The Wet Dark Slips of Gold

Wet, windy and dark, we're properly into autumn, but it's been so delayed this year which hasn't been a bad thing. The lingering heat is very welcomed. The leaves are starting to turn, maples first and then the birch. My garden covered in gold flakes that I will have to rake and rake, but I will never stay on top of them. 

Seasons cycle and I fall into the same routines, with my gardening and in the house, my moods. Even in my poems, I find myself caught up with the same images, the same thoughts. The geese leave depresses me, leaves falling are beauty but an ending. The cold is sneaking in. I rake and prune, tidy the garden for hibernation, trying not to think of the next season. Trying not to count the seasons that have passed and the emptiness of uncertainty of the season before me, but the certainty that they will follow the same rhythm. I try to capture the positives of the moment, focus on those slips of gold. 

I'm still only really writing on the weekend, so trying to see the positive of that. Starting one poem a week is good, submitting once a week is good. I was playing with images this week in connection with my poems, maybe something I can use if my book is ever published. Things have slowed up at my publishers, so I'm guessing everything has been pushed back again. 

I've been playing with combining photos that I've taken and adding lines from poems.  I'm not very artistic, but I do love to take photos. The act of collaging multiple images with words is something I've never tried before and I am enjoying it. I have about 5 pieces so far. The group that hosts our writing group meetings has a regular call for art for its window space, so maybe I could aim for posters to hang as a display. Then once I have a book in my hands I could use them for a reading.  

Here's one I've posted with these lines on Insta:

Thi claik are gangin awa,
arrows lowpin aff,
takin a daud av mah hert
jist like they dae ivery year.

I'm enjoying playing with them for now.

Publication news after a dry spell:

Two of my poems are appearing in the new issue of Aimsir. It was lovely to be included and the editors worked with the writers to get it just right. It looks amazing. Best of luck to them.