46

Blinding winter sun

Reflection off the wet sand

Indistinct people

30.12.14

Mobile view

I only recently noticed that posts viewed from a mobile didn't have the correct formatting, putting all the text on one line. After some fiddling about I have disabled the mobile template, so the desktop and mobile views should now look the same, with everything over multiple lines as expected.

45

In the valley field

Two horses stand together

Ignoring the rain

26.12.14

44

Mist covers the hill

Old man's erratic white hair

Slowly receding

26.12.14

43

The Plough lies idle;

Watching it from my window

On this Christmas night

24.12.14

42

Lights on the houses

Blue, white, blinking in the dark

A snow fantasy

24.12.14

41

Nearer grey slides past

Revealing whites, touched with blue

They are leaving now

22.12.14

40

Light has passed away

Hammer blows of ticking clock

Partition my night

20.12.14

39

Shadow on the wall

Its measured, certain progress

Marks the day's passing

20.12.14

38

Beam describes its arc

Through the other-worldly fog

A hand reaching out

17.12.14

37

Wandered from the path

In between the quiet pines

Still black pools stare back

16.12.14

Stay on target

• Set myself a target of writing something every week day.
• Just about manage to keep this up for almost a couple of months.
• Some recent writing feels distinctly sub-standard.

Do I keep going at the same pace because it's all practice and I have to expect the quality (as I perceive it) to vary wildly, or slow down and try to improve quality? But if I do that I risk slowing to a stop.

I think keep going as I am. It's difficult, but maybe that's good. And even amongst the utter junk I might find something I can re-use in a better way later. 

Oops

Up an hour early

Didn't notice clock was wrong

Till about to leave

Can’t go back to sleep

Killing time until the bus

Could be a long day

15.12.14

Retreat

Day is laid to rest

And sun has not seen my face

Time I chose to waste

12.12.14

Leviathan

Implacable force

Crushing, sweeping all into

The downward spiral

11.12.14

Diversion

A song on repeat

I rub my face, hand on mouth

Distracts, false comfort

09-10.12.14

Aflame

Empyrean fires

Layered pinks, orange, purple

I shiver, enthralled

09.12.14

Selene

Pearl set in midnight

Its tantalising lustre

Always beyond reach

08.12.14

Rising

Horizon brightens

Searing orange edge appears

A brilliant chord

04.12.14

December dawn

The eastern clouds shear

First silver-bright light breaks through

Sky turns violet

02-04.12.14

Paris, Texas 3

The lonely city

Searching, contact, dialogue

Final sacrifice

03.12.14

Paris, Texas 2

A muted return

Father, son, reunited

Slowly reconciled

02.12.14

Paris, Texas 1

Crossing Mojave

The long walk to lose himself

A life left behind

01.12.14

Paignton Pier

Walking plank’ed deck

Through the gaps, the grey sea glimpsed

Churns and heaves below

28.11.14

Changing

Black layer of leaves

In neglected trampoline

Slowly turns to mulch

27.11.14 Seen from the bus this morning.

Mute

Chilling, dismal mist

Silent, subtle, smothering

Grey enervation

26.11.14

Glowing

Striated gold clouds

Seen through silhouetted trees

Tell of sun's return

24-25.11.14

Unexpected

Frost on bus ceiling

Melting and dripping on me

Not seen that before

24.11.14

Early

First blue hint of dawn

Gradual shift into grey,

Enervating light

21.11.14

Downpour

Tarmac battlefield

Picked out in car headlights

Countless shells rain down

20.11.14

Unrelenting

Flecks of spray, salt taste

Booming waves smash the sea wall

Shingle foams and shifts

18.11.14

Hounds

Grizzled granite hounds

Keeping watch amongst the gorse

Crows for company

17.11.14

Thief

Twisted, shoved aside,

Tree clutches its patchwork cloak

Snatched at by the gale

13.11.14

Testing

Search form generates

a null pointer exception.

Waiting for new build

13.11.14

Dawn

Soft pink fingers slide

into Prussian velvet glove

Caressing azure

13.11.14

Inspector

Waiting for my train

Seagull struts the platform edge

Beady eye on me

12.11.14

Chapel

Frosty autumn morn

Sun touches grey chapel wall

Narrow windows glint

11.11.14

Super Turbo

Playing Street Fighter,

“Too nice for a Claw player.”

Time to get dirty.

10.11.14 In reaction to a comment made while I was attending a fighting games tournament on the weekend

Working on Inspiration

The original version:

I'm inspired, fizzing
with desire to share these thoughts
carbonated mind

29.10.14

It felt right when I wrote it but when I looked at it again later it no longer seemed to fit. I liked the third line so kept that and tried to come up with an image to go with it that worked a little better.

The first version has greater immediacy but is more disjointed; the third line seems to sit on its own too much.

Inspiration

Carbonated mind

Imperfect thoughts rise, expand

and break the surface

6.11.14

Re-worked, kept the phrase I liked. This version feels much less “excited” though. Perhaps “carbonated” can just about imply that energy.

Haloes

Their gaudy haloes

Flare overhead, and vanish.

Smoke fills the valley.

5.11.14
First word was a pain, tried several options, settled for least worst.

Jewels

One hundred jewels

gleam in watery light, fall

on copper salvers

4.11.14

The unreliable narrator

Memories - glamour

Uncertain reality

Frayed thread I daren't pull

29.10.14 to 4.11.14

Ruined

Ruined cadaver

Metal arms claw concrete flesh

Twisted steel entrails

3.11.14

My writing

When I talk to people about how to approach writing, the simple answer is "Write". Keep practising and it will get easier and hopefully the results will be more satisfying.

That's what I'm trying to do here. I make no guarantees about the quality of the output; I will consider it a success to get a single decent phrase out once in a while (at which point I should thank Jan for the comment about "blown-ink trees", that one first appeared in my head more than 15 years ago). The chances of getting a whole piece, even if it's as brief as a haiku, that is fully satisfying are pretty remote at this point. Maybe I'll never write something that I'm completely happy with, but if this blog has any function then it is as a place where I can try and keep trying.


Edited 28.11.14 to remove waffle and metaphor/analogy confusion.

Kogumaza

Two guitars plus drums

Ten minute epic noise-fest
Throbbing crescendo

31.10.14
Impression of the support act at the Hookworms gig last night

Blown-ink trees

Outside, blown-ink trees

Inside, winter’s bite; we sought

Coins for the meter

29.10.14

Fonts, layout and the like

I'm still deciding on what font I want to use and how to italicise dates and comments.

Expect inconsistency.

Dusk, rain clouds

Dusk, rain clouds sidle

Coalesce and dissipate

Sun’s indigo veil

29.10.14

Inspired by the sky seen while waiting for the bus at Cribbs last night

Fear has strangled me

Fear has strangled me

Bound up by thought, the Coward

Seeks escape through this


17.10.14

First line was good, it went downhill from there though. Could be re-worked, I suppose. The "this" on line 3 is particularly weak.

White light, leaf shadows

White light, leaf shadows

Dance and run over my hand,

Glimmering water

28.10.14

What's all this 'ere then?

Why have I created a blog? Because occasionally I like to write. Mostly in the form of haiku, for an extremely limited audience and using a medium which didn't allow me to archive anything, so it's all pretty much been lost.

I thought that was rather a shame; I remember writing the odd thing that I was somewhat pleased with and regret not having a record of it. So I started writing stuff on Google Drive which worked all right for a short while (2 days?) but then it was suggested I try a blog instead, as I was intending to try and make writing a regular thing.

So here it is. Let's see how long it lasts.

Blog name

Is the blog title and domain any good?

"Staining or covering with blood" - that's the definition, but not why I chose it.

It's taken from A. E. Housman's More Poems, XVI

How clear, how lovely bright,
How beautiful to sight
  Those beams of morning play;
How heaven laughs out with glee
Where, like a bird set free,
Up from the eastern sea
  Soars the delightful day.

To-day I shall be strong,
No more shall yield to wrong,
  Shall squander life no more;
Days lost, I know not how,
I shall retrieve them now;
Now I shall keep the vow
  I never kept before.

Ensanguining the skies
How heavily it dies
  Into the west away;
Past touch and sight and sound
Not further to be found,
How hopeless under ground
  Falls the remorseful day.

Source: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~martinh/poems/complete_housman.html#MPxvi

You must construct additional pylons

First post, wonder what it will look like.