An end of month blog just to say hello. I’m not blogging much at all but quite often posting a picture or two on Instagram – which I think of as a micro blogging site.
I have a pamphlet of poems without a publisher – that is, I haven’t found a publisher who wants the poems – that is, I’ve sent the pamphlet to two pamphlet competitions without luck. So, you could say I haven’t tried that hard to find a publisher, perhaps because I have doubts about the pamphlet as a whole, but earlier this year I made a decision to put these poems to one side, for now, which has been liberating and released some new writing energy. I’m now working on new poems, approaching them in a completely different way to usual, and gradually accumulating poems that might be a book, eventually. Individual poems from my unpublished pamphlet – I think of it as a ghost pamphlet – have been published in magazines and perhaps I will be able to salvage some of those poems and include them in my newer manuscript. Not an unhappy state to be in, just not a state brimming with success.
I’m lucky and privileged to be in a position of being able to focus on my writing every day, so that is what I’m doing. Of course, this won’t make me a millionaire – but who wants to be a millionaire, as someone sang… Not being a millionaire has meant that I’ve had to curtail my book buying habit a little this year. I’m a regular reviewer (most recently for The North) but I’ve never taken advantage of this as a means to acquire new books – when the list of books for review goes out, I usually find that I’ve already bought most of them. So I’m holding fire on new purchases, for now, and waiting to see if some of the books I’m interested in appear on the review list later in 2021.
Recent purchases do include two new pamphlets, however which I’m enjoying a lot.
Forgive me for not saying much about the pamphlets – simply because of wanting to publish this blog today and while dinner is cooking. Geraldine Clarkson’s is available from Verve Poetry Press and Lisa Kelly’s can be bought from New Walk Editions – or click on the links to find out more. The pamphlets are both innovative, imaginative, refreshing, entertaining, witty, playful and thought-provoking – in completely different ways.
I mentioned before that I’ve been making at least one collage/word and image piece a month and posting it andothermakings, a dedicated Instagram page for my visual work. So I’ll close with three recent pieces from there.
No other news to report! As always, thank you for reading and I hope all is well in your world.
Josephine Corcoran 
At least you are staying positive about writing. Good luck.
I often reflect on missed marketing opportunities but if you don’t enjoy it, why pretend. Enjoy being creative.
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Thanks Clive. The most important thing to me is to keep writing and creating. Publication is wonderful – if it’s in the right place. I can’t see the point of publication for the sake of it. I will be published again but perhaps not for a while!
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I love your flower poems! Also, like you, I have been cutting back on book & pamphlet purchases. Partly, for financial reasons, and partly because I have such a backlog of reading material! Looking forward to your flower sestina…
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Thanks Hilaire! Haha, a flower sestina won’t be coming for a while. I’m sticking with shorter forms. Yes, I have a backlog of material too. I love pamphlets but like them to be reasonably priced – £5 – £8 seems about right. Thanks for popping in! x
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I love the flower poems, but they have triggered my late onset hayfever.
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Ha! Yes, that is a hazard of the poetry life. Thanks for commenting. We have left our lawn long to encourage wildflowers but when we had visitors from London last year, our grass sent their hayfever off something awful. We’re going to to try cutting back sections and leaving other areas wild this year, to be more accommodating to the sneezers. 🙂
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We do exactly that with our “lawn,” having seeded the whole thing years ago with a meadow seed mix. It’s beautiful now, and different every year. A full cut in late June, and then another in September. Late onset hayfever is a terrible thing. I had it last year for the first time and thought I had Covid.
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Your meadow lawn sounds beautiful 🌻🌸. Full sympathy with the hayfever. Husband and both children suffer every year at different times, according to different pollens.
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Love this, Josephine. Maybe we should start a press called Unpublished Poems? With best as ever
Anthony x
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I think I am already Managing Director of that press inside my head, Anthony! I think I’ve come to accept that it’s OK that not every poem is published in a book – in fact, perhaps the book might be all the better for it. Anyway, a poem is brewing today which is a good thing for me. I’m glad you like the flower poems! Josephine x
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Love the couplet with daisy end rhyme! So inventive. Thank you for posting it.
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🙂
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