All change - again!

A year on. And what a year.

I now live in London, and work at The Poetry Society.

I still haven't had a collection published, and still struggle to fit writing in. But now that London feels more like home than it did in the first flush of moving back in September, it is weedling its way back into my routine.

London is a place. I mean, it knows it's a place. I'm enjoying its identity and busyness, cycling to work in the rain and its complete lack of anything really really cold (so far) this winter. I even swam in an outdoor pool the other day! In Covent Garden! Who knew.

Anyway, it's nice to see you again. It's good to be back. It feels like a little bit of home I can take with me wherever I go... so here's to reinstating this blog as part of my routine, too. Yes. Here's to that.

Konnichiwa!

Ogenki desu ka? I'm getting ever more excited about Japan, even though there is still much to do at work. So much more to do, in fact, that I'm not entirely sure I'm going to be able to fit it all in. But we fly on Friday! Kuukoo niwa dooyatte ikeba ii desu ka?

I appear to be taking four cameras with me.

I am getting my hair cut on Wednesday for the first time in, uh, at least eight months. It's just a trim. JUST A TRIM. I am made inexplicably uncomfortable by hairdressers. Even though I've had the same hairdresser for years, now, I am embarrassed to be recognised by her along with the realisation of how long it's been since she last got hold of my locks. She asked me last time, even, who had cut my hair last, as if she was trying to catch me out in my infidelity. Sampatsu ga hoshii desu.

Sumimasen. Watashi wa nihongo ga hanasemasen.

Arigatoo!

Rejected.

But only by one publisher so far. I still have my fingers crossed. (And I'm okay with it. Honest.)

Not long now until Craig and I depart for Japan. We booked before the recent events, of course, but have decided to go anyway as a kind of show of support and solidarity and trust. We're flying into Kansai airport near Osaka (which has been changed from Narita, Tokyo) and this is an airport built on created land in the sea, which may be an experience in itself. As well as Osaka, we're visiting Kyoto, Nara (for my birthday) and (hopefully) Tokyo. I can't even begin to imagine what it's going to be like over there, so mostly, at the moment, I am excited about the flight. I think this is my brain's way of making sense of the trip, but I'm embracing it anyway. Craig doesn't think I'll be able to sleep (I think he's wrong..) and so will be exhausted upon arrival and will need much rest before embarking on adventures (...but he may be right). But at least, by then, I will have experienced the screens.... in the BACKS OF THE SEATS! (perhaps a nap upon arrival will do).

As well as an exciting trip to write about, I have also been inspired today by a friend at a writing project I'm involved in (Well Versed - working with teachers to aid their teaching of creative writing to children) suggesting that I try translating German poetry into English. I'm not sure about this suggestion, as I find it hard enough to fit English poetry-writing into my everday routine at the moment, but maybe there's something in it. Durs Grünbein, who I heard reading at StAnza (where I was also reading this year!), is an amazing German poet that struck a chord with me, but I had never heard of him until I saw him read (and Don Paterson read the English translations). How do you find out about foreign authors not published in the UK? Durs Grünbein is, in translation, and I hadn't even heard of him. What about those who aren't? A puzzle.

I have taken to walking everywhere in Vibram Five Fingers. My feet feel stronger. I feel like it makes me more atuned to what's going on around me, more attentive to the detail of things. Always good for writing, I think, to have that extra sensory thing going on. There is a lot of broken glass around; the other day I ran underneath a flitting bat at dusk; my core needs more strength. I have also signed up for the Great North 10k and the Great North Run, and will be doing both barefoot style. Perhaps this, or more particularly, the physical slog of training for this, will inspire some running poems - I don't think I've written one yet..

Nanopowders and Assembler Breakthroughs

Reading about science stuff in order to inspire poems is a joy. I got a book of Modern Science Writing for Christmas, and should really get around to reading the books on Quantum Physics I have, because there's nothing more spectacular to write about. I'm really looking forward to the nanotechnology-themed workshop I'm attending tomorrow. It should be brill.

In other news, I haven't been writing much because of how incredibly busy life seems to be all of the time. I really need another project to inspire time prioritisation - but I can't help feeling that if I make time to write every day, it will mean not being able to read the Guardian every day, and I take a lot of pleasure in that, so it will be a shame. There's not much left to give, though. And I don't even have kids, or dependants, or any other practical responsibilities outside of work! I don't know how many writers do it at all.

Oh, it is Elevenses! How quickly this spectacular changing of the seasons and of time has crept up.

I haven't been writing very much, hence not much posting. Christmas lead-up is just so busy busy, isn't it?? So much making to do, and baking to do, and enjoyment to have. Needless to say, 2011 brings creative challenges and some more goals my way. Here's to at least getting my work on a publisher's desk in the next couple of months...

Almost at an end.

But hopefully this doesn't mean the end of productivity!

It's been brilliant having some dedicated time to think about my writing - and also having the space to spread 45 poems all out over the floor without having to move them to go to sleep or let other people use the space. I've been wandering over them clutching a cup of fresh coffee and speaking them outloud to the pond. It feels very indulgent to walk about in socks in my warm little cube, pondering the best order for my poems to go in, and editing ones that aren't quite working, and taking some time just to look and watch through the two sets of french windows. I saw a woodpecker yesterday, a great spotted woodpecker I think, and some sort of bird of prey swooping very low over the site today, flustering the resident crows and jays into an awful lot of noise.

It's going to be hard getting home and having to go back to work - though talking to the other writers here makes me realise how lucky I am to work where I do. It's amazing what people have to put up with in order to make space for time to write, and I feel disproportionately privileged to be where I am, so at least that's nice. There are so many hours in the day that could be spent writing, though, and that's a difficult thing to lose now I've realised I am actually capable of sustaining creativity for a prolonged amount of time.

Saying that, when left to my own devices in the evening the other day, I did go to bed at 10.30pm. 10.30! Ha... that's very early indeed. I think it's got something to do with the lack of noise and telly distraction...my, how I haven't missed telly! (Though I am looking forward to catching up with tonight's Strictly, Casualty, and Merlin. And this week's Holby City. Oh dear. I shouldn't have started thinking about it.) Radio 4, however, I have missed. The radio I brought with me doesn't like to find radio stations, so to stop myself having to listen to white noise, I've been downloading Radio 4 podcasts... and not enough programmes have podcasts!

Anyway, yes. Going on a retreat is a marvellous thing to be able to do, and I would recommend it to anyone who writes/paints/sculpts/draws but who doesn't normally have the time at home to pursue it for a number of days. Even staying this one week has improved my poems no end - especially with Polly's guidance and encouragement - and made me much more confident in what it is I'm trying to say. And much  enthused about the possibilities for saying it. And, perhaps most importantly, almost convinced that other people might be interested in hearing it.

So, I'm going to go back to it for the rest of the day, and try to write a poem on the theme of 'naked' for a zine I'd like to be involved in. There's been a lot of editing and reading aloud, but not that much writing this week. This is good, as it's what I was aiming for, but it would be nice to have a couple of new poems to take away with me too. Wish me luck!

I am here. I am writing. I have run.

So things are going pretty well, really. I've had my first meeting with Polly and it seems like my work has enough going for it to carry on... and that I've already been doing all of the usefully organised things like entering competitions (Picador Poetry Prize... fingers crossed) and sending work to magazines and collating work into pamphlet as well as collection form. I'm still not sure how to progress in approaching publishers, but I think it means being very selective and reading their back catalogues (more than I already do) in order to find a place where I think I might fit in, should they choose to take me on (fingers crossed). This is opposed to the scattergun approach to submissions, which I think can work against you.

There are just so many other super-dooper poets out there. It is a little alarming to think of all the other people doing scarily similar things to me and keeping their fingers similarly crossed for exactly the same things. It's a wonder any of us gets anywhere, really.

The cube is a super place to sit and work, anyway, and highland cows keep wandering past my window, drinking at the pond or ripping up great mouthfuls of grass with their surprisingly powerful tongues. A duck had a little fishing expedition on the water this morning, too, and I'm sure I can see frog noses or something popping out every now and then. There are a couple of beautiful jays flying about as well. Just enough excitement to keep me from going mad with isolation, but not enough to distract me from the creative pursuits which brought me here in the first place. Excellent.

My first frost of the year was experienced this morning, and I made myself run out in it in order to get the full experience of being present in my surroundings. I think it worked. Today has been my most productive so far, though I have a niggling feeling that I'm coming down with some sort of chesty cough. More fingers crossed for that one, though they're crossed for the negative rather than the positive this time.

Oh questions. Poemy questions.

Okay, so when I decided to go on a Fielding Programme retreat, I thought great. Some time away to work on my collection. I'll have all my poems, and I'll edit all the ones I don't hate, and something will emerge. I do still think this, but it's dawning on me how much work editing actually is - and why I go to such seemingly great lengths to avoid doing it, without even realising until hindsight kicks in. I am more than a little daunted about sitting in a room with Bookbook and 'putting a collection together'. I actually have no idea what this actually, minute-to-minute, involves.

Also, I have questions. Questions that I know don't really have definitive answers. Like, what's the deal with adding new poems? When is it too late to add new ones, which haven't had as much time as the others to settle and mature? Does it run the risk of becoming disjointed, if you keep old ones as well as adding new? Does anyone's voice really change enough for anyone but the author themselves to notice? Should I just save new ones for the next collection? What if I want some of the poems to be gathered together in subject-matter in a pamphlet-length collection? Should I try and get something like this published before a collection? Is it okay to have poems in both?

I'm sure Polly will be able to help with these questions, but for now I feel like I'm about to leap into some sort of poemy abyss of indecision. I guess I'll have to have a good go at discovering my own answers to these questions next week, even if it's just for the sake of getting my money's worth. I am taking my running shoes, and my swimming costume (in case there are any tempting-looking lochs and half-decent weather) for physical, worthwhile thinking-time distraction. And my camera, for non-related creative distraction.

And Teach Yourself Writing Poetry - just in case.

Contemplation.

Hello!

Here I am again, full of apologies again, but this time for a much bigger gap. I have been contemplating what to do with this blog, as it has recently come to my attention that some competitions and publications see previous publication of poems on a personal blog as disqualifying them from consideration. This is a problem, as I'm sure you can imagine, as there's no point in writing a load of poems and then not being able to send them anywhere (not that success and acceptance is usual, but you can't live your life so pessimistically that you don't take these things into consideration!)

So. What to do with a creative blog that I can't really post poems on any more? Yes. Well. This is the question. As you can probably tell, I haven't actually come up with an answer to this dilemma, so here the blog remains.

I am going on a retreat at The Fielding Programme in a week or so, so perhaps I could blog about the process of trying to put a collection together whilst staying in the beautiful surroundings of Cove Park?

Perhaps you would be interested in hearing of my new barefoot running addiction? No? Can't say I blame you. (My new shoes are the coolest though. Really.)

How about I ditch it all and you follow me on Twitter? (@sophiefbaker). Hm, I don't like that idea. 

I think the creative process could be interesting for me to write about - mostly because I struggle with it a lot - and really, that's what this is about, isn't it. Self indulgence. So that's what I'm probably going to descend into, with the occasional poem or notes. I hope that's okay.

It's been wild.

And the aftermath of winning an award has been extremely strange. I've been in Culture Magazine! And I'm in it again! And I've bought a netbook (Bookbook to its friends)! And I'm going on an Arvon course! And I'm going to the Fielding Programme for a week in October!

And yet, and yet.. the writing is still going too. Miraculous, non?

And I know I haven't shared any here, but it's all getting a bit crazy, so I'm not sure what to make of my poems at the moment. Clearly my own opinion of my work is worth virtually.. nothing. I never expected to be in this position... yet here I am. And it is still as embarrassing and marvellous as the minute I found out.

I promise I'll post some soon.

Promise!

Noodley noodley noodley noodley noodley

I have just been reminded of how much fun this is to say. Try it. Go on. No-one's listening, I promise. In fact, keep saying it, over and over, until you get lost in a brain loop cul-de-sac and can't get out. Fun, innit!

More people should do with this poems. In fact, next time you read one you like, make sure you read it aloud to yourself; try a 'poetic' voice, then your normal voice. Try emphasising the line breaks.. then the rhymes (or resonances).. then nothing at all, and just saying it as if it's something you're just saying.

Do you like poems? Try this: Poem-a-Day. Does what it says on the tin. With really good ones. You might find one you want to read to the room on there.

There was an Alice in Cumberland party last Friday. I was dressed as a Momerath. Not that you could tell. Those there are my legs on the left.

Readings readings...

Well May was obviously a quiet month after the splurge that was April, but here I am back after doing a real, actual, live reading at Free as a Bard at the coast (Trojan Rooms, Whitley Bay) last weekend. Needless to say, I survived the experience - it's been a long time since I got up and poemed in front of an audience - and live to write another day.

Ah yes, writing. Well, I don't have anything new to share with you at the moment, as I've been concentrating my creative efforts mostly on redrafting and organising poems which already exist (not least a couple of the worthwhile ones from NaPoWriMo). I have, however, done a little bit of photography here and there (which you can follow in full at my Flickr account). So in the tradition of Catalogue25, when I would quite often share an image with you instead of writing a poem, here is one I made earlier.

On a slightly different note, I do blog a little more regularly over at the Mslexia blog, should you ever be in the need of a few handy writing links, or a glimpse into Mslexia office gossip...

PHEW.

That was a very intense month for poetry! I did enjoy myself, though. There's nothing quite like the pressure of one-a-day to blow cobwebs through the writing muscles. Those metaphors don't work together. Maybe I've worn myself out, imagistically.

Anyway, it did enough to get me thinking about my pamphlet, and I've moved beyond thinking about it into the realms of doing something about it. So... give me a few more months and I might have something to work with! You never know, it might even include one or two of the new ones written in April..

In the meantime, I don't have anything else to share yet. But uh, watch this space? I guess?

Howdy..

..and welcome to my new blog. No rules at all on this one, and no limit of a year! I think that's where I was going wrong. Either way, I've imported the stuff from Catalogue Twentysix and hopefully will be more inspired to update regularly now it's called something I can relate to more. Just--some stuff. Sounds easy enough! Wish me luck!