you guessed it, I am still struggling to find good things about winter.

But, I do have a pair of haiku that I wrote about being cold – and trying to flip between the downsides of being cold and the upsides. Here it is:

Cold

Caught in the rain

Burning of frostbitten toes

Blades of wintry wind

 

A plunge in cold pool

Bubbling fizzing lemonade

Shivering lemonade.

(Copyright Sally Murphy)

Not sure this really counts as flipping the bad to the good – because I seem to be arguing that being cold is winter in bad, but being cold in summer is good. Can you tell I’m a summer person?

But, because I’m a contrary kind of person, I also have a pair of haiku about the pros and cons of being hot.

Hot

Sweat-drenched smelly socks

Suffocating in-school days

Unrelenting sun

 

Thawing spring sunshine

Steam rising from chocolate drink

Toasty slipper toes.

(Copyright Sally Murphy)

 

And you can see that I found the good things about being hot right in the midst of winter.

 

Incidentally, these ‘opposite haikus’ (as I call them) appeared in my book for teachers last year, and were written quite some time before that. It was only when I typed them up for this blog post that I noticed something in the syllable counts. If I’m sticking to a 5/7/5 syllable count for each haiku (and yes, I do know that true haiku do not have to adhere strictly to this count) – then  the line about the chocolate drink is questionable. It depends on pronunciation – the dictionary tells me that it definitely has 3 syllables – choc-o-late – but I confess, when Is ay it it definitely comes out with only two – chock – let – which is how it is that I have never noticed this in my own poem before.

Does it matter? Probably not – although now that I’ve noticed it, it annoys me, because I’m a stickler for rules.

But being distracted by syllable counts has taken my mind of being cold. So that’s gotta be good thing, right?

I’m off to make a hot chocolate and browse the rest of the Poetry Friday posts. They always warm my heart. The Roundup is hosted by Elisabeth – you should check it out 🙂

Some News and Some Thankyous

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The last month has been an absolute whirlwind of emotion and busyness, and several times I have sat down to blog about it and just not even known where to start. But here I am, finally trying to say stuff.

You see, the big news is that my name was included in the Queen’s Birthday Honour List, announcing that I had been awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for my services to children’s literature and education.  To say that this was an amazing honour is an understatement. You see, as I said to more than one person, it feels like I’ve been rewarded just for getting out of bed in the morning. Truly, the things I do, as both author and as educator, are an absolute pleasure to do. And I did not ever imagine that someone would nominate me for such an award for doing them.

However, it seems someone did indeed nominate me – and I still don’t know who was behind the nomination. SO I want to say thank you to that person (or persons), because it means a lot that you saw what I do and thought it worthy of an award. And I want to  say thank you too, to the selection panel who have to read and check the nominations before recommending that the Governor General endorse them.

And, because it is time for me to these thank you, I want to most especially thank my family – my darling husband (my beloved) my children (the Murphlets) and my grandchildren (the Murphlings) who inspire me to write and who enable my career in so many ways – and who tolerate my absences, and my creative impulses and my mess. And my other family – my Mum (who inspired my love of reading and writing) and my Dad (who isn’t here any more, but I know would have been pretty chuffed) and my siblings and extended family.

And my writing and illustrating colleagues, who walk alongside me, and my teaching and university colleagues and gosh, just everyone who I work with and have worked with.

But, very particularly, if you are reading this, then I want to thank YOU.   Because being a writer is actually very much made special by readers. And I want to thank everyone who has ever read and enjoyed one of my books, poems, blogposts, book reviews, whatevers.

I have received hundreds and hundreds of messages on social media, emails, letters (who even knew they were still a thing!), phonecalls and, of course, in person congratulations.  And this has been such a surprise – that so many people were happy for me and happy with me.  The most life-changing thing about this award is the fact that it has beensuch a lovely reminder of how many people care – and just how very nice people are.  So thank you!

Now I’m back at my desk, writing more, teaching more (the new semester is about to start at my university job) and trying to spread the joy of words with as many people as I can. And promising myself that I will update this blog more regularly ?

In the meantime, I have had a few people ask where the photo of the medal is. The answer is, I don’t have it yet – the ceremony will be in October. But, in the meantime, here is a very serious photo of me, dressed in pink to support my wonderful friend Sue Whiting’s book Pearly and Pig.

What I Read in June

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Oh my! June has flown by – with only one post since my last ‘What I Read’ post. I will write more soon about just why I have been so busy in June, but, in the meantime, here is what I managed to get read in amongst the busyness.

Books for Kids

  1. All in the Blue Unclouded Weather, by Robin Klein (Text, 2017).  Continuing my exploration of Robin Klein’s works. This one was  first published in 1991, but was re-released as part of Text’s Text Classics.  I hadn’t read this before, but adored getting to know the Melling sisters, and will be following up with the sequels.
  2. Whisper on the Wind, by Claire Saxby & Jess Rackleft (Allen & Unwin, 2022). I love everything Claire writes, and this lyrical offering is no exception. It is gentle, and whimsical, and the illustrations are simply divine.
  3. Seree’s Story, by Irma Gold & Wayne Harris (Walker Books, 2022). I seem to keep using the word divine when talking about picture books – but I’m afraid that I’ll keep using it, because it is the perfect word. This is the story of a young elephant taken from her mother for a life in a circus – and of their joyful reunion. Irma Gold is a fabulous wordsmith, and Wayne Harris one of my favourite illustrators, making this – you guessed it – a divine offering.
  4. Girl from the Sea, by Margaret Wild &  Jane Tanner. I was lucky enough to buy this at the recent CBCA National Conference – which meant that I could then get it  signed by the author. Margaret Wild is an absolute treasure (and was the author of the very first verse novel I ever read).  This is a stunning book – with Wild’s lyrical tale of a girl watching a family living in a cottage by the sea, and  Tanner’s illustrations, mostly in grey scale with tinges of blue, haunting and beautiful.
  5. Ninni Yabini, by Cheryl Kickett-Tucker & Tyrown Waigana (Fremantle Press, 2022). This came to me as a review copy, and I am very glad to have received it. A beautiful story of a  black swan family, told in dual languages – Noongar and English.  It is so wonderful to see that the Noongar language – the language of the Noongar people of the South West corner of Australia, where I live and work is made accessible to children, families and educators through the story. I look forward to sharing this with my grandchildren and with my education students.
  6. How to Tackle Your Dreams, by Fiona Hardy (Affirm Press, 2022).  A story about football – and sewing. A surprising combination, which works well. Homer is a footy star, but not as big a star as his mother, who is in her debut in the women’s league. Homer still loves footy but he’s dealing with the absence of his father and his passion for sewing, which is pushing his friends away.
  7. Old Fellow, by Christopher Cheng & Liz Anelli (Walker Books, 2022). A day in the life of two old fellows – a man and his dog, and their adventures, mostly in the local park.  A joyful celebration of aging, community and the bond between people and their dogs.

 

 

Fiction for Young Adults

  1. Impossible Music, by Sean Williams (Allen & Unwin, 2019). Pulled from my to-read pile as I headed out the door for a flight, and I was so glad this one chose me. I read the whole way from Perth to Melbourne and then, in the hotel, had to finish it before bed.  A moving story about facing up to the huge challenges life can throw up – for SImon, it is losing his hearing literally overnight.
  2. Another Holiday for the Prince, by Elizabeth Jolley, illustrated by Steven Bray (Angus & Robertson, 1996).  Another op shop treasure. This is a small boo, reproducing a Jolley short story with the addition of illustrations and layout making it a kind of graphic novel. I really enjoyed the format as well as the story, told from the perspective of a teen whose mother seems to do everything in life to please the older brother – known as The Prince. An excellent short story.

 

Fiction for Adults

  1. Matthew Flinders’ Cat, by Bryce Courtenay (Penguin, 2002). This had been in my to-read pile for a while, after  I bought it from a  discard pile. Not sure why I had not read this before – I always find Courtenay’s work quite readable. I struggled a little with the nature of some of the subject matter here, set against some of the unsavoury parts of Sydney life.
  2. A Kiss From Mr Fitzgerald, by Natasha Lester (Hachette, 2017). I listened to this on audio, and really enjoyed the depiction of 1920s Manhattan, as well as the story of Evie, who is destined to be a wife and homemaker for a rich banker’s son, until she realises that she wants more: to be a doctor. Cut off by her family, and pushed out by all but her closest friends, she has to fight for what she is sure is her destiny.

Non Fiction for Adults

  1. Love Stories, by Trent Dalton (Harper Collins, 2021).  I listened to the audio version of this. What a joy to listen to Dalton read this heart filled book. I thought it would be a series of short stories, but what it is is a celebration of love in all its forms, as strangers share their stories of love with Dalton, and he, in turn, reflects on what love is.
  2. Word of Dog, by Megan Anderson (Fremantle Press, 2019). I bought this one at a Fremantle Press event in 2019 and then found it last week still in the paper bag when I was moving things out of my rental unit. Oops.  Anyway, it is a quick, quirky read – though you can also dip in and out, because each page stands alone, Anderson’s dog art accompanied by little vignette-quotes from anonymous people on all kinds of things.

That brings my total for 2022 to 81 so far. Half way through the year, I’m on track for my goal. Hopefully in July I will boost that total – I am taking a whole week off my day job next week.

Poetry Friday: Winter is Here

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It’s Poetry Friday and it’s also, here in Australia, the first Friday of Winter. And boy have I been complaining about winter. I really do not like being cold. Or wet. (Unless it’s the kind of wet that comes from swimming and visiting my fishy friends, or standing under a hot shower).

I have been trying to practice gratitude and remember the good things about winter:

  1. It does not last for the whole year.
  2. It brings rain, and we need rain for life.
  3. It is part of the great cycle of life.
  4. Coats and boots. I do like wearing warm coats and nice boots.

In the midst of shivering and whinging, I had an email from the convenor of a  poetry workshop I gave last week which was a wonderful, warm opportunity to share my love of poetry with passionate literacy educators on the other side of Australia. In her email, she shared  of her favourite childhood poems. And suddenly I was warm right though – because it was an old favourite I had completely forgotten.

And, since it’s a winter poem, it’s an apt one to share today.

The Elf and The Dormouse 

by Oliver Herford

Under a toadstool crept a wee Elf,
Out of the rain to shelter himself.

Under the toadstool, sound asleep,
Sat a big Dormouse all in a heap.

Trembled the wee Elf, frightened and yet
Fearing to fly away lest he get wet.

To the next shelter—maybe a mile!
Sudden the wee Elf smiled a wee smile.

Tugged till the toadstool toppled in two.
Holding it over him, gaily he flew.

Soon he was safe home, dry as could be.
Soon woke the Dormouse—”Good gracious me!

“Where is my toadstool?” loud he lamented.
—And that’s how umbrellas first were invented.

Written in  1894, this is still such a lovely poem.  I’m glad my new friend reminded me of its existence.

Now I’m off to warm my heart a little more, by dropping in my Poetry Friday friends. Today’s round up is hosted by Karen , who, funnily enough, is excited about summer!

May Reads

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May is over and June has begun, so it’s time to look back at what I read in the past month. It’s been a chaotic month, and I feel like I’ve hardly sat down, let alone read – but I actually managed to get through 24 books. Just shows what you can do when you snatch little pockets of each day to do what you love. Here’s what filled those pockets

Books for Kids

 

      1. What Snail Knows, by Kathryn Apel, illustrated by Mandy Foot (UQP, 2022).  A really lovely verse novel about moving, friendship and family. Lucy and her Dad are always on the move, making it hard to make friends. But Lucy has Snail and, at her latest school, a human friend too. You can see my full review at Aussiereviews.
      2. Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie, by Julie Sternberg, illustrated by Matthew Cordell (Amulet Books, 2011).Another verse novel – I’ve been on a bit of a binge lately, reading as many as I can get my hands on. This one is a gentle story about facing change. When the narrator, Eleanor, hears that her beloved babysitter is moving away, she is devastated. But as she prepares for other changes, including the start of a new school year, Eleanor builds a relationship with her new sitter.
      3.  10.10 Poetry Anthology, edited and compiled by Bridget Magee. I won this book in a giveaway, which was particularly cool because I didn’t know I had entered it. It was a subscriber giveaway, drawn  from subscriber’s the lovely Bridget’s   Wee Words for Wee Ones Blog. All the poems are connected to the theme of ten – bot not all about the number ten. Instead there are poems about TEnderness, TENacity, TENsion and so on. Very clever. If you want a taste, you can hear one of Bridget’s own poems from the book here.
      4. Elmer Makes a Break, by Patrick Cook (Puffin, 1982). I rescued this from a library throw out trolley a few years ago, and it has been in my to read pile ever since. It was just the thing for a quick read on a cold May day. The humorous tale of a rat who wants an adventure, but gets more than he bargained for when he becomes a lab rat.
      5. Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne. I listened to the audio of this on a long drive in the country, and it certainly made the drive even lovelier. I love Pooh and his friends, and this was just a lovely trip down memory lane, to hear the voices done for me as I followed the adventures.
      6. Birdie, by Eileen Spinelli (Eerdmans, 2019)  Another verse novel fromt he U. S. Birdie is still dealing with the loss of her much loved Dad, so when her mother stars dating again, she is not impressed.  She is more open to her grandmother having a new boyfriend. At the same time she needs to deal with changes in her friendships. A lovely gentle story about grief and relationships and growing up.
      7. When We Were Very Young, by A. A Milne. Having read Winnie-the-Pooh, I couldn’t resist also dipping in to the rest of my collection of  Milne’s work. This was a favourite collection of poetry in my childhood, and I still adore it – it even inspired a Poetry Friday post this month – and has done before, too.
      8. The Ghost Locket, by Alison Rushby (Walker Books, 2022).  I do love a ghost story, and really enjoyed this one, set in London, where eleven year old Lolli deals with a sinister ghost lurking in the historic house run by her beloved Aunt Elsie.
      9. Tasmanian Devil, by Claire Saxby & Max Hamilton (Walker Books, 2022). My friend Claire writes the most beautiful, lyrical nonfiction ever. Yes, I’m biased because she’s my friend, but it’s true – she brings nature to life in exquisite ways. This time it’s the tassie devil, and the illustrative work of Max Hamilton is simply gorgeous too.
      10. Eleanor, Elizabeth, by Libby Gleeson (Second Look Press, 2016). Reading  Letters from Robin last month  left me wanting to rediscover not just teh works of Robin Klein, but also some of my other favourites from the 80s and 90s. This lead me to reread this one, from Libby Gleeson, one of my favourite authors for young people.  The story of Eleanor, who is unhappy about moving to the country, but finds comfort through connecting with her grandmother, whose diary she discovers and reads.
      11. Red, by Libby Gleeson (Allen & Unwin, 2012).  And another Libby Gleeson book, this time set in Sydney following a massive natural disaster. Red wakes up with no memory of who she is or why she is there. Her new friend Peri, himself homeless even before the storm, helps her unravel her past and what it is she must do next.
      12. Spi-ku:  A Clutter of Short verse on Eight Legs, by Leslie Bulion & Rebert Meganck (ill.) (Peachtree Publishing, 2021). I do not love spiders, but I did love learning more about them through this collection. Using a variety of poetic forms and accompanying nonfiction text, this is a fun way of exploring spider facts.
      13. Blubber, by Judy Blume (Athaneum, 1974). Another classic read. First published in 1974 but this was my first time reading. Still topical and accessible as a look at the impacts of bullying, and the pressures of peer groups.
      14. At the Pond, by David Elliott, illustrated by Amy Schimler-Safford (Candlewick, 2022). So much poetry this month! This one is a picture book length collection, with each poem introducing a different  pond-resident and, at the same time, moving through the day. The illustrations, with collage and paint, are just divine.

    Books for Young Adults

        1. The Black Flamingo, by Dean Atta (Hodder, 2019). Oh how I loved this book! Not only is it a verse novel, which (if you haven’t picked up on this) is my favourite genre, but it is is also just an amazing exploration of belonging, as Michael navigates his queer identity, his family dynamics, friendship and more.
        2. Roxy, by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman (Walker Books, 2021). What a ride! This book made me uncomfortable from the moment I realised it was being narrated by two prescription drugs – and yet this discomfort was the very point of the book, and kept me reading. The premise is that what humans know as drugs or opioids are really malevolent gods, and two of those drugs – Roxy and Addison – are competing to see which one can can produce a lethal result the fastest – playing with two siblings as their targets.  Confronting but very clever.
        3. Finding Jupiter, by Kelis Rowe (Walker Books, 2022).  I love receiving review copies and the way this takes me in such varied reading directions.  Ray does not want a relationship, so when she meets Orion she is not ready for the attraction she feels. Orion is also resistant, but he feels pulled towards Ray in a way he can’t explain. Their romance is rocky, but it’s the tragic past that links their families that makes things tricky.
        4. Came Back to Show You I Could Fly, by Robin Klein (Text Classics, 2017). First published in 1987, this book was just beyond my own teen reading years, so I have only ever read it as an adult, but I remember thinking it amazing in the 90s when I first read it. This reread did not disappoint. The characters of ten year old Seymour, q naïve and lonely boy, and Angie, a drug addict, and the way they form an unlikely friendship is really compelling and beautifully rendered. I wish I could write like that!

    Books for Adults

        1. His Last Bow, by Arthur Conan Doyle.  I started working my way through the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes stories last year, and this is the second last title. One to go. I am still enjoying the language and style, and (as I’ve said before) listening to them being read by Stephen Fry.
        2. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Simon & Schuster, 2021).  This was recommended to me by one of my university students, who told me is one of the best books she’d ever read. High praise, and enough o make me curious. I really enjoyed this story – a glimpse at life behind the scenes in Hollywood’s glamour years, as well as an exploration of the challenges of being LGBTQI in this community, and of love in all its forms.

    Nonfiction for Adults

        1. Ten Steps to Nanette, by Hannah Gadsby (Wavesound, 2022). I love listening to audiobooks, because it helps me on long drives, and also when doing dull stuff like housework. But there are some books that I believe should be read on audio because of the value of the author’s voice – and this is one of them. Listening to Hannah Gadsby tell her story is an absolute privilege. Not always easy,  because of the subject matter, but always riveting and heartfelt and very moving. Superb.

    2. Let Go, by Hugh van Cuylenburg (Penguin, 2021). From the author of The Resilience Project, which I read twice last year, this one is a good complement, exploring the additional challenges to resilience which the pandemic, social media and more can throw up, and new insights into van Cylenburg’s own journey.

    3. The Ballroom Murder, by Leigh Straw (Fremantle Press, 2022).  The true story of a murder that happened in Perth in 1925, when a young woman, Audrey Jacob, shot dead her former fiancé – in  he middle of a charity ball at Government House. Drawing from newspaper accounts, court records and other historical documents, this is an intriguing story.  Mine was a review copy – the book is not released until August.

  2. 4. Fathoms: The World in the Whale, by Rebecca Giggs (Scribe, 2020). Youc an tell from the cover that this is a book about whales – but it is about so much more, too. Framed against an exploration of the whale and humans’ relationship to whales, this books is philosophical, sad, and hopeful in turn. beautiful reading.  

This brings my total for the year to 68 books read so far – nearly half way to my goal which, I guess, means I’m on track.

 

 

That’s it from me, but I’d love to hear what you’ve been reading.

Poetry Friday: Stairs

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This week on a car trip I listened to the audiobook of Winnie the Pooh and laughed anew at the stories I loved as a child. I especially always love that Pooh is a poet, and makes up poems when he’s feeling sad, or glad, or just because. They are often nonsensical but always fun to repeat.

This lead me, in turn, to pick up my copies of A.A. Milne’s poetry books and revisit them. I was home alone and found myself reading them aloud, because that is what I felt like doing (As an aside, being home alone can be just fabulous for thing like reading!).

And I came back to how much I love many of those poems, but always always this one:

Halfway Down

Halfway down the stairs
is a stair
where I sit.
there isn’t any
other stair
quite like
it.

(you can read the rest of the poem, which is copyright,  here)

Why this poem? I think because, growing up, we had a big staircase and those stairs were the scene of a lot of games. I grew up in a country hotel and we lived upstairs while my parents ran their business downstairs. the stairs were not grand, but to a child they were exciting, and adventurous, and I spent many hours trying to master jumping to skip more than the bottom three, or to slide down the bannister (sorry Mum). But also, just sitting on the stairs, reading, or waiting for Mum, or dreaming.

So, it seemed this poem was written just for little me. And when I read it now I still get the tingle of rightness of this being for me, about me. Do you have a poem from your own childhood that does this – or, like me, more than one such poem?

I am pretty sure I have shared this clip before, but what’s not love about Robin the Frog sharing my favourite poem?

 

These days I don’t love stairs so much, but on my beach walks, I do need to climb down (and then, of course, back up)these amazing stairs.Photobombing dragonfly

And now I’m off to find more poetry that makes me smile, because it’s Poetry Friday, hosted today by Carmela at Teaching Authors.

 

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