This week I am responding to a prompt in a news article asking - Are you feeling swamped right now?  That was all I needed to set my writing mind into furious action. Sometimes a simple question can set the mind alight. I'll let you, dear reader determine how I feel...  I would classify the resultant poem -A Rant poem, and a long one at that. I have written Rant poems previously. They provide a wonderful outlet for strong emotions and unsettling feelings. Anyway, sit yourself down, strap in -here is my Rant poem.  The News of the Day- Chronicles of Chaos   The news And the views on the news Are let loose In torrents Cascading into the conscious mind The digital tsunami comes flooding Endlessly dumping headlines With updates layered thickly Delivered by device and design Sensory overload and mind-boggling exhaustion Have another helping of despair and dross And while you're here, juggle this- and this And have a dash of this as well. ...

  I've been pondering my digital password problems recently. They need to be consistently inconsistent in order to thwart the evil intent of on-line hackers and assorted ner' do wells out in digital space.   It's become a constant bugbear having to monitor and update these pesky passwords.  I know, full well, I am not alone here... So, this poem could be classified as a Rant poem.  What gets on your wick? What drives you bananas? Do you have a life irritation you need to scratch? Poetry exists in things. This time my thing is-passwords! Please Confirm Your Password   Everywhere I wander in digital space My digital security My password purity Is constantly questioned I feel impudent on the internet I’m too weak Not strong enough Try again, that’s wrong Make it unique Change it regularly like jocks and socks Make it easy to remember Impossible to hack -Go random consider a sprinkling of letters, numbers, symbols Upper case Lo...

Author, Tess Somerwell, earlier this month, wrote in an article for Psyche Magazine-  ''Long poems might actually be the perfect form for the present: they can represent the sheer unmanageable scale, the vast and messy confusion, the epic ambivalence, of these times.' John Keats, viewed  a long poem as a space to wander. He felt it was a space you could return to in your memory, or in a rereading. He believed a long poem allowed the reader to dip in and select sections they wished to ponder, at their leisure. I believe Keats was right. I have often found myself doing this exact thing when reading a long poem. Well, the poem I am sharing with you is 'longish.' It certainly qualifies as an example of Rant Poetry. It became a poem that refused to be denied. It banged around in my head for quite some time demanding to be let out.  Rant poetry can be a release, a relief. It also represents the release of a pressure valve in many ways. Another way of describing these poem...

 Sometimes  poets  experience a strong need to respond to current events -global or local. Poets across many generations have frequently taken a position on matters enacting around them. They raise their voices, they speak out and  write their words.   Sometimes they are directly affected, at other times they are keen observers...  For this reason I felt compelled to write about the sad events currently occurring in Afghanistan, a country that has already endured two long decades of war and disruption. There is so much uncertainty surrounding life for the vast majority of the Afghan people. I am aware of my ineffectualness here, but I must speak my truth at this time.  I am both sad and angry regarding this lamentable outcome. My words reflect deep disillusionment regarding past and present actions. Life and poetry often converge in the thoughts arising from these emotional peaks and troughs we all encounter. Afghanistan Falling Weak resol...

Poetry at Brighton Primary School, Adelaide, South Australia Recently I had the special treat of working with Year 7 poets from Brighton Primary School in Adelaide. During the day we closely examined a range of poetic structures and devices and applied them to our writing of poetry. With one group I introduced Suzanna Marshak’s  powerful book ‘I Am The Ocean’ to alert these enthusiastic poets to the potential power of writing through a mask and using personification. Another group looked at personification through their connection to things in the world around them.  Pre-writing discussion followed by intensive writing. Using the poem,  ‘I Am These Things And More’  as a model.  Students were challenged to think about these important connections. A particular focus of the writing was to try to incorporate effective use of repetition, line breaks, simile and white space in their composed pieces. These young poets talked in groups and ident...