Life in Poetry reading, writing, reflecting

Life in Poetry reading, writing, reflecting
April showers bring May flowers

Thursday 24 October 2013

talking about the weather

Warm here in Toulouse today, the cloud cover is fairly high and the leaves are starting to take on beautiful colours: crisp yellow and ripe green.

Monday 14 October 2013

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/10/alice-munro-nobel-literature-prize-margaret-atwood


Congratulations to Alice Munro.
Hoping that Margaret Atwood will get it some day.

Monday 9 September 2013


back from Stratford Living Shakespeare Course. A splendid As you Like it at RST and intriguing Candide at the Swan.





poem inspired by my own hand at amateur theatrics over the years.


Theatre Magic
To bask in the limelight 
just for one night.
 Like David Jones would say : 
' a hero just for one day '.

To prance about the stage 
for one performance only. 
A year in the making. 
Summer through Winter.

To design the set, bright 
colours, soft wood and sweet- 
smelling leather. To paint the poster, 
coarse brush on rough canvas.

Learn your lines on cue. 
Melodious voice shoots 
out over the arena and bounces 
back from the far brick wall.

Take up space on the shiny, 
creaky floor-board. To fondle
a vase and set it down at the exact 
same spot, a white taped cross.

To choose your dress, satin press. 
Change the colour of your hair. 
Ruby blond, golden brown, velvet-blue. 
Pick out a new self, try them on, 
for size, one by one. Not too loose, not too tight.

On the big night, to relax under the make- up 
brush. And then launch onto the stage. 
A Chinese junk, wind in the square sail, 
taut, for a nonpareil journey.

Just enough to polish your self-esteem, 
vent your spleen until next spring


©Susan Baury Rouchard

Wednesday 12 June 2013



my roses in the Dordogne on 26th May








Wednesday 24 April 2013

reward is in the writing


Rejection and Reward (June 2009)

It was a spiffing bit of poetry.
Rhyming lines and bouncing
rhythms. It was about my wee
Alice who when just a babe,
bubbling bubbles would rock
herself to sleep.

Startling images and rich assonance
it held. Meaning seeped up
from colourful words, reverence
for darling daughter peeped
out from stanzas, beats and feet.

Oh woe that my reader should
reject this wonderful piece.
See what you're missing; if only
you could I shouted to the heavens
in Greece. Reward lies in the writing,
that's the feat !


©Susan Baury Rouchard

Friday 12 April 2013

writing buddy near Toulouse

Dear Fellow writers,

looking for writing buddies near Toulouse, FRANCE.
Welcome Marilyn.

http://glowwormcreative.blogspot.fr/

Thursday 28 February 2013

The deep by Billy Collins

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Billy-Collins-The-Deep-192133271.html