Sharing a Personal Mythology

I'd like to say spring is properly here in Finland, but experience has taught me that it may still be premature. We had 20cm of snow on Tuesday, though it took only two days to melt. The roads were a disaster because I and too many others had already changed to our summer tyres. I was luckily on a school strike, so stayed home. Today it's up to 11C and we've had sun all weekend, so hopefully we're moving in the right direction. 

I've been able to work in the garden and allotment this weekend, so I have those dusty, scratchy hands gardeners get which is a good and bad feeling. I love getting back to work and planning for the new season, but I hate the dry cracked skin. And the sore back. I've been building raised beds over the last few years to avoid lots of digging, but even just bending over to weed hurts now. It's no fun getting old. 

GloPoWriMo is almost over and I've managed to write a draft of something every day of April. A lot of it is dross, but I spent 20 minutes or so every day writing, so that's worth celebrating. I no longer struggle to write something, it's just trying to find a way into the theme or to write something I like that is the difficult thing now. I have a pile of interesting drafts and bits of poems to play with once this month is over. 

In some ways, I like that part best, to try and push my original idea into something that stands on its own. I often know what I'm saying, but sometimes it becomes wrapped in symbolism and images that others don't understand. I have my own personal mythology and vocabulary, certain words and images mean specific things to me. Some of the images make sense or are easy to figure out, but often readers won't get what I'm doing, so I need to broaden my ideas and make things work without me explaining them. 

Part of the process is adding and chipping away at my poems, playing with form and theme, another part is sharing with my writing group to see what they get and how close it is to my original idea. Or to see if I'm happy with their alternative readings. Often I am. 

I think the personal language is for myself. I feel my poems are an internal conversation that I sometimes want to share. I could be working out a dilemma or having a moan or rant or just playing with memories or wishes. If I decide to share the poems, I want them to work without me, but I don't mind if my some of my personal references are missed if the general idea of the poem still works. 

I hope the sun is shining for you. Enjoy.

More GloPoWriMo and Writing Off Topic

The snow is for the most part gone. The piles where they dump what they clear off the streets will be around for months, but out and about there are only a few miserable, grit-covered piles on the side of the road. My croci are making an attempt at popping up. The long days mean that my tulips and alliums are growing a hand's breadth a day. It won't be long before the grass greens and the flowers are blooming. Once Finland decides on a season, she's serious about it.

I've had my job confirmed for next year so I won't have to worry about that over the next month and a half. Usually, they wait until the last week, so big relief. And I've signed the contract for my summer job, so I might be able to afford to take the kids on a break in the summer. I'd like to go to Ireland, but the loudest voice is shouting for Scotland. I'm also cool with that. It's nice to start thinking ahead a bit, instead of worrying. 

I'm still ploughing ahead with Angela Carr's Songs of a Pagan Place course. I've managed something for every day this month of GloPoWriMo. Some have been crap, some have really surprised me and some have potential. It's satisfying to press send on whatever rough draft I've managed. 

Though the course is about Irish mythology, I love how my mind takes weird leaps. For the Wooing of Etain, I wrote about James and Nora Joyce, for the Battle of Moytura I wrote about a nightclub. I just read all the texts, the poems, listen to the music and then just roll everything around my head and let the first words that pop up take the lead in my notebook, even if it makes no sense. I scribble there until I see something forming and once it feels like I have a direction, I start writing on the computer as it's easier to move things about.

For the Hound of Culann theme:

a dog to fill in the blanks

a reason to come home after work
a reason to walk out 
when it all becomes too much

I'm never bothered if I go off-topic, I enjoy how the mind finds a way of saying what it wants when you give it free rein. It's often how I find out what I want to write about, what topics are niggling at me. Sometimes I get stuck on writing the same thing over and over, but it never lasts. I find focusing my writing on a subject I feel I need to approach often restricts me, the writing seems forced. Allowing ideas to flow freely brings the most interesting results. 

I've been pleasantly surprised this month by the topics I've stumbled on, but also the emotion of my writing: unexpected anger, bitterness and grief. Not always places I want to go, but it's good to give them a bit of space to see what develops. Sometimes it's touching a wound I thought healed, but maybe I need to face it one more time before stepping away. Writing helps me do that. 

Today's poem from the course that I really enjoyed is Robert Duncan's Childhood's Retreat. It seems fitting for the beginning of spring. Enjoy.

Brightening into April - GloPoWriMo

Spring in Finland. There's a sense of the mood lightening, but we've just been hit with 20cm of snow. It's supposed to warm up next week, but I'm not holding my breath. I am changing my winter tyres on Monday, so I am whispering a few words to the weather spirits to stop with the snow.

I'd forgotten it's GloPoWriMo, Global Poetry Writing Month, or NaPoWriMo, even though I've started Angela Carr's writing prompts course, A Pagan Place. I've managed to write something every day, even though I'm back to work. The course is brilliant, based around Irish mythology, but the prompts include music, other poems and stories often inspire something totally unconnected. I don't expect to continue to write every day, but I like having the prompts for the days when I do get a chance. 

In today's prompt, I especially liked this poem by Mahmoud Darwish though my writing was inspired by the Big Country song In a Big Country.  I don't usually listen to music when I write, but have been stuck on a Big Country loop today. 

My writing group Helsinki Writers has produced its first anthology of members' poetry and short fiction. We're still figuring out the technology and formats, but we're very proud of the writing. We've done other smaller activities such as writing poems for events and recording our work for and with other organisations, but this was completely our own project and, to be honest, it was difficult to organise and produce. Those who did the work were unpaid and put in a lot of hours, but we're happy with our first attempt. Please check it out. 

Another bit of writing news, my Finland-inspired poetry collection Invocation Against Winter was short-listed for the Cinnamon Press' 2025 New Voices Award. Congratulations to all the finalists and winners. I don't usually try competitions, so it was nice to be recognised. It's also encouraging since I'm still sending out my collections to poetry publishers. 

I need to go shovel my drive and soak up the bit of sun we have today. Enjoy.