A writerly Post today ('bout time!), and 'The Discourse of Blood II' - a sequence of poems from my MA

It all stacks up

Been doing lots of work on the novel/PhD this week, in unseen, unquantifiable ways...

A thought here or there,

A note, a whisper in the ether,

A dream, a sentence, a realisation.

If you feel you aren't making any progress, perhaps stacking up everything you've done so far, will help. And I mean in a very physical manner. Print out those hidden and long forgotten files on the pc, collect up the notebooks, the scrawlings on napkins. I couldn't believe how much work I've done - and it's far beyond the 50 k on the word counter. More worthwhile are the chapter ideas and outlines I'd done. I've also got around 40 A5 diaries I wrote whilst living in Spain, knowing I would want to write a book about it one day - a little treasure trove of memories and cultural observations. So go on - stack up your work and you'll be amazed at how much you've done!

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Some Poems I found on an old Cd-Rom from my MA Course a few years ago. They were about adoption, and came not long after finding my birth family. It was a time of confusion and conflict, and of letting the dust settle.

The Discourse of Blood: A Series of 5 Linked Poems (with commentary at end)

IIa Drift

IIb The Discourse Begins

IIc Triangles

IId Complex Things


IIe Resolution

Rationale for 'The Discourse of Blood II'*

Derived from Maggie O'Sullivan's performance of 'Red Shifts' (Rose Theatre, Lancs, 2003), and her on-line sequence poem 'Murmur', my work combines words, art, and mathematics in an attempt to signify adoption issues.

The adage , 'Blood is thicker than water', is a central theme. Red represents the birth mother, blue the adopters, and the resultant purple is for the adoptee. The sequence mirrors the undulation of the discourse and ends when all else is left unspoken, unresolved.

The piece would not have been possible were it not for O'Sullivan's work, and represents a radical change in my thinking with regards to poetry. I worked with a 2B pencil and water-colours on cold pressed water-colour paper before scanning and printing the originals.

*Note: 'The Discourse of Blood I' was a sequence of more conventional poems I did for my undergraduate course-work, and was written pre-reunion.