lisa hannah

Resurrection

Integrity

Vehicle

Risk

Electrical

Expanding

Clairvoyant

Started a play almost a year ago and have come to a stand still.  Have a doctor's waiting room/office and the first scene but don't know what to do next.  Central character has been introduced and there is some dialogue with the nurse but no other strong characters or plot....too interested in the layout and props.  Help!

February

Loneliness of a longdistance runner - vivid sense of place and historical context.  Borstal is fleshed out as the narrator runs to escape his confinement and fox the Governor.  Narrator that you buy into.  Simple language and direct style.  Three ice cream rating.

Kennedy's Children five ice creams.  Well drawn, credible monologues.  Distinctive voices from the period when Kennedy was assassinated in the US.  Vietnam soldier is the most prominent and surprising, as he writes to his mother and reveals his drug use, lack of control and loss of conscience.

January

My first books of the new year are The King of Capri and Why be Happy when you could be Normal by Jeanette Winterson.  Loaded with colour in the case of the King - beautiful illustrations to accompany the moral.  And the autobiography exploring the intricacies of healing, self love and the power of parents.  Five ice creams for Winterson overall - three for the children's book and five for the memoir.

This poem is a vent

that draws the killer gas

                                   away from your attic,

seals the damaged pipes

with

sweet

peas

brings paradise through the kitchen window

red red popping

geraniums

In view of all the celebrations I tried to decide on my favourite book but just ended up with a list .  Here are some of  the books that have had a lasting impression ... Sons and Lovers by D H Lawrence, W H  Auden's from The Witnesses, Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Collected Anne Sexton poetry, Painted Woman by S Woolf, The Bone People by Keri Hulme, Women who Run with the Wolves C P Estes, The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolfe Don't Look Now by Daphne Du Maurier, Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, You Get so Alone some times by Charles Bukowski, Medea by Euripedes, Raymond Carver's What we talk about when we talk about love, Brotherhood of the Grape by John Fante

I've just started working on a play, trying to move out of poetry.  Dialogue is coming along reasonably well but I'm struggling to make anything happen.  Devices are coming through but finding it tough to decide what is at stake for the characters.

Just finished Flight of the Falcon by Daphne Du Maurier.  Full of suspense and pictures of old Italy.  Vespas, palaces,  myths and a woman dead on  church steps.  Spectacular.   Couldn't have predicted the ending.  Well worth a read.

So, more snow for the city and a Eukelele to play with!  Big plans to learn this year.  Want to play the Laurel and Hardy, By the Light of the Silvery Moon.  Anyone with tips, please send them.  Have not musical talent whatsoever.

Zoetrope

Ting Huan

fed you hot air

and made you a spectacle

high up

where paintings rotate,

beautiful translucent

And today, cylinder

they mount you on a spindle

like Sleeping Beauty

and finger you

from static to rapid,

arguing about your first name.

The Greeks opt for the wheel of life

ζωή - zoe, and τρόπος - tropos,

but others hurl, soul taker

and Daedalum,

the Devil's Wheel,

forgetting that what matters most is magic.

Your first whirl thrills the dancer

clumsy in the first Richter,

adagio until you gain speed;

fouetté en tournant

fouetté en tournant

fouetté en tournant.

Equus is the same in the manege

ready diagonals,

awaiting the spin like a whip;

two inch thoroughbred

poised to walk, trot, gallop,

trot-gallop.

The others, await your interest:

Tomfoolery ball balancing

Professor Crumble's hat passing monkeys

pirouettes stored in an ornament

tickets for the Baboon Theatre

and the acrobat forever falling.

The final 46 poems chosen for the anthology.  Hard going, since I only liked four a few weeks ago. 

Really pleased with the final selection and the photo cover looks great.  Will upload it shortly. 

Next project is a collaborative one.  Want to put a couple of poems to music and work with a local artist to interpret some in colour.