October is my month, my favourite month. Autumn in full swing, brazen colours and spice. Wet and slowing down. I bake, I cook, I begin to build a nest to hibernate in. It's also our autumn school holiday, so I've actually been able to do all those things which is more difficult when I'm working.
October is also #scotstober month. Scotstober is a challenge to learn and use a new Scots word every day. Here's the Twitter post for this year. I love it, some are familiar to me, and some are new. I have done various takes on the challenge, sometimes finding poems that use the word, other times writing my own few lines. This year I'm doing the latter and creating a poem using some of the words. I can't keep up with all 31 words, but it's Day 22 and I have most of a poem written.
As with most of my Scots poems, I prefer to use words I've heard in context or am comfortable with. Some words in the Scotstober challenge are older and not used much, so they don't feel right in my poems. So as I'm bringing this together as a poem, I'm changing some words to suit me. I'm grateful for the inspiration Scotstober brings.
Here's my Scotstober posts from my Mastadon and Twitter @grimalkingerry accounts.
Day 20 and 22 - ablow and glower - below and to stare angrily.
ah hunker doon ablow thi storm,
thi glowerin cloods
Day 13 fuil - a fool
a fuil thinkin
at thi year birls back on itsel
swallies its ain tail
ah micht hae growed ruits
but ahm no staundin still
Day 11 - marra - marrow
in mah marra ah ken this endin
it faws frae mah een,
frae thi birks an thi lift
an it faws tae me
tae find mah new beginin.
Day 7 hunker - to stoop or to submit to one's circumstances
hunkerin doon aneath thi storm
bieldit but waws an a ruif
arnae an acceptance o hame
Day 6 ettle - to try, to strive
ahm ettlin tae no sing thi same thrain,
but thi rain an its pebbly sklyter
drouns oot mah will
Day 5 faur - far
mah vizzie flits faur aff
intae thi next saison
when gowd dees in cauld an banes
ruggin at thi braes
Day 4 - stamagast - astonished or disappointed
ahm stamagastert at thi leafs shift
ilka October, ilka year
thi claik lik a skelp av thi clock
Day 2 - doon - down
ahm fawin doon
wirds ah cannae unnerstaund
lik stanes in mah shoes
Day 1 - fain - happy or glad.
ah cannae pertend tae be fain
tae see thi snaw ootline thi trees
So I am writing, which I haven't really been doing lately. Not a lot, but a little bit as often as I can. However, the poems I've been working on haven't done too well when I've workshopped them with my main writers' group and another smaller online group I've joined.
Sometimes I bring poems to workshop when I know there's something not right and I can't quite figure it out. A few sets of new eyes, often those who don't write poetry themselves, can help to unravel the problem.
There's always a big pause after I read, but I'm used to that as poems can need more time to be digested than stories. But with one poem recently, the silence was longer than usual and weighted with the feeling of 'we don't get it' that I sometimes get when I read to this group.
That's why I brought the poem, I was afraid it's too dense or obtuse, that the connections I've made are too close to my own thinking and not as obvious as I'd like for a public poem. So I get as much feedback as I can and then take it home and work on it. This particular poem has gone to the group twice and is still not hitting the mark.
It's harder to get that dead silence when you think the poems are done, that they work. I had that happen in the online group with a poem I love and think works. It's not a subtle poem, I thought. There is an added layer if you know the book mentioned in the subtitle, but I didn't think it was necessary to the understanding. But they're not getting it and I now am debating whether I need to edit the poem and make it more obvious or hope that it's not as hidden as the readers suggest.
I always tell the people I teach and other writers in writing groups that in the end the piece is your own, you make the changes you want. This doesn't always apply as fully when you want to get published, especially if you're working with an editor. The poem or story is leaving your side, it has to be able to exist on its own without follow-up questions.
But you also don't want to spoon-feed the reader. I, at least, want them to work a little, to read closely, to make connections, to problem-solve the work. If they don't immediately get it, will they move on to the next poem in the magazine or collection and never give that poem a chance? Or will they slow down and do another read to find the gem you think you've written?
When do you draw the line and either say I'm not changing my poem or give in and make it more accessible, but lose your feel for what is right with the poem? When do you write for your audience?
Enjoy what's left of your October.
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