FOG Day 1 of 2. Nothing like getting it out of the way early on.Another Case Study poem, with a slight difference to yesterday’s & probably all that conceivably will follow it. Note: I’m pretty pleased with today’s poem also which means heavy redaction.
*****
Case Study: Aboriri gravis #2: Tomb Dweller
[please click to enlarge image]
*****
Factoid Day 05 – TIL I learnt about potential biblical fungi
manna mania
that the bible does not mention mushrooms once says everything i need to know
yet some cheeky scholars suggest the small round things that appear after morning dew — are psilocybin mushrooms
Because it is a weekend I’m attempting a Case Study poem, focussing on one specific mushroom. You’ll recognise it as soon as you see it, even if you don’t know its name.
Note: I’m really pleased with today’s main poem which means (unfortunately for you) that it’s heavily redacted. Hopefully the three stanzas I’ve left give enough of a taste of it.
*****
Case Study: Amanita muscaria #1: Fly Agaric
[please click to enlarge image]
*****
Factoid Day 4 – TIL I learnt more about festive costumes
mushroom suit
some believe this stereotypical bright red shroom : with white dots beloved symbol of fairy tales may even be the inspiration : for one very famous : red-&-white
costume : of a certain benevolent : (generosity inspired by ritual buzz?) Claus-comma-Santa : harking back to his : Bacchanalian : pagan : wild man of the forest : Siberian shamanic roots
Paleo evidence of fungi is naturally limited, their bodies being soft & squishy & such. But some lifeforms have been found frozen in rock. This is about them, the Adams & Eves of the fungi family, well not tree, but you get what I mean.
*****
Prototaxites
imagine a quiet landscape : strange & surreal to our cellulose-centric : eyes : 400 million years past : before flowers : before forests : & long : before dinosaurs
most plants barely : tickling ankles : no trees : no reptiles : no shade : probably even very little sound : nothing for the wind to whisper wispily through
but rising from the ground : grand pillars : things : neither of stone : nor wood : taller than a typical house vertical structures : fingers pointing
while mammals still swam : the primordial ocean this potential precursor to fungi : is king
*Scientists debate what Prototaxites actually was: a giant fungus, a lichen-like organism, or a completely extinct branch of life with no modern descendants. But let’s not let mere quibbles stand in the way of a nice sonnet.
*****
Factoid 3 – Lightning can speed up mushroom growth & potentially double production
When people think of fungi they probably don’t appreciate all that they do on our earth. Mushrooms (sometimes magic), toadstools & causing food to rot probably the main contenders. I want to take a moment to offer a playful hyphenated version of some (probably not even all) of the extraordinary things fungi is capable of based on my research over the years.
*Poems were written yesterday but too tired to upload before midnight. Fell asleep in computer chair.
April. Always after March. Every damn year. So soon in the season too. Thus Na/GloPoWriMo 2026.
Spent yesterday being super organised & preparing for a whole other theme … but this idea has been roiling around in the back of my mind for some years. And so — a 20th hour decision meant tossing all that work out & going with my gut.
This year’s themes-based approach means I seek to write 30 poems about mushroom & fungi. (Things I love; have [read/possess] multiple books about; & am truly fascinated by.)
Sometimes the poem might be about mushrooms themselves, searching for them in the forests, recipes, their role in nature, literature, whatever. Othertimes I might take one of the many unusual exotic names as a title & riff off that on a totally unrelated tangent with only the name as common denominator.
As previously III, since many journals/comps/etc refuse to accept poems even if they’ve only been on personal Facebook pages or blogs with minimal subscribers I won’t be posting the entirety of each poem on my blog, but a [hopefully] tantalising snippet.
I’m uncertain yet whether I shall undertake to write a daily Poetic Factoid poem. Feels like there’s a lot on this month already! Even these short silly poems often work quite well, better than the main event sometimes. Perhaps I should just write these & bugger the serious bunk.
April is always a challenging month. After a dozen of these NaPoWriMos I think I’m starting to get the hang of it. That said, still incredibly draining churning out X poems a day (even when you’re only working a half day like today). You feel good when you get to the end. You feel better in a fortnight when you reread what you created & realise a lot of it is actually pretty cool. That said said, this year was also perhaps the easiest because of the subject matter. I really love books. I really love reading. And I really loved this assignment.
She’s already been mentioned 3 times in other poems this month so it won’t be a surprise to read her name because it was at once tough & not that tough to choose. Sure, there might be other books I’ve probably read more often: Tolkien, The Belgariad, Harry Potter, A Christmas Carol, Pride & Prejudice, Bill Bryson’s Shakespeare &/or The English Language, or Blake’s Songs of Innocence, etc — but there’s something about the Green Gables Anne that just sticks. She’s always getting into trouble, but her charm always gets her out of it. Been planning to end with it for several weeks so lines have been popping in & out for days. It was fun to work on. And yes I reread key scenes & yes I cried like a bub-bub just as I have done for over 40 years.
The closing Factoid however I wasn’t sure what to do for that, until it just arrived. Like a full stop at the end of a sentence; a finis at the close of a play.
*****
Anne with an E
*****
Day 30 Factoid — Personal Factoid
life choices
of all the multitude of glorious things one chooses to do in life
so not just breathing or eating or sleeping all kind of compulsory
without question i’ve — even more than write — chosen to read books
Almost every poem this month to date has been, in essence, a love poem. To books. To reading. To reading books. This one, breaks that pattern.
The Poetic Factoid is actually a series of Hypertext Factoids with Bactoids — It’s a poem where every line has a hypertext link to verify its claim. About why Reading is good for you.(A familiar theme true, but these are more of the facts I’ve collected along the way as I research. Originally they were just gonna be the text from the articles, but then I realise a couple of them rhymed; then I made the rest do so as well. It was fun.)
*****
dirty books
do alarm me : a little : i sometimes think : who held this before me : & worse : what did they hold as they held this book : various things have been :: in :: second hand books i’ve bought : & i don’t just mean : abandoned bookmarks : & forgotten pressed flowers : but other things : have been caught : like muffin crumbs : jam smears : peanut butter blotches : is that tomato sauce : have you been eating Cheezels : or Mac’n’Cheese : squashed mosquitoes : & miscellaneous other bugs : can now tell the difference : i believe : between coffee plops & tea drops : wait is that blood : no i don’t want to know :: & sometimes : i think even worse : the things i cannot see : are actually the curse : like getting medical & technical for a sec : what if the previous reader was sick : germs bacteria fungi microbes : how many of them are still hanging around : did the previous reader : wash their hands : not just after gardening : or emptying the bin : please tell me : i’m not holding microscopic : drips of pee : or for that matter //
// look it doesn’t matter : i think i’ll put the book down : just for a bit : while i go & take :: some time out
*****
Day 29 Factoid Overload — Hypertext Factoids with Bactoids
Another Lawrence’s Maxim might come as a shock given I’ve been drip feeding them out on Saturdays up until now — but the truth is I quite enjoy writing them, there’s lots of books on the possible shortlist, & I’m running out of time. Three days only left of this year’s Glo/NaPoWriMo so I figured what they hey (I already have one planned for the final day & there was the special Blue Shakespeare edition Wednesday Last) …
As is often the case, the Factoid became more fun & grew in the telling to be a quirky little thing all its own.
*****
Thursday Next
*****
Day 28 Factoid — Thursdays on my mind
7 Thursday week: a Fun Factoid pome told in seven days
That may be must be, love, on Thursday next. Paris
i. We all know it’s named after Thor (Norse god of thunder)
but after that Thursday fun facts tend to dry up
ii. some folks call it “Friday’s Friday” given it heralds Friday & therefore hurrah! the weekend
i prefer to think of it more as Wednesday’s Thursday — but it seems less exciting
iii. Thanksgiving (a local US custom) is always celebrated on November’s fourth Thursday
er, iv. the chemical element Thorium (Th) is named after Thor, which means it’s indirectly connected to Thursday
v. Richard Osman’s now making tons of money after choosing Thursday as the day his Murder Club meets
vi. Thursday is mentioned more times in Shakespeare than any other day
17 including the phrase “Thursday Next” uttered by three separate characters: Paris, Capulet, & Friar Maximillian Laurence (no relation)
vii. come this Thursday next i won’t have to crank out three poems daily & can finally rest
Been in my head (my nose mainly) for a while. A simple poem about a much beloved part of bookerying. The Poetic Factoid is in fact, a Negative Factoid.
*****
bibliosmia
as books age they begin to break down the paper breaks down the ink breaks down the cloth breaks down the leather breaks down the binding breaks down
what break down means in this situation is delicious little bits of book bit drift off into the air & into our noses
these exquisite scents are special fragrances capable of forming spiritual connections within our brains primarily because i have it on good authority that — old book shops are exactly what heaven smells like
if i could bottle it & make it a cologne 1. i’d wear it every day 2. i’d make a mint cos all bibliophiles love the smell of books
*****
Day 27 Factoids — thankfully not a word
bibliovore
while we bibliophiles adore almost everything to with books the way they look the way they feel the way they sound the way they smell (sweet angels above — that sublime scent)
Today’s poem was always on the shortlist but at the last minute supplanted another book I was considering writing about. It came about given how I spent part of my afternoon — underneath an oak glade as the afternoon sun set. It seemed quite obvious to flip out that other book for this one — or these ones — as there’s no definitive text & multiple versions of the wonderful tales of the Merry Men of Robin Hood. The Factoid is likewise connected to that medieval gang.
*****
LM #05 — Robin Hood
*****
Day 26 Factoid — coiffures in the Greenwood
Will Scarlet and the Hairdresser
in the earliest ballads Will Scarlet was but a background character
called Will Scathlock Middle English sc(e)afan “to shave” & locc meaning “hair”
in other words Will Scarlet was originally a skinhead
gareth roi poet boi 
