Hello, and thank you for visiting my site. I hope that you'll return often and always find something of interest about my world and what inspires me to pick up a pen. (This is a figure of speech, unfortunately. My handwriting is terrible!) Here's what I've been up to recently...

A Tale of Two Poems

I’ve never considered poetry to be my strong point, although I’ve had a few successes over the years. My first blissful week at the Writers’ Summer School in Swanwick, for example,  came about when I was awarded the first prize – a free place – in the poetry competition that year with a quirky sonnet about friendship. To My Writing Partner can be viewed on the Stories and Poems page of this website.

WashboardpoeminTPF

However, I’ve recently learnt a valuable lesson about writing poetry for the commercial market. The example above has just appeared in print and is a heavily adapted version of a much longer poem written in free verse some years ago. I was delighted when an adjudicator at that time, a highly respected local poet, awarded the latter second place. The magazine that liked the theme but not the form requested a version that rhymed and had a conventional metre. For the free verse poem I received kudos; for the adapted version I received cash. Go figure! Up to you to decide which you prefer, of course. The former is available to read on my Stories and Poems page, should you so wish.

6 January, 2017 - Make the first comment on this story

Comment on this story

Basic HTML is allowed in comments. Avatars provided by Gravatar. Some posts may not appear immediately, and need to be manually approved - sorry for any delay.

Check Out My eBooks
Armed with a battered copy of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, Maggie Cobbett crossed the USA by Greyhound bus during the chaotic summer of 1968. The distances were vast, her budget minimal, and anything seemed possible. From camp counselling in the Catskills to bagels for breakfast in the Bronx, her first sojourn in the States had it all.
Supporting artists, or ‘extras’ as they’re more commonly known, are the unsung heroes of television and film. Maggie Cobbett recalls the ups and downs of twenty years of ‘blending into the background’.
A working holiday in France for so little? “It sounds too good to be true,” says Daisy’s mother, but her warning falls on deaf ears.
Blog Categories
Links
Live From Twitter