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Sally Murphy, Australian author

Poetry Friday: Good Morning, Ray

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Last Friday, I posted about walking the dolphins. This week, I had planned to post  on a completely different topic. But, this morning as i walked along the beach, I had an encounter with a different marine animal – a stingray, that swam into the shallows very close to me feet and which I then followed along for a while, chatting away to it about the beautiful day.  So, of course, by the time I’d finished my walk, there was a poem in my head.

 

And, if you’d like to see more of Mr Ray, here’s a little video I took.

https://www.facebook.com/125397660050/videos/10158341635330051/

 

Today’s Poetry Friday round up is at My Juicy little Universe. Expect lots of Billy Collins goodness when you visit there.

 

 

Poetry Friday: I Did It

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Last Friday I posted about the Busselton Jetty and my plan to swim around it. It’s been such a hectic week that I haven’t come back to share how I went. So, given that it’s Poetry Friday, I thought I might tell you in verse:

The weather was grey

The ocean was choppy

It rolled and it swayed

But I’d planned for so long

For this one special day

When the starter said ‘go’

I was off and away.

AND
I did it I did it

I swam all the way

I did it I did it

So hip hip hooray!

 

So yes, I managed the 3.6km swim, in a time of 77 minutes and, as you might guess from the photo, I was left elated but also a wee bit exhausted. the water was rougher than expected – a storm front had come through in the days leading up to the swim, and apparently these were the worst conditions there’d been in the race’s history. But my training paid off and I stuck to my rhythm – the same rhythm I’ve tried to use in the poem. So, although I swallowed about half the ocean, I felt pretty good doing it. Good enough that I’ll be going back for another go next year.

Have a great Poetry Friday. The roundup today  will be hosted by Check It Out, so if you want lots more poetry goodness, head over there to see what everyone else is posting.

Poetry Friday: The Jetty

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Back in September and October I took a couple of long walks. Actually, I take long walks regularly, but these two were particularly special, because they were out to sea – a mile and a bit out to sea, along the Busselton Jetty.  This is a really magical walk, and well worth the time if you happen to be visiting my part of the world.

After the walks I sat down and wrote this poem, which I have finally got a round to editing, with the photos I took, into a video:

 

And here is the text version:

 

Jetty

A lovely feature of the jetty is that it has poetry displayed on it. Hoorah!

I’m a mile out to sea

But I’m not wet

The planks beneath my feet

Don’t rock and sway

with the waves

 

I’m a mile out to sea

And so is the gull

Perched on the railing

Watching me

Beady-eyed

 

I’m a mile out to sea

And down below

Dark water swirls

And swooshes

Singing ocean’s song

 

I’m a mile out to sea

And around me

Salty breeze

whispers the secrets

of places far beyond

 

I’m a mile out to sea

But in a moment

I’ll turn

And start the long walk

Back to land smiling all the way.

(Poem copyright Sally Murphy)

The reason I’ve chosen to share this poem today is because, after I did that walk, I made a decision. I was going to get training and swim around the jetty. Every year, there is annual jetty swim, and I’ve told myself for years that I would do it one day.  So I registered, and started training. I joined my local Masters Swimming group and I trained some more. A lot more. At first I wasn’t sure I could get fit enough. Now I’m feeling reasonably confident. And, if I don’t make it, there are plenty of ladders.  And I can try again next year.

Wish me luck. I’ll let you know how I go.

Have a great Poetry Friday. Please visit the roundup, hosted by Katie at The Logonauts, for lots more poetry goodness.

Poetry Friday: A Ferocious Poem

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I love challenges, and Donna at Mainly Write  set a wonderful one she’s calling Poetpourri . She asked Poetry Friday regulars to offer some lines for a ferious poem, and then collected those lines and challenged any poet who was keen to use only those lines to create a new poem. So, multiple poets using the same lines to each create their own new poem.

 

Firstly, here are the lines we had to work with, and the people who contributed the, as well as their sources::

  1. Buffy S: “ferocious women who never bring you coffee” – refrigerator magnetic poetry
  2. Donna S (me): “always leave a wild song” – refrigerator magnetic poetry
  3. Linda B: “dreaming women do art in poetry” – from her pile of poetry blocks
  4. Buffy S: “where wizards and wolves rush by in a blur of green and gold and gray” – patched together from Kate Dicamillo’s Where Are You Going Baby Lincoln
  5. Kay: “ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones” from Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five
  6. Linda M: “waking the world to a new day“
  7. Margaret S: “steam that climbs like smoke from a fire” – this was in the comments the first week, and I’m not sure if it is a comment or a line… but I’m using it! 
  8. Carol V: “fearless women reach out, connect, and find joy in life’s intertwined moments” – Connecting the word “fearless” that April had used last week.
  9. Tabatha Y: “little chest to put the Alive in” – Emily Dickinson
  10. Joy: “wear loose clothing and a smile” – from a thought and some connections
  11. Jan GA:  “I feel like there should be more stories out there for girls, and I try to tell them” – a quote from Hope Larson from the book COMICS CONFIDENTIAL.
  12. Mary Lee H: “ferocious women do not exaggerate” – from Mary Oliver’s UPSTREAM on page 109, “I do not exaggerate.”
  13. Brenda H: “make a ferocious dinner then eats masks, drips truth and saves softness for dessert“
  14. Keri L: “radical at their core” from her husband’s magazine, “Guns & Ammo”
  15. Kiesha S: “ferocious women would rather drink the wind” – a line from Mary Oliver’s (Why I Wake Early) titled “The Arrowhead”

16 Diane M: “Out of endurance, exaltation” – a line from the poem “Monadnock” by Robert Francis.

 

Now, here are the rules she set:

  1. You may break the given lines up into phrases, esp. if the line is broken into prepositional phrases.
  2. A word used in a line may be repeated elsewhere as needed.
  3. You may add or change articles (a, an, the…).
  4. You may change tenses, as necessary for meaning.
  5. If you haven’t added a line to the poem, you may not add one now. Others won’t have it to use.
  6. However, if you can create a brand new line using individual words from the given lines, feel free! Do not do that for the whole poem though – that may be another challenge on another day!
  7. Phrases should still be identifiable even though the whole line may not be in one unit still. (for example: “ignore the awful times” may be used in one place and “concentrate on the good ones” may be in another place).
  8. Remember, these are only guidelines, as it IS poetry and we ARE poets…
  9. Rules are meant to be broken.
  10. You may make your own rules if you don’t like these – and that way you aren’t breaking a rule.
  11. Oh, and if we get an unwieldy number of lines in the next week…I may change the rules, but so far, you need to use ALL the submitted lines in some way.
  12. Please copy and paste the list of participants and their lines in your blog so that each is credited, along with some of their sources for the lines!
  13. Link up here on that day also for potential extra traffic to your poem!
  14. There is no 14.  I just didn’t want to stop on 13.

And here’s how I approached it:

  1. I copied each of the lines, in the order given, into a new document, making a menatl note of phrases that jumped out at me – for me the ‘ferocious women’ was echoed by ‘fearless women’ and ‘dreaming women’, each adding a new dimension to the women rather than creating different women.
  2. I started rearranging the lines without changing them – putting together any that seemed linked or to flow into each other.
  3. I started to add in the words I’d chosen to repeat to bring the whole together – ferocious, fearless and dreaming.
  4. As I worked I felt some of the lines needed to be broken up and, of course, the initial order I’d chosen didn’t always work, so I kept moving and tweaking till I had something I felt satisifed with
  5. And, after letting it rest and giving it more tweaks, I got ready to post it. Now, here it is for you to enjoy (or otherwise):

Ferocious Dreaming Poets

ferocious women never bring you coffee

ferocious women would rather drink the wind

ferocious women do not exaggerate

waking the world to a new day

fearless women reach out, connect,

find joy in life’s intertwined moments

fearless ferocious dreaming women do art in poetry

where wizards and wolves rush by in a blur of green and gold and gray

ferocious dreaming women ignore the awful times

fearless women concentrate on the good ones

ferocious women steam like smoke that climbs from a fire

fearless ferocious dreaming women make a little chest to put the Alive in

make ferocious dinners then eat masks, drip truth and save softness for dessert

dreaming women wear loose clothing and a smile

fearless women feel like there should be more stories out there for girls

radical at their core

ferocious dreaming women try to tell them

fearless ferocious dreaming women always leave a wild song

 

(Final poem copyright Sally Murphy)

I can’t wait to see what other poets have come up with for this challenge. Pop over to Donna’s blog today for links to the other responses.

 

And, of course, it’s Poetry Friday, so make sure you visit the Poetry Friday roundup  at Beyond Literacy where Carol is hosting the roundup.

Poetry Friday: My Shadow

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It’s Poetry Friday. Hooray! In my thesis, which is (hopefully) nearing completion, one of the things I touch on is how poems made me feel as a child, and how the poems I loved and learned as a child have stayed with me. Yesterday, for no discernible reason, Robert Louis Stevenson’s My Shadow popped into my head, and I found myself reciting it. I then had to look it up to see if I’d got it right – funnily, I had completely forgotten the ‘nursie’ stanza, but the rest I had down-pat. So, of course, I thought today that this should be the poem I share.

My Shadow

by R.L. 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 sleepy-head,

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

 

 

(This poem is in the public domain)

 

And, because I missed last Friday because I was at the beach, here’s my shadow last Friday!

Poetry Friday today is hosted by Violet Nesdoly, who has chosen a perfect poem to share today. Head over to see her choice and the Poetry Friday  Roundup.

Poetry Friday: Summer Smells

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It’s Friday, which means it’s time for Poetry Friday – the first one for 2017 and my first one for a while, having had a busy end to 2016. My resolution for 2017 is to smile more, but I’m also thinking this means I should be trying to make other people smile, so I am going to try to share more poetry this year.

It’s Summer here in Australia, which means trips to the beach, swims in the pool, beautiful blue skies – I could go on. I love summer. But one thing I don’t like is the smell of rubbish bins left out in the sun. On one of my recent beach trips I stopped to put something in the bin. The smell when I lifted the lid was gross: bait, food, rubbish of all kinds. It was like the worst belch ever. It reminded me of this poem, which I wrote a few years back.

Smelly Sentry

Green soldier
standing tall
and alone.
Closed up
you seem so harmless
but still
I approach with caution.
I know
when I lift that lid
your stench
will overpower me
as you belch
last week’s fish
and yesterday’s onions.

 

(Copyright Sally Murphy 2017)

 

Gross hey? Instead of a photo of a stinky bin, I offer you this completely unrelated but pretty awesome video of a dolphin which came to check me out recently. It was a magic moment.

Poetry Friday this week is hosted by Teacher Dance. Head there later for the roundup check out the other poetry goodness on off on the blogosphere.

In the meantime, have a great Friday.

 

sallymurphy.com.au