Life in Poetry: August 2019

Sunday 11 August 2019

#FMF, Friday 9th August 2019, AGAIN

Hello there, welcome to another Five Minute Friday post.
If you would like to know more about FMF and join this group, writing with Kate Motaung, go here
Write every Friday, Five Minutes Flat on a word prompt.
You don't have to be a practicing christian to join this group. I'm not, my beliefs lie elsewhere (see my post REWARD, February 2019). All faiths welcome, as far as I'm concerned, as long as others' convictions are respected and nothing openly offensive is posted.

again

This Week, AGAIN. Thank you Nick Hardy for the guest post.

Dubrovnik again.

The Sun crests the horizon
once again. The Moon creeps
night after night from full
to crescent, to new again,
and again, month after month.

She murders me with her gaze
year in, year out. She shot me
again on Thursday. I rise
from my corpse once more.
Freewill and I shall never surrender.

Once again, an old friend
at the other end of the phone.
Like yesterday, like thirty
years, so long ago, so far away.
Again we settle into safe companionship.

The cycle rotates, bumps
on cogs, bolts. The wheel
again takes the lead, edges
me back full circle to a haven,
my peaceful retreat, my pen and paper.

©susanbauryrouchard

Crystalised, XX, 2009, here
Pursuit of Happiness, Kid Cudi, 2009, here
Heavy Cross, Gossip, 2009, here
The Sad Song, Freda Viola, 2009, here
Sheilia, Atlas Sound, 2009, here
Dandelion, Charlotte Gainsbourg, 2009, here and here .
Hang you from the Heavens, The Dead Weather, 2009, here
Immortels, Dominique A, 2009, here
Howling around my Home, Daniel Norgren, 2013, here

Thank you for stopping by. Please feel free to comment, discuss, like or dislike, rate. And I will be sure to reply.
Have a stunning Sunday.
See you next week.

Saturday 10 August 2019

#IWSG, Wednesday 7th August 2019. Dog Days of Summer

Dear Fellow writers and bloggers.
Welcome to another month of the Insecure Writers Support Group.

Thanks to Pat Hatt for this month`s post. I`m a cat person myself, and agree that everyday day is cat`s day. They do what they want. As the Ancient Egyptians knew, they are Divinity.
On my recent trip to Croatia, as in Istanbul last summer, I observed the growing population of cats. They are everywhere. They are free as the wind; it sometimes costs them their lives, especially when newly born. No mother, no milk, no shelter. If they survive, a caress of their body and tail, a plaintive meow is enough to melt the most leaden heart. And food will be provided. Shelter, conversation and fondling follow. However, a cat will not give up his freedom so easily. Windows and doors are to be kept open, imperitively, at all times. As the French say, 'Propose and the cat will Dispose'.

if you would like to read Pat's post and be reminded of all the exciting things going on at the IWSG,
go here

and you can sign-up .

Thank you to the co-hosts of this month's posting, Renee Scattergood, Sadira Stone, Jacqui Murray, Tamara Narayan, LG Keltner and last but not least , the Ninja himself Alex J. Cavanaugh.
A round of applause for all their hard work. Be sure to visit their sites, and like a cat, brush against them with your furry tails and look at them with your theatrical plaintive eyes like Cat in Boots (Shrek).

The (optional) question this month is:

Has your writing ever taken you by surprise ? For example, a positive and belated response to a submission you'd forgotten about or an ending you never saw coming ?

As a budding professional writer, my publications are few and far apart. So I have never forgotten about a submission. The positive responses have always come fairly quickly, although always as a welcome surprise. That's how insecure a writer I have felt uptill now..
Thank's to this group and the support of fellow bloggers who regularly follow my writing, confidence has grown exponentially in 2019. After forty-five years of writing my heart and brain out, but who is counting ... better late than never ... Another heart-warming surprise. Beyond my immediate family, their is a world out there, willing to listen and enjoy. As my mother would say, 'Wonders will never cease'. To discover who these amazing people are, see my Sunshine Blogger Award post, 16th May 2019, on this blog, here .

What truly takes me by surprise is the extent of insight I have occasionnally been gratified with over the years. Sometimes, I will read a snippet or whole pages of writing and think: ' Did I really write this ? Why did it take me solong to rediscover it ?' Life and inspiration work in mysterious ways.
As Dr Seuss, would say, 'lessons have to be learnt over and over again' .... and most we learn in Kindergarten.
My guardian angel, or muse or lucky star hovers, though imperceptively, constantly in the recesses of my pen and from time to time strikes. The lightening bolt cracks open the treasure chest or the current hits the tungsten filement of the light bulb. And , as lightening, you never know when or where it will crash down next. It rarely falls on the same spot, but it happens. People hit multiple times by lightening and survivng ....

The endings don't tend to creep up unawares though. They have a terrible habit of rushing to the fore at the most inappropriate moments, and like and impatient child, raise their hand, jumping up and down in their seats, to be picked on before I've had time to finish my meandering speech.
I dream of writing like John Irving, from end to beginning; that would put a lid, from the onset, on that over-zealous young spirit bouncing about in my mind.

©susanbauryrouchard

Dis-moi ce que tu penses, L'Amour et la Violence, Sebastien Tellier, 2008 go here

Entre les lignes: clouée au sol, Keny Arcana, 2006, here

Who the fuck are Artic Monkeys, Artic Monkeys, 2006, here

Mount Wrocklai (Idle days), Beirut, 2006, here

Trick or Treatz, Metronomy, 2007, here

Hier à Sousse, Alain Bashung, 2008, here

Thank you for visiting. Please feel free to comment, like, dislike, discuss. And I will be sure to reply.
Paris, sunny with a strong breeze. Bouncy bunny clouds floating from West to East. Yesterday's rain has washed away the dust and painted in the bright colours of Nature in again.
Have an inspiring August to contribute to the Anthology, Red Wheelbarrow and countless other 'goodies'.

Thursday 1 August 2019

⌗FMF, Friday 26th July 2019, MIDDLE

Welcome to Five Minute Friday.
If you would like to join up with Kate, start-here

Today MIDDLE.

Middle English.

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales always fascinate me, even though the Middle English was hardeous at times. It transported me back in time to a place when people's preoccupations were either basic or spiritual.
The pilgrims on this, uncannily modern, road trip are endearing, funny and sometimes downright annoying. The perfect Human Beings.
I discovered these fireside stories about the same time that I visited Venice at 12 with my class. I spent that year documenting an enormous file on the Lagoon's origins, history, politics, economy and of course Renaissance Art.
I was under the spell of the earlier artists. Fra Angelico's frescoes, discovered first in Venice, then in Florence the following year with the same class. Then came UCELLO and his colourful battle fields packed with side-stories of minor characters in corners and behind the main scene. Botticelli was an allegory master who left the beaten path of religious representations to offer Nature a rightful place alongside human activities.
The architecture fulfilled my tastebuds for the Beautiful : palaces, gothic churches, campaniles. The explosion of gold and intricate mosaics encased within the Basilico San Marco.
No middle ground in Venice. Each canal, waterway, street, alley offer unsuspected treasures, amongst which I was all to glad to get lost and forget the average existence awaiting me back home.
©susanbauryrouchard

Palazzo Venice, July 2019

Paradiso by Tintoretto

Palazzo Ducale

School of Ucello, Naval Battle

The Grand Canal

Santa Maria del Salute

Basilica San Marco

the Four Bronze Horses

July 2019

Jacco Gardner, Hypnophobia, listen here

Thank you for visiting. Please feel free to comment, like, dislike, discuss. And I will be sure to reply.

⌗FMF, Friday 19th July 2019, DISTANCE

Welcome back to another week of Five Minute Friday. Write five minutes flat on a word prompt.
If you would like to learn more or sign up with Kate click here

Today DISTANT.

Distant in Space. Reach up and touch the Moon.
We climbed the mountain. Auburn butterfly hovering
over the violet clochette-shaped wild flowers.
Sea stretching away, azure transparent, clear green.
lunar landscapes islands, slopes crash into the water.
Kekrrastic rocks.
A Ryder sculpted onto the back of an Orc.
A log cabin, a deep well. Founders of the Botanical Garden
tread this path stealthily, cushioned by needle-blanketed
chocolate earth. A photograph immortalises them. Smiling
through Time.

Distant in Time. Lost to uncertain memories. The written word,
the captured image keep Time in a Bottle, to share and enjoy
full circle. Best friends at 8, lost to the passing years
and growing up. Re-connect at 54. Electrical waves bridge
an unfathomable abyss.

Distance of Emotions. When she expressed her aching feelings
and they were dismissed, made light of, made fun of,
a laughing matter. The comic story the family told over and over.
Emotions ignored, facts reported twisted into fiction imagined.
Fire ! Fire ! Wolf ! Wolf ! Burnt to ashes, eaten alive.
From frying pan to fire.

Distance of Opinions. Harmony of ying and yang. Creamy dough
of feminine flour and masculine butter. Clash of pater rostra
and questioning fila pequena. Gorge of misunderstanding : a woman's role,
a man's role versus a human being striving to survive to lead an equal,
balanced, fulfilling life.

Distance of Culture. The Hundred Years' War gathers like a storm cloud
over the Channel of my birth. Lightening strikes once, twice, again and again,
always hitting the same frail tree. You land me a blow, I get up and stare you
down defiantly.

Distance of Manners. Je fais fie de vos conventions. They are chains
and I am not a slave, nor a caged bird. My wings are delicate, engineered
to fly up, up and away like that beautiful balloon of my dreams.

Distance of Character. My genes have spoken, my likes, my dislikes are my own.
The battles I fight serve my survival and the bliss of loved ones.
If you do not wish to dance in my circle and take my hand, be gone with you.

The Distances have crept up unawares. The bridges that we thought were made
of stone have fissured and crumbled. The arches have toppled and stunned us dizzy.

I have lost a friend. You have severed a tie, imagining your unease is at the origin
of all your problems. I am but the tip of the iceberg of your own making that
you are intent on ramming your head against.
Turn your wheel away, and stir clear. The wind will once again fill your sail and carry
you towards clement lands.
I am content to share my hard-fought ice with my friends the penguins, polar bears
dolphins and whales. Basking in the clear air and rainbow skies.
©susanbauryrouchard.