Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Making a list

But I had to make a song to go with it first. It's an unfinished song to the tune of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallejulah'. I particularly like the Choir of Hard Knocks version (you can see a short selection of it here), but kd lang is also hard to beat, even at the Logies.

A writer gets organised

I think about the life I’ve missed
And now I think I’ll make a list
Of things to do before life passes by me
And on the list is
‘Write some stuff’
Write it now, and write enough
Procrastinate no more and write it truly

Write it truly, write it truly
Write it truly, write it truly

I can do it but I need a shove
An iron fist in velvet glove
Get it down then prune it with a hacksaw
Lock me to
My writing chair
Chocolate, wine, a bit of air
And let me pick the cabbage from coleslaw

From the coleslaw, from the coleslaw
From the coleslaw, from the coleslaw

I know that I’ve been here before
The shirts I’ve washed hang on the door
And all of them I know are needing pressing,
I feel that I
Must clean my desk
So much dust it looks grotesque
It’ll be back next week so there’s no point in stressing

No point in stressing, no point in stressing
No point in stressing, no point in stressing

I’ll feed the cats, put out the bin
And notify the next of kin
I’ll be going incommunicado
When I get
The writer’s block
I’ll do some rows and finish Sock
I’ll be doing stuff and that is my bravado

My bravado,my bravado
My bravado, my bravado

If all I write is judged as shit
At least I’ll know I tried a bit
Who knows how times to come will score it
And even if
I go awry
It’s not as if I didn’t try
And told the story exactly as I saw it

As I saw it, as I saw it
As I saw it, as I saw it

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Motivation strategies

Sock still stranded on the needles
Unfinished objects piling up
Not busy enough to finish this stuff

In misty, magical Daylesford there's an exhibition of Sheila Hollingworth's cartoons, part of the annual Words in Winter program. Sheila's quest to complete a cartoon a day based on the theme of Pet Hates reminds me of an article that I read in Textile Fibre Forum, by Inga Hunter, where a group of artists committed themselves to the idea of a Drawing a Day. The article featured some images of pages from a most beautiful journal with drawings and notes.

I can't possibly knit now. I'm starting a journal.