I've got a few aims for this year, or for this season (that's me not wanting to be too ambitious!). I've missed the deadline for them to be New Year Resolutions, so I was thinking of tying them in with Lent. I suppose I need to know that others are simultaneously sacrificing, or struggling to develop new habits.
One of them is to get up earlier. That's one of the ones that is waiting until Lent. Yes, I'm putting it off.
Another is to read more poetry. If I want to write better, I need to read more. Especially poetry. I'm still figuring out what I like, what kinds of style I want to write in, and I have loads to learn with regards technique. I have the amazing privilege of being part of two writing projects at the moment - one is about developing work for children (using performance poetry to communicate tough topics) and the other one is doing workshops with teenagers. So very new, and exciting, and challenging - but in a good way. I'm trying hard not to be intimidated by the young writers/poets also taking part, but to instead be encouraged and to learn learn learn.
So to kick this off, here's a lickle bit from T S Eliot's 'Burnt Norton' (Part I) that caught my imagination...
"Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves
I do not know."
This excerpt makes me think of the way we too often dwell on the what-might-have-beens. I know I do. And as he says, 'to what purpose?'.
One of them is to get up earlier. That's one of the ones that is waiting until Lent. Yes, I'm putting it off.
Another is to read more poetry. If I want to write better, I need to read more. Especially poetry. I'm still figuring out what I like, what kinds of style I want to write in, and I have loads to learn with regards technique. I have the amazing privilege of being part of two writing projects at the moment - one is about developing work for children (using performance poetry to communicate tough topics) and the other one is doing workshops with teenagers. So very new, and exciting, and challenging - but in a good way. I'm trying hard not to be intimidated by the young writers/poets also taking part, but to instead be encouraged and to learn learn learn.
So to kick this off, here's a lickle bit from T S Eliot's 'Burnt Norton' (Part I) that caught my imagination...
"Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves
I do not know."
This excerpt makes me think of the way we too often dwell on the what-might-have-beens. I know I do. And as he says, 'to what purpose?'.
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