Welcome to week 11 of my challenge to read at least one poem a week during 2023. I’m actually averaging well over one poem a week so it feels nice to be an over-achiever for once 😃😃
This week I’ve finished reading ‘these are the words‘ by Nikita Gill and for my chosen poem this week, I’ve picked this one which again, is about the fact that we are good enough.
Every Day
Is not an opportunity to improve yourself. Some days are just there for you to accept yourself and look at the clouds. This too is growth. This too is rising. The flowers do it everyday and make the world more beautiful just by being there.
So do you.
Rest today. There is tomorrow.
Nikita Gill
This has echoes for me of the bible passage where Jesus talks about the lilies in the field and that also is about not worrying too much over things. I hope that everyone can find some time to just rest and look at the clouds today.
This week I have enjoyed continuing to read through ‘these are the words’ by Nikita Gill. It seemed especially appropriate to read a feminist collection in the week that saw International Women’s Day take place.
My chosen poem for this week feels like a battle cry against all the ways that women still feel that their bodies need to measure up against some advertisers ideal.
An Affirmation My body is perfect as she is a glowing orb in the universe crafted from the hearts of falling stars forests upon forests growing across my skin rivers full of love-water flowing through my veins.
When I need to fight, she gives me iron enough to be a warrior. When I need strength, she nourishes me reminds me that I can do anything. When I need joy, she fills my head with pleasant memories. She gives me everything I need, exactly when I need it.
My body is more than the blood of a dying star. She is the reason I am a whole galaxy dancing across the darkness both in this moment and forever. Nikita Gill This is a poem for all those women everywhere who feel that their bodies are something that has to conform to someone else’s ideal.
This is what it sounds like by Susan Rogers and Ogi Ogas
I love music of all types. I’ve never learned a musical instrument other than the recorder but I have always sung in choirs and operatic/musical societies. I generally have music on in the house and it might be the local pop station or it might be a classical symphony. My tastes are quite wide-ranging so when I saw this book in the library it seemed like an obvious pick.
The author, Susan Rodgers, is a musical engineer who worked with Prince on Purple Rain as well as a range of other artists and then moved into Neuro-Science. In the book she explores how people react differently to music and some of the reasons for this.
A lot of the book is about her personal experience and that of her friends and the students that she has taught and I found much of it fascinating. It’s not a difficult read and the sections where she moves into the Scientific basis for why things happen are perfectly understandable to a non-Scientist such as myself. I loved the personal anecdotes as well as the nuggets of information such as how Frank Sinatra turned himself into the amazing singer that he was.
The book is divided into chapters that focus on one element of music such as melody, lyrics etc which makes it easy to read. I particularly enjoyed those two chapters as I think that it’s the melody and lyrics that attract most of us to any particular piece of music. I know in my case, nearly all of the pieces I love, whether classical or popular have a melody line that I can easily sing along too.
In each of the chapters, she discusses various tracks of music that illustrate the points that she is making and one of the things that I loved is that all of the tracks are available on a website. It was really helpful to be able to click on each of the songs and see how it fitted into the point that she was making. The songbook can be found at https://www.thisiswhatitsoundslike.com/songs
I’m not sure that the book actually gave me very many insights into why I like the music that I do or what it says about me, but it was certainly an enjoyable and fascinating read. As a non-specialist, I did learn a lot about how popular songs are created, how records are produced and how pop music in particular changes over time.
I would definitely recommend this for any one who enjoys popular music of any type and is interested in the hows and whys behind its creation.
This is the my second non-fiction book of 2023 and so it keeps me on track with my target of at least 6 non fiction books for the 2023 Non Fiction Reader Challenge
This week’s poetry has been from a book that I bought when browsing in Waterstone’s last week. It’s a collection of poems by the British/Indian poet Nikita Gill. I didn’t realise when I bought it that it’s actually a YA collection. I have loved the poems that I’ve read so far and will certainly explore her adult poetry too.
The book is labelled as ‘an empowering, feminist collection’ and is about all the things that the poet wishes she had been told when she was younger. I loved the very first poem in the book. It’s only short but it’s something that I could really say to my daughter (or son).
Before We Begin………..
I cannot tell you I have all the answers There are still skeletons in my closet I haven’t learned the names of yet.
Which is to say I’m here for you but I’m a work in progress just like you.
Nikita Gill
This really sums up how I feel sometimes. As a mum, I feel that I should have all the answers for my children but I really don’t!
This week I have been reading 50 Poems to Open Your World collected by Padraig O’Tuama which I picked off the shelf at the library. It’s a collection of poems that Padraig (a poet himself) has chosen which reflect what it is to be alive today and each one is has a reflection on what that poem means to him. It’s mainly quite a modern collection and most of the poets I have never heard of but I’ve really enjoyed reading the wide range of poems in this book.
50 Poems to Open Your World collected by Padraig O’Tuama
One of the poems that stood out for me was this one by Trinidadian poet Roger Robinson.
A Portable Paradise
And if I speak of paradise, then I’m speaking of my grandmother who told me to carry it always on my person, concealed, so no-one else would know but me. That way, they can’t steal it, she’d say. And if life puts you under pressure. trace its ridges in your pocket. smell its piney scent on your handkerchief. hum its anthem under your breath. And if your stresses are sustained and daily, get yourself to an empty room – be it hotel hostel or hovel – and find a lamp and empty your paradise onto a desk: your white sands, green hills and fresh fish. Shine the lamp on it like the fresh hope of morning, and keep staring at it till you sleep
Roger Robinson
I love the idea of a portable paradise, one that you carry around with you where ever you go.
Week 7 of my challenge to read at least one poem a week. As this week saw the celebration of St Valentines Day, I thought that I would choose another poem from my book of collected love poems.
There are some gorgeous poems in there including classics by Shakespeare, John Donne and Christina Rossetti. In the end, I settled on this more modern one by Neil Gaiman .
Dark Sonnet I don’t think I’ve been in love as such Although I’ve liked a few folk pretty well
Love must be vaster than my smiles or touch for brave men died and empires rose and fell. For love, girls follow boys to foreign lands and men have followed women into hell. In plays and poems, someone understands there’s something makes us more than blood and bone.
And more than biological demands for me, love’s like the wind unseen, unknown. I see the trees are bending where it’s been I know that it leaves wreckage where it’s blown.
I really don’t know what ‘I love you’ means I think it means Don’t leave me here alone.
Week 6 of my poetry challenge and I’m definitely getting to like the routine of just picking up a book of poems and reading for a few minutes. I discovered this beautiful book on my shelves and can’t believe that it’s just been sitting there for years. As it’s February, it seemed like an excellent choice for a month that includes Valentine’s Day.
This fairly unromantic poem for St Valentine’s day made me smile.
Valentine My heart has made its mind up And I’m afraid it’s you Whatever you’ve got lined up My heart has made its mind up And if you can’t be signed up This year, next year will do My heart has made its mind up And I’m afraid it’s you
Wendy Cope
Hope you like the poem too. See you next week for week 7 💗💗
It’s the fourth week of my personal poetry challenge to try and read at least one poem a week during 2022. After finishing my book of Thomas Hardy’s poems which often had a sad, reflective tone, I thought I would go for something hopefully a bit more cheerful.
I bought this book a year ago in the Waterstones half price sale and until this week, it’s sat unopened on my bookshelf. This anthology is full of poems to lift you up and keep you going when things get tough because ‘Tomorrow is Beautiful’.
My favourite poem so far is one by Jackie Kay who is a Scottish poet so it seems appropriate to choose this one in the week when we celebrated Burn’s Night. It’s also very apt for New Year being all about those resolutions that we make.
Promise Remember the time of year when the future appears like a blank sheet of paper a clean calendar, a new chance On thick white snow
You vow fresh footprints then watch them go with the wind’s hearty gust. Fill your glass. Here’s tae us. Promises made to be broken, made to last.
Jackie Kay
I love the fact that it’s OK not to keep those resolutions. Some promises are made to be broken, others will last.
Week Three of my 2023 Poetry Challenge and I have finished reading my Thomas Hardy Collection. I skimmed over a couple of the really long poems but rediscovered one of my favourites which is especially appropriate for this week which has been cold and snowy.
Snow in the Suburbs Every branch big with it Bent every twig with it Every fork like a white web-foot Every street and pavement mute Some flakes have lost their way, and grope back upward, when Meeting those meandering down, they turn and descend again. The palings are glued together like a wall And there is no waft of wind with the fleecy fall
A sparrow enters the tree Whereon immediately A snow-lump thrice his own slight size Descends on him and showers his head and eyes And overturns him And near inurns him And lights on a nether twig, when its brush Starts off a volley of other lodging lumps with a rush.
The steps are a blanched slope Up which, with feeble hope, A black cat comes, wide-eyed and thin And we take him in.
Thomas Hardy pub 1925
I just love the images in this poem; the snowflakes meandering and drifting back up, the poor sparrow being overturned and nearly buried by the lump of snow and the thin cat seeking shelter. The rhymes make it easy to read and it seems hard to believe that it was written almost a hundred years ago.
I have loved reminding myself of the poems of Thomas Hardy. Next week I want to move on to something that is new to me though.
Last year I took part in several challenges but found it quite hard to remember to update my progress in each of them. This year, I’m trying to be more organised and so I’ve created this page for my challenges where I can post my progress as I go along. I’m not sure how it’s going to work as I’ve never set up extra pages like this before so I’ll have to see how it goes.
This is a challenge that I have created for myself to help me read more poetry this year. The initial idea for the challenge can be found here
I’m taking part in this challenge for the second year. My aim is to read at least 6 non fiction books during 2023. The challenge is hosted by Shelleyrae at Book’d Out and details can be found here
I liked the idea of this challenge which is to read historical fiction from different periods in history. It’s hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words
The complete challenge will include 12 books from the following eras:
Pre 1200 [NEW] I’ve finished The Wolf Den which is set in Ancient Pompeii
1200-1499 [NEW]
1500-1699
1700-1799
1800-1899
1900-1919
1920-1939
1940-1959
1960-1979
1980-1999
2000-Present
The Future
My final challenge is actually a scavenger hunt lasting the whole year which has been created by Jordyn at Birdie’s Book Nook . It’s designed mainly for fantasy novels so shouldn’t be too hard!!!!!!!!!
2023 Release
Animal sidekick
Cool Weapon
Debut
Dragons
Female villain
Final book in a series
First person POV
Found family
Green cover
High fantasy
Hugo winner
Inspired by a culture OTHER than any in Western Europe
LGBTQ+ Main Character
Magic house
Merlin character
More than 2 women
New to you author
Over 500 pages
Pirates
POC Author
Retelling
Set on a space ship – The Immortality Thief by Taran Hunt
Space Opera
Standalone
Sword on the cover
Time travel
Title _ of _
Urban Fantasy
Witches
YA Book
You are allowed to use the same book for multiple prompts but we’ll see how I get on first before I start doubling (or tripling up). 😃😃
Wicked Witch's Blog 