Another cheerful one...

I don't have any achievement or Olympic poems, but wanted to post something so that you know I am not dead!


Slipping Full-length Down My Life

Your head is just breaths away.
I wait for you, for formality -
spent too much on sentiment.

I want to use your life, write down your spine.

It’s summer now. The sun
speaks in long shadows and
all the flowers are white.

You read me by scars.
Do you remember writing them?
I watch the end of the sun catch your ringless finger

and could kiss you.

I want to put myself in your thoughts.
One last time.

Article

Hi all,

Do you remember trying to help me with an article for the city's daily newspaper, the Leicester Mercury? I was pipped at the post by another writer who did something similar, so I found another subject and my article was printed in last night's issue. I don't get any money for the articles but I have to admit it's nice when the lady at Asda's deli. counter says, "Aren't you that woman who writes in the Mercury?"

"OLYMPIANS

The Beijing Games have finished, all of them; the Olympics and the Paralympics. What a shame it is that we have to differentiate between the two.

I don’t follow any sport but thanks to the existence of wrap-around media, it’s impossible to be unaware of what is happening in the sporting world and like everyone else in the country, I was thrilled by the winning Olympians and especially enchanted by the smiles of Eleanor (Ellie) Simmonds and Rebecca Adlington. Incredibly, both of these young people were double gold medal swimmers.

It is the aim of our nation to include people with disabilities in all aspects of life, wherever possible; in education, on transport, in shops, in competing for jobs. The system is not foolproof but it is the intent that no one should be excluded from the main stream because of an accident of birth or for any other reason.

The slogan for the Paralympic Games is, “One World : One Dream”, the same as for the Olympics. So why are two separate sets of Games held? It would be silly to suggest that athletes compete with each other, but why aren’t the Games held concurrently? The 25 Paralympic events could be slotted into the existing Olympian programme. The Paralympians would then get the support, the media coverage and the plaudits they deserve. They are as brave, as talented, as dedicated and as hardworking as the Olympians. They should have equal treatment. I doubt it would be beyond the ingenuity of the Olympics Committee and the Paralympic Committee to organise, if they so chose. The Paralympics should not be the ‘follow-on’ Games. This seems to dilute the efforts of the athletes, which is unfair. People are said to remember only the one who came first in a race, never who came second. This year, thanks to Ellie, the nation knows who came ‘second’. As a Team GB spokesman said of her, “Everyone has taken her to their hearts.”

This year, over 4,200 athletes competed in the 13th Paralympic Games. If the Games were combined, there would have to be greater facilities to cater for the athletes and their families and supporters. We know the 2012 Games in London will be expensive. Can we therefore spend less on fireworks and more on inclusion, according to our nation’s aims?

On a breakfast television programme recently, the news presenter said to Ellie, who was sitting next to him on the sofa, “You gave us so many golden moments at the Games.”

She was not the only one."

Is it only me and Glen who are joining in with this whole 'write to a theme' self-appointed task? Personally, I loved Glen's posting and I had a lot of fun writing my own... I would love to see some other thoughts on the subject. Anyone game?
sharon

on the theme of 'achievement'...

Swimming in Sanity

Daylight needles my eyelids
against a hammering of birdsong.
Morning lays down a row of nails across my forehead,
still shiny from dreams.

No alarm is required
to break the moon of my sleep.
Serintatis splits quite effortlessly
with no holy man’s help.

The act of eating must come first,
then bathroom matters,
feet in a line like a blade,
that’s the order I must follow.

Purse. Car. Shop. Postbox.

High tide floods these shores
at the cast of each greeting,
my replies are the skin of a fish,
make, break eye contact,

fold my hands over all wounds,
tread water, tread water,
above all smile,
these things too must be ticked off the list.

I remember now.
This is how they said
it would be when
normality was achieved.

Achievement

If I were just a little taller,
I could cause havoc with the Universe.
I would reach up and flick the moon
from its socket,
see it skitter across the night,
a twinkling billiard ball;
maybe pocket it down a black hole.
I could rub the glitter from the stars
erase them from view,
then dust the red planet,
and pull it closer,
to hang it on an arm of the Milky Way;
an early Christmas tree bauble.
I could snuff out satellites,
between my finger and thumb
and hear the world’s communications
reduced to white noise.
I could laugh as every vehicle
travelled round in its own decreasing circle,
the drivers lost.
I could wear the blue and white Earth as a ring,
like cheap costume jewellery;
such is its degradation,
it doesn’t deserve a gold setting.
If I were of a mischievous frame of mind
I could achieve all this,
if I were just a little taller.

Glen

Group topic

Lovely to see some people putting stuff on the blog. And Abi, well done again!
Sharon, thanks for your sweet comment on my post - the piece makes me feel a bit like that too, sort of sad in an enjoyable way. Only trouble with posting on a blog like this is that I keep thinking "Oh, I could improve that...."

Glen, I enjoyed your post - I like the idea of you going into a bookshop determined to overcome your "quirk". I know what you mean about finding out that words you thought were innocuous in fact are not - I remember finding out something similar in an on-line dictionary of Cockney rhyming slang. Something everyone always treats as merely funny is actually quite blue when you know what it means. It might even have been berk, I can't recall. But I was sitting in the office and I had to quickly close down the page before anyone saw the definition...

Anyway, Group Topic. In honour of Abi's achievement, how about Achievement?

Book Shopping

I had a great day last Thursday. I spent the whole day trawling round the bookshops at Hay-on-Wye. I dragged John into each one, found the corner with car and motorbike books and left him there knowing he wouldn't move until I was ready to go.

I bought A Dictionary of Obscenity, Taboo and Euphemism by James McDonald. Thought I might be able to overcome my 'small disfunction'.

I found that the one swear word I do allow myself, DAMN, is not as innocuous as I'd thought. Apparently it was once a strong word, widely avoided in conversation and could only be printed in a disguised form, for example as D***. Bowdler, in his famous expurged version of the works of Shakespeare (1818) found it necessary to amend the line from MacBeth, "Out, damned spot!" to "Out, crimson spot!"

And don't even ask about the word, 'Berk' which I always thought meant (only) a foolish person.

Glen