sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

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.

Poetry Friday: Three Poems from the Beach

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It’s summer in my part of the world but most of my Poetry Friday friends are in the northern hemisphere,and so in the midst of winter. Last Friday there was a plethora of posts filled with snow and ice so, when I sat down to prepare my post for today, I thought it might be nice to warm my northern friends with some summer pictures and some poems from the beach.

This first one was written in January last year, and posted on the Poetry Tag blog I share with my friend Rebecca. In Poetry Tag we take turns challenging each other to write a poem incorporating whichever words we choose.Rebecca gave me: lazy, myself, print,  thousand and smell. At the time I was in the midst of a lazy summer, so that first word took me straight to the beach.

Summertime

On the beach   

I’m feeling lazy

Smell of sunscreen

Fills the air.

 

A thousand bushflies

Drive me crazy

As I make  my way

Down there.

 

I plunge myself

In cooling ocean

Feel inertia

Wash away.

 

Flies have vanished

No devotion

To watery fun

They’d rather stay

 

Beachside where they’ll

Leave their print

On backs of sunsoaked

Sandbound teens

 

Who’ve left the water

For a stint

Of games, or food,

Or magazines.

(Copyright Sally Murphy)

This next poem is new. I liked playing with short lines for the Flourish poem I shared last Friday,  so wanted to experiment with it again for this week’s topic. It seemed to fit with the playfulness  of a day at the beach.

At the Beach

 

There’s sand

and shells

and salty

smells

 

There’s water

too

so much

to do

 

Like splish

and splosh

swim

and wash

 

Build castles

moats

frolic

float

 

Throw balls

and play

stay

all day

 

Then say

goodbye

with happy

sigh.

(Copyright Sally Murphy)

This third poem is one I’ve shared before. I like it because it captures one of my favourite things to do at the beach- simply walk, with my toes in the water. I’m hoping to make some more poem videos this year,since it’s been a while since I made one.

I hope, Northern hemisphere friends, that all this beachyness  makes you warm rather than envious. I’m sending you as much virtual warmth as I can muster.

 

Today’s Poetry Friday roundup is hosted by  Jan at Bookseed Studio.

Happy New Year!

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A new year

Is an unopened gift

A letter in the mail

A crisp new notebook

A story yet to be written.

(Copyright Sally Murphy)

 

Happy new Year!  Although I have mixed feelings about New Year’s resolutions (see my post about that here) I DO feel that there is something magical about a whole new year starting, with promise of new opportunities, new beginnings and crisp, clean pages.

Because I’m wanting to start as I mean to continue, I have registered for Anastasia Suen’s  30 for 30 Challenge, which challenges participants to write for 30 minutes every day for 30 days. Although the challenge starts tomorrow, I decided that the first of January was great time to get started (I guess that means I’m aiming for 30 for 31). So, the first thing I did this mronign was to sit down at my desk with my brand new journal and write for 30 minutes. Then I put a cross through the date on my  desk planner. I look forward to doing that 30 more times, and to really get some work done on the exciting stories which I want to write in 2018.

After my writing session, I headed off to the beach for my first walk of the year. Aaaaaah. I am so lucky to live where I do.

 

So, my year has started with a flourish, which is great, because that is the word I have chosen to use to guide my year.  Flourish works both as a verb (to grow and thrive in healthy, vigorous ways) and as a noun (a bold or successful act). And of course, if you are arty at all, you’ll also know that you can spice things up with a little flourish. So, I plan to flourish this year, and, hopefully, to help those around me (including YOU) to flourish, too.

Happy 2018!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PS. Do you like the picture? This is a photo of a sign at Yokine Reserve, a playground in Perth. The blue sky behind it hasn’t been edited.

Poetry Friday: First Swim

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It’s Poetry Friday and, as the weather here starts to warm up, my thoughts have turned to swimming. I’m lucky enough to be able to swim all year round in my local heated pool, and I love that, but I really really love to swim in an outdoor pool or at the beach.

When I was growing up, we lived in the same street as the local pool. That was wonderful, but the pool was not heated, which meant that it was only open for about four months of the year. SO, it didn’t matter whether it was really warm enough, or whether the water had reached a decent temperature, on the first day the pool opened I was there. Today’s poem is about that experience, that feeling. I hope you like it.

First Swim

Not a swimming photo – since I couldn’t find one – but some flowery balls of sunshine from the garden to brighten your day, wherever you are.

Summer’s here

and I rejoice

to see the OPEN sign outside the pool.

Blue water beckons

and once I’ve paid

I dump my towel and rush

to greet my old friend.

SPLASH!

Bliss bubbles and bibbles

as I plunge into icy depths.

(Poem  and photo copyright Sally Murphy)

Do you love to swim? Or is there something else that you eagerly anticipate with the changing of the seasons? I’d love to hear about it.

Have a wonderful Friday. Today’s Poetry Friday roundup is hosted by Teacher Dance. Head over there to see what other poetry goodness has been shared on the blogosphere.

Successful Adulting

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As you might know if you visit this site regularly, is that I love to read widely and I love to write all kinds of thing heading with my life, at the same time as exploring my learnings from some difficult times I’ve been through.

I don’t yet know if any of this writing will become a book or not, but I have been enjoying the writing and have also been having fun with posting some of my random thoughts and observations on a new adult-focused Facebook page called Succesfully Adulting. It’s a mix of funny observations, serious ones, and public admission of my attempts to, as the name suggests successfully adult.

Here’s the latest bit I’ve shared on the page, a quote from the amazing Brené Brown a researcher and author who I have only very recently discovered, but who you will soon see featuring in my monthly ‘what I read’ posts.

 

If you’d like to see what I’m doing on the page, feel free, and feel free to tell me what you think.

In the meantime, enjoy the quote.

sallymurphy.com.au