My interview Chatting With Sherri welcomes award winning author A.J. Ponder! is live now. We talk everything from science to books.
Here's a spider holding one of my books we didn't mention. Actually there was a lot of geeking out about shared heroes from scientists to famous authors. It was fun.
Sherri is a lovely lady and it was a real pleasure and an honor to be on her show.
Have a great week, everyone,
looking forward to dropping in at least one more time before Christmas! :)
Hopefully with a poem!
Showing posts with label poet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poet. Show all posts
Friday, November 23, 2018
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Port of Poems: for pirates, smugglers and other rogues
Given the popularity of the Portal to Fairy Tale Poetry, I thought, why not pirates and the like!
With links to my poetry, some great poets, and some I've just found. If you find some more, I'd love for you to leave a comment, or for my shy friends, (you know who you are:) ), talk to me and I'll add them.
In the meantime,
Enjoy!
(poems are in alphabetical order)
We were schooner-rigged and rakish, with a long and lissome hull,
read aloud or read the words yourself
If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse's feet,
Don't go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street,
Them that ask no questions isn't told a lie.
Watch the wall my darling while the Gentlemen go by.
Yo ho
and there's a map to
where the skeletons lie,
sunning themselves
on the sand and
Spanish gold...
And so, there we have them all. The pirates we love to love, and love to hate, have a great week! And if you haven't yet had enough poetry, there are always more fabulous poems on the Tuesday Poem Hub, or on my blog,
With links to my poetry, some great poets, and some I've just found. If you find some more, I'd love for you to leave a comment, or for my shy friends, (you know who you are:) ), talk to me and I'll add them.
In the meantime,
Enjoy!
(poems are in alphabetical order)
A Ballad of John Silver by John Masefield
We were schooner-rigged and rakish, with a long and lissome hull,
And we flew the pretty colours of the cross-bones and the skull;
read aloud or read the words yourself
A Smuggler's Song by Rudyard Kipling
An amazing poem...if you don't remember, it starts like this...If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse's feet,
Don't go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street,
Them that ask no questions isn't told a lie.
Watch the wall my darling while the Gentlemen go by.
Articles of Faith
Part 1: Pirate's life & Part 2: How Doth the Deinosuchus
The use of pirates as a metaphor for
Cargoes by Poet Laureate John Masefield
Nice contrast of the exotic against industrial Britain. And in the juxtaposition lies the tragedy. The poem is featured by both Helen McKinlay and Helen Lowe on their Tuesday Poem blogs.
Here be Dragons by A.J. Ponder
Yo hoand there's a map to
where the skeletons lie,
sunning themselves
on the sand and
Spanish gold...
Murdering Poetry by A.J. Ponder
I would kill...
"...Timothy the pirate
he didn't like the sea..."
Timothy The Pirate by Charles M. Moore
"...Timothy the piratehe didn't like the sea..."
Piracy by A.J. Ponder
I still quite like this, it's space pirates (so insane) and the pace gathers momentum as the tragedy unfolds. :)
Pirate Story by Robert Louis Stevenson
I'm not sure how anyone can resist the cute version of kids playing pirate on the lawn.And so, there we have them all. The pirates we love to love, and love to hate, have a great week! And if you haven't yet had enough poetry, there are always more fabulous poems on the Tuesday Poem Hub, or on my blog,
A.J.
And tell me which poems you'd like to see in my upcoming poetry book—2024? https://ko-fi.com/ajponder
Find my stories and support my writing on ko-fi
And tell me which poems you'd like to see in my upcoming poetry book—2024? https://ko-fi.com/ajponder
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Apologies, Tuesday was greatly missed - unlike this piece of Vogon Poetry
I know it's very nearly almost Friday - but I do want to apologise to all my regular readers for not managing my usual weekly post on Tuesday. Not even a piece of fluff.
The people who know me will have heard that my son is having a tough time at the moment. Well, last weekend and through to Tuesday were scary bad. Fortunately for no apparent reason at all he's been better the last couple of days, but I've got to the point where my brain can't do much more than make it through the day. So please excuse the "wibble" and contemplate the vagaries of the universe, but let me assure you - normal service will be resumed as soon as I figure out what normal is....
In the meantime...
an extract from Douglas Adam's, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
So Don't Panic :) and have a great TGIF and weekend, and hope to catch you all next Tues...
A.J. Ponder's books are available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, Paper Plus and good Wellington bookstores.
The people who know me will have heard that my son is having a tough time at the moment. Well, last weekend and through to Tuesday were scary bad. Fortunately for no apparent reason at all he's been better the last couple of days, but I've got to the point where my brain can't do much more than make it through the day. So please excuse the "wibble" and contemplate the vagaries of the universe, but let me assure you - normal service will be resumed as soon as I figure out what normal is....
In the meantime...
- Oh freddled gruntbuggly,
- Thy micturitions are to me,
- As plurdled gabbleblotchits,
- On a lurgid bee,
- That mordiously hath bitled out,
- Its earted jurtles,
- Into a rancid festering confectious inner-sphincter. [drowned out by moaning and screaming]
- Now the jurpling slayjid agrocrustles,
- Are slurping hagrilly up the axlegrurts,
- And living glupules frart and slipulate,
- Like jowling meated liverslime,
- Groop, I implore thee, my foonting turling dromes,
- And hooptiously drangle me,
- With crinkly bindlewurdles,
- Or else I shall rend thee in the gobberwarts with my blurglecruncheon,
- See if I don't.
an extract from Douglas Adam's, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
So Don't Panic :) and have a great TGIF and weekend, and hope to catch you all next Tues...
cheers,
A.J.
A.J. Ponder's books are available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, Paper Plus and good Wellington bookstores.Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Tuesday Poem: The Downside to an Earthquake by Emanuel E Garcia
Hello, all my faithful followers! Yes, I know was meant to be on sabbatical 'til the end of the month - but its worth breaking a sabbatical when a poem like this flies into your radar...
Also I should note, if you like this, you will almost certainly love The Upside to an Earthquake here on my blog.
The rumble begins...
And with it a poem that feels real.
Wellington has started and stopped quite a bit lately, as the middle of the country has been rocked by quakes. And we have all discovered Geo Net, (somewhat after the Christchurch folk) so that in the moments after a quake we can quantify it, put it at rest, and return to our senses.
Also I should note, if you like this, you will almost certainly love The Upside to an Earthquake here on my blog.
The
Downside to an Earthquake
The rumble begins
You wonder just how long it will go on
Before the walls start swaying and
A carelessly placed book falls off a shelf
For the life of you
You can’t remember whether you should
Hide under a table or head for the hills
So you’re stuck in your tracks
Shaking with the thought
That survival’s more important
Than, say, writing poems
Until you come back to your senses
When it stops
That is,
If you have any senses left
Emanuel
E. Garcia
July
2013
emanuelegarcia@gmail.com
The rumble begins...
And with it a poem that feels real.
Wellington has started and stopped quite a bit lately, as the middle of the country has been rocked by quakes. And we have all discovered Geo Net, (somewhat after the Christchurch folk) so that in the moments after a quake we can quantify it, put it at rest, and return to our senses.
About the Author:
Emanuel E Garcia is an author and physician who resides in Eastbourne. His
most recent book, "Twenty-Four Caprices for Violin," is a collection of whimsical, fantastic, poignant, macabre and capricious
tales, each of which features the violin. Set in wide-ranging locations
and milieux, from Vienna to Nashville, Florence to New York, Venice to
New Zealand, they capture the bittersweet and ridiculous nature of human
follies — romance, repression, vanity, fidelity, ugliness, adultery,
mischief, mastery, innocence and betrayal, and is available here at http://mebooks.co.nz/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=485 for
only $2.99.
I was treated to a number of these stories at a reading at Rona Gallery, and they really did all the things the blurb says. Unexpectedly fun, given there wasn't a single spaceship. Not even a wizard— unless you count the multitalented Emanuel E. Garcia himself.
A.J.
A.J. Ponder's books are available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, Paper Plus and good Wellington bookstores.
... and just a reminder the poem's sequel, The Upside to an Earthquake is here :)
cheers,A.J.
A.J. Ponder's books are available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, Paper Plus and good Wellington bookstores.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
The Kraken by Alfred Tennyson
A quick note, this week I am the editor of the Tuesday Poem, with Keith Westwater's Poem, "Resiliance", so if you want to find out more about why I like it, or about Keith Westwater, then click on the link - or take no heed of the warning and follow me into the treacherous deeps...
Below the thunders of the upper deep,
Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides; above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumber'd and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge sea-worms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.
Found this while looking up random London myths, legends, alchemists etc in an effort to do a little pre-research "Wizard's Guide to London. And came across - "And dross to gold with glorious alchemy," It wasn't quite the direction I was looking for - although it was very useful - otherwise I'd have had nothing to post today. :)
So much great stuff to work with - I'm only getting more and more excited by the idea - but the goal really has to be making enough money from Wizard's Guide to actually go and visit London itself.
Have a great week folks
PS It amuses me to think that Lord Alfred Tennyson, and quite a few celebrated literary poets from the past wrote a fair amount of fanatasy/scifi/speculative fiction :)
Below the thunders of the upper deep,Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides; above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumber'd and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge sea-worms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.
Found this while looking up random London myths, legends, alchemists etc in an effort to do a little pre-research "Wizard's Guide to London. And came across - "And dross to gold with glorious alchemy," It wasn't quite the direction I was looking for - although it was very useful - otherwise I'd have had nothing to post today. :)
So much great stuff to work with - I'm only getting more and more excited by the idea - but the goal really has to be making enough money from Wizard's Guide to actually go and visit London itself.
Have a great week folks
A.J.
A.J. Ponder's books are available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, Paper Plus and good Wellington bookstores.
A.J. Ponder's books are available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, Paper Plus and good Wellington bookstores.
PS It amuses me to think that Lord Alfred Tennyson, and quite a few celebrated literary poets from the past wrote a fair amount of fanatasy/scifi/speculative fiction :)
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Murdering Poetry
I would kill
for a voice that could read poetry
as finely honed as a boning knife
Plunged into the heart.
Incisive as fangs
sliced across arteries
spilling blood in fountains
onto the slavering faces
of howling wolves
My cheerful brogue slipping
into dark nightmares
and flourishing
as a bone deep canker
eating you away
from the inside
and slipping
the noose
tight
around your neck
around your neck
until the air
kicking under your heels
is still.
is still.
See, the powdered words
no longer dry upon the page
arise
arise
a poisoned ink
that flows
within your veins
and through your soul
until your heart
no longer pains
and your death is wholly
entertain'd.
entertain'd.
A..J. Ponder -
It always amazes me just where and how inspiration strikes. This poem has been brewing dormant for the best part of a year but it wasn't until Harvey commented on Rudyard Kipling that it hurried out faster than a smuggler with the redcoats after him.
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