Poetry & Prose Round-up: ‘Tis the Season

Tell me, who was it that stole my year?
I’ve blinked, and now November, is here
Bringing with it cold and misty days
With fireworks setting the skies ablaze
– Victoria Welton 3rd November 2015

Welcome to November and this month’s poetry and prose round up. With National Poetry Day and Halloween amongst many other significant dates during October, it has been quite a month for poetry. I was lucky enough to get involved with a friends wedding and was asked to write a reading for the ceremony. They are not religious people and wanted something more about the relationship and being together. With a little help from my other half, I came up with ‘The Building Blocks of Marriage‘ which he was asked to read. It was very well received and the Registrar suggested that we have it published. This has sparked a bit of an idea for me so please watch this space!

There have been so many wonderful pieces of writing this month that it is really hard to choose so let’s start with National Poetry Day. This took place on 8th October and the theme was ‘light’. It was interesting to see that there were a few takes on this. Lisa at Lisa’s Life wrote the enchanting poem ‘Autumn Light’ and I found the poem ‘Autumn’s Fire’ from Rosie at the blog Eco-Gites from Lenault absolutely captivating. My co-editor Maddy from Writing Bubble shared her usual brilliance in Limerick form and Lorraine from The UnCheshire Mum not only wrote a great poem entitled ‘Reading with Kids’, she also presented it fabulously too. Laura from Raising Elves shared a gorgeous poem about the gift of receiving – perfect for any time of year. A poem from Lucy at The Parent Game not only recognised National Poetry Day but she also took Baby Loss Awareness week into account with the touching poem ‘Remembering Jack’.

With all it’s beautiful colours, there is plenty to write about when it comes to Autumn. Sara from Mum Turned Mom, Johanne from Fifty-Something Fruit Cake, and Writing People Poetry all summed it up perfectly in their own ways.

Maddy, my co-editor, also runs the linky ‘What I am Writing’, had the opportunity last month to meet up with a few of the writers who regularly link up with her. I look at both of our linkys as a kind of long-distance writing circle so it was great that they had the opportunity to get together.  A number of her linkers are regular bloggers making their way in the world of writing a book. It is NaNoWriMo, where the challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. Johanne at Fifty-Something Fruit Cake and Nikki at Nikki Young Writes are just two of the bloggers who have both signed up for this and I wish them every success.

Of course, a BritMums poetry and prose round up wouldn’t be the same without the poems written from a parenting perspective and there were some corkers this month. One of my favourite writers of this genre is Pickles and Pords who seems to sum up parenting in every piece she writes! The fabulous ‘Bookends to My Day‘ and ‘A Partly Eaten Pear‘ are just two from her collection. Claire at Life Love and Dirty Dishes summed up the wet school run in a take on the song from Travis and Therese from ERFmission wrote a twist on the important subject of car seat safety whilst Maria at Collecting Moments put together a poem about a typical mum’s working day.

As previously mentioned, with NaNoWriMo upon us, I thought it would be appropriate to share some pieces of writing which have captured my attention. Firstly, Antonia Chitty at 38to39 writes a piece entitled ‘Artist’. Something I would like to see more of. I found the post that Rebecca Ann Smith entitled ‘The Courage to Go Dark Places’ completely fascinating. Tackling any subject in writing is hard enough but when it is a difficult subject too, well, that is one I am full of admiration for.  

Finally, I think it is a good thing sometimes to stop and look around a bit. To quote Ferris Bueller ‘Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it’, so the piece ‘Why I Write’ from Glasgow Dragon Fly really did resonate with me.

That’s it from me this month. Maddy is back with you in December so all it remains for me to do is wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! (Was I your first? Good!).

About Victoria Welton

Victoria is a forty something Mum to Grace and Rex, partner to writer and actor Ross and lives in the beautiful countryside of Somerset. A blogger since 2012, she has been writing poetry and lyrics for years and has been lucky enough to perform two of her songs on stage. You can find her blog at Verily Victoria Vocalises. From there she runs a poetry link ‘Prose For Thought’on the first Thursday of every month. She is also a professional photographer, having started her business on her return from maternity leave.

• Mail
|
• Web
|
• Twitter
|
• Facebook
|
• More Posts(25)