Reflections, realisations and resolutions

My resolution for this year was to write more poetry. I can safely say that I stuck to it very closely, writing one hundred and fifty four poems. Can I get a "whoop whoop!"? No? Okay. I won't hold it against you. Killjoy.

In terms of poetry, this year has certainly had its ups and downs. One of my creative low points has got to be writing a poem about the flexibility of eyebrows. Or those three awful poems I wrote while drunk. I shudder at the memories.

I was, however, able to write what I think is pure poetic gold (for me anyway) and entered my best poems for competitions which close early on in 2014. So I still don't know whether or not I've won. My money is on not, but at least I had the guts to enter. Before this year, I never would have dreamed of entering any poetry competitions.

I was searching for a new resolution for 2014 the entire month of December and it came to me like lightning through a clear night sky: I should speak out more. Looking back at my year, I realised that of all the things I wanted to achieve (begin learning Japanese, get back into art, write a collaboration, spend more time with my family), I never once made a move to get into spoken word poetry. The closest I came was reading some poems to my friend on the tube in a fairly average inside voice. Which, let's be honest, isn't anything to brag about in terms of a poetry performance.

2014 shall be the year I stop making excuses and claiming to want to perform my poetry. It shall be the year I actually do it. I won't let fear hold me back. I'll just go for it: seize the opportunities that come towards me with both hands. Or try really hard to, at least.

Pretend this is my diary

I haven't really written much this week. I think I got two poems and two half chapters for different stories. I'm on Christmas break until January 13th so I've mostly been catching up on sleep - and by that I mean staying up late to watch Derren Brown videos and waking up at 10/11am. I've barely felt human since last week, before my weekend trip to Bournemouth to see a couple of friends. One of whom is an undercover dance freak.

It's nearly Christmas (hooray!) so its the perfect time to mull over a Christmas-themed short story about aliens. Right? Right??

Gawd what is my life. Here, have a picture of me looking vaguely human:

Jezebel

The witch Jezebel had promised Lady Darleen that she would be pregnant within the year. After seven years of fruitless love-making Lady Darleen and her husband, Lord Barnaby, were sick of being patient. They had tried everything the well-meaning villagers had suggested. They had sacrificed an ox, given up ale for a year, invested in certain oils from travelling merchants, recited incantations over special amulets, took brisk walks as part of rigorous aerobic exercises – nothing worked.

The villagers were not cruel or uncaring towards the wealthy couple and Lord Barnaby and Lady Darleen were fond of the small country village they governed. They shared a partnership; Lord Barnaby and Lady Darleen were kind and fair and in return the villagers were happy and pleasant to one another. All the people who lived there were sympathetic when the couple's misery of childlessness grew into depression.

My favourite books growing up

It's been years since I've read (or even seen the front cover of) most of these titles. But here is a list of books I thought were simply the best things since sliced bread. Or socks. They are in a vaguely accurate chronological order.

Animal/Bedtime/Magical Stories

HarperCollins

My mother bought these three anthology-type books for me when she realised I liked reading and she was tired of going over 'So Much', 'Tickle in My Tummy' and others to me and my brothers. I read them like once a week each, and still have them SOMEWHERE in my house (probably). One of my favourite stories from this collection was about a boy who gets his teddy bear to check under his bed for monsters every night before going to sleep. Every night the bear tells the boy that it's safe to sleep. One night, the boy stays up really late and his bear falls asleep before him. He checks under the bed himself and... There's a monster there! The monster lives under the bed but isn't going to eat the boy so the bear always said it was safe. The boy felt so betrayed until he realised the monster was more fun than his bear. He didn't ever want to sleep after that.

I would have put a picture up for these books but all over the internet I was told things like "We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock", "No image available" and "Unavailable. Sorry we can't get this title, the button below links through to AbeBooks who may have this title" (they didn't). Maybe they are now a collectors' item?! I'm sitting on a (possible) gold mine.