Winter Canvas

Grey is the rain that falls

onto the grass

struggling

through cracked concrete

Grey are the buildings

the glass

and the street

the people clutching umbrellas

Grey coats the world -

cold as rock -

except the rain-slick green at my feet

and the sky patched blue

above your house

A J Ponder  

Another startlingly busy week - it seems like every moment is flying before the next - so best wishes to everyone for the week - and why not check in on the final posts for Poetry month at an Aotearoa Affair?

 A.J. Ponder's work is also available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, and good Wellington bookstores

The Crocodile by Lewis Carroll

How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!

How cheerfully he seems to grin!
How neatly spread his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in
With gently smiling jaws!


                                                                                       
Danger is beautiful, it will entice you in with smiles and perfect teeth.  Has there ever been a better metaphor wrapped up in more perfect verse?  Probably, but I'll take some convincing...

A.J. Ponder

PS I was on "An Aotearoa Affair" this week with "Remember Remember the Babes in the Wood" so
why not enjoy the dangerously and beautiful world hiding behind the Aotearoa poetry blog.  :) 

Thank you to fellow poet Michelle Elvy for setting this up in the count down to National Poetry day.  I must say there are some other great poems to check out while you're there including a gorgeous selection from Ora Nui 2012 and I must say I particularly enjoyed Helen Lowe's The Wayfarer:  Odysseus at Dodoma.  Of course I did.  As Siobhan Harvey commented, it is - "A poem which seems distinctly Helen and her wider work – mythical, beautifully crafted, layered, skillfully, with evocative language."   So yes - it seems there's almost twice the fun this week...so s while I'm smiling - watch out for the teeth! ;)

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

Piracy

Somewhere out near the furthest reach

past the spinney of Alpha C

the treasures of earth are

beached

far from the weathered wrecks

tossed out of the briny sea

She dreamed of blues and golden hues

where black's the only colour there is

and turned her face to the sky

somewhere out there

was love -

above was only a lie

And the flag they flew was the

grinning man -

she watched it blow

in the absent breeze

as her voice carried over

the crime

And the world came tumbling down

my friend

and the knaves ran off with the pie

so nobody told you the truth

my love

as they aired you out to die

For treasure will only rust at sea

but never while sailing the sky

silence packed into an airless

hold,

shot,

and left to lie.

 A J Ponder

A little fun this week - kinda.  Space Pirates, the good and the bad I guess.  I'm hoping everyone is having a good and productive week -

 A.J. Ponder's work is available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, and good Wellington bookstores

Once upon a time there was an excuse (sorry) - and a taniwha...

Once upon a time
there was a poem...
and it lived happily ever after

Yes, it's another one of those excuses weeks

I've been pretty busy putting a few final touches on my book - Wizard's Guide to Wellington.  The book even has it's own blog - although it's just in it's infancy until I have a countdown for the official release.

Richard's even painted me a picture for the cover so it's all rocking... Got to get an ISBN  etc etc and really knock this thing off my TO DO list.


So although I hadn't quite planned to let it out yet - here's the pic Richard painted for me.  It looks amazing - even by itself with a big
gap at the top for the text :)

And I almost forgot - there's some fantastic poetry up on the Tuesday blog - here - don't forget to check it out :) I've only just started checking them out and noticed the new Tuesday poet - Leah's "Empty Apartment II" is quite gorgeous with a sort of metaphysical strangeness permeating it.

A.J. Ponder

 A.J. Ponder's work is available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, and good Wellington bookstores

In the Future

In the future

people are going to be better

faster, stronger, better -

they'll be able to add up on all twelve fingers

and understand deca-dewy-hexa numbering systems without even thinking

In the future

everyone is going

to get places quicker-

they'll surf the net at unprecedented speeds

without ever leaving the comfort of their own support system

In the future

the world will be tended by robots

caring for even the smallest creature-

cockroaches will be able to cross the roads in peace, unmolested by

dogs or cats or any number of near-extinct species

In the future

I am going to be

sitting here with you-

my solar panels all turned to the sizzling sun

as the memory of a green world fries.

A J Ponder

I've been struggling and failing to find a storyline for the latest Arc Competition but I did come up with this cheery little poem- so that's good.  Still, for anyone that does have a story about life/technology in the near future it's not such a bad contest to enter (here), it's not bad pay and it's good recognition but do read the agreement (here) so that you know what you're getting into. 

Of course if you're simply into reading great poetry there's some really awesome stuff to look out for on the Tuesday hub with the featured poem being the brilliant Why Don't You Talk To Me? by Alistair Te Ariki Campbell and edited by Tim Jones. 

A.J. Ponder

P.S. Next week I'm hoping to have links to some Medieval themed poetry...

 A.J. Ponder's work is available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, and good Wellington bookstores

The development of the English language at your fingertips

This week winding up to the Rona Salon on medieval and medieval poetry I took the liberty of looking up a good example of medieval poetry for my blog - and came across a language/literary timeline full of manuscripts - illustrated/illuminated and otherwise.  It's most fascinating with all sorts of key texts from Beowulf to a sample of an original Sherlock Holmes manuscript and all the way through comprehensive examples of medieval illumination, Chaucer, the first bible in English and more.

If you love old fashioned poetry, literature - or are just fascinated with how language has changed over the centuries this is a fun way to begin that quest with a bit of history and art thrown in for good measure.

Enjoy!

(Picture) Illustrated Tiger and a Knight

The British Library's - Timelines: English Pilot Project
(Although very sadly I couldn't seem to find the Middle English? St Erkenwald anywhere - such a  shame seemed like an interesting poem - with zombies -well, one zombie ;) -and I'd love to see the original)


Today (for a change) we'll end on the final stanza of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Where werre and wrake and wonder
Bi syþez hatz wont þerinne,
And oft boþe blysse and blunder
Ful skete hatz skyfted synne.

(text sourced online here with translation, etc)

A.J. Ponder

 A.J. Ponder's work is available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, and good Wellington bookstores

Flash Fiction: Fr.N.Christmas' final letter to A- & M-

Dear A- and M- I truly enjoyed your letters this year, and I can assure you Michael, that goblins don't need an excuse for wickedness, except that I have wonderful Christmas nuts and chocolate and treats, and they don’t.

And I admit, I did try security elves one year, but they nicked even more chocolates than the goblins ever had, because they're so skinny, they need all the energy they can get to deal with the cold. Well, actually they didn't like it much and got sick all the time so I had to send them home, poor things, but I have enough help now there's a whole generation of bear cubs that are more than stroppy enough to deal with a few goblins, and with the help of Antonin and Antuska sniffing out al their little warrens, I'm beginning to feel quite safe. Touch ice.

Now, to business, poor old overworked Santa is pleased to give you a little something in your stockings, as well as some new fangled electronic gizmo's, I'm not sure how they work, but Ilbereth assures me you will like them. It's wonderful to see you two wonderful children are growing up so beautifully, and are not so much the lion-cubs Ilbereth warned me about any more. Anyway, the reindeer are impatient to be off, I can hear Rumsy (that's Rudolf's great, great, great granddaughter) pawing the snow, she's so eager to be off.

So Merry Christmas and Love and best wishes from


                              Fr. N. Christmas - and everybody here at the North Pole


P.S. Rumsy is delighted with the apple, she says the green ones are her favourites.

PPS The ginger beer and tiramisu was delicious. Especially together. You must have some kind of secret ingredient to make it taste so good.

PPPS Lucy is entitled to a piece of Turkey for Christmas, but it's not safe to put it in her stocking so you'll have to rescue it from the fridge.

PPPPS Mum's toblerone didn't quite fit in her stocking, but I'm sure she'll enjoy it just the same -- so NO TOUCHING! 

PPPPPS A very, very merry Christmas.

 

Amazon aff link

 

All right - I must have some decent flash's somewhere but I'm struggling to find anything in the requisite 300 word count - of course if you count all the ps's then this also goes over that limit but what the heck - I'm not exactly entering a competition - besides this is pretty close to fan fiction and wouldn't count anyway because Ilbereth is still in the picture - being an elf and extremely long lived it didn't seem fair to kill him off.

So anyway, this was a Christmas tradition in our house for many years - since my children were quite little and very sure that they should get a letter from Father Christmas as well - after all he had written so many very long and wonderful letters to Tolkein's children -  and they sure weren't about to miss out.   This was the final letter, the earlier ones were quite long, with lots of Santa Clause under siege - and spidery writing that trails across the page.  In later years, like this last one, I believe Santa and his helpers discovered computers and they haven't looked back ;)

And among other exciting news this week in NZ is Helen Lowe's winning of the David Gemmel Morningstar Award - more about the book that won, and her acceptance speech can be found here on her blog. 

And of course National Flash Fiction Day events can be found here.

Have an awesome week, and for anyone in the Northern Hemisphere remember we're winter solsticing at the moment. so it's kinda appropriate :)

A.J. Ponder

 A.J. Ponder's work is available through Rona Gallery, Amazon, and good Wellington bookstores