Big Things vs Small Things

There was a blip in my postings for a few days… big things were afoot and that meant sequestering myself and beavering away at ‘stuff’.

The big ‘stuff’ that was happening included the launch of Matryoshka Poetry, a project originally mooted way back at the start of the poetry section of my course, to a dear friend. He has become the marshal, pushing things forward and ensuring I don’t lose sight of good intentions when studies, work and family distract me – plus knowing lots about techy stuff. ;-) . Blessings to Bart, and blessings too for Yolanda and Stephanie who have agreed to come on board and become the masthead for a poetry project that actively seeks to promote students studying creative writing courses. 

In the mean time a poem I submitted to Quatrain Fish has been accepted and I’m looking forward to seeing it published there this week.

I’ve had great fun exploring the art of Eileen Cooper RA at my local museum gallery and have focussed most of my writing this week on her work and a few old favourites housed at the gallery that I’m beginning to see in a new light. Its interesting to me how art, in all its forms, changes those who absorb it. For instance, I had long been aware of an image called Small Things by Lisa Milroy but it was after reading the Mad Cow poems of Jo Shapcott that I saw Small Things as the objects that had drifted into the blank of dementia.

Small Things, Lisa Milroy, Swindon Museum and Art Gallery

                Small Things

It was

small things

drop-

        ped from fingers

slip-

       ped through colours

                               in my mind

to join mis-

                    placed memories

hid                   den from

         myself

in safe

white

blankness.

It was

         a sort of process,

                         filtering,

                         seeping,

                        osmosis,

a gentle progress,

welcoming

                    small

                                 abandonments.

                                                 .................................                                  


                                                                                     (I hear that yellow is the last colour to fade from                         memory, when memory finally fades)

I think this picture sums up my feelings about this week. Make of that what you will.

Eileen Cooper RA at the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery

But it’s the conflicts between the small and the big things that really piqued my interest this week... well that, and the launch of Matryoshka Poetry http://www.matryoshkapoetry.com.