Warzone

Featured Poem

If you have read the featured poem, you will already have noticed it is a collection of my recent Twitter Tuesday poems. I sometimes (often) ask myself what use a writer is.  Does the collection Warzone really make any difference to anything?  I think the answer is that we must all do what we can to right wrongs, however little that bit is.  The little bits we do are better than no bits at all.

As Putin’s assault on the people of Ukraine continues, I find myself thinking a great deal about Chekhov; for me, Chekhov is the very epitome of humanity.  All the pain and comedy, the impossibilities of resolving troubles in life are the electric current which brings to life his great plays; no more so than in his last and greatest, The Cherry Orchard (in strict translation, The Cherry Garden.)  Chekhov, the doctor, who often worked for free, the prison reformer.  Chekhov, among the greatest of the Russian writers – who was Ukrainian.

Putin is a monster and a war criminal; he is destroying the Russian peoples and attempting to destroy the Ukrainian peoples.  Long may he fail to succeed.

I’m still far from certain my scribblings will make a difference, but I’ll continue to scribble anyway.

Reading

Life has been extremely hectic in the last month.  I have completed reading the crime novel All The Hidden Truths byClaire Askew; this is unusual and riveting.  Now I’m back to a later Priestly novel, Low Notes on a High Level.  A light-hearted read.

Writing

I recently picked up an abandoned poem Borders and reworked it, including reversing the stanza order (and dumping one whole stanza which was really rubbish.)  The poem is now called Drawn Up Lines and friends tell me it’s strong.  I’ve also been writing some dog-based poems – more of that anon perhaps.

And the composer I’m working with on the music-play has asked me to re-write one song.  He’s also asked for some highly challenging changes.  Start on that soon.

Final Thought

As we start each day let us try to think of at least one good thing that happened to us the day before and one good turn we did for someone else.  It will help nullify the horrible effects of all the terrible news around us.