Tag Archives: grandmother

Day 17 — grans + accents

Today is my grandmother’s birthday anniversary. I’m pretty exhausted at the end of this week so a light playful bit of silliness for gran.

The Poetic Factoid came about because I’m listening to audiobooks with lots of cool facts but which are really irritating in one specific way.

[Disclaimer: As with yesterday’s entry, this poem was written on the correct day (Friday) but was unable to get it online owing to knock-on effects, meetings, & other exhaustions.]

*****

grandmother mycelium 

without getting all Mushy
in honour of your earth-day
         I wanted to say you were

always the Champignon of grans
always around for Morel support
really knew how to in-spore joy
always calm & kind nothing ever 
         seemed to Truffle your feathers

you were cute as a Button
         completely cap-tivating
the true star of forest & field
may your day be rich golden
         & autumnally earthy in joy

mycelium love is like my-mum’s-mum’s love
         above below & all around us : everywhere

there’s no mushroom for doubt
         you were & always will be sp-awesome

PS I turned out alright too
         not to toot my own Trumpet

*****

Day 17 Factoid — Some audiobooks are hard to listen to owing to:

the perils of pronunciation

many Americans pronounce fungi 

as ˈfən-ˌjī or fʌndʒaɪ 
         [as if they’re enjoying a dance]
instead of ˈfən-gī or fʌŋgi 
         [hanging round an amusing male]
like right minded English-speakers do

but then, many Americans are also nutters

Day 17 — Orpheus’s last song + Grandmother Fact #1

The poetry volume I read today had several Mirror Cinquains in it. This is a mix of a standard Cinquain & a Reverse Cinquain. So, using the usual syllable counting convention, a mirror cinquain = 2,4,6,8,2 blank line 2,8,6,4,2 syllables. I’m not usually a big fan of form poems, they feel too forced unless you’ve got a lot of time to tweak them (which you don’t get in a NaPoWriMo when you’re working). Nonetheless I thought I’d give it a bash. There are lines I wish I could alter (ignore the scansion) which might happen in a future version.

Orpheus’s last song


lament
sad bobbing head
song sung sans vocal chords
always singing his beloved’s name
loudly

even
death could not prevent him from it
despite decapitation
sings as it floats
to sea

Day 17 – TIR my gran

It’s the anniversary of my gran’s birthday today. To remember her, I looked for some Facts About Grandmothers & found a variety of sites ranging from dry statistics “78% read the newspaper” type thing to wildly subjective. However the one I have chosen appeared on several pages & is without doubt, true. (I have not chosen the most obvious fact: No love is as special as grandmother’s: it truly is unconditional.)

Grandmother Fact #1: 
they cook the best food

christmas lunches
tuna mournays
corned beef swimming 
   in white sauce
thick pea & ham soup
egg sandwiches, taken 
   from the freezer, then toasted
even just Continental Hearty Beef soup 
   straight outta the packet tasted 
   ambrosial from her kitchen

what would this vego grandson give
for the chance of one more meal
with his gran

Day 19 — you say you don’t like sweet things

A quick & tasty poem after a long first day back at work after my sick weekend. (It’s one thing to flesh up a poem over the course of several hours, then tweak polish & post it before climbing back into bed — it’s another thing altogether to craft one late at night after working two long shifts.) Despite that, I’m pleased with this one too.


cocos vox

if voices 
were biscuits 
yours would be

freshly-baked
Monte Carlos
with homemade
raspberry jam
& cream centres
if we’ve spoken
that day

— but more like
my grandmother’s
special recipe dark
chocolate biscuits 
dipped in even 
darker chocolate 
with mint on top 

if i haven’t heard it
in too long a time