I've been drinking too much coffee and tea as I've been off work since Wednesday due to the snow, ice and bad driving conditions. It is very frustrating not being able to work and slightly unnerving but I'm hoping to be back on the job on Monday. Yesterday and today I've been wearing two pairs of socks and wellies when outside. The King Arthur Trilogy by Rosemary Sutcliff has arrived and I read Curious Wine by Katherine V. Forrest the other night.
On the plus side I have written two new poems, a 32 and a 38 liner of free verse. I found myself greatly influenced by the snow, the arthurian legends and raw emotion in composing these. Today I'm going to work on a short story that is unfinished. I have about 1000 words and would like to get another 1000 done!
Winterlight is a poem by Connolly that has at its heart some very personal meaning for the poet and the poetic voice she has is very strong. In winter the sun's rays hit the northern hemisphere at an oblique angle which means that the same amount of solar radiation has to be spread out over a larger area, I fink. Now I am also wondering what are the months of winter, are they November, December and January or December, January and February?
The River Thames was frozen sometimes between the 15th and 19th centuries. This makes me think of Orlando by Virginia Woolf, which is just an outrageous and wonderful book:
Instead of taking the road to London, therefore, they turned the other way about and were soon beyond the crowd among the frozen reaches of the Thames where, save for sea birds and some old country woman hacking at the ice in a vain attempt to draw a pailful of water or gathering what sticks or dead leaves she could for firing, not a living soul ever came their way...
Hence, Orlando and Sasha, as he called her for short, and because it was the name of a white Russian fox he had as a boy - a creature soft as snow, but with teeth of steel, which bit him so savagely that his father had it killed - hence, they had the river to themselves.
pg. 18 Orlando, Virginia Woolf.
pg. 18 Orlando, Virginia Woolf.
very intense passage, and my you are quite busy, writing away! i can barely come up with a post!
ReplyDeletei think the winter months should include nov - feb.
hmm yea but that's four months? Yea I am doing well at the moment but finding the mornings much better to write in, I get distracted and ants in my pants at night, thanks for comment :)
ReplyDeleteI'll go for the Nov,Dec,Jan option.
ReplyDeleteAnd oh, how I used to love Rosemary Sutcliffe! Haven't read her for years, you're making me yearn.
Congratulations on the productions.
Have you seen Sally Potters film of Orlando? Wonderful scene at the end where Orlando hands the camera to her daughter...really empowering feminist stuff - Fred would hate it!
ReplyDeleteNo Niamh I haven't but I will look it up, imagine the ice scenes would be wonderful. Go and get one of her books then Titus, she actually wrote a lot of them which is good for us :)
ReplyDelete