#LoveAThon Mini Challenge 3: Book Spine Poetry

For this challenge we were asked to create some book spine poems, which are poems created by mixing and matching book titles from our shelves.

This was my favourite challenge last year so I was looking forward to having another go. It was harder this time as I didn't want to use many of the same titles and my stash of physical books hasn't grown much over the past year.

But I did manage one short poem:

X is for Xanadu #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

Oh no, the dreaded 'X' post! I had to rack my brains and do a bit of research to think of a colour for this one, but I finally discovered the colour Xanadu, a greenish gray that takes it's name from the philodendron plant, whose leaves are the same colour. The plant was in turn named after the ancient Chinese city of the same name.

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour and see the post I hashed together for this extremely difficult colour!

P is for Purple #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge! This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

For the letter 'P' I have chosen the colour Purple. Purple is the colour you get when you mix red and blue, but it can describe many different shades, including violet, heliotrope, lavender and lilac. One of it's main claims to fame is that it doesn't have any true rhymes.

Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour, read about the novel The Color Purple by Alice Walker and see one of my favourite poems.

I is for Indigo #AtoZChallenge

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. This year I'm doing an A-Z of Colours. I'll be doing a variety of posts, including haikus and poems, arts and crafts, fashion and beauty, recipes and more!    

For the letter 'I' I have chosen the colour Indigo. Indigo is a deep, bright shade of blue, named after the blue dye derived from the plant Indigoferatinctoria. It's quite a popular colour in fashion, being the traditional colour of denim, and is the most common colour of ink used for writing.

This Pinterest board has some beautiful examples of indigo.
Keep reading to discover the symbolism behind this colour and read my indigo poem.

O is for Oak Tree

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. The aim is to write a post for every day of the month except for Sundays, with each post representing a different letter of the alphabet. This year I'm doing an A-Z of Great Britain, covering as much as I can about British music, literature, TV and film, food, wildlife and culture.

For the letter 'O' I have chosen Oak Tree. 
The Oak tree is one of England's national emblems, as it is the most common woodland tree in England. The symbol has appeared on the back of the pound coin in 1987 and 1992 and oak leaves or acorns are the emblem of the National Trust and The Woodland Trust. The oak tree is also the symbol of the UK Conservative Party. Before Christianity spread to Britain, there were sacred oak groves where Celtic druids met to hold rituals. To the druids, the oak represented doorways to other realms and was said to provide protection and power for their magick.

Book Blogger Love-a-Thon Mini Challenge 1: Book Spine Poetry

The first mini challenge for the 2014 Book Blogger Love-a-Thon is to make up a poem using only the spines of books. I'm late posting due to time differences so I'm not eligible to enter the competition, but I wanted to have a go anyway.

I've done book spine poetry once before, back in November 2010. I find  it's quite hard to work with the books I have as many of them are one-word titles, mostly nouns.

Here's what I came up with:

Funfair Poem

I remember walking hand in hand,
Feeling light as air,
As if the balloons would lift me off
And I'd soar without a care.
I remember dancing on the twister,
Carried by the beat,
Lost in a dizzying whirl of colour
Ice-cream melting in the heat.

A-Z Challenge: V is for Vulnerability

Today I'm continuing with the A-Z Blogging Challenge. I'm doing an A-Z of human emotions, feelings and mental states and today is the letter V and so I've decided to writea poem with the subject of Vulnerability. Vulnerability is feeling that you are weak, defenseless, exposed and open to attack. Most of us feel mildly vulnerable at some times in our lives- when we are undermined by our confident colleagues in the boardroom, when we have to cross the road without a pedestrian crossing, when we're wearing our swimming costume and it feels like everyone is staring. But some people have to live with feeling terribly vulnerable all the time. People who are bullied or abused feel worhtless, helpless and powerless against their attackers.

Hatched Poem

Snugly cocooned in a ball of warmth,
Stillness and darkness envelopes me.
All I can hear is my own heartbeat,
Slow and steady and comforting.
But now it starts to flutter,
Racing excitedly, waking me
From my peaceful slumber.
My body senses that it's time.

A-Z Challenge: B is for Boredom

Today is the second day of the A-Z Blogging Challenge. I mentioned yesturday that I'm doing an A-Z of human emotions, feelings and mental states. I hope to post a mixture of poetry, stories, quotes, tips, observations, lists, book recommendations, interviews, traditional art, digital art and photography. I hope you'll stay with me for the ride.

Anyway, today is the letter B, and I have chosen to write about Boredom. I had to write this on my lunchbreak at work, and funnily enough I was feeling VERY inspired to write about this topic! I sat down and wrote enough poem (it won't be all poems I promise!). What do you think?

A-Z Challenge: A is for Anger

Today is the start of the A-Z Blogging Challenge hosted by some of my very favourite bloggers. The idea is to post something on your blog every day throughout April except for Sundays which gives you 26 blog posts in total-one for each letter of the alphabet. The blogs can be centered around any theme and any medium. This year there are an amazing 885 entries! Many of these sensible people will have already written and scheduled their blog posts in advance. But if you've followed my blog for any length of time you will know that organisation is a challenge for me and 'sensible' is not often a word associated with me. All I've done is pick a theme and a topic for each day. But I haven't written anything yet. Well, except what I'm writing now, obviously! And might I add that I am writing this first blog post in a singular 30 minute free window of time where I'm not busy doing something else.

First Christmas Poem

Our breath is misting the frosty windows 

And we draw pictures on the dripping pane. 

You thread the baubles with your steady hands,

As I pad across the prickly carpet,

Balancing mugs of steaming hot chocolate.

We warm icy hands on the crackling fire,

Cutting and sticking in the candlelight. 

We work in silence, not needing to speak.

Frozen fingers snip at paper snowmen, 

Holding hands and smiling, as we do now

And so nearly didn't.

Glitter coats my lashes and the world sparkles.

~Written 06/10/2010

The Passing

NaNoWriMo's done, what next?

[© Anstice Potts, 06/12/2010]

So at the moment I'm enjoying the afterglow of NaNoWrimo. I'm not touching my novel at all during December to give me a much needed mental break and then hopefully I'll return to it in January with fresh insight. I don't know whether what I've written is worthy of publication at this stage, but I think I can take a few good ideas from it anyway.

Thoughts on Remembrance Day

[source]

I thought I would take time out from Nano to pay respect to our fallen war heroes today. I think most of us know someone whose life has been touched by war, whether it's a great-grandparent who fought in the First World War or a loved one who is away in Afghanistan right now; it affects us all. Many of us wouldn't be here today if it were not for the soldiers who fought and died for our freedom.

Sometimes though, when we glorify them as heroes we forget what they were: people just like us. They were sons and brothers (many only teenage boys), fathers and uncles. Though they did heroic acts, they were mere mortals with hopes and fears the same as ours.

Book Title Poetry

Inspired by The Sorted Books Project, Grab a Pen and Write Brained, I decided to have a go at making poems out of book titles arranged in a certain way. It was great fun to do, and now I want to do more. During my 10 day holiday from work coming up soon I might go to the local library and make loads of poems like this, so expect lots more soon!

Here are a few poems I made using the books in my living room. Just read down the book titles on the spines from top to bottom.

Poetry Rivals 2010 Published!

I was very excited this morning when the postman delivered a mysterious parcel...I opened it up and discovered two text-book sized copies of Poetry Rivals 2010: A New Dawn Breaks, the anthology featuring my poem, 'Tess and the Priceless Treasure'. It was so good seeing my name and poem printed in an actual book that I took photos to commemorate this momentous occasion.

Keeper of My Dreams Poem

Waxwork Poem

Androgynous Poem