General poetic ramblings of inspiration or poignancy

Happy 2014

08 Wednesday Jan 2014

Tags

Dagda Publishing, Tipping Sheep, Tipping Sheep (the right way), Worldly Winds

Wishing everybody a health and happiness for 2014.

Thank you for your support, visits, likes and comments throughout 2013. I feel very lucky to have such kind and generous visitors to my site. I hope to be a little bit more active with my poetry in 2014, and look forward to your comments and kind feedback.

Review of 2013

2013 was a very productive and creative year for me. I was lucky enough to have poetry published by Dagda Publishing in two anthologies –

Western Haiku, and

Threads

I also released my first anthology, Tipping Sheep (the right way).

I took part in the open mic session for the ‘Off the shelf’ event held in the Sheffield Winter Gardens. It was a cold but fun day with many fabulously talented poets sharing their work.

What 2014 has in store?

February will see more of my poems appear in two anthologies by Dagda Publishing – Passages, and Ballads (details to follow.)

I am currently working on my second anthology, but it is slow going, trying to juggle work and pull together my poems into a cohesive theme – but I am getting there! Self-publishing was a steep learning curve which I don’t think I will be repeating if I can help it!

New Year’s Resolutions

I’m not really one for making resolutions as I feel if I want to do something enough, I just get on with it! However, this year I have joined the Veganuary campaign, and I am trying to be vegan for a month. It isn’t as hard as I anticipated, (already being a veggie and having an intolerance towards eggs) but I do really miss cheese!

Will I continue to be vegan after January? I doubt it, but I will be far more aware of looking at food labels and being choosier about my diet.

Hopes for 2014

My main concern is my 13 year old dog that is starting to slow down and struggle with Arthritis. I hope to keep him active, happy and pain free for as long as I can.

I am hoping that the economic climate starts to pick up. The downturn has severely impacted upon my work as an interpreter; this means I have to spend more time away from my writing whilst trying to source work. Being a freelance worker is not secure and is unpredictable in this current time of austerity.

I hope to enter more competitions, submit more poems for publishing and have more space and time for writing and blogging.

What I’m currently reading

I was lucky enough to get a few good books as Christmas presents which are on my, ‘to read’ pile.

These include,

Watching the English by Kate Fox

Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

Women who run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

What I’m currently listening to

With great sadness I will have to put away my beautiful Tzukettes CD. This has really set a festive spirit in my household, (and in my car) over the holiday period. Judie Tzuke and her talented daughters, Bailey and Tallula, sure know how to make a fab Christmas album 🙂

Santa also bought me the latest Stevie Nicks DVD which I am looking forward to watching when I get the house to myself.

I wish you all a happy, healthy and creative 2014!

Alex

😀

2013 in review

31 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by Worldly Winds in Poetry

≈ 14 Comments

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Satsuma Tears

26 Thursday Dec 2013

Posted by Worldly Winds in Poetry

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

Alexandra Carr-Malcolm, bed sit, Christmas, Christmas pud, divorce, grief, lodger, longing, loss, memories, memory, pain, poetry, Satsuma, UK poet, Uk poetry, Yorkshire poet

I am the festive lodger,

pushed from pillar to post.

Always someone else’s Christmas,

fake smiles to a congenial host.

I’m as shafted as the fairy,

stuck on an artificial tree;

outsider looking inwards,

mourning my family.

I am the bedsit teen Queen,

as I celebrate alone,

Satsuma tears and Baileys cheers,

and Christmas pud for one.

I open up your present,

somewhere you sip Champagne,

a cheap acrylic jumper,

and a card with misspelled name.

Noddy screams, ‘it’s Christmas!’

Sinatra croons away,

a miracle on 34th,

saved by Jonah’s cavalry.

I am your inconvenience,

you left when I was twelve,

destined to be a lodger,

condemned to festive hell.

by Alexandra Carr-Malcolm

Christmas in the post-War United States (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Inner Bird

21 Saturday Dec 2013

Posted by Worldly Winds in Nature, Poetry

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Alexandra Carr-Malcolm, Bird, loner, poetry, Robin, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, solitary, sorrow, UK poet, Uk poetry, winter, Yorkshire poet

Robin in the green,

camouflaged unseen,

always stands alone,

and in the summer gone.

Through arctic ice and snow,

you’re always there on show,

pitched on a handle’s fork,

whilst the gardener works.

Despite the bitter chill,

your sight brings festive thrill,

iconic feathered friend,

who stays ‘til winters end.

Solitary bird,

your song remains unheard,

hiding in the green,

camouflaged, unseen.

by Alexandra Carr-Malcolm

Photo Credit – Rotkehlchen bird/European Robin (Erithacus rubecula) from Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Suomi: Punarinta (Erithacus rubecula) Rheinland-Pfalzissa Saksassa. Français : Rouge-gorge familier (Erithacus rubecula) de Rhénanie-Palatinat, en Allemagne. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Big Buddha House

30 Saturday Nov 2013

Posted by Worldly Winds in Buddhism, Humour, Poetry

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Alexandra Carr-Malcolm, Buddha, Buddhism, Buddhist retreat, Dharma, enlightenment, humour, meditation, poetry, UK poet, Uk poetry, Yorkshire poet

Day eight in the Big Buddha House,

and all is well.

There’s jam on my toast,

and my drink is swell;

and even the rota,

says I’m free ‘til the bell.

Sat on the cushion,

meditation’s not pushin’

my buttons today,

all is calm for a change,

Mental weather is clement,

and nothing to lament,

in the Big Buddha House today.

Prostration – not frustratin’

and the bruise on my knee,

nearly gone thankfully,

and the muscles in my tum’

no longer undone;

I can launch with abandon,

then horizontal to standin’ –

not bad for an old bird like me!

Then the talks – they inspire,

and my mind is on fire,

with ideas and with thoughts,

with a passion they course,

and my heart it does swell,

and I’m leaning as well,

Yes! These things they call ethics,

are quite deep and complex,

let’s leave it at that, just for now…

Oh – the food is sublime,

as I sit down to dine.

Delia is surpassed!

Skilful cooks make repast,

and the smells in the steam,

am I sensing Tajine,

in the Big Buddha House today?

And then there’s our dorm,

floor two, number one,

where sisters in Dharma,

sleep safe, warm, and calm;

and I have to confess

though my bed is a mess,

and my corner’s a state,

we three, are good mates,

in our cosy warm dorm –

floor two, number one.

Day eight in the Big Buddha House,

and all is well.

There’s jam on my toast,

and my drink is swell;

and even the rota,

says I’m free ‘til the bell.

by Alexandra Carr-Malcolm

Raven, with her hood down, meditating. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Perfect Breakfast

30 Saturday Nov 2013

Posted by Worldly Winds in Buddhism, Humour, Poetry

≈ 19 Comments

Tags

Alexandra Carr-Malcolm, Buddhism, enlightenment, habits, humour, meditation, poetry, tea, UK poet, Uk poetry, writing, Yorkshire poet

My tea is too hot,

my tea is too cold,

my tea is too sweet,

the milk is too old.

The toast is too burnt,

it’s not brown enough,

I wanted white bread,

Oh no… not the crust!

I can’t find my jam,

the banana’s got spots,

there is no fruit knife,

the apple’s got rot!

The porridge is lumpy,

I can taste tahini,

I’ve added some milk,

and now it’s too creamy!

I’ve lost my spot,

someone else is sat there,

I wanted to sit,

in my favourite chair.

I’m trapped in a corner,

I’m sat in a draft,

I’m too near the door,

Oh! All this is daft!

I should just be grateful,

that I’m here today,

living and breathing,

the middle way.

it’s ten twenty four,

we meditate in a bit,

I stand at the door,

now where shall I sit?

This cushion’s too high,

this cushion’s too low,

this cushion’s too lumpy,

and on it goes…

by Alexandra Carr-Malcolm

English: I took this picture. Grilled cheese sandwich with white bread, American cheese, and tomato soup. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Change

30 Saturday Nov 2013

Posted by Worldly Winds in Buddhism, Poetry

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Alexandra Carr-Malcolm, Buddha, Buddhism, change, enlightenment, ethics, meditation, poetry, UK poet, Uk poetry, writing, Yorkshire poet

Will I be changed when I go home?

Physiologically within my anatomy,

the square root of all, as follicles fall,

and even my skin, the body I’m in,

will all have aged, showing signs of decay,

the reminders that say, time is passing away.

And what of my mind, what will I find,

when I peer inside, mental chatter subsided?

Still waters run deep, has the ethical seeped,

within my being, all knowing all seeing?

Will the sky like mind be more refined?

And what of my words, will they be kindly heard?

Will they help and caress, not causing me stress?

No longer frivolous, talking of trivial stuff,

but gentle with harmony, causin’ no harm today,

encouraging and pure, where less is more.

Will I be changed when I go? I sincerely hope so.

All these ethics abound, turned my brain upside down,

which connects to my heart, from which I can start,

more subtle and deeper, universal teacher.

I can put into practice, no delusion or malice,

all the things I have learned for which my heart yearns,

and Yes! – I am changing.

by Alexandra Carr-Malcolm

Gerber Daisy With Raindrops (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Retreating

15 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by Worldly Winds in Poetry

≈ 25 Comments

Tags

Buddhist retreat, retreat

Tiratanaloka shrine (Photo credit: Triratna Photos)

Just to let you know I am vanishing off on retreat for two weeks. I will be back on the 29th November, hopefully all refreshed and buzzing with poetry 🙂

You can find me on Facebook – please feel free to visit and follow 🙂

Worldly Winds Poetry