Sun and Sumner

A beach excursion (in which we reacquaint ourselves with sunshine).

It's so good to feel the sand between my toes and start planning our next adventure...

Currently

Reading: Lie Down in Darkness by William Styron.  (Just finished Dave Eggers' "You Shall Know Our Velocity".  Highly recommended).

Watching: "Old" Disney films (The Lion King and Aladdin down, The Beauty and the Beast up next)

Working on: The finishing touches to the Stranger & Co Poetry Project - all will be sent out next week!

Laughing at: family photographs with Mum.

Preparing for: six more weeks of school and a wedding photography assignment (can't wait!)

Dreaming about: our trip to Wellington in November to see The Black Keys and Mumford and Son.

Choosing: the design for my first tattoo...

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I have three more sleeps until the end of my holiday. (Sigh). It's been so damn good. 

Hey Friends

So.  I've been MIA the past couple of weeks; uni assignments have sucked up the majority of my time, along with life angst, anxiousness, and the usual second-guessing of myself that appears to be occuring more and more often lately.  Quarter life crisis anyone? Whilst I know I've made the right decision going back to school, I still can't seem to rid myself of that annoying little voice in my head that tells me life would be somewhat easier had I continued on the law path (actually, it's not a little voice, it's really rather loud.  In fact, it sounds a bit like an angry Fran Drescher. Cringe...).  I mean, I could be, like, making money right now instead of adding to my student debt...

It's times like these I feel incredibly fortunate to have some pretty awesome people in my life who pat me on the back, come home with giant bags of Maltesers, allow me to vent my often incoherent frustration via phone call / text message / email, and generally put up with my feeling-sorry-for-myself attitude.  To you I say thank you.  I owe you all.  Big time.

I'll be back soon I promise.  Come Friday, I'll have a whole week to myself, my poetry, some flippin' sweet books I've been waiting to read, and some good old quality down home time.  

Thanks for stickin' around...

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Sunday

Fact: caramel salted macaron eating is incredibly conducive to creativity and of rather great assistance when it comes to poetry writing in particular.  (You can thank me for the tip off later).

I've got a few of my Stranger & Co poems underway and numerous short story ideas have been creeping into my notebook; characters are slowly establishing themselves.  It feels good.

I'll share more soon.  In the meantime, Shakespearean adaptations and Utopian notions call...

Enjoy your Sunday.

PS: This photo is exciting, not only because it captures the awesomeness of said macarons (take me back) but it is also evidence of the fact that I have finally learned (read: remembered to) use the camera feature on my phone.  Therefore, in lieu of an i phone and the ever popular instagram (a girl can dream right? Struggling artist and all that...) I shall henceforth* be experimenting with the features of my trusty acer cell.  Hmmm, me thinks this might be dangerous procrastination material...

*I love using that in a sentence

Of Late

“Don't use the phone. People are never ready to answer it. Use poetry."

Jack Kerouac

I did it.  Two 10,000 word assignments have left the building (thank you, thank you very much) and two brand-new-slightly-intimidating-but-nevertheless-exciting papers now stand in their place.  I'm reading (a lot). And writing, too;  the "Stranger & Co" experiment is well and truly underway and I've found myself adrift in the sea of words sent to me from far off places that I must now fashion into individual poetry pieces to be handwritten and sent away.  I'm looking forward to it; I am doing this partly for inspiration, partly to connect with others, partly to practice the art of poetry and interrogate my own creative process, and partly to be prompted by being made accountable for my work, in order to make good on my promises to myself (and now, to others) to just write. I apologize for my absence; those assignments almost got the best of me.  But now I'm back, and I hope to be more regular with my posting, now that I've got a tiny bit more time on my hands. 

What does July have in store for you?

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Swellington

(You know, because Wellington is swell...)

Whenever I visit our capital city I feel at home, despite never having actually lived there.  It's one of those places where you feel at ease in your own skin, comfortable to wear what you want, walk at a leisurely pace, stop and take a few snaps and admire the harbour views and plethora of art installations.  I don't feel hurried along in Wellington, like I do in so many other cities; I don't feel as self conscious.  And because I've never lived there, there is a kind of pleasant freedom in anonymity.

Our holiday consisted of down time with family, museum visits, cheap curries at Satay Kingdom, a comedy show, a short film viewing, a night at Havana with sweet, sweet music, country & folk with Eb & Sparrow, John the Baptist and The Unfaithful Ways at Bodega, incredible pizza in a magical log cabin in the middle of nowhere (fairy lights and cider included), a trip along the Wairarapa coast, a few games of pool, and catch ups with friends.  

In short, it looked like this:

(Note: me and the Monsta being cheesy tourists / Lord of the Rings fans/ shamelessly plugging New Zealand. It had to be done...)

Until we meet again, fair city...

Looking Back (1)

I haven't forgotten you.
Kraków (circa 2009).

Hello Winter

I feel guilty about longing for summer when I'm greeted with beauty like this.

Remnants of Summer on a Winter Day

It's the first day of Winter here; one degree celcius outside.  So I whittle away an hour looking back at summers passed and begin the slow creeping countdown until we meet again. 

1. Wanaka
2. Aoraki
3. Raglan
4. Waipoua
5. Te Anau

What Autumn Looks Like

I will miss the colours, come Winter.

Life in Five Lines

It has occurred to me that recently I have had to condense myself into five lines or less on quite a few occasions.  Almost every time I submit work to a publication, I am required to "say a little bit about myself", and "little" usually means 50-80 words or so.

Don't get me wrong - I am not complaining about the minuscule word count; I do not pride myself on my propensity to talk about...myself.  What I am saying is this: just what to you say in those five lines or less?  How can you best represent the "you" that you want other people to know about? What is essential? What should be omitted?  How do I stand out from the other hundreds of people attempting to do the exact same thing as me? These are hard questions when a deadline approaches and your creativity has been all but sucked out of you, used up, for the most part, by the pieces of writing you actually want to submit.  

I looked to a few online publications and author bios for some support and alas, I found so many accomplished authors whose biographies consisted of list upon list of previous work published in what journal and where and all sorts of indicators to their level of author-awesomeness.  What am I to do as a mere fledgling in the world of publication in times like these?

My answer: I don't take myself too seriously.  I know this will not always work.  I know certain times call for professionalism, for "selling yourself", for maybe making yourself sound maybe slightly more accomplished than you actually are.  Yet sometimes the situation calls for something truthful yet slightly silly, in an attempt to show that the real me, doesn't actually take me too seriously; that I acknowledge I'm a newbie in this world and am trying all the same; that I have to make myself stand out somehow, when my small amount of published work might not be "enough".  A couple of my recent attempts:

"Kirsty *  is an English student at the University of Canterbury.  Her poetry has appeared in teenage diaries, on the front of the fridge, on bits of scrap paper stored in various forgotten drawers, and in numerous handmade cards addressed to her parents.  She hopes to gain a wider audience now that she has finally started to submit her work for publication.    She has a website where she shares her thoughts and writing experiments.  You are welcome to visit it (if you bring tea and cookies)."

"Kirsty * is an English major who once worked in law firms until she saw the light.  Unfortunately, that light belonged to the rear of a 1989 Toyota HiAce, which she now has to live in to support her creative meandering.  Thems the breaks (literally)."#

(# ok, so admittedly this is no longer true.  But at the time of writing it kind of was.  Long story...)

What would you say in a 50-80 word limit?

Picture: 

- because I talked about tea and cookies.  

- no: there is nothing wrong with this image

Pieces of Home

This is what home looks like.

Te Anau, New Zealand.