Yesterday I cycled 16 miles! No wonder I was knackered: I went over to the West End and back, then into town to catch the Nanowrimo meet-up where people were doing 15-minute sprints and getting stickers; then home again to have a shower and catch my breath before heading out for the inaugural Duffy’s Music Circle which attracted a reasonable turn-out considering it was a rainy night and the first meeting. Whew! It was hard work, especially as I ran into the rugby crowd twice; first as I went home and then as I was going into town. I also got soaked in the rain.
I hope you all enjoyed Graham’s poem the other day. It would be good to have some more comments, especially if you liked it: Graham has been writing for a long time now and like a true poet, carries a notebook with him wherever he goes. His latest poem, which we’re working on at the moment, tells the story of how his working day begins and of how his commute is often interrupted by needing to write down a line or a few words which have come to him.
We all know what that’s like, as poets; having to write down an idea when it comes – because let’s face it, if you don’t, it’s gone. I had a brilliant idea in the middle of the night recently, and because I didn’t want to get up, I told myself I’d remember it in the morning.
Nope. There was no trace of it left – in fact I didn’t even remember I’d had an idea till later. Poetry is most inconvenient; it really doesn’t know when to pick its moment, as Graham’s poem illustrates.
But what’s really obsessing me at the moment, apart from poetry, is the phenomenon of compound verbs. I had a whole list of these but I don’t know where I wrote them and now the only ones I can think of are ‘to project-manage’ and ‘to open-carry.’ It’s that thing people are doing more and more often where, to avoid using a phrase (I managed a project) they contract it into a verb (I project-managed). This is horribly ugly, but also can result in linguistic contortions if they add further details, such as ‘I project-managed a project with special needs pupils.’ Ugh! Just stop it!
And in case you don’t know what ‘to open-carry’ means, here’s a horrid picture:
Ugh! Stop that as well! How can anyone possibly think that to open-carry is OK? Everyone knows it should be ‘to carry openly’!!!
Just kidding. I hate guns.
Kirk out
PS if you have a poem you’d like to see up here, send it to me in a comment.
Sarada Gray 