Tolerance

The older I get, the less tolerant I have become. An oh how guilty it makes me feel sometimes! It's mainly a work issue for me. I feel like a bit of an outsider sometimes, in respect of not really being able to relate and talk about my interests with like minded folk. I could go on about how one particular person irritates me to high heaven but this blog is in a public domain so anyone could put two and two together......oh dear, I had better stop now! Everyone is so nice at work (in the main) so to have become almost irrational about one person is, well, irrational. So, I need to put all this negative energy to good use....and write about him/her (see, not many clues) and try and unravel how exactly he/she manages to bring out the worst in me! Not good for my blood pressure either....

Anyway, last night was productive, I read quite a bit and wrote two poems. A major breakthrough!!

Poems

I like to write poems, it's not a regular thing, but most enjoyable when I do. I love the challenge of economy with language, in expressing a mood, an occasion or, in this instance the pure pleasure of buying a new book. In this poem, I am imagining a newly published writers excitment in seeing their book on a shelf for the first time....something we can all relate to I am sure!

A new book

A glance up at shelves
laden with secrets and revelations,
turns her stomach upside down
with excitement and anticipation.

Her eyes dart back and forth
homing in on her chosen one -
the sleekest cover, a well shot
photo with appealing font.

An elegant hand at full stretch,
tips the cover forward,
parting those secrets from its sisters,
her fingers caress the stiff new pages.

She inhales, as the dry print
on virgin pages wafts past
her nostrils. Her closed lids part,
she smiles, exhales, and reads.

Finding time

It's a problem, finding time. I work a 37 + hour week, am usually in a daze from working on a pc all day, then it's home to try & go to the gym (note the word "try", it takes a lot of effort!), cook dinner, make tomorrows lunch and think about what to do with the rest of my evening. We live in a 2 bed apartment, pretty much open plan so there's not much room for peace and quiet. Since starting the blog I have discovered that having the tv on in the background (I live with a sky sports addict) is a real distraction! It sounds awful but I cherish time alone to try and do some writing. This makes me feel guilty! I need to get over this and organise my time better. Hubby would probably be happy to put the headphones on to listen to the tv, so I conclude from this I am just finding excuses. Annie has kindly pointed me the direction of where I could send my stuff, they look like just the kind of thing I like to write, so that is promising. I feel like a sloth wading in treacle at the moment, the winter weather isn't helping. Do sloths hibernate do you know?

Writing I like

I was thinking about this today. I would love to start putting some of my work "out there", but it seems the kind of things I write don't often have happy endings, and are perhaps not quite right for womens weekly magazines. So, I am on the hunt for alternative publications that might be right for my work. I thought I'd put a few poems on here, to see how they are received. I mentioned the blog to a couple of people today, the idea of one went down well! I only know of 3 people who have one, so my experience of them is limited. Any tips?

What have I done?

Ok so it's Mandy's fault. (Sorry Mandy) I just followed the instructions and got drawn in. It seems I now have a blog so I can reply to my friend and fellow writers posts on her blog! Who knows, this could be the start of something, the kick up the a**e I need to get me writing properly. Without the aid of an OU prop/course/online forum - who knows where it could lead?