The day outside is beautiful, but I'm stuck inside with a pollen allergy that has moved to my chest. It is a struggle to breathe, to even put on a load of laundry, so working in my allotment will need to wait.
This week was the final week of school. It's such a relief. The teachers are dragging themselves to the finish line of beach days, locker cleaning and class parties. And then the rush of graduation weekend. It's all done in one weekend here in Finland and my eldest son graduated from high school and my younger son from middle school. It's been a bit crazy for a bunch of introverts, so we're tired and looking forward to summer and slowing down.
I'm still writing, but haven't been able to keep up with my poem a day thing. I've done almost every day. Hopefully I will get back into the habit in June.
My daughter asked to read some of my love poems recently. I tried to find some that were understandable and appropriate for an eleven-year-old. Not surprising that this was difficult, but what did surprise me was that they didn't feel like love poems when I read them, though when I wrote them they felt so overly emotional.
I struggled to find one that felt a good example of how I write love poems, but I guess they all are. I don't gush or really even praise the other as there is no particular person in mind. I focus on the moment and the whirlwind of emotions I'm feeling. There is often a sense of sadness on the edges, that the flush will fade, that reality will set in. So they don't always feel like the giddy heights of love poems, but maybe the more realistic confusion of love.
I read a few of my poems out to my daughter and while she didn't get most of them, they're maybe a bit thick linguistically and not aimed at pre-teens so she was ok with that, but it did open a nice conversation for how love is such a big emotion that it's confusing and often leaves us feeling very overwhelmed. How it's important to express how we feel even if it doesn't always make sense to others. It's part of understanding how we fit into the world. If she walked away with that sense of it's ok to express being overwhelmed however and whenever we need to, then I feel pretty good about my poems.
Few publication notes: Hillfire Press has published three of my poems in their fourth anthology. I had a lovely online launch with them last week. The volume will soon be available. Order a copy, they need support to get it printed.
Pushing out the Boat has also published a recent issue with one of my poems. It's a brilliant collection of English, Scots and Gaelic writing from Scotland and around the world. I can't wait to see my copy.
The Brussels Review has also featured my poem on their website and another poem is available in their spring print edition which is also available digitally. I appreciate them publishing my work but also making it available digitally as well as in print as even getting things posted within Europe has become difficult lately.
My writing, and a large chunk of my days once my chest clears, is shifting out into the garden, so I'm writing about grass overgrown with forget-me-nots and long summer evenings.
Long live them both. Enjoy.
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