Sunday 1 April 2007

Off and running

I've just posted my first poem to the Poetry Free For All's poetry-writing month (I've forgotten the actual name just now). It was a pretty painless experience, and writing it saved me from spending this afternoon biting my nails to the quick watching Leicester Tigers scrape past Stade Francais into the European Cup semi-finals.
I've set myself the target of taking no more than an hour over each poem (if they're any good, they can be worked on later), and of taking as the starting point for each one the first track my iPod chooses each day on shuffle. Today it gave me Make Like Paper, by San Francisco miserabilists Red House Painters. It's got a couple of images that immediately set me thinking, which made things easier - it might get a lot more difficult if it picks something like Teenage Lobotomy.
On the birding front it's still quiet - highlight of the weekend was watching the Peregrines at Swithland Reservoir doing their display flights yesterday. Their courting was interrupted by some serious aerobatic harassment from quite the biggest Raven I've ever seen, which in its turn got mobbed furiously by a couple of Crows. Other than that, still no Wheatears at Sence Valley Forest Park (well, there are, I just haven't found any), although a flock of at least 400 Fieldfares partly made up for that.

6 comments:

Andrew Shields said...

The Fieldfare reminded me of this:

http://andrewjshields.blogspot.com/2007/01/sky-over-basel.html

Matt Merritt said...

Thanks Andrew. Really nice article. Much underrated birds, Fieldfares, I always think. Lovely colouring, and I like their constant chattering. I presume the flock I saw were doing some last-minute fuelling up before heading back to Scandinavia - they're rarely present in such numbers in the depths of winter.

Andrew Shields said...

Your reference to Fieldfares had another side effect: the scene described in the article turned up in my poem for today (I am quietly doing the poem-a-day thing, too).

My friend Dave told me that the flock I saw in Basel must have been driven down from the mountains by the extreme cold that day.

Matt Merritt said...

I'll have a look for that, Andrew, thanks.

Your Teacher said...

Hi--

Just wondering if my chapbook from the Great Poetry Exchange ever arrived. I'm a little afraid to ask, in case you hated it.

Matt Merritt said...

Hi Louann,
Yes, thanks, it arrived OK. I've enjoyed it very much, and I'll get round to posting a review very soon (hopefully this weekend).