Thursday, April 29, 2010

I've never been able to write on demand, well I could but the result wouldn't be pretty or worth much. Unlike swiss, who seems to have little problem turning his daily life into poetic epiphanies, I sit on my reams of imagery waiting for the 'thing' that's going to give it substance and meaning. So that, probably laziness, and the endlessness of household chores are my excuses for not having any new poems to post at the moment.

I'm not much of a short story reader but lately I've been devouring Robin Jenkins' book of short stories -Lunderston Tales. It has to be an excellent writer who makes you look at people differently and even value them more than you did previous to reading their work. I love Robin Jenkins' stories, they make me laugh, give me insights into the life and thinking of people around me. They are literally about the people around me. Jenkins spent the last thirty years of his life living just outside of Dunoon, where I live. His fictional stories are based on real people and people I recognise. These people exist everywhere of course but luckily for me Jenkins' stories are very much based locally which means when I walk down town I imagine I could be living in one of his stories.

Incidentally, Brown's latest gaffe reads like it's straight out of a Robin Jenkins story! - 'The Pensioner and the Prime Minister'.

11 comments:

Dave King said...

It'll come, really it will, the wind in your sails. But until then the why not just write - anything, never mind about pretty, pretty's a party person. You might surprise yourself - and us - with what you can pick up in the market place.

Until then, thanks for the Lunderston Tales review. Sounds interesting.

Best wishes.

Roxana said...

no, not laziness - it's just different styles and also approaches to poetry, most likely also different conceptions of it - yours is akin to a neo-romantic one, while swiss's - hmm hard to tell, neo-realist-experimentalist? :-)

Marion McCready said...

thanks dave, wasn't much of a review though I would say that Robin Jenkins is Scotland's best kept secret - his books really are fantastic.

hi roxana, yes mine is very much dependant on personal emotional response, I'd like to know what swiss's is!

Titus said...

Thanks Sorlil, I'm not much of a short story reader but every so often the mood really takes me, and "Nude" seems to have sparked me off, so I'll follow the recommendation.

You've got two under five. Take it easy on yourself, for when you do write, you do it right.

Marion McCready said...

thanks titus, you know how it is when you've not written a poem for a while!!

James Owens said...

No, it isn't laziness. What you do write is very good, and it is quality that counts, not quantity. Remember that Stephane Mallarme only wrote about 2000 lines, total.

Reading the work of someone who writes about people or places one is familiar with can be an eye-opener.I know I looked at the town where I grew up differently after reading books by a novelist from the same town. I'll look for some stories by Robin Jenkins....

Marion McCready said...

thanks james, though I do faff about far too much esp on facebook which I'm starting to feel is sucking the life out of me, time to cut back on it I think!

hope you find some Robin Jenkins, his short stories are excellent, also loved The Cone Gatherers and The Changeling - I'm working my way through all of his books which luckily for me, and as you'd expect, are all in my local library!

swiss said...

i did write a reply to this but blogger seems to have eaten it!

Marion McCready said...

you should write a poem about that lol :) :)

Frances said...

Hi Sorlil - I've got a friend called Ali who comes from Dunoon. Its beautiful apparently. Must get up there one day.

3 Children provided me with an excellent excuse for not achieving anything in my life until suddenly they kept borrowing my car and then the penny dropped that they really were my achievement all the time.

Word verification is 'orses. You couldn't make it up.

Nice to be back.

Marion McCready said...

I remember you saying that before, small world eh! you look far too young to have grown up kids!
welcome back :)