We move towards a new summer A summer offering a new pathway  A summer like no other A summer now tinged with watchfulness         Last summer's fires         And this year's insidious virus    Have seen to that The sun will warm our spirits There will be swimming and ice-cream and laughter floating in the air And the collective hope of better days. Alan j Wright

Writing a Nonet Poem Can you write a  nonet poem ? A nonet consists of nine lines, start at nine syllables in the first line and going down from there.  The nonet is a poetic form that can contain any rhyming scheme and cover any subject matter.  The nonet is similar to the etheree poetry form, which consists of ten lines. In the etheree, each line’s syllable count increases as it goes along. The first line contains one syllable, the second line contains two, and so on until the final line. These two forms travel in opposite directions, you might say. So here is an example of a Nonet Poem from Jeanne McGee I Am Missing You I am missing the seas rolling waves And the light spray upon my face Clear blue skies above my head The pelicans quick plunge Sand between my toes Looking for shells Sunrise walks Sunsets’ Kiss           Copyright © Jeanne McGee  This inspired me to adapt one of my Covid Chronicle poems into a Nonet poem... Perfect Times We are now living in perfect times A perfect

  Today, for Poetry Friday, I want to introduce everyone to Roger McGough... Roger McGough is an English poet, performance poet, broadcaster, children's author and playwright. He presents the BBC Radio 4 programme Poetry Please, as well as performing his own poetry. McGough's popularity, commercial success, use of humour, and the lack of pretension of his verse has tended to restrict appreciation of his work as 'serious poetry.' This amounts to a serious under-estimation of Roger's body of work. The early poetry of McGough has been characterised, as being reliant on play with words and their meanings. It has also been noted to exhibit a stylised wit, and, at times, a sadness based on themes of lost youth, unfulfilled relationships, and the downside of city life. Personally, I find my style most engaging. The form of some of his verse, has been influenced by his experience of writing song lyrics. You will find numerous examples of Roger conducting poetry readings on

Poets are influenced by the times in which they live. They are influenced by mood and moment. In these challenging times of global pandemic I have noticed my writing output has noticeably increased. I am writing more, resulting from having fewer wider world distractions and a lot more time at my disposal. Months in fact...  I have found myself returning frequently to matters surrounding lockdown life, community attitudes and political posturing. I move away from the subject, but then drift back into the concerns surrounding Covid 19 a few days later. I am not lamenting this, but rather acknowledging it as an influence on my current writing. I have been very much aware of retaining a conscious sense of optimism, openly resisting any urge to climb aboard the outrage train. Here are some short poems that have emerged in my notebook in recent weeks. I shall add them to my ever expanding Covid Chronicles. May the mood and moment find you, pen ready. The Day To Come I will see you my friend

   When I read Jane Kenyon's poem Potato, I was instantly reminded of a poem I wrote about going potato picking with my Dad as a youth. While both poems concern potatoes, they address the subject in quite different ways.  Potatoes alone might not appear to be an overtly popular subject for writing poetry. However, it is a challenge for all writers to inject interest into topics and ideas previously considered mundane  or pedestrian and celebrate the unique qualities such items possess.  I note that I have written about potatoes on numerous occasions -maybe I have an affinity for the starchy staple.  And so I bring you the humble spud.   Potato by Jane Kenyon   In haste one evening while making dinner I threw away a potato that was spoiled on one end. The rest would have been   redeemable. In the yellow garbage pail it became the consort of coffee grounds, banana skins, carrot peelings. I pitched it onto the compost where steaming scraps and leaves return, li