About Me

My photo
Tokyo, Japan
In 2011 I graduated with 1st class honours in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University. I lived in China for nearly two and a half years, where I was working as an English teacher. I just moved to Tokyo where I will be spending my time teaching and writing. This blog is about my experiences of TEFL teaching and living abroad.

Thursday 9 July 2009

Look! It's a Book!!

Time for some self promotion here. I self-published a collection of poetry in 2006 that is available to order online from the below URL. The poetry was written when I was fifteen and is mostly on the topic of 'relationships'. I will post some samples of my writing from this collection, feel free to comment on it! Thanks

http://www.lulu.com/content/192261

~*~

Headlines

Questions posed by modelled headlines:
What is this place of guilt and shame,
Where angels dwell but demons rein?
Where rainbows are painted in suit-statistic colours,
And peace from war we may only achieve
Through warriors departed on eternal leave.

Night-schooled mothers pause, to witness
Children cursing in the street
And men leave families incomplete.
Scandal hangs her dirty washing
In public places, for all to know
Her disease rises, as bed-notches grow.

Prisons filled with misled youths,
While re-offenders slip through the net,
They have not caught those criminal fish yet.
Futures based on controversial magpies-
Where one is for sorrow, but two brings more joys,
Leaving three pregnant girls and four bewildered boys.

God’s servants defy the biblical laws,
As priests bat for the other team
And choir girls sing of a sluttish dream-
And yet, again we hear that ink imprinted cry:
What is this place of guilt and shame,
Where angels dwell but demons rein?

~*~

Definitions of LOVE

There is no Lack of Liking it and always a Liking of Laughter as it stretches over all the Lands, a Language understood by all. It makes the Larynx suffer Loss of words, it's felt by Lads and Lasses, it Lasts for Life and is never too Late. There's always more to Learn about it, it gives the soul a Life and makes it feel Light; it Lingers in the heart, it's sealed with a kiss on the Lips and produces feelings, too many to be Listed, that can be felt after just one Look. It's said to turn one Loopy and/or Looney, it has no Loopholes and is better than winning the Lottery. It can be thought of as a stroke of Luck and is a Luscious feeling, which sometimes is confused with Lust.
Oaths are made in the name of it, its rules must be Obeyed, it is not an Object worth more than an Obol, or deeper than the Ocean. Often, it makes Ones eyes Ogle, grows Old with us and Only Once it's true, they say. Often there is Only One you feel it for, not an Ordinary feeling, but never an Ordeal; it's felt between you and your Other half and it gives Outrageous amounts of pleasure.
Very different from other feelings, it's never Vague and can supply us with Very Valuable Valour. Veils are worn at the ceremony to seal it, you Vow to keep it sacred and like a Vest, it keeps you warm at night.
Each hopes to feel it for the other and on Earth and beyond, it's one of the greatest Emotions Ever. It is a form of Education, is a Expedition to Embark upon, its Effect is wonderful and creates a greater spark than Electricity. Its strength can Embarrass the shy and make the Extrovert Ecstatic, its sweet Embrace is a Enhanced form of Endearment that's full of Energy, and can be Earthly Erotic. It is an Excellent Event, an Entirely new Experience, the amazement it brings is so Extreme and Extravagant, it's sometimes impossible to Express it in words and in the End, it is Endless and Eternal.

~*~

Emotions of a Tortured Heart

For every time I had cried,
For every time I wished I'd died,
For every time my heavy heart sighed,
For every time I ran to hide,
For every time I fell out of the ride,
For every time I kept it inside,
For every time my smile had lied,
For every time you left my side,
For every time I was lost with no guide,
For every time I washed away with the tide.
For each and every time I stood And waited for another time.

~*~

Growing Old Together

When they first brought you,
wide-eyed and inquisitive,
you were smaller than I.
For years you sat,
unable to do anything but look,
and I knew we would always
be together.

As a child you gave me
unconditional love.
Climbing higher each day
to my weaker boughs.
From there you fell,
and scarred yourself well.
Yet you bore me no ill-will,
and returned,
as I knew you would.

Teary eyes, you clung
onto me tight,
deep into that stormy night.
Screaming as you were taken
back to the house.
You returned the next morn,
to find a beam from the sky
had struck down one of
my weaker limbs,
and you cried for me.

As a tear-away teenager,
you spent nights by my side
as you felt out of place
anywhere else.
I provided you with fruit
which kept you from
your mothers dinners,
and in return
you shared with me
your fears, your hopes,
your dreams.

You showed me to her
on an autumns eve,
shortly after your
parents death.
I knew
she was the one for you.
From that instant
as the years went by,
I saw you grow up together.

I had watched you
be wed that summer.
And I reached out with my branches
to show I was proud.
It was in that summer
that the tree doctor came,
and condemned me never
to bear fruit again.
In the man stood before me
was the boy that I knew,
and the same old tears
sparkled in his eyes.

Ten autumns went by,
and fruitless I was,
but you still came and visited me.
Nearing the end of that tenth
blissful autumn, you cut me down.
Every blow that cut into my body,
cut deep into your heart.
Lovingly, you carved my carcass
into a cot, for the son you loved so,
and each night as I rocked him,
you told stories of old.

I'm here, and still rocking,
now the son of your son.
Your days grow older and colder.
Maybe one day, when my rocking is done,
I'll be made into your fire wood,
and as my life burns out,
so does that of the boy I once knew.

~*~
Welcome to my blog spot!
This is where I will be telling the world about my writing, and hopefully getting feedback on it. This blog will be acting as my 'writers diary' so I can keep up to date with what I've achieved lately (if anything) and let people know about what I'm up to. So without further adieu, let me tell you how it's all going...

At the moment I am working on two novels. They are my first attempts at a full length piece of work (so why, prey tell, am I attempting two at once?!). The first is as of yet untitled, but I call it the 'transplant' novel, as the main character has a heart transplant that changes her life. I've been writing this since Easter and have written the first five or so chapters. I write everything by hand primarily then copy it onto computer. At the moment I have the first three chapters typed up, so I may be uploading an extract from this in the near future.

The second novel I only started about a week ago and am still in that primary 'fired up' stage. I have written the first two chapters and am starting the third today and it's going really well. The main characters spend a lot of time jumping around in the beginning, so I haven't really established any firm secondary characters yet, but I'll get onto that soon enough.

The bit I'm not looking forward to both of these is the middley bit. We are often told that a story has a beginning, a middle and an end, and the bit I find most difficult is between the beginning and the middle. It's that stage where you've already had the fun of establishing plot and introducing character, but before the main drama has started yet, which makes it a bit uneventful. Sometime I think, why not just skip to the action? But this being my first full length piece, I am determined not to rush to the good bits and thereby compromising the length of it. So fingers crossed I'm not too plagued by 'writers block' before I get to the exciting bits. (What am I on about? Every bit is an exciting bit!)

Thanks for reading, I hope to post again soon!