Sally Murphy's Blog, page 37

Storm: A Magnet Poem

Over on our Poetry Tag blog, I’ve just posted four new words for my friend Rebecca.  The challenge is for her to use all four words in a poem. Once she’s done that, she’ll choose some magnet words for me.

While I had the magnets out, I had some fun composing magnet poems of my own., starting my choosing a random word for the title then choosing and rearranging more words till I had something resembling a poem.

 

Here’s the first one – I’ll share the others in coming days.  I’d love to hear what you think.

 

Poetry Friday: My Shadow

It’s Poetry Friday. Hooray! In my thesis, which is (hopefully) nearing completion, one of the things I touch on is how poems made me feel as a child, and how the poems I loved and learned as a child have stayed with me. Yesterday, for no discernible reason, Robert Louis Stevenson’s My Shadow popped into my head, and I found myself reciting it. I then had to look it up to see if I’d got it right – funnily, I had completely forgotten the ‘nursie’ stanza, but the rest I had down-pat. So, of course, I thought today that this should be the poem I share.

My Shadow

by R.L. Stevenson

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,

And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;

And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.

 

The funniest thing about him is the way he likes to grow—

Not at all like proper children, which is always very slow;

For he sometimes shoots up taller like an india-rubber ball,

And he sometimes gets so little that there’s none of him at all.

 

He hasn’t got a notion of how children ought to play,

And can only make a fool of me in every sort of way.

He stays so close beside me, he’s a coward you can see;

I’d think shame to stick to nursie as that shadow sticks to me!

 

One morning, very early, before the sun was up,

I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup;

But my lazy little shadow, like an arrant sleepy-head,

Had stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.

 

 

(This poem is in the public domain)

 

And, because I missed last Friday because I was at the beach, here’s my shadow last Friday!

Poetry Friday today is hosted by Violet Nesdoly, who has chosen a perfect poem to share today. Head over to see her choice and the Poetry Friday  Roundup.

January Sale

Just a quick note to let you know that I am having a sale of three of my backlist titles over on .

I have Doggy Duo for $5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pemberthy Bear for $15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and Snowy’s Christmas for  $10

 

 

 

 

 

 

So head over and pick up a bargain – or, if you’d prefer to by direct, send me an email.

Poetry Friday: Summer Smells

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for Poetry Friday – the first one for 2017 and my first one for a while, having had a busy end to 2016. My resolution for 2017 is to smile more, but I’m also thinking this means I should be trying to make other people smile, so I am going to try to share more poetry this year.

It’s Summer here in Australia, which means trips to the beach, swims in the pool, beautiful blue skies – I could go on. I love summer. But one thing I don’t like is the smell of rubbish bins left out in the sun. On one of my recent beach trips I stopped to put something in the bin. The smell when I lifted the lid was gross: bait, food, rubbish of all kinds. It was like the worst belch ever. It reminded me of this poem, which I wrote a few years back.

Smelly Sentry

Green soldier

standing tall

and alone.

Closed up

you seem so harmless

but still

I approach with caution.

I know

when I lift that lid

your stench

will overpower me

as you belch

last week’s fish

and yesterday’s onions.

 

(Copyright Sally Murphy 2017)

 

Gross hey? Instead of a photo of a stinky bin, I offer you this completely unrelated but pretty awesome video of a dolphin which came to check me out recently. It was a magic moment.

Poetry Friday this week is hosted by Teacher Dance. Head there later for the roundup check out the other poetry goodness on off on the blogosphere.

In the meantime, have a great Friday.

 

Cover Reveal: Looking Up

What a great start to the year! I am loving 2017. Yesterday it was the release of Something Fishy. Today, it’s the discovery that my forthcoming junior novel, Looking Up, is on the Fremantle Press website.

 

So I figured it was a time to do a cover reveal here on the site. So, drumroll please [ba bump ba bump ba bump ba bump ba bump), here, ladies and gentlemen is the beautiful cover of Looking Up:

 

The cover artwork is amazing, isn’t it. The illustrator, Aska, is so very talented!

Every new book is special to me, but there is something super lovely about being published by Fremantle Press. I have been submitting to them ever since I started writing for children. And, finally, I sent them the right book at the right time. Hooray!

Looking Up will be released in April this year. I can’t wait!

Happy New Year and Happy New Book

Welcome to 2017! It really doesn’t seem so long since we were celebrating the arrival of 2016. Or even the year 2000 for that matter. Time flies when you’re busy living life.

In 2017 I plan to be healthier, and to make the most of every day to write, read, share poetry and, beyond that, to enjoy life.

And what better way to start the year than with the release of a new book? That’s right Sage Cookson’s Fishy Surprise is out now! This time Sage (and her parents) are off to the beach – which is quite appropriate because right now is the best time of year for beaching here in Australia, and I’ve been getting my fill, too.

Fishy Surprise is available now from good bookstores, including Booktopia.

 

Happy New Year!

 

A New Diary

Yesterday I bought myself a new, funky diary for the new year which is rapidly approaching.

My next goal is to fill it up with lots of school visits and festivals and lunches and writing workshops and poetry performances. Basically,  I want to spend lots of time in 2017 talking. As you can see from this photo:

I don’t dress like this every day – but sometimes dressing up helps me feel authorly.

 

And this one:

Without an editor, I might still be throwing my hands in the air!

And even this one:

I love getting out and about talking about my books, answering questions, and speaking to audiences big and small, young and not-so young.  So if you’d like me to visit your school, library, writers group, festival, luncheon or anything else you can think of in 2017 (or beyond), now’s the time to get in touch.

 

Dolphin Dance

Spotted these dolphins at Hillarys Boat Harbour and, of course, had to photograph them. Have a great Monday.

Poetry Friday: Remembering

I’ve been absent from Poetry Friday for the past few weeks, caught up in the wonderful busyness which comes with the arrival of not one, but two, new baby granddaughters, born 10 days apart. I’m also busy trying to finish my doctoral thesis and there have been new floors being laid in my house, which means furniture and possessions everywhere – and much packing and unpacking.

Anyway, I didn’t want to let another week go by, and today is Remembrance Day, so I  wanted to share a poem of remembrance. This one, by Langston Hughes, is not a war poem, but spoke to me. I hope you like it too – and the red poppy which fortuitously is blooming in my front garden right now.

The Poetry Friday roundup is being hosted today by Jama at Alphabet Soup. Head over there for more poetry goodness.

Poetry Friday: Trash and Treasure

It’s Poetry Friday again and, since the sun has finally decided to put in an appearance, I thought I’d share another beach poem. I wrote this one a while ago, but thought I’d match it with some of my more recent photos (though I didn’t have a starfish picture so it doesn’t match up completely).

Anyway, here it is:

And here’s the poem if you’d prfer to read it for yourself”

Trash and Treasure

Each night

the sea

deposits her rubbish

along the shore:

shells,

sponge

even a starfish

she no longer needs.

In the morning

her trash becomes my treasure.

(Copyright Sally Murphy)

Today’s Poetry Friday roundup is hosted by Irene at Live Your Poem.