Tussle

Tussle

by Helen Barter

I want nights of tussle.

Fighting over the duvet for warmth.

Generating heat.

I want days of tussle.

Fighting over thoughts and ideas.

Igniting flames.

I want evenings of tussle.

Using reignited flames to light

independent candles of ...

Life.

But we can't always have

what we want.

Luggage Labels

The "Windowful of Pockets" needs an extra frame and labels in the pockets to write the names for the running order. Felix, the editor of "Pocketful of Windows" likes it!! I am so pleased!

Another good day .....

Windowful of Pockets

I am so pleased with how this work is going. The acetate looks like glass in an old bookshop window, and the pockets look like books on a bookshelf. I am going to handstitch scribbly couched lines, like writing, linking across horizontally with the words of the poems, in black over the hessian, and in white over the window 'leaded lights'.  Very happy. 

 I really liked the ragged edges and fraying from the interim stages, and will continue with this in another piece, but for this particular piece, I want crisp window bars to emphasise the regular look of books and the window, contrasting with the random and fluid lines of the writing.

Progress

The thing  I am working on is for a poetry anthology book launch and open mic night on 5 December. The title of the book is "A Pocketful of Windows". I also needed a method of randomly selecting the running order for the evening. Thinking too literally, and since I have lots of dolls house windows left over from a previous project, I decided to start there. (See previous blog entry).

But it quickly became obvious the logistics of getting the windows to open, to reveal the name of the next reader,  was going to be too much for my non-carpenter's hands - these are hands to sew with, not saw with! I asked the editor of the anthology to send me a couple of lines from some of the poems. Inspiration overload!!, lots more ideas in the back of my sketchbook!

Windows, pockets, words, poems, December, advent calendar - a Windowful of Pockets - on its way!!

24 pockets, with verse, set within a window-like structure.

 

A new piece of work in the making........

I think this may be significant (finally) so I am going to blog its progress. For my benefit more than anyone else's because I still wonder about the value of a blog for the rest of the world! This makes a nice change from posting a poem though.

You Can't Have Everything

You Can't Have Everything

by Helen Barter

I used to say 

I didn't want anything.

Now I have nothing.

No responsibility for anything, 

except staying alive.

Not even for staying alive -

unless I want to.