International poetry day at home
As ever I'm a day late if not a dollar short - hey, I'm in a different timezone. We're fast down here in New Zealand! So I'm pretending it's still International Poetry Day where I am.
I've been musing about this for a while, unsure what to do. I fell headlong into fandom 8 years ago, but before that I had a poetry writing jag, the second major one since my teens. Being in love with fandom put paid to that of course. I was doing a lot of trips to Aussie at the time, and I used to scribble the poems on the back of airline sick bags (the Air NZ ones were a nice plain white). I collated my "midlife" poems into a decidedly slim volume and gave it to friends and family back then, but I haven't done much else, except sometimes writing fannish poems or incorporating poems in fanfic. But I think I'll post the ones I like best here, occasionally, and I might set up a new AO3 account for them - I'd rather keep my original stuff and fannish stuff separate over there. Anyone know if it's still seen as okay to post original works to AO3? I vaguely recall a rumour that maybe the policy on that might toughen up. I don't expect anyone will read them, but it's an archive. I'd just like to archive them.
So, here goes. Many of them are a bit gloomy, but here's a lighter one. Sadly, still oh so true, although these days more from failure to get rid of stuff than ongoing accumulation.
Things
I have too many things
Books
Clothes
Disks
Junk
Things stacked on things
Things stuffed in things
Bowls of things
Things of things
Things teeter in piles, they mutter in corners
Things plot and congregate
Multiplying secretly
Broken things reproach me
Big things need little things
Electronic entrails, add-ons and doo-dads
Symptoms, not trophies, debris of addiction
Things pimped by catalogues, shop windows, television
Things have gone feral, sharp cornered, toe crushing
Things bark my shins, trip me up and assault me
Got to do something, some radical cleansing
Things weigh me down, hem me in and oppress me
I will do something, a clearance, a voiding
My home will be spare
Unencumbered
Then I will be able
To display my new things
To advantage
I've been musing about this for a while, unsure what to do. I fell headlong into fandom 8 years ago, but before that I had a poetry writing jag, the second major one since my teens. Being in love with fandom put paid to that of course. I was doing a lot of trips to Aussie at the time, and I used to scribble the poems on the back of airline sick bags (the Air NZ ones were a nice plain white). I collated my "midlife" poems into a decidedly slim volume and gave it to friends and family back then, but I haven't done much else, except sometimes writing fannish poems or incorporating poems in fanfic. But I think I'll post the ones I like best here, occasionally, and I might set up a new AO3 account for them - I'd rather keep my original stuff and fannish stuff separate over there. Anyone know if it's still seen as okay to post original works to AO3? I vaguely recall a rumour that maybe the policy on that might toughen up. I don't expect anyone will read them, but it's an archive. I'd just like to archive them.
So, here goes. Many of them are a bit gloomy, but here's a lighter one. Sadly, still oh so true, although these days more from failure to get rid of stuff than ongoing accumulation.
Things
I have too many things
Books
Clothes
Disks
Junk
Things stacked on things
Things stuffed in things
Bowls of things
Things of things
Things teeter in piles, they mutter in corners
Things plot and congregate
Multiplying secretly
Broken things reproach me
Big things need little things
Electronic entrails, add-ons and doo-dads
Symptoms, not trophies, debris of addiction
Things pimped by catalogues, shop windows, television
Things have gone feral, sharp cornered, toe crushing
Things bark my shins, trip me up and assault me
Got to do something, some radical cleansing
Things weigh me down, hem me in and oppress me
I will do something, a clearance, a voiding
My home will be spare
Unencumbered
Then I will be able
To display my new things
To advantage