It’s January again … the start of a new year and time for month of poetry again.  In Month of Poetry, I – with a bunch of wild, talented, inspiring poets – challenge ourselves to writing a poem each day of the month.

Over the last couple of months, I’ve felt like my poems have needed more variety in form – so as an added challenge, I’m experimenting with a different form each day. I’m also in the middle of editing for publication my novel Akrad’s Children. Here’s my Day 15 poem – a List poem.

A Novel Cake

Take a modicum of talent

a cup full of dreams

and hard work in equal measure,

mix together vigorously.

Stir in two aspirations well beaten

and half a cup of constructive feedback

until reaching a smooth and creamy consistency.

Add chopped metaphors (never mixed) to taste.

and a pinch of optimism.

Bake well in the scorching oven of opinion.

When cool, sprinkle with crystallised hopes.

Allow to settle to release the flavours

and garnish with a swirl of revision.

Serve with a generous side of promotion.

.

Warning this cake may cause tears but has been known to be addictive.

.

Jeanette O’Hagan 15 January 2017

Exploring Poetry Forms

1.  Free Verse – No Man’s Land

2. Acrostic

3. Ballad

4. Cinquain

5. Diamante or Diamond poem

6. Echo poem

7.  Saturday Challenge – Single Sense Poem –

8. Found Poem – Book Titles

9. Ghazal

10. Haibun.

11. Imayo

12. Joybell

13. Kyrielle

14. Saturday Challenge – theme Kiss – a Sevenling

15. List poem

16. Mirror (or Palindrome) poem

17. Nonet

18. Ode

19. Pantoum

20. Qasida

21. Saturday challenge – poem based on photo – free verse

22. Rispetto

23. Sijo

24. Tyburn

25. Utendi

26. Vietnamese Sonnet

27. Wordsworth Sestet

28. Saturday Challenge – non-fiction poem – a Shardorma

29. Xiasmic

30. Ya Du

31. ZaniLa Rhyme

Form, theme and emotion – all play a part in poetry. Some poems are clever, some straight from the heart. So far, it’s been fun stretching myself, finding new forms, pushing the edges of where the possibilities lie.

What about you – do you love to write poetry? What are you favourite forms? Have you always wanted to give it a go?

Jenny

2015 has been full of a number of exciting developments, particularly with respect to writing.

I attended a number of workshops, festivals, conferences and retreats in 2015 – including giving my first workshop on Writing Description, Giving a Sense of Place at the Omega Christian Writers Conference in October.

In July I finished my final subject for the Masters of Arts (Writing) through Swinburne University of Technology. I flew down to Melbourne in December to attend the graduation ceremony – and to connect with family, friends and look at Art Galleries with my daughter.

Seven of my poems have been published this year.  I was particularly pleased to make the Judge’s Choice with Poetica Christi’s Inner Child anthology (with ‘Thunderstorm’) and runner-up in the FAWQ 2015 Toowoomba Poetry Prize (with ‘The Real Thing’).

A number of my short stories have also been published – starting with ‘The Herbalist’s Daughter’ (Tied in Pink anthology for Breast Cancer Research) in December 2014 – and then this year, ‘Broken Promises’ in Another Time, Another Place; ‘Sandy: Perfect Plans’ in Let the Sea Roar; ‘Ruhanna’s Flight’ in Glimpses of Light; and ‘Lakwi’s Lament’ in Like a Girl, Plan anthology.

Anthologies available on Amazon.com (and as e-books on Amazon.com.au). Check out my Amazon Central Author’s Page.

Let the Sea Roar

My association with this Let the Sea Roar began a few years ago, when the editor Madeleine accepted my story ‘Sandy: Perfect Plans’ and then asked to include the poem ‘Lighthouse’ as well. An earlier version of ‘Lighthouse’ was published on Jenny’s Thread in 2013.

There are nine authors with twenty-eight stories about women of different ages, in different circumstances and walks of life, who find themselves in difficult, even overwhelming situations. Despite the pressure to give up hope, each of the women find a way forward – with faith, determination, new understandings and new possibilities. The stories are written with differences in style, reflect different life experiences and insights.

I also had fun designing the cover (with Lynne Bickhoff’s beautiful painting – used with permission) and the book design of Let the Sea Roar.

I hope that many others will also enjoy the stories in this inspirational anthology.

Glimpses of Light

Glimpses of Light celebrates 2015 as International Year of Light. It started as an idea in late 2014 and wouldn’t have come to fruition without hours of work from my co-editor, Nola Passmore as well as our team of supporting editors, proof-readers and contributors.

The anthology has an engaging and inspiration collection of short stories, poems and creative non-fiction centred around the theme of light – especially, of finding light in dark place.

It’s been wonderful having multi-published and award winning authors contributing as well as fresh new talent. I particularly enjoyed the number of spec fic, though there is also contemporary suspense, family drama, personal reflections and allegory.

We are currently holding a Goodreads Giveaway for Glimpses of Light (running until the 10 January).

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Glimpses of Light

by Jeanette O’Hagan

Giveaway ends January 10, 2016.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

I’m looking forward to more exciting developments in 2016. More on that later.

Jenny

Stop the Boats

So now they cry
‘Stop the boats’
as hundreds die
and sink beneath choppy waves
crowding Italian graves
desperate souls seeking hope
flooding the sea lanes
fearing for their lives.

As blood stained fanatics
spread out their nets
and murder with intent
to incite disorder and terror
and corporate giants
reap rich profits
off the backs of men and women
gleaning a scant living
in their strife torn lands.

We stir the pot
and skim the profits
content to swallow
slave-tended beans
and wear slave-tended fads
consuming cheap luxuries
while slamming the door
on those who dare
transgress our borders.

Let’s open our eyes
and open our hearts
give welcome and aid
but better yet
fair reward for honest labour
so people no longer
feel constrained to flee
their mother lands.

Jeanette O’Hagan 22 April 2015

The fires of countless galaxies

wheel against the dark expanse

in clotted coloured whirls

like Catherine wheels’ mad dance.

And in the deep soundless space

sun roars with warmth and light

As nine planets circle round,

alone the blue-green one, just right.

This marbled ball cradles prolific life

Towering mountains, heaving seas,

verdant forests and grass filled plains;

habitats shaped and honed to please.

And from the smallest microbe

to the grandeur of the blue whale,

life’s complex detail spins

as Great Artificer weaves time’s tale.

Vast space and wild energies

mutely obedient to natural laws

our small minds’ grasp emerging pattern

‘til immense timeless mind gives us pause.

Jeanette O’Hagan c April 2014

First published in Omega Writers Words With Wings April 2014

I look at Easter at Christian Writers Downunder today. Read it here.

Easter Egg image courtesy of  sattva / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Read on and meet this fascinating author.

About Paula:

Award-winning author, Paula Vince loves to evoke tears and laughter through her novels. A wife and homeschooling mother of three, she resides in the beautiful Adelaide Hills of South Australia. Her youth was brightened by great fiction and she’s on a mission to pay it forward.

Her novel, Picking up the Pieces, won the religious fiction section of the 2011 International Book Awards. Her novel, Best Forgotten, was winner of the 2011 CALEB Award in the fiction category and also recognized as the best overall entry for the year. She is also author of The Risky Way Home, A Design of Gold and the Quenarden Trilogy.  Paula is also one of the four authors of The Greenfield Legacy.

Her new novel, Imogen’s Chance, will be published in April, 2014.

Paula’s books are a skillful blend of drama and romance tied together with elements of mystery and suspense.

Find out more at www.justoccurred.blogspot.com

Welcome to Jenny’s thread, Paula. I’m thrilled to have you with us today and am looking forward to learning more about you and your writing.

Imogen’s Chance is your ninth book to be published and more than one of your books has won awards. How did you start writing and why?

I think writing has been in my DNA since I was small. At school, whenever we got a chance to do some silent reading or write stories, I’d be instantly happy. I found it very easy to get involved in the worlds of story book characters, so it followed naturally that I wanted to write them. The initial choice was to make myself happy, so if I could make others happy too, it would be a bonus.

Paula, your books are often about troubled young men and women in their early 20s usually facing some big questions in life. What attracts you to writing about this age group?

I first started trying to write novels when I finished University and got married, which happened at the same time. Back then, I was the same age as my characters, which made it easy for me to relate to them. Since then, I’ve kept the habit going and suddenly I’m older, while some members of my family are a similar age to my characters. I have a nineteen-year-old son and a 23-year-old nephew boarder, as well as younger children.

I also remember those twenties as a memorable transition time in my life. I felt that childhood was finally behind me, and the adult world beckoned. It was an interesting stage where I’d switch from anxiety to enthusiasm and back again in a flash. I decided that, as I could swing so easily between apprehension and anticipation, it was a perfect age to set in stories.

Can you see yourself in any of your characters?

I think there are bits of me in all of them. I can certainly relate to Imogen’s honest longing to do all the right things, without knowing how much of her past she ought to reveal to the people in her life. I can even relate to Asher, who I initially thought was completely unlike me. His personal uncertainty and sense of not living up to expectations is something I’ve been familiar with at different times.

As a reader, what do you think makes a good story?

I think that, first and foremost, the characters must be easy to love and empathise with. Readers should find it easy to imagine their physical appearances, even though descriptions may be sparse. In the same way, we ought to be able to hear their distinct voices in our minds’ ears while we read their dialogue.

Secondly, the plot should be tense and fast-moving enough to bring the best out of the characters and hold our interest. The very best stories leave us with that ‘book hangover’ feeling, when we don’t want to begin a new book because our head is still too full of the last. (I find these are the times I pick up non-fiction instead, until the impressions begin to fade away.)

Who/what are the biggest influences in your writing and why?

I think I’d have to say every author whose books I’ve immensely enjoyed, although there are far too many to single out. I might also mention my husband, Andrew, who has always encouraged me. When we were first married, I told him that although I’d always wanted to write fiction, I didn’t think I had it in me. He kept urging me to give it a go, telling me that he was certain I’d come up with a good story.

What do you find is the most difficult aspect of writing and how do you cope with it?

The marketing part, which comes with each new book, is always a challenge for me. I’m not a natural salesperson. Daydreaming is easy, but recognising opportunities as they whiz past is not so easy. Often, I’d hear about opportunities in retrospect, and think, ‘If only I’d known, I could have gone to that.’ Unlike my hero, Asher, I don’t have the gift of the gab, which means coming up with the right things to say when I’m trying to sell books at public forums can be a strain.

As for coping strategies, I think it’s just a matter of doing it often enough to get used to it.

Faith is woven through your books sometimes more understated, at other times more obvious. Can you tell me what faith means to you?

I’ve battled with fear and uncertainty at different times in my life, and my faith has always pulled me through. Since I was very young, I’ve had a fascination with the way God may choose to work in people’s lives. This makes it easy to create characters who become intrigued with the same subject.

Without giving too much away, what is your favourite moment in Imogen’s Chance?

Okay, I’ll say the bit with the lights in the cabin. It made me very happy to write that. I hope that’s cryptic enough to make everybody want to read the book. Apart from that, I liked all of the interactions between Asher and his brother, Seth. In the early stages, I had the feeling there might be a bit of friction between those two, but had no idea why. As I let them have their way and converse with each other, the hidden chinks in their attitudes toward each other started showing, surprising even me. I loved it when the buried feelings of those two young men came to light.

Launching a new book is a very busy time so I know you have lots of things on your mind, but I can’t help wondering – do you have some other writing projects on the boil?

It’s all still in my head at the moment, except for a few rough jottings on paper. As well as wanting to write a nostalgic story based on my grandfather’s real war experiences, I have some ideas regarding more romantic triangles, guilty secrets and unexpected turns of events like nothing I’ve written so far.

Thanks for inviting me to discuss my book with your readers, Jenny. I’ve enjoyed it a lot.

Thanks for talking with us Paula. I’ve enjoyed reading a number of your books over the last couple of years, including Imogen’s Chance. I find your books entertaining as well as giving me lots to think about. Thank you so much for sharing about yourself, your books and your life as a writer. We wish you great success with the launch of your latest book Imogen’s Chance.

I hope you enjoyed getting to know Paula. Let me encourage you to check out her blog for information about Paula’s Blog Tour through April – with the chance to win copies of Imogen’s Chance along the way and a special promotion Greenfield Legacy Pack for the first three people who leave a comment at every visit spot, and tell Paula about it on her blog. Don’t forget to comment today too.

Jeanette O’Hagan

***

About Imogen’s Chance:

She has given herself a chance to fix her personal history. But will old mistakes bring up new emotions?

Imogen Browne longs to make up for past mistakes before she can move on. She quietly resolves to help the Dorazio family, whose lives she accidentally upset. Her biggest challenge is Asher, the one person who may never forgive her. And he is facing a crisis of his own. Imogen must tread very carefully, as trying to fix things may well make them shatter.

A sensitive story about misplaced loyalty, celebrating life and falling in love. Can family secrets concealed with the best intentions bear the light of day?

A Dark Glass

Now we see through a tarnished mirror

Then we will see your beloved face.

Now we see in tantalising part

Then we will know you as you know us.

Now we see through tarnished mirror.

Dark glass spotted and rimmed

reflects divine face undimmed.

Then we will see your beloved face

no longer blurred by earthly tears

or distorted by our doubts and fears.

Now we see in tantalising part

dotted lines, misty ladders to the sky

caterpillars cocooning in faith to fly.

Then we will know you as you know us

deep, tender, pure, complete, delight

no longer straining for full sight

transformed by your eternal light.

Based on 1 Cor 13:12

Jeanette O’Hagan © 26 February 2014

Don’t Compare

Be sure to do what you should

for then you will feel satisfied

having done your work well

not having to compare yourself.

For then you will feel satisfied

knowing you have done your best

not trying to get away with any less.

Having done your work well

loving God who is love and light

and loving others in all delight.

Not having to compare yourself

with others young or old, big or small

knowing He loves you what’ver your score.

From Galatians 6:4

Jeanette O’Hagan c 7 February 2014

Then along came The Month of Poetry (MoP) . The challenge of MoP is to write one poem a day in the month of January. I was a little tempted – but really, one poem a day! But my friends Michelle and Nola said, “Go on, you can do it.” So I signed up. And I have had an absolute ball – both writing poetry, learning new forms, reading my fellow MoPettes poems, and receiving feedback.

I’m planning on signing up next January.

All of this is a long winded way to say – I am going to have to confess to being a poet. Maybe not an accomplished one, or a brilliant one – but a poet nonetheless.

I want to say a big thank you to Kat Apel – moderator and instigator of MoP.  I also want to encourage you, my reader, if you have desire to tinker with poetry, don’t worry whether you have the skill or not – don’t hold back, just let go of the hidden poet.

One of the forms I learned from one of my fellow poets during MoP was the Trimeric invented by Dr Charles A Stone.  It’s a neat little form. I wanted to give it a go – and I was taken by a verse in Isaiah that resonated with me. The result was my first Scriptural Trimeric.

The Good Shepherd

He gently tends his flock
gathering little lambs in his arms
carries them close to his heart
shepherding those who have young.

Gathering little lambs in his arms
holding them tight and secure
our fears he softly calms.

Carries us close to his heart
hammering strong in rhythm of love
only prideful fears can push us apart.

Shepherding we who have young.
Scaling the depths of mother-father love
To his footsteps we have clung.

Based on Isa 40:11 NIV

© Jeanette O’Hagan 16 January 2014

For my very dear friend, Carol.

“He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed.” Psalm 107:29 NIV  (see 23-32)

Lighthouse
By Jeanette O’Hagan

5 August 2013

Steady light in the dark, stormy maw of the night
obscured by driving rains or, perhaps, my own tear blurred sight -
Jesus, my Lord and God, you are the lighthouse of my life.
Giver of breath, love and meaning in the midst of human strife,
forgive me when I doubt you or, dreaming, wanting, scheming,
drift away from your shining beacon of light,
towards the sharp toothed rocks of my own devise.

Lord, be the storm anchor of my floundering ship,
the farsighted captain guiding me through life’s tempests,
past sharp rocks and submerged reefs of criticism and pain,
against the riptides of laziness and despair,
through cold, drenching waves of self doubt and fear.
Jesus, you are the steady rock, the lighthouse of my life,
your beacon glimmers through the darkness bright and clear.

You bring me safely into the haven of your embrace,
Tending, mending, you refurbish and strengthen
And drawing closer, you turn towards me your bright face
And whisper “My child, fear not for I am with you”
And your love shines forth echoing with wild joyous cheer
And though you send me out again on thrashing seas
Lighthouse of my life, I know I will always find sweet haven in thee.

All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Fine Lines
By Jeanette O’Hagan
30 March 2013

Fine lines crisscross the map
In a tangled grid;
Pathways through the city’s maze
Lines in time and space
That situate the temporal place.

Fine lines adorn the beloved face
Marking passing years;
Deeper lines with time are etched
Tracing happiness and grief
Hostage to the memory thief.

Fine lines tangle in grey cells
Plaque builds up between
And neural pathways begins to fray
As memory fragments and fails
And confusion slowly entails.

Fine lines connect cross generations
In kaleidoscopic patterns
Love and fate entwine in cabled ply
Crossed lines and DNA signs
Link kin and kind in swirling designs.

Fine lines between faith and doubt
Trace tapestry threads
In dark tangles and loosened twine
Then flare into delighted design
As dawn brings another vision.

Fine lines of memories and love
Cross the cracks of life
Sketch names and fading narratives
Entangling generations in loving strife
Bringing meaning and life.

Fine lines inscribed by divinity
In the cup of eternal hand
Traces name and remembers history
Promises “I will not forget you”
Beyond time reclaims each hidden strand.

Fine Lines out of time and place
Fine lines between love and strife
Fine Lines in time and eternity
Fine lines that trace our names,
Our narratives and life.

© all rights reserved

“I will not forget you.
See, I have inscribed you on the palm of my hands.”
Isaiah 49:15-16 © NRSV