Tag: poetry

I rather shy away from the word ‘resolution’ at New Year and to be honest at any time of year. Being resolved is about as fixed for me as a butterfly on a flower. Knowing this tendency whilst aiming to be committed to the practice of Qi gong (which I’ve studied for years, with gaps!) I’m collecting YT links to teaching forms and recording my own days of practice with a pic quote @ my latest blog: Qi~ways.

Resolution is thus more of a gentle nudge in a positive or desirable direction rather than the crack of a whip. I also seek freshness over familiarity, and to that end propose ringing some changes to this blog’s posts.

Poetry: To advance our writings, we must of necessity follow in the footsteps of those with bigger shoes, just as we learn dance steps by standing on the feet of a pro. It’s an enormous task reading through the vast store of published poems and literature so I plan to continue more Sunday Sayings and also venture into Patchwork Poetry, which enables more focused reading in order to write:

A patchwork poem is a form of ‘Found’ poetry made of lines taken from different sources,[poetry or prose] and when assembled together they create an entirely new poem.

^{Word Wool}

Photography: By definition, my photography already has a spark of novelty for 2023 in that I’ve just purchased the Ricoh GRiii. A premium compact camera with its fixed 18.5mm f/2.8 lens(28mm in 35mm terms) which will necessitate getting used to shooting at this focal length as well as figuring out all the controls. Thus I resolve to read the manual!!

I opted for this Ricoh as its gives me back the walkabout snap options being good for street photography, holidays shots but it also copes well with landscapes, cropping, and macros on the zoom function. Although too wide-angled for standard portraits, it does fit the ‘environmental portrait’ as shown in the top monochrome image of ‘Jim’, my son’s collie mix, smiling for the camera!

Other than that, my goal is to restore my Lumix G6 LCD screen and maybe find a themed project to focus on but certainly I should filter out more photo duds and display less but best.

Prose: I hardly write any prose but intend to do more in 2023. Nothing on a large scale but I’ve been inspired by Teju Cole’s “Blind Spot”. Both photographer and writer, Cole places text alongside a snap from his travels but it is a far cry from the literal and rhetorical ekphrastic exercise of putting images into words. Rather Cole’s words are much more tangential:

Instead, Cole’s squib-sized texts are more like meditations, often lacking a direct relation to the photos. In the space between each image and its paired text, much is implied

^{Blind Spot by Teju Cole review – a writer’s photographs}

Gardening: And over at my gardening blog, 2023 will be the year I actually begin to plant the Japanesque Garden, after 18 months of planning, constructing and designing, as well as much clearing, heaving and digging.

Wishing all my readers a fresh and healthy 2023