Sonnet 10 – Writing lines on taking risks

Each day, some choice to live or die is mine
when winter wraps my bones and silences
long-held, shame-filled, taunt me to say I’m fine
Each day the state commits more violences
incriminating people put to death
loudly lies the news, masking silences. 
What matters this to students at their desk?
How useful are the “facts” we learn at school?
What kind of system would teach us to BREAK OUT of it?
Outsider, rebel minds our brightest tool
our evolutions risk bold empathy
campaign beyond, between dishonest rule. 

We fight for some who fighting, lived and fell,
and write to heal a world that isn’t well.

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E is deliberately long as it breaks the rule.

6/6/20 – ABABCB CDEDGD HH

Sonnet 9 – Patch, Be Natch! Music-Making Spell 2 for Students! (Shakespearean Sonnet)

PATCH skills – we learn when ready to be wrong
with confidence, start training tricky bits.
BE NATCH and free your feelings in a song,
and be yourself, great minds don’t always “fit”.
SNATCH moments to create when life gets stressed
sing your own words to music that you hear.
DACHSCHUND’S a type of dog, okay I jest – 
absurdities can help the truth appear.
UNLATCH your mind, explore what others made
unlock ideas, record and make some notes.
DISPATCH your creativity well-played
experiment, reach out, collect folks’ quotes.

Patch, Be Natch, Snatch, Dachschunds, Unlatch, Dispatch!
Bright sparks! The power of music’s like a MATCH!

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This is the second of two sonnets to bring together my practice and learning process ideas on music teaching.

Like the first, this one also takes the Shakespearean Sonnet form which has the meter: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

Poem written on May 20th, 2020.

This poem was first published here on my website.

Sonnet 8 – Match, Batch, A Music-Making Spell for Students (Shakespearean Sonnet)

MATCH symbols, signs and sounds you’ve seen before
or things that chime and pattern in some way.
BATCHup matching patterns in your score
this secret will accelerate your play!
ATTACH the rhythms, clap to join the gaps
performers miss out notes, “wrong” sounds ignore.
CATCHpitches using intervals perhaps
sense handshapes, sing and number, patterns draw.
HATCH music like you might a fragile egg
with fierce tenderness and natural care
’til those who hear you play will ask (or beg!)
to hear your sounds again across the air..

Match, Batch, Attach, Catch, Hatch to grow your craft
well played, the power of music’s like a raft.

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I wrote this sonnet to bring together my practice and learning process ideas on music teaching.
I hope to make some posters which I plan to make available on the internet!

Meter: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Poem written on May 18th, 2020.

This poem was first published here on my website.

Sino-Victorian Mum – An Expeditious Sketch

To find my mum’s affection
you could
write to her

her speech is –

but what if
you have to
it must be
you can’t
we should
it has to be

(to a description of my reality
or a fact)

noooooooo!!!!!

(to a suggestion for a new way of doing things)

NOPE!!

(quite often)

Absolutely not!

and sometimes she’ll just
completely ignore you
if she’s Busy Thinking.

Now… what if she’s emailing?

I found  “Dear ______,”

“Could you”
“I would like”

Wow, there was even a

“please”

 

Her handwriting irritates me – that scratchy sound
of anxiety – whether in biro or Very Worried marker
oven 200’c, 20 minutes, David takes 2 sugar, electrician 9:30am
is walled with mum’s notes
                                                                     yet
you might find – in very old letters and postcards

a far care-freer, fun-filled breeze
and when I was a child, she gave me a
bath and we sang a song about a fish that got                                 away

 

once- Loooooong ago, a little

time to relax

Yesssss

yeah…

maybe

 

 

___________________________________________
___________________________________________

 

 

I read this poem to my mum! Tentatively.

She responded by repeating aspects of my poem and changing the words to be about me. Then I encouraged her to write a poem, which she did! Some of her friends have self-published poetry and she has always loved literature. I think that’s why she wanted me to study English Lit.

Running for paper (Eights #8)

My waking dreams me. Who is

this ghost running for paper

in a room full of paper, we’re

part of the place where everything

falls, it’s a room where torn walls

walk, it’s a part of the song which

everyone pretends they’ve never

heard – not since the other day

One word at a time (Eights #5)

If the person you love is

70% water, it can be

hard to hear them in

all the rain. Take

off your coat and step

into the falling rain – nothing

is so hard as it may seem – one

word at a time

A few smiles away, snow hums (Eights #7)

Listen to yourself, they said

you’re shouting again, I paused

and found myself wedged be

tween a dead vowel and an ex

hausting page-fold – – yet

just a few smiles away, snow

hums – branches nudge clouds..

(whose moon is gold and sings on time?)

Writing from there now (Eights #6)

My bf studies creative writing

his room is full of books

and idk what’s in them – I

spend my day fighting

sleep too. Where’s your future

today? Oh it’s sleeping again.. (hands

up if you know what I mean..) “I

know – – I’m writing from there now”

Winter’s at my window but (Eights #4)

Winter’s at my window but

night water’s watching me this

silence frightens us – well, let’s

turn up the volume, return

stare, sound transforms the water

eventually strange speaks loud again

blood&beats blood blood Blood JUMPS

hello hello hello Hello he-

Wise to go swimming (Eights #3)

When the person you love

is 70% water, it’s

wise to go swimming – dip

a lot, a little in their

splashing freezing hot warm

mind, take off your

stay-dry stay put bag

and spin around a while