Borne up and drawn in by fast becoming friends’ web of writing prompts
Writing is a unique space for me and increasingly so. My dear departed sister encouraged me to go to a writing group in Sligo, Ireland – a place full of writers and artists and all in the shadow of the poet WB Yeats. Indeed, when I first moved there in 1995, one of my early commissions as a signwriter and, it turns out, a muralist, was to paint a mural of WB Yeats on a new secondhand bookshop – The Winding Stair – named for the title poem of one of Yeats’ books of poetry – you can see me painting it here. I had studied Yeatss at school in English (Literature) which replaces the English (Creative) of earlier school years – why do they do that? I also painted a little but didn’t want to go down the road of fine art because I perceived that artists are so often groomed by galleries encouraging them to produce more of what sells rather than following their own creative wanderings. And so I became a signwriter (painted not computer-cut vinyl) where the creative input is much smaller and constrained by a brief but, I felt, more honest and more sure as a means of making a living. Moving to Ireland gave me a new burst of creative freedom as a signwriter – especially after doing the Yeats mural although some years later, The Winding Stair closed down and the subsequent occupiers of the shop painted over my “masterwork” – a lesson in the zen of attachment to earthly achievement…
Going back to the writing group, it was such a pleasure to rediscover the joy of putting words on the blank canvas of the page – I produced a slim volume of the group’s writings including a CD of the members reading their pieces – and then I discovered blogging… By now it was 2005 and my partner and I moved back to England to see more of our growing grandchildren, and as we waited to complete our stable-to-house conversion, there was no time to make friends in the community and so blogging remained my virtual circle of friendship. I belonged to a blog -site called Mo’time run by an American living in Italy, who created Mo’time as a test bed for ideas for the larger site which was his job. Sadly, the larger site was sold and Mo’time terminated and though we made several attempts to kindle a new space – it was never the same – however I still see quite a few Mo’timers on Facebook.
Then in 2020, on April 1st – I stumbled across the A to ZX Challenge and as the pandemic was taking hold, I plunged in! Each year has been differently themed and I have encountered new fellow writers as well as old friends. This year, however, writing was even more central – my theme was on the etymology of phrases and so was like honey to writing bees and I have joined another writing group – not in the flesh, but by Zoom and our facilitator is also an A to Z-er. What has been different though, is that through the new writing friends I have made (and reviewed here on my Roadtrip) I have encountered a world of other blogging challenges, written, photographic and especially poetry. Since my writing group is prompted by poems and much of what I have written has been (Free) Verse, it was like an alignment of the planets – instead of tailing off into silence after the A to Z finished, I am being tempted and indeed succumbing to all sorts of new challenges as well as writing in my group. I created the picture at the top of this post using Midjourney – another takeaway from this year’s A to Z (thanks to Misky and Vidya) to convey the sense of both support and crazy fear of falling out of control and spending my whole time writing challenge posts! So far I have engaged with Six Degrees of Separation, the Poet’s Pub and Sadje’s WDYS (What Do You See) and in the interests of Life/Work/life balance, I think that may be enough for now – things should be a pleasure and not a pressure… And then there are two novels to get back to, one finished to first draft and the other, a more serious work, with a lot of writing to go! And I used to spend a lot of time keeping abreast of the news! And then there’s the allotment – water and weed it or lose it! And then there is my partner, children and grandchildren not to mention two and a half days at work…
Here’s the thing though, within reason, the more you do, the more you fit in because what goes is the dross, the stuff that didn’t really matter, write poetry not protest seems to be where I am right now…
P. S. I have been told that I am not great at communicating, say, enthusiastic responses, that I may even be on the spectrum, but when I write, even though I may not feel the feelings whilst in the act of writing, be it poetry, prose or fiction, when I read back emotional content, I emote with the best of them, tear up – the works. So I guess writing is my medium of expression…
Lady in Read – such a great pun – and it truly reflects Vidya’s approach to her blog – it might be described as Fusion – “Lady in Red” is a western song by Chris de Burgh and it has featured in several films and both Vidya’s avatar and blog banner show her in a red dress but in the content she goes further. For example, in this year’s A to Z (she is a veteran participant), she wrote poems about people and places from India and particularly Karnatka where she grew up. However, Vidya writes prompted by many blogging challenges including NaPoWriMo which was also running in April and rather than do two separate posts, Vidya gives us a mash-up or fusion. so in My Heart Beats for Harihar, her H post, Vidya writes a poem celebrating the town she grew up in as a Sea Shanty – the NaPoWriMo prompt! To have followed Vidya’s A to Z is to take a deep dive into Indian/Karnatka culture but served up with a fusion twist seasoned with a great deal of humour…
Vidya also explored using AI for both images to illustrate some posts and also to generate ideas for post titles and you can read about her assessment of her experiments in her Reflections Post.
Shilpa Gupta chose to write Flash Fiction for her A to Z and here’s the thing about flash fiction, either you enjoy a writer’s offerings or you don’t, you find consistency rather than having to search for the rare nugget, and you keep coming back because, even though the pieces may be personal to the author, the pieces resonate for you… Shilpa delivered on all these things for me. A good example was M for Arithmetic in which a father posters the narrator to practice maths homework but is completely scathing about her exam failures. If you want to see what resonated for me you will have to read the post and find my comment…
Hannelore was interrupted in the middle of April by the sad death of her grandmother who, together with her late grandfather, was the subject of her A to Z and so she bravely presented the last letters in a compendium as part of the process of moving through grieving. The early posts, together with the rest of the month’s journey, deserve our attention.
Anne Nydam is a print artist who specialises in mostly one-colour block prints and for this year’s theme she chose to show us letters from many illustrated Abercadariums to which she brought a wealth of research and commentary. I can only repeat my comment on her Reflections post “Your posts were unique amongst the A to Z Challenge this year and I not only enjoyed them whenever I visited but have bookmarked your site to return to whenever. as I have said before, having been a signwriter and a graphic artist going back to letterpress printing at school – this was right up my street…”
So there you go – a few more of my frequent commenters reviewed – eventually I will get to some of the blogs I didn’t get too in April…
This is a review of blogs who participated in the A to Z Challenge 2023 starting with those who were frequent flyers in my Comments…
Misky over on IT’S STILL LIFE, has been posting poems accompanied by AI-generated images for the A to Z. Not only has she inspired me in my return to poetry writing, but since AI is a hot topic now, the incredible images in her posts have caused me to begin my own evaluative exploration of AI – and may I say how generous Misky has been in giving me pointers as to where to begin! Having tried creating some pictures myself, using the Midjourney bot on Discord, I still cannot begin to imagine how the AI creates the pictures. I can however, imagine the processes of Misky, the poet and I urge you to go and read and look… I should add that Misky is a multiple poster, she offers a Twiglet Writing Prompt as well as participating in many other peoples’ prompt series.
An image generated by Midjourney to the prompt “a community of bloggers around the world sharing their post“
D B McNichol is a seriously productive writer of at least 32 novels on Goodreads alone and whose perspicacity was demonstrated by the fact that she gave up the whole of April to the A to Z Challenge! Having pre-prepared all of her posts in advance, she was then free to spend at least four hours a day reading other people’s blogs 35-40 0f them, and commenting on them! Her own postswere lists of Small Delights, Simple Pleasures and Significant Pleasures which challenged the reader to consider and add their own favourites. Donna had retired from a career in IT before she even started writing books and if the effort she has demonstrated on the A to Z is anything to go by, it’s no wonder she has become a successful author – Kudos!
Deborah Weber is an old friend from the A to Z Challenge and each year she has written compelling Abercadariums of great subjects – and this year she wrote from a list of obscure colour names. Not only were the posts fascinating in themselves, but Deborah wrote in a free-association way (which she talks about in her Reflections post) rather than the more usual linear delivery. To my mind, this is not only the most preferable way of writing or talking (see my post on Alastair Cooke) but the essence of why we read blogs. A blog is not a textbook and Deborah with her free association gets my vote every time! I should say that as a sometime signwriter, specialist decorator and artist, Colours are right up my street anyway…
Sadje in her Keep it Alive blog, is another multiple-strand post-er of ideas and challenges, and although her domain name says “life after 50 for women” – her challenges and advice as well as her readers, are for and of both sexes. You only have to look at her use of Categories in the banner at the top of her site to see the variety of subjects tackled by Sadje… For her theme this year, Sadje posed a series of (challenging) questions designed to stimulate her readers to do more with mind, body and spirit – use it or lose it might be her motto…
Josna in Tell me Another (story) does just that – she shares stories about a recent visit home to India from the States where she now lives. Visits home are always a poignant mix of reminiscence and comparison with the person we are now and the place where we now reside and Josna does not disappoint. You will be transported to the sights, sounds, tastes and smells of Josna’s India as well as her more personal thoughts…
Lady Lee Manilla has been someone who once followed, has been the most prodigious presence in my Jetpack (WordPress) feed! Another multiple post-er, every day, Lady Lee has shared her poems, her photos and her life with her 1,438 followers of whom I am obviously just a recent addition! Her enthusiasm for poetry – her own and others – and the warmth of her sharing, have endeared Lady Lee to me…
I will be continuing these reviews because there are many left to describe but I have been working for three hours now and my stomach is demanding breakfast…
Another iteration (you always get four) from Midjourney to the prompt “a community of bloggers around the world sharing their post” – weird and wonderful…
Not a hard one to figure out – if a guest is rapacious enough in their appetite and consumes everything in the pantry, then one is eaten out of the house and home and forced to go out for more supplies – hopefully having evicted the house-guest. H proved a difficult letter to find suitable phrases for, but with this one, we get the chance to consider the many phrases whose origins are ascribed to the great William Shakespeare – this particular phrase comes from Henry IV, Part 2, Act 2 Scene 1. As I said under apple of my eye, another phrase ascribed to the Bard, I cannot but help wondering, sacrilegious as it may be, whether Shakespeare originated all these phrases or was simply the first to commit them to paper. The Shakespeare’s Birthplace Trust have no doubts though and have a webpage called Shakespeare’s Phrases which cites the phrase and the play in which it appears – make up your own minds…
Here are a few:-
“The clothes make the man” Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3
“The be all and end all” Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7
“Wild goose chase” Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 4
“Brave New World” The Tempest Act 5, Scene 1.
The last one gives an example of how one phrase has been propagated – Aldous Huxley, surely a man well-educated in the Classics and Shakespeare, used “Brave New World” as the title of one of his own masterpieces which has in turn become a shortcut in any article describing utopian/dystopian paradigms but for all our familiarity with the phrase now, was it in common usage since Shakespeare and before Huxley or only a quote known to the cognoscenti, the literate class? Just as we have already encountered phrases which have multiple theories as to their origins, theories which multiply faster than rabbits in the warren of the World Wide Web (how’s that for a mixed metaphor!) – so with Shakespearean phrases, only by searching all written material and all recorded word, and counting all the occurrences could we truly know the answer…
The Clothes Make the Man – Photo by Taha on Unsplash
Lastly, we have only one “H” Cant language example from Wikipedia‘s excellent article on the subject… Hijra Farsi, from South Asia, used by the hijra and kothi subcultures (traditional indigenous approximate analogues to LGBT subcultures)
Though similar sounding, Early Hours and Early Doors, are quite different in origin. The first is another example of Cockney rhyming slang whilst the other, though now associated with football commentary, has an earlier origin.
Although theatres no longer practice the Early Doors system, the phrase was popularised in football commentary and much like Back to Square One, has achieved a universality in the wider world. From this excellent blog on word origins – “Why footballers, commentators and fans say ‘early doors’, when ’early’ or ‘early on’ would work just as well is probably due to Big Ron, otherwise Ron Atkinson, a well-known television football commentator, a former player and manager now regarded as one of the characters of the sport.” However, in the wider world, Early Doors has indeed become a favourite elaboration on ‘early on’.
Early Hours is rhyming slang for flowers and is a clever reference to the fact that the flower markets in London opened very early in the morning to allow the fragile blooms to reach the shops in peak conditions. Early Doors, on the other hand, goes back to the Nineteenth Century theatres and music halls in London who came up with the idea of charging a premium for patrons to go into the theatre and select their own best positions in the unreserved areas. This is seen in modern days in paying a premium fare to board a plane at the front of the queue rather than experiencing the general scrimmage.
We all come to know the meaning of this expression at some point in our lives because it is a frequently used simile for people ignoring refusing to acknowledge the most obvious thing in a given situation, just as an elephant in the room would be hard to ignore. The origin of the expression is less well known but is from an 1814 short story by Ivan Krylov – a poet and fabulist ( a composer or teller of fables), called “The Inquisitive Man”. A man who has just visited a museum runs into a friend and is effusive about the wonders of nature he has just seen, and he enumerates them. His friend, who is obviously familiar with the museum, says to him “but did you see the elephant? (…) I’ll be bound you felt as if you were looking at a mountain.” But the first man has failed to notice the elephant – absorbed as he was with the smaller exhibits – embarrassed, he begs his friend not to tell anyone that he had failed to notice the elephant in the room.
A fable, as opposed to a mere story, consciously tries to tell us something with a special or enlightening meaning and I am sure that Ivan Krylov would be proud to know that his short story has given us a phrase which has no equivalent for its simplicity and memorability. We may talk of Occam’s Razor, or that which is Staring Us in the Face, but the Elephant in the Room wins hands down!
Lastly, today’s example of Cant (see the letter C post for an explanation or go to Wikipedia) is Engsh, from Kenya.
There are many phrases used by sailors to describe the position of ships that also, often denote relative degrees of safety or jeopardy and In Deep Water is one of them. Given that the most dangerous things that can happen to a ship are those that happen close to the shore (land) you might imagine that In Deep Water might be a safe place to be but this expression means that, in the event of the ship sinking, there is no possibility of salvaging anything. After all, in extremis, one option to save the ship, or at least its crew and perhaps cargo, would be to run the ship aground or “beach” it, but if you are in deep water off, say, a rocky cliff, then beaching is not an option…. Other positional terms include In Deep Water has changed its meaning to be almost synonymous with Out of Your Depth,(when you are swimming and can no longer touch the bottom and thus stand)but “in deep water” still somehow retains the menace of destruction eg. “The boss wants to see you – you’re in deep water!”
Which segues nicely into “Dead in the Water” – a phrase that refers not to dead people but dead ships. Certainly, in a naval ship was dead in the water it would mean that it’s masts and spars and very likely it’s steering had been shot to pieces by cannon fire and that the ship cannot move with the wind and thus cannot manoeuvre – it is a sitting duck and any crew still standing are likewise vulnerable. However dead in the water could be applied to a ship which is completely becalmed but we shall return to that with the letter “I”.
A word I used in a reply to somebody made the post today because I had no idea where it originates – Doozy. I first encountered it in a short story by Kurt Vonnegut Junior, one of my favourite writers and it seems that Doozy is an American term. In the story, the government has determined that intelligence must be equal amongst all men – and since the lowest levels cannot be raised easily, those with high IQs must be brought down a peg or two (another one I will have to look up!) and so the husband of an unremarkable wife, intelligence wise, receives regular electric shocks to the brain, eliciting the sympathetic response from his wife “You poor love – I can tell that one was a doozy!” The word stuck in my brain and I began to use it, however, because of the context of the story, I assumed it to refer to very bad things. In fact, it means “The very best of its kind” whether that thing is good or bad. This site suggests the meaning is a corruption of Daisy which was used especially in the late 1800s as a slang term for someone or something considered the best. I’ll buy that…
There are no Cant languages beginning with “D” “in the Wikipedia article.
