Poetry Friday: Lunacy

July 15, 2016 by Sally

I’ve been on the road for over a week now. First I flew to Adelaide for a conference of English and literacy teachers, and now I’m in Wagga Wagga for a conference of children’s literature academics. Tomorrow, I fly home, and, while I love travel, I’m ready to head back to my family.

Anyway, last Sunday I attended a session presented by Alan Wright, a teacher and poet who seems to love poetry as much as I do. The session was packed with poetry and poetry ideas, but one form that he mentioned looked like a lot of fun, and the next day I found myself writing them in a cafe.

I’m talking about lunes, a poetic form which consists of just three lines – the first one including just three words, the second one five, and the third three. The last line should also try to be a surprise or a twist. You can see Alan’s explanation of the form here.

So, I had just been for a walk along the river in Adelaide, admiring the river, the bird life and the sights, so I had plenty of material to write about. What I didn’t instantly realise is that I had enough for a suite of three linked lune, ad with a bit of a nod back to last week’s Poetry Friday post.

So, here goes, complete with pictures (and a video).

Swan on Torrens

A morning walk

Admiring the beauty all around

Chased by goose.

Chased by goose

Wanting his own special souvenir

From this day

Goose

From this day

I will love only you

My beautiful selfie.

Adelaide Salfie

Today’s Poetry Friday roundup will be hosted by A Year of Reading. Head over there to see what other poetry goodness is happening across the blogosphere.

A Cautionary Tale of Birds, Birds and More Birds

July 11, 2016 by Sally

This is a tale with a moral and I feel inclined to tell you the moral first: be careful what you wish for.

See, I’m in Adelaide at the moment and a few days I took a rather pleasant stroll along the Torrens River, admiring the surroundings and the black swans, including this beauty.

Black Swan Adelaide

So, this morning was a little cold and blustery but I really wanted to visit the birds again, so off I went.

I’d just got to the river when I started spotting birds. First there was this swan, huddled up against the cold wind.

sleeping swan adeliade

Then this shag, which was doing duck dives (shag-dives?) under the water.

shag adelaide

A mudlark flew in front of me, and I could hear parrots in a nearby tree. I had this sudden idea that I would try to photograph as many birds as I could, and blog about them. There’s my wish.

Further along the bank I could see two pelicans also huddled up against the wind, and I wanted to get them on camera, so I wandered towards them. But, before I could get close to them, this happened: goose attack!

I think I managed to placate the goose, and did get a shot of my sleeping pelicans.

sleeping pelicans

But then I realised I was being chased again:

It was funny but also just a little bit like being in the movie The Birds. There were swamphens, and coots, ducks, all following me. so many of them! And it was then I remembered that I’d wanted to see lots of birds so I could blog about them. Wish granted: in a bit of an awkward way.

Later, I walked into the city, thinking I was away from the birds. But, as I sat on a bench to get my breath, a speckled pigeon and a banjo-playing busker united to give me a laugh.

So maybe, morals aside, I’ll still go looking for birds (and other things) to take photos of and blog about.

Life is good.

Poetry Friday: Salfie

July 8, 2016 by Sally

It’s Poetry Friday and I’ve been thinking about selfies: you know, those photos people take of themselves. I got a new mobile phone a couple of months ago, chiefly because I wanted a better camera – and gosh I’ve had fun snapping all kinds of things on my walks, my excursions, and at home.

Like lots of people, some of the photos I take are of myself – and I’ve coined the term Salfie (a bit punny, but there you go). I share these photos on social media, and text them to family and so on, but I always double check that I’m happy with the shot, and am quick to delete those I don’t like. It’s one of the wonders of digital photography – the ability to take dozens of shots and simply delete the ones we don’t like rather than waiting till after the film is processed, as in the not-so-0ld days.

Thinking about this self-editing (or Salf-editing) lead to today’s poem which, since it’s about photos, I’ve made into a Photostory.

Have a great Friday. This week’s roundup is at The Logonauts.

5 Minute Promo: Day 5

July 5, 2016 by Sally

Gosh. It’s Day 5 already. July is whizzing by. and, hopefully, if you’ve been following along, you’ve been busy spending a whopping 5 minutes of each day promoting your book(s). If you haven’t, just twenty minutes (give or take a few) will bring you up to speed, ready to tackle day 5’s task which is (drumroll please)…

5 Minute Promo #5

Set up a Pinterest account. Yes, you’ve got it, I want you to join another social media platform. This is the last one, I promise (for now!). So, after you’ve read my few words, head over to Pinterest, sign up and you are ready to Pin. There’s simple instructions on how to get started here and instructions on how to set up a board and start pinning here. You might extend your five minutes and set up a board about your book. Here’s one I’ve set up for Sage Cookson’s Sweet Escape here.

Already on Pinterest? Your five minute task is to make sure your profile and account is up to date and, once that’s done, use the rest of your time to pin two new pictures to one of your exitsing boards. Easy peasy. Feel free to follow me, Sally Murphy Author, while you are there.

Pinning is easy and fun. Here is a sample of things I’ve pinned from this site:

A quote with photo – and, of course, my web address so people know to visit me.

And:

A poem I wrote, added to a photo I took and again with my URL and twitter handle.

Poetry Friday: A Story Tree and a New Book

July 1, 2016 by Sally

It’s Friday which means it’s Poetry Friday, which is always exciting, but this particular Friday is extra exciting for me because it’s also the release day (book birthday!) of my latest book, Sage Cookson’s Sweet Escape. More on that in a bit.

First, though, a poem. When I walk around the lake close to my house there is a lovely grove of paperbark trees in a swampy bit at the back of the lake. I often stop and admire the trees, and feel like they are watching me back. Paperbark trees are amazing, in that their bark really is like paper – and it sheds like rough cut pages. When I was a kid, I used to collect pieces and write on them. Here’s a photo of one of the trees, which I took during a quick lunchtime walk this week – in between showers of rain, which made everything damp and shiny and heavenly-smelling.

paperbark

I came home and had to write about that tree. Here’s what I came up with:

The Story Tree

Hello tree

I wish I could read

the stories

etched deep

in your sepia paper.

Are they tales

of what you’ve seen

what you’ve heard

what you’ve felt

since you first drafted yourself

here in the swamp?

Or are they fables

of what you’ve imagined

might lie in other tree-libraries

in far flung places?

(Poem copyright Sally Murphy, 2016)

It’s kind of apt that this week’s poem is about stories because, as I said, today I’m celebrating the release of my latest book, Sage Cookson’s Sweet Escape.

Cover Sage Cookson 1

I just can’t enough of looking at the beautiful cover! This is the first in a series of adventures, where Sage travels around Australia – and even overseas – with her parents, who are television chefs. Wherever they go, something always goes wrong, and Sage is at the center of fixing it. In Sweet Escape, the family visits a chocolatier who, it turns out, isn’t very pleased to see them. So far the book has only been released in Australia, but it is available online here.

Have a great Friday. I know I’m going to. Today’s Poetry Friday Roundup is hosted by Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference.

Poetry Friday: Dolphins

June 17, 2016 by Sally

I’ve spent a lot of time walking lately, and have several favourite places where I can walk and watch dolphins at the same time. One of them is a place called The Cut, where the Australiand estuary meets the Indian Ocean. When I was there a few days ago there were at least a dozen dolphins, busily fishing, and also catching the waves that were breaking just off the end of the cut. I drafted a poem in my head as I walked, at the same time I tried (not very succesfully) to capture what I was seeing with my phone camera. Unfortunately, the phone just can’t zoom enough to really do justice to the magic happening on the water – and the dolphins, when they jump, don’t let you know in advance so you can get your timing right 🙂 Still, I thought I might match the poem with some of my shots.

At The Cut

So many dolphins

You can see them right? About three in this shot.

catching fish

They splash and froth while they’re fishing. Cool to watch.

catching waves

Look closely – there are two dolphins INSIDE the wave, having a ride.

catching air.

(If you watch right to the end you’ll see the dolphin jump out of the wave)

And me,

on the beach,

catching my breath

Cut Selfie

as I try to catch it all

on camera.

I tried and tried to et a selfie with dolphins in the background. But every time I clicked they dived.

I tried and tried to get a selfie with dolphins in the background. But every time I clicked they dived.

And here’s the poem without all the interruptions: