Well, so I had this idea I'd do NaBloWriMo this year, as November is almost upon us and I need a bit of a spur. Then I googled it and discovered that this year it's October* and therefore half over already! However, I reason, there is nothing to stop me posting every day in November (except November 6th when I shall be away without internet access) if I want to. Watch this space.
I am feeling lost and unhappy today as the wind whistles down the chimney, and we eat L's birthday chocolates, and I wait for someone to reply to my email enquiry about the first remotely possible-looking job in months. Even though it's 40 miles away. But it is a children's counselling job, and these are thin on the ground, and it is only 13 hours, which is about what I want and presumably means only making the journey twice a week. Shame the money's rubbish, but what can you do? Some money rather than no money is the opposite of rubbish, whatever that is. Fresh, useful, desirable. I decided I'd go into town this morning and write in the library. I walked down, carrying in my head the names of two authors whose books I'd like to read, so I could check the shelves for their works while I was there. I got to the library, browsed the relevant sections. No books by either James Kelman or Alice Thomas Ellis. Then I browsed the seating accommodation. Three round tables with people sitting at them reading papers, typing on laptops etc, two big sofas in a rather dark area, a string of desks, which in my mind's eye I had pictured as at least half just little desks you could sit quietly and privately at to write. No. All equipped with computers, all in use as far as I could tell. I left. I went and sat by the canal as it wasn't too cold. I wrote a small sad autumnal fragment. I met my friend C who seemed small and sad and autumnal. It was nice to see her. Then I walked home again.
Drowned leaves float in the dark canal
yellow, gold, brown and green.
Dry ones blow crisply along the towpath.
In a puddle at my feet are mud and rotting leaves.
The train works its way along the valley.
Over the canal bridge I glimpse dark red
and the curve of the still green hillside
as the wind picks up something light and dry
and slaps it into the back of my neck.
*Footnote - ok, there's NaBloWriMo which is October, and there's NaBloPoMo which is indeed November or any month you like!!
7 comments:
I have also written a small, sad autumnal fragment, Fire Bird. I was at a poetry workshop with Mimi Khalvati the other day. She was saying how she wished people would bring their small fragments more often.
It's NaBloPoMo? Blimey, so it is. Sounds rude, though.
Duly corrected! There's something called NaNoWriMo and that got me all confused!
Yeh, I like those fragments. Many of my best poems are fragments ;-)
Actaully just checked again and there is also NaBloWriMo - entirely confused now!
OK, as your ultimate small (though not as small as I was), sad Naplopomo nerd, since I do it every year as my poor and wearied readers know, it's still November and always will be. Once the official Nablo site was set up, the folks who did it seemed to feel the need to further publicise and justify their existence by issuing a monthly themed blog-every-day-about challenge, for anyone who felt like doing it, the Red Room and various other places do something similar. But the proper month is still November. Most people don't even sign up with the site officially, they just do daily blogging anyway, and November's quite a good time as a lot of us feel we need a bit of a spur just about then.
Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month: Nablopomo is National Blog Posting Month) predates it, and I think wasn't even originally internet-based, but was started in schools and libraries and suchlike, and you set yourself a daily wordcount target on writing a novel. Zhoen and Jean have done this some years, I think. Thankfully I have no plans to, ever.
I love your little fragment of autumn leaf, and wish you well with the job.
weirdly tho there is also NaBloWriMo - a kind of NaBloPoMo copycat - google it!
Um... how about the little-known NowBloMe? HA!
I am an avowed non-joiner. I realize that some people find being a member of a group, organization, board, club, etc. meaningful. I am just not one of those people.
The only thing guaranteed to make me NOT do something is to get involved in some situation where I am in any way committed to or tied down to doing that thing.
Look up "contrary" in the dictionary. That's my picture, right there.
don't think you have to join anything M! just decide to blog every day for a month!
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