Tag Archives: #NaPoWriMo

Day 07 – following your bliss + buying happiness

I have a bucket load of ideas I’d like to get to this month when it comes to books & reading. (Hmm, odd that.) Sometimes it’s hard to choose. Not today. This one grabbed me ideas brain & away we went. So, presenting one of the many ideas which explore the various dream/idyll lives I would live if I could.

The Factoid Poem addresses the very real & pressing question: does buying books make you happy?

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bliss following, version 1

If you follow your bliss you put yourself on a track that has been there all the while, waiting for you.
— Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

the bliss dream : or the first iteration of it at least : is to purchase a second hand : double decker bus : paint it Anne of the Gable green : ensure it is equipped with titanium grade shock-absorbers : & a highly powerful yet surprisingly fuel efficient engine : fit out the upstairs with comfortable living quarters : while downstairs : as many empty bespoke bookcases as can logically & logistically be arranged : then to spend a year : driving round Great Britain : (pleasant companion/co-driver optional) : visiting key literary hotspots : i’ve always wanted to experience : & : more importantly : slowly filling up those bookshelves : by popping in to every second-hand bookstore : i can get to : along the way : ending up in Hay-on-Wye : at the end of May : for their magnificent festival : by which time : my exhausted & overworked bus : will probably be so weighed down : with wonderful new acquisitions : i’ll need to park it in a field somewhere nearby : & proceed to read my way : through the lot

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Day 07 Factoid – Psychological Studies concerning buying books analysed in depth & detail

Can Buying Books Make You Happy? 
Psychology Says, Well, Duh!

this poem explores the psychology 
behind buying books 
                                    … & being happy

it’s well known that if you buy experiences 
not material objects the happiness 
hangs around lots longer

books are material objects
yet in opening them up & reading them
experiences are being experienced

Ipso facto sum — which is good

psychology also praises personality-guided-spending
that is: spend your money in accordance 
with your personality & you’ll be happy

ergo an introvert buys books = happy
avid reader buys some sort of icky old experience 
where they don’t have any time to read = not happy

Quid pro quo — which is also good

so what’s the conclusion 
of all this comprehensive analysis? 
yes. buying books does make you happy!

[i get that’s how this whole poem started 
but we had to do some rigorous sciencey things
to shut up all the negative nellie naysayers out there]

of course i must conclude with the caveat
too much of anything can be bad
// hang on, wait, what’s that? 

new research now claims
no such thing as too many books
(OMFG! what a relief!)

Dona eis requiem — which is all very good

Day 06 — collecting books + obsessions

Collecting is a strange thing. It’s sometimes hard to explain why one does it. For example, I like things to do with chickens. So I have prints, statues, sculptures, plates, even a pair of bookends featuring chooks.

So too with books. I have many diverse interests (more specific than just big genre-size categories: fantasy, science-fiction, historical, crime, or non-fiction like science [itself having many subcategories I collect: physics, the universe/astronomy, nature/biology, the elements, etc], history [WW1&2, British/Australian, Palestine/Israel, etc], politics, travel writing, & so on) or the work of specific favourite writers that I must own everything of theirs they write.

Sometimes I acquire small collections about topics I think I might one day write about. Thus I have numerous books about Gold, Winemaking, Christmas, Lighthouses, Chocolate, & so on.

But then there’s sets of books I’m simply compelled to buy. No matter how awful they might be. Even if I’ll never read them. Simply because they fall into one of my Pet Loves categories. They make up the matter for this poem.

The first quote that I saw upon googling for my Poetic Factoid broke me. I knew I couldn’t improve on it. Thus what you get today is pretty brief … but I hope I’ve been a little creative with its form.

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collectabilia: pet loves

Foxes, Wolves, Owls, Crows, Ravens
any book with these words
in the title must become mine 
   (several, several times)

Cornwall
sirensong, family ancestry, Famous Fivery
long ago looking at Land’s End in an atlas 
& wanting to watch the sun set over the sea there

Venice
love affair with a magical city
began long before i ever travelled there
spent more time in fictional Venice than La Serenissima herself

Heron
less common to come across these 
but treasure every quirky title concerning
my gangly soul spirit animal

Hare
love their wild solo madness 
many of these titles are delightfully illustrated
children’s books — which is okay by me

Booker winners
an ever growing bookcase 
chronologically filled with annual shortlistees
& winners — I’ve even read some of them

still there’s many more: Dogs, Dandelions, Bees, 
books on Eden Valley (not the one I live in
but the English one I’d like to live in)

to be honest — the list probably never ends 
just diverges into smaller 
& smaller subsets

of one

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Day 06 Factoid — Is book collecting is an obsession?

Jeanette Winterson wrote “Book collecting is an obsession, an occupation, a disease, an addiction, a fascination, an absurdity, a fate. It is not a hobby. Those who do it must do it.” Discuss. 

Ummm, 

what
               Jeannette
                                         said!

Day 04 – libraries II: mine + others

This is the idea I started (or rather) thought I was going to develop yesterday but that rapidly roared off into the Library of Alexandria. So I’ve come back to it today. And my oh my. If it isn’t a cracker. I’m very pleased with it.

Today’s Poetic Factoid was one I didn’t not have to google. It comes from the truthiness of my own life. Ignore it at your peril.

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The Once & Future Library

while i like : the idea : of libraries : there is only : one library : i’m really interested in : my own : my chaotic : sprawling across : 5 rooms, a hallway, a hut & multiple boxes in the shed : piles skyscraper stacked : replica forests upon tabletops : boxes under desks : beneath beds : double layered shelves : bookcases hiding behind bookcases : gloriously chaotic : idiosyncratic : once & future library : for what is the good : to me : of a book : in someone else’s collection : answer : there is none : of course : now some (mean-spirited : niggardly : unpleasantly nit-picky some) might counter : what is the good : of a book : in your collection : if you cannot find it : & while this argument : has merit : minute traces only : there are many wonderful acts : that can happen : while the search : for the holy tale : is undertaken : a book read many years ago : may be rediscovered : & rereading commenced : right there : where you stand : & time & place & purpose : is for a few moments : forgotten : superseded even : while you comprehend : transcend : ascend : a book : you forgot you ever bought : may come to light : exciting you : with your foresight : a book : you don’t remember : ever even seeing : before : may pop out to delight you : or frighten you : & sometimes : on those rare occasions : the actual book sought : may itself : be unearthed : & then : the satisfaction : of having your own : over-the-top : ridiculous : you’ll-never-read-all-those-books-if-you-live-to-be-a-1000 : one of a kind : here&now : once&future : libraries : suddenly makes : utter : perfect : sense

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Factoid Day 04 – borrowing books

Nor a lender be

Heads up.
If you lend me a book.
Chances are.
I will not.
Give it back to you.
I might say I will.
Often.
Repeatedly promising.
But. Listen up.
I. Will. Not.
You had your chance.
But you gave it up.

Except you Mike. Of course I’m bringing yours back.*





(*But I’m not. I’m really not. I appreciate the donation though.)

Day 03 – libraries: Alexandria + Congress

Poem about one of my very favourite things to daydream about…

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the Great Library

there’s a meme I love
you know you’re a book geek 
when you still get upset thinking about
the Library of Alexandria
& many are the times i’ve considered 
buying a t-shirt stating similar sentiments

there was another viral trend
first flagged a year or so ago
about how often men allegedly
thought about The Roman Empire 
(several times a week apparently)
but while i definitely enjoy daydreaming 
about both Ancient Rome & Athens
Alexandria remains my go-to contemplatory place

the Great Library of Alexandria 
shrouded in mystery, from its founding 
to its destruction a thousand years later
some say the massive, ancient library was
the single greatest accumulation 
perhaps 400,000 papyrus scrolls 
of human knowledge in history
up until that point

it burnt three times rather than 
one single conflagration
i) Caesar accidentally set fire to part of it
during his tête-à-tête with Pompey 
ii) several hundred years later a Christian 
Patriarch turned the Temple of Serapis 
into a church & repeated skirmishes
destroyed parts piecemeal   iii) & finally
Caliph Omar asserted the contents 
“either contradict the Koran, so they’re heresy, 
or they agree, so are superfluous” 
& thus the scrolls were used as tinder 
in the city’s bathhouses — supposedly taking 
six months for everything to burn away

it is this religious arrogance / ignorance
which most angers my bookdragon
for we’ll never know now what wisdom
we lost … what science was undone …
what stories forgotten … simply because 
zealots were too insecure in their own words
to allow contradictory ones to exist

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Factoid 3 – biggest modern library 

juxtaposition of red & blue

the Library of Congress 
in Washington, D.C.
is the world’s largest library

there are numerous interesting 
facts one could share about
this iconic institution 

— yet the thing I’m entertained by 
is the current irony involved in 
the juxtaposition of the words 

Library — & — Congress 

Day 2 – rereading + most read

Quite probably a topic I shall return to again & again …

five repeat offenders: re-reading

It is far, far better to read one book six times, at intervals, than to read six several books.
— D.H. Lawrence, Apocalypse

going back into the depths of time
Blyton survives despite mild dating dilemmas 
her Five will always be Famous

Anne of All the Different Idyllic 
19th Century Canadian Places*
glorious masterpieces all

for twenty years Tolkien was Christmas
holidays to me with repeated rereads
giving as much delight as presents under the tree

gosh, it’s getting hard down this end of the list
why did I set myself only 5 when 8 or a dozen 
would’ve enabled far more faves 

there’s newcomers like The Princess Bride
quirky Thursday Next, & Pullman’s Dark Materials
but I guess I must really mention oft-reread big guns

Austen outshines the Brontes; & Shakespeare, Dickens; 
earthy Lawrence over elegant F. Scott, & the Greek 
playwrights are repeatedly visited but all here are intimates

we are today overwhelmed with such quantities of books
but these are valuable as jewels, or a lovely picture, 
into which I can look deeper & deeper 

— & yet still have a profound experience every time

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Factoid 2 – best selling books

best sellers

several sites agree
on the three best-selling 
books in the world

the Holy Bible
the Harry Potter series 
Quotations from Chairman Mao

one i’ve read a couple of times
one at least seven
& one never

as Meatloaf semisang
two outta three ain’t bad

*yes I know they were written in the 20th century
but the first ones were set at the end of the 19th which sounds better so,
poetic license

Day 30 — carbon footprints + footprints in clay

Always relieved when this month is over (I am pretty tired, pun intended, see below. It’s been hectic with extra commitments, several deadlines, & added responsibilities). That said, I’ve got a good swag of poems from the past 30 days (not all of them uploaded here). & I’m pleased with many of them. I really want to see if I can assemble a chapbook’s worth (at least) as writing about this topic feels like the most important thing to be talking about. I still have many poems titled, semi drafted, half-researched, a line or two of, the basic idea for, etc … & will continue to work on developing them & refining the ones I’ve got. 

Too often, I feel I’ve been bogged down in doom & gloom about the issue (which is partly what the inactivists want) so reading more optimistic books this year has been helpful.

This final one has been in my head a while (I always try & leave one I’ve thought about a lot till last so it’s not as exhausting) … this one was dictated as I drove to work this morning & I kinda like how it is in this rough state though it might get tweaked in future versions.

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prints & treads 

okay petrochemical fossil fuel industry : i’m happy to talk about my : personal carbon footprint. i’m happy to : recycle : eat no meat : drive less : take less/no overseas flights : plant more trees : & so on : but if you seriously think : the world is gonna be changed : by a few : well-meaning : people advocating : personal responsibility : while you roar round : the world : continuing to extract in ever desperate ventures : in ever destructive ways : & continue : operating : scot-free : continue : the same thing you’ve been doing : for the past hundred years : then you are deluded

yes : i’ll keep working on my personal footprint : because i know it’s the right thing : for me to do : (for me : others can make up their own minds) : but i’m gonna : keep talking to them about it : keep engaging : keep asking questions : but likewise i’m gonna nag away at : my politicians more : email policy makers : lobby shareholders : to divest : attend protests : & whatever else : feels necessary

but mostly : attacking you : you goddamm greedy heartless sons of bitches : to keep : calling you out : about hypocritically : trying to foist : guilt : & responsibility : back on us : the consumers of your pollution : when you cynically : shut down better : cheaper : cleaner alternatives : so you can : continue your : obscene exploitation : & challenging you : about your tread marks : at the cavalcade of tread marks : you cause : because otherwise : the thousands & thousands & thousands & thousands of treads : tracks : marks : & maulings : caused by : the tyres : powering your tiring old : business model : will obliterate : my tiny footprints : in a heart beat

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Day 30 — TIL i learnt about the first early human tracks discovered in North Africa

85 footprints

100,000 years ago
Late Pleistocene
last Ice Age

rounded heels
short toe marks
arched indentations

five adults & children 
walked a rocky shoreline 
Homo sapiens : modern humans

gathering food from the sea?
just passing through? 
fleeing trouble?

unlike me — their 
sea level rise still 
generations away

Day 29 — 6% deflection + water bombing

Today’s poem is a mixture of quotation, paraphrase, & commentary on something one inactivist denier actually said. Presumably, with a straight face. A straight cold callous inhuman face.

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wet feet

should the West Antarctic Ice Sheet actually do 
what the scientists threaten — & slip off into the sea  
— is it really be the end-of-the-world calamity they contend

even if the sea rose 6 metres — it would only reclaim 
about 42,000 square kilometres of coastline
where roughly about 400 million people currently live

that sounds quite a lot of people — but hardly 
all humanity — less than 6% of world population
which is to say — 94% of us need not fear — inundation 

after all — it’s simply an equivalent number of people 
to the entire population of the US & UK — combined
a mere drop in the ocean — you might wryly remark

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Day 30 — TIL i learnt we’re bombing the ocean

hot water

year after year 
we’re setting 
ocean heat records 

last year alone
they absorbed 
eight Hiroshima 

atomic bombs 
detonating 
every second 

of every day

— nearly seven
hundred
thousand
every day

— five million
a week

— a Quarter.
Of a. Billion.
Bomb’s. Worth.
Every. Year.

* 480 a minute / 28 800 an hour / 691 200 a day / 4 838 400 a week / 251 596 800 a year

Day 28 — hard to take it seriously + sand

Working on poems about each of the IPCC Assessment Reports as well as the various Protocols that have been signed. This shows how unserious some of these conversations really are. There was much discussion over a single sentence. The balance of evidence suggests human influence on global climate. The debate over this sentence lasted well over several hours & various alternatives were proposed. This poem is non-factual fly-on-the-wall dialogue of that event.

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IPCC Madrid 1995 — the Saudis take the piss

Saudi Arabia : I’m sorry, “balance of evidence” is far too strong.

Suggestion : “appreciable” 
Saudi Arabia : No.

Suggestion : “detectable” 
Saudi Arabia : No.

Suggestion : “measurable” 
Saudi Arabia : No.

Suggestion : “noticeable perceptible observable” 
Saudi Arabia : No. No. No. 

Suggestion : You sure you’re not just being difficult because your vast oil reserves are threatened by action on Climate Change. 
Saudi Arabia :

Suggestion : “quantifiable” 
Saudi Arabia : No.

pause

Suggestion : “unmistakable” 
Saudi Arabia : Now, you’re just mocking us.

UK delegate : “discernible”

spontaneous applause

Saudi Arabia : That will be acceptable.

“The balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate.” 

FFS. Discernible has connotations of barely perceptible. Appreciable on the other hand is large or important enough to be noticed. 

And, this was for the summary. The bit the politicians & journalists read. Not the detailed stuff the scientists engaged in. 

And so, by relentless tiny paper cuts, the world burns.

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Day 28 — TIL about sand

a sandalous praxis

despite boasting the world’s largest driest sand desert
Saudi Arabia imports Aussie sand to fuel its construction craze 

— perhaps we should’ve sanctioned our sand sales
till the Saudi spokesman saw sense (by the sea shore)

Day 27 — soft denial + shrinking rivers

As I wrote yesterday, climate denial is growing more sophisticated as the science is becoming more & more accepted. Inactivists are changing their modus operandi from outright denial to more subtle tactics — downplaying — deflecting — dividing — delaying — & despair-mongering. The poem I was playing with yesterday has, as I predicted, fragmented into more manageable pieces. This poem is a result of that (& is the first in suite of poems about the above-mentioned topics).

The Poetic Factoid started with a fun pun (one of my favourites) but sadly went in a more sombre direction than I had intended following some research.

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the softening of denial

i.
even hard core : denial becomes unviable : when relentless evidence : piles up : of extreme weather events : daily impact them : via : headlines & news feeds : social media & tv screens : as well as real time : beyond the windows : in their : backyards & gardens : over the fence : down the road : next door : the next state : friends & family in other parts of the country : overseas : round the world : even the fates : of complete strangers : poorer : differently hued : cultured : begin : to impact 


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Day 27 — TIL about the shrinking Nile

more than an Egyptian river

60 feet 
60 feet every year 
so shrinks the delta shoreline  

50 percent
50 per cent over the current century
the standard deviation the flow likely to increase by

doubling the likelihood of flooding
doubling the likelihood of drought

increasing water scarcity
endangering food security

does that make it a zero-sum loss
or a double zero-sum gain

either way, won’t be long before we say
— De Nile was a river in Egypt 

Day 26 — deflecting the wind + the real threat to birds 

Ironically (cynically?) the more savvy climate deniers are changing their modus operandi moving from outright denial to more subtle tactics including — downplaying — deflecting — dividing — delaying — & despair-mongering. I’m working on a poem which attempts to address this, but it’s a challenging (& vast) topic so the poem may yet fragment into more manageable pieces.

That said, today’s poem explores an aspect of one popular type of deflection.

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birds of a feather deflect together 

Prominent deniers & numerous tear-jerking memes
express concern for the catastrophic killing fields
beneath the insidious weapons that are wind turbines.

Almost a billion birds are killed annually by these 
concrete & glass monsters/ I’m sorry I read that wrong
those numbers refer to buildings. Let me check the data: 

Ahhh here it is 175 million// Dammit that’s power lines. 
72 million// nope those are poisoned by misapplied pesticides. 
6.6 million perish by// hitting communications towers; 

Hang on, I’m surrounded by too many bits of paper.
The correct one is here somewhere — ahhh, almost 1 million birds 
die in// ah no, bugger, oil & gas industry fluid waste pits.

I’m sure I read it somewhere, just hang on please. Here it is.
Land-based wind turbines kill between 214,000 & 573,000 birds annually.
Not insignificant, but a small fraction compared with the estimated 

 1.4 billion to 3.7 billion bird deaths caused by pet cats
— & I don’t hear shrill claims to close the feline industry

*These numbers are taken from US statistics

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Day 26 — TI Reiterate the obvious

the true bird-killer

of course : the inconvenient reality is : climate change : global warming : is the absolute biggest threat : for hundreds of migratory bird species : devastating birds : from every habitat : many of which : are already stressed : by habitat loss : invasive species : & other environmental threats — this is already happening : & will only : continue : to exacerbate : as temps : rise