R J Askew ~ One Swift Summer

[R.J.]

Hurrah, the clouds parted after what seems two eternities and there they were, screeching through the blue over St.Albans. Time to get things moving along. The thing about we crazed optimists is ...

[Kath]

.. that if we hang around for long enough, the swifts will come. I have a bird poem for you. I'll send it via PM.

[R.J.]

Your poem is a cracker. It works beautifully up on all counts.

Alas the clouds have closed in again over St.A. I imagine this is what life must be like on The Isle of Mull in November.

[Kath]

Thank you! You analysed it in great detail. I'm not really good at doing that. I'm sort of instinctive as a writer much as I know by instinct when I like a poem but I haven't the ability (or maybe haven't had the practice) to pull it apart.

On the Isle of Mull in November the day doesn't last too long though!

[R.J.]

Instinct is best. And I always think the only real question is does it have a beating heart. Yours does.

[Kath]

Gosh, thanks! (I've just looked over my shoulder to see who you were talking to!)

[R.J.]

:)))))))))) there is no one there. If you post the pome on your poetry thread. I will be more than happy to attach the review to it, if it suits you.

[Philip (sarah)]

R.J.I finished your book this morning and I am waiting for my head to come out of the sky to write my review.
Suffice to say I more than loved it. I found Tom's character so positive and life affirming and the poetry not just in the poems but throughout the narrative kept me reading and rereading. My favourite was 'The Arrow of Time'I have indeed fallen under your spell. Thank you.

[R.J.]

many thanks! by Philip (sarah) ... the spoken version of the arrow of time may be found on soundcloud.com >>>>>

http://snd.sc/Kmfruw

[R.J.]

Is there a blog in how authors celebrate their sales? I was recently with an author whose book on decorationg had sold over 78,000 copies. She is probably well past 80,000 now. I asked her if she'd ever thrown a bucket of size over her editor in a moment of wild celebration. But she seemed too worried about what she was going to do next for such frippery. with sales of 32, I am 77,000 plus change copies behind her. However, however... I am noticing some distinct patters of irrational exhuberance settig in with each new sale, esp if I don't know the identity of the purcahser. Hmm, maybe there is a blog in this. How I wonder did, Shakespear celebrate when he knew he had a winner. I believe he was very meticulous about the pennies. Was his number one celebration a mere sense of quiet satisfaction as he looked over the theatre's accounts? As for Keats, he barely had any sale to celebrate. Hmmm. Does Steven King bother to celebrate now? And if not, what wld ring his bell? Will they ever consider him for a Nobel Prize? I doubt it, though he deserves it to my mind. Just how do writers who count their sales in millions celebrate? Should I be lucky enough to ever get another sale I will study my reaction and blog it. Perhaps, if I sell 300 million copies of Watching Swifts and have long since forgotten how to celebrate with a certain wild glee a single sale, I will read the resultant blog as a reminder of how it was to be in the most exciting phase of being a writer, that time when ... Excuse me, I just have to nip over to amazon and check the sales report. You know how it is.

[R.J.]

Ach, no cigar this time. That will teach me. Still, one may dream. And when reality fails to provide, what else is there?

[R.J.]

At least I've learnt how to work the add book widgit Watching Swifts and craftily slide the odd deft pitch for Watching Swifts seamlessly into the this tapestry of wistful thinking.

[D.D. Chant]

I don't really know about that one R.J.: humans are terribly apt to take things for granted and that one sale that means so much now could conceivably become something you expect and therefore only notice if it's missing should your book really take off.

Seems hard to imagine at the moment...

But maybe having taken the indie route we will ALWAYS remember how hard it was to get our books out there and so be reminded how precious every single sale is.

[R.J.]

I've been thinking about it overnight D.D. The sell is a distraction for me. While there are some pretty crazy emotional responses to at seeing a sale tick in, in truth they are nothing to those astonishing WHERE!-did-that-come-from moments we get something magical happens inside us in some indefineable way, the outcome of which seeps across a blank sheet of paper before our eyes. That feeling of being actually inside the wordfall is beyond the highest high that any sales figure, prize, or applause can ever bring. That sense of witnessing the marvel of human creativity at work in our own lives, of being intensely aware of being in the midst of it, yet never quite entirely understanding its exact nature or our own, is a somewhat astonishing experience. We rightly become excited at the sheer beauty of the universe without. But when we start to thing of the universes within us all and our strange urge to create. It is as if we are the universe playing with itself, enjoying itself, perceiving itself to be, thinking to itself. Actually, the words 'it is as if we are' are misplaced because we actually are the universe thinking about, to, and for itself. Sigh. Time to make a salad for lunch!

[R.J.]

On the other hand I cld be quiet mad. *bows*

[Philip (sarah)]

To be a creative genius being slightly mad helps RJ :@)

[R.J.]

Hurrah! I've sorted my webbie http://rjaskew.com/ out. The old version had thousands of hits but produced zero sales i.e. was a dud. I loved the creativity in it, but it had to go. The new version is slick, everything I said I wld not do. But it works, has already produced some biz. Needs a blog to keep it active though. May write a serious blog exclusively on novellas, as I love the form. Resisting the temptation to write junk just to be busy will be the hardest part. Quality is all. The flim flam spam will just vanish into the big server in the clouds. But what of quality ... quality ... quality ... Hmm, a tired brand? Should one go down, down, down ... put a few happening rips and modish tears in the style? a few wannas, gonnas, fucks n ****s, rusty razors n fake facebook causes in the writing's DNA. No. No. No. Ignore all that and try for something better. The webbie works now, up to a point. Getting the blog right will be quite the trick. But you will do it. Note to self: stop thinking aloud online. Just sell the story. Get thee to Hay. http://rjaskew.com/

[R.J.]

Ach, I am not really suited to this, but here goes ... now on twitter ... https://twitter.com/#!/R_J_Askew

Don't really know how to use it yet, but... tweety-tweet

[R.J.]

Askew, listen to me. You are a fool, an idiot, a delusionist. Lisetn to me! You have N O talent, less. Less to you is far, far up above where you are. You will not succeed, are entirely out of kilter with the h and n. Worse, you are unworthy, undeserving, uneverything. Listen to me, loser. I know you well. Fool. Pay no attention to them. Listen to me, who knows you all to well. Fool. You are a fool. They know. You do not. Even now. Fool, fool, fool, fool. You do not belong, do not fit, will never learn. You are outside all. And too stupid to see it. Fool. You have no feel for how it is to be, how others are. You perfect your elaborate intellectual dressage in this void at the end of a vavuum and think yourself a communicator. Fool. You have nothing to say, nothing to add, are yourself irrelevant to all and everything. Fool. I'd tell you to stop now, but know you won't, that being your nature. Fool. Delude yourself a little deeper. Fool. Convince yourself that none of it matters. Fool. Stop all this now. No one will miss you. It's still not too late to take up golf. Not that you will find a playing partner, not with your ...

[Patti (baconater)]

RJ, that was frighteningly beautiful.

You just shared in words what not just you but so many of us feel so frequently.

You are blessed as you have the words to share it.

I applaud and am in awe of your eloquence.

[Kath]

Aye Patti. And it were good too!

RJ - I am another who can't (be bothered to) twitter and tweet - I leave that to the birds who do it so much more eloquently.
You are no fool young man.

[R.J.]

Right, I am sick of pimping my stuff. I'm going to review The Great Gatsby I am in love with the story. It is a part of my life because it imbues certain truths about creativity, dreams, and banal corporealitiy. And I am damn well going to put it to Scott straight that HE is the owl-eyed drunk in the library. Oh yes! Owl-eyed-drunk (aka Scott) turns up for Gatsby's internment. O yes, that was you Scott turning up to watch your beautiful dream go into the ground. Maybe the act of finishing the writing meant the dream i.e. the moment of creativity was over, done, dead. The thing that is published, the physical book is but the corpse of the dream. The dream is all. Gatsby is the dream. Ach, the moment he kisses Daisy kills his dream and ends up with him dead, too. I love it. I will have this review in a day or two. Sod the pimping. I'm sick of it, no good at it, refuse to do it. But this review... That I will do for the love of it, old sport.

[R.J.]

Gatsby review almost done. I've thought a lot about the story. And I will write a verse to accompany the review. I must get this right. Have since tried to read A Clockwork Orange and cld not read it because Gatsby is still bossing my mind. Have managed to read No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories but OMG was the ending disappointing. The story falls off a cliff at the end. Gatsby, Gatsby, Gatsby still bossing my mind after G.G.Marquez. But then any story which ends with the word 'Shit' as the No One Writes to the Colonel and Other Stories is perhaps not likely to score highly for beautiful wording. Ach, I am sooo disappointed with that ending. Were Marquez playing chess the ending of that story wld be like getting up and walking away, leaving the game unfinished. It wld be better if he hand't published it. And it cost me £9. Hmm, Penguin is on a good screw there. £9 for an indifferent 68 page story. I am cross because I wanted more when the stor suddenly died. And so The GREAT Gatsby is still bossing my mind. What will match it? Something will, but what? Shut up Askew and finish the damn review!

[R.J.]

Hurrah! tis done, tis done! The Great Gatsby review is done at last. Phew. See blog.

[R.J.]

Carriage floor wet

Coat wet

Hair wet

Armpits hot, wet


(Aside: This to mark an exceptionally wet journey into London during three exceptionally wet months.)


VERSE TITLE >>> LONDON WET WRITE


No room to off coat

Woman next to me...wet

Chest wet

Shirt wet

Chest sweat

Late, the one certainty

Poetry wet, sorry, two, certainties

Splash of water between carriages

Rain beating on train windows

Trousers wet

Knees wet

Window bangs open in air blast from train speeding other way

Rain sprays into carriage

Laughs, rain laughs

'Get that man,' it pours

'Wet him up!'

'Wet right down inside him'

'Wet his brain'

'Wet his verse, wet, sweat, wet'

'Soak his mind'

'Set puddles in his path'

'Let taxis splash his legs'

'Fill more clouds'

'Your biggest clouds, the very biggest'

'Hold your water, boys, aim wells'

'There he is...plodding through The City Of...'

'Wait boys...wait...wait...'

'BUCKETS AWAY!'

'Let London...BE WET!'

'Fill the sky with squids-n-eels'

'Seaweed! hurl seaweed down upon him'

'Winkle him'

'Throw rivers, chuck seas, cast oceans'

'Brolly him inside out'

'Shivver him'

'Drown him'

'Wash the will from him'

'Dilute his blood'

'Flood, splash, tide into him'

'Drip from every word he writes, drip, drip, drip, drip.'



Ahem, Sun here, thank you Rain

Shall we with a rainbow end?

And with that said rainbow springs from eye

Shows way as exact moment man

Squelches by Bank of Old England for Cannery Wart

Where money rainbows ugly beauty into wallet minds, pockets dry souls
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ach, it has to be KNIGHTS OF CYDONIA by MUSE because in my shallowest fantasies - they are legion - I wld love my journey to work to resemble this archy droll video just once in my life. O to be slapped by the vision on the unicorn! Admit it. This is fantasy of the highest order. Perhaps the vidoe is better than the track which is a little repetative. But o that sweet slap! the sweetest. (There will be some piano sonattas another time. Tonight we will ROCK!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Yc3H...

[R.J.]

This following an exchange between otherss on the lack of interaction on threads which got me thinking on the nature of threads here.

This to the spirt of the thread which is actually a live thing made up of all those who contribute to it.

I don't know if it is wise to post actual verse on threads, but as this was to and about the thread in quetsion, I claim poetic licence. If anyone enjoys it, all is well. If not, nothing's lost.


YOU ART

My all, my everything and more
You are, o how you are, unique
Superlatively fine in all
You are, o how you are, my heart
This beating core of pulsing life
My soul, o how you are, my now
My all, embodiment to be
My fate, my happiness and more
You are, o how you are, my sight
These eyes in which I gravitate
To you, I mirror you, in sighs
Our poet Nature's at her best
In you, your naturalness made true
You art! creation's best ... art you


14 lines in tetrametre to this syllable pattern

1 - 2,6
2 - 2,4,4
3 - 8
4 - 2,4,2
5 - 8
6 - 2,4,2
7 - 2,6
repeated in line 8-14


now here is an esp fine performance of the DOLL DAGGA BUZZ BUZZ ZIGGETY ZAG >>> by, yes, the delightfully witty and intelligent Mr. Marilyn Manson .. in the best traditions of music hall revived for our sweaty palmed modern needs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BITnk3...

*bows*

[Marc]

Doffs hat in return

*Quite remarkable* said in best david Coleman voice

It can be quite lonely & draughty in among these literary nooks, niches and recesses, with the emphasis on recess... Is that the sound of vampire wings I hear in the distance?

[R.J.]

Anyone for a quiet night in, poet style? Come on then, FULL ON.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKz2U4...

[R.J.]

Saturday night and I want to be performing ...


YEAH, IT'S JUST A LEAGCY THING

Your mem'ry motes in sunrise thoughts
O how they float through morning minds
A face - you know the one - motes by
You smile, here, now, years on, you smile
O how you smile! Another mote...
A purple speck of love drifts by
But this? A mote of death, a face...
A shard of remembrance fresh cuts
You shy, a tear swell rimes your eye
You gaze anew into the motes
You see yourself a-looking back
A mote in other's fading minds
A settling sheet of nothingness
A film of fallen lifelessness

and the theme track for this dandling bundle of joy shall be COCHISE by AUDIOSLAVE >>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDMvN4...

[R.J.]

A rest from form. I was struggling with a front cover for my story, Watching Swifts, was trying to do a line drawing of a face in chalks and it wasn't working. These mad lines are the dust of that frustraion, if you will. This is insane, in a controlled sort of way, but still insane in a Chantes des Maldaror-Beaudelair sort of way.


SIGN OFF ON THIS

This feeling of ...
What? I say
This feeling of WHAT?
Nonegetherness
This real-i-say-shone
This realisation of being
Not
A what outside
Red chalk, black chalk, clump of bread
Tea-stained sheet of blank intent
He licks his lips, he's ready to win
O this mood!
Sperm gone, dead, passion drawn
Free to...
Be outside...all...that...gone, gone...gone buy good
With you
O youyouyouyouyou
My cre-a...
LOUDER!
Q loud tiv-it-eeee
Off on off on off
East Fife, four, Forfar, five
O watch my hand
Hear in your eyes
Draws a swift
Watch my hands
Hear in your eyes
O watch...my...hands
Draws a swift
Five-hundred and what's another year gone?
Noneotheryessing you
Alone
I am the universe beguiling form-o
Leo, Leo
Strip of black across the top
Wa-tching Swifts
Reversed out white
Buy
Buy
Don't forget the buy line
Because tomorrow I will make my front cover
Won't I, Nib?
And you will sign it
In the hottest ink
For me in my meta-cre~a~tiv~it~eee
~


It should really be THE SCORPIONS - ROCK YOU LIKE A HURRICANE, from whence the line 'he licks his lips he's ready to win' is drawn, but ... HYSTERIA by MUSE is perhaps nearer to the psychology of creative chaos. 'I want it now', yes, that is exactly right, creatively speaking, 'I WANT IT NOOOOOOWWWWWW!'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dm_5q...

*bow-wows*

[R.J.]

Love? Sigh, sigh , sigh .


LOST IN YOUR HAIR

Loved on by you, I've crossed my lines
And wait for you to cross yours too
To verse your voice into my head
To sway me on with your sweet purrs
To take me on-in-off in love
...your hair falls over all I am
Inside your hair you hold verse man
You feel me now within your hair
Your willing prisoner in love
Your hair to me's my versery
With you within your hair shakes flair
Love makes your mane-man outcompare
All competition genuflects
Hear in your hair ink sighs complex


BLACK STONE CHERRY methinks: BLAME IT ON THE BOOM BOOM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXIEtJ...

[Marc]

did you just write all of these tonight? Impressed

[Kath]

He's quite an impressive bloke, isn't he?

[R.J.]

All careers come to an end. Here is how it was for a colleague, the last day of whose working life was spend in a Tokyo newsroom ~ one Christmas day no less! Luckily the big man enjoyed this pen pic. Cue drum roll...



THE LAST DAY OF A CAREER

Tokyo
Christmas Day
The Baron's Newsroom
And there is our hero
Big as a bear
A-tapping at his keyboard
The endless stream of this and that
Words, numbers, facts
Thirty years a-shepherding the news
Here a new
There a new
Little news
Big news
Mostly little news of little consequence
But still, a career
And a long way from Accrington, Lancashire
Tap, tap, tap, our hero presses xmit
'Japan's fin min sees...' hits a zillion unwatched screens
On Christmas Day in the morning
Yet should an earthquake rend Hakkaido...
Our man in Tokyo
Is the hot seat
But right now he's dying for a fag
Strokes his neat beard as he gazes at the screen
Tap, tap, tap, slap on a few codes
SOF for soft commodities
COC for cocoa
Well, you never know who's reading what
Checks that headline again
Bilion, govermnent
And other literals you have loved
Edit, edit, edit, edit
Reconcile tenses
Joined the Baron to go to China
Ended up in Paris and Rome
Tap, tap, tap
Two hours of working life to go
Problems with Korea's comms
On Christmas-fugging-Day
Get out alive
Too knackered to think
Sip a cup of saki
Such pleasant people, the Japanese
What to do with London flat?
And the mother-in-law's health...
Rome beckons
Oh to stop!
Yet not yet
Tap, tap, tap, tap
Christmas-fugging-Day!
'Hello, is that Seoul?'
'Your comms are back, oh good'
'Fine, close the buro. Merry Christmas.'
Merry-fugging-Christmas!
Dying for a fag
Must give up
Not today though
Fug it!
Last day of me bloody career.
Thank Christ!
Still got a good head of hair
Could lose a little weight
If only I could have made it as a drummer
Tap, tap, tap, tap, delete, tap, tap, tap
Only two more stories in the basket
Check headling
Re-write lead paragraph
Still no earthquake
No plane crashes, train crashes, market crashes
No bizarre suicides
Press xmit
'That's it then, me last story'
Japanese rail authority sees...sources
Edited by Malcolm Whittaker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[R.J.]

Woke with this in my head. Monday, July 9. Recorded on soundcloud.com >>> http://snd.sc/LBFp1f

CONDUCTING TEARS

This tear, I kiss this tear, and this
I kiss, and this and this and this
My life-absorbing lips soak up
Your drops, your liquid hurt, your loss
You pour your pain into my glass
I drink, this glass of pain, I down
Your rain, your liquid pain, your loss
I take, your tear-filled eyes I kiss
O how! I kiss your eyes, I kiss
Your tears here on these lips I take
O how! your tears I take, like this
My life-absorbing lips soak up
Your pain, your clouded skies, your fears
Pour out! pour into me your tears

>>>>>
<<<
>

[Gingerlily - The Full Wild]

Wow. . That brought tears to my eyes. Appropriately. Hearing it makes a huge difference.

[Kath]

That's really emotive. I love all that internal rhyming.

[R.J.]

Weds July 11

I have not been spammed much on this site. But I have been spammed to death elsewhere. So here is a satirical tribute to the whole tribe of spamsters with ebooks to pimp. Heaven forfend that I wld ever spam! N-n-n-n-no! On the whole I don't like ugly language, but spam brings out the worst in me. So if you have been spammed and this makes you smile I will be happy. *bows*


'ZOMBIE-Z' - A.SPAMSTER'S EBOOK

Pimps his shit from thread to thread
His genius will now be read
All he writes's uniquely said
His brand's the fuck-up that's his head
Blogs and tweets from sleepless bed
All inhibitions have been shed
Spams the living and the dead
Sanity has long since fled
Has to keep his ego fed
The fucking public will be bled
Blogs and tweets from sleepless bed
His bank account's deep in the red
Same old story cast in lead
A.Spamster's ebook's - 'Zombie-Z'

[R.J.]

Ach, time to deploy Nerb again, the attack dog's attack dog. Professor Elga Nerb, Director, The Institute For The Harmonisation Of European Poetry, Zug, Switzerland.

The last time Nerb was loose some people actually believed her to be real. This shocked me to my core. One guy, an 18 year old somewhere in the UK actually started hitting on her. Now THAT absolutely terrified me. True, I was masquerading as Nerb with a certain glee.

Come now, Nerby-werby, let's see if we can have some fun and drum up the odd sale on writerscafe. Those young Americans so totally deserve you.

I feel that old thousand word stare about to descend upon me.

[Gingerlily - The Full Wild]

This makes me very nerbous.

[R.J.]

WOOT! WOOT! 50 WOOTS! in fact as I am marking my 50th sale today.

I am profoundly thankful to all 50 people. I often ponder who they all are. If you are one of them, THANK YOU, thank you.

I will now forget about all this for a day or two and then work out how to get to 100.

It has taken me 8 months to get to 50. If I can get to 100 in 4 ..

And so my theme for the next 4 months is: 'Sweet dreams are made of this. Who am I to disagree?' ~ The Eurythmics: w.youtube.com/watch?v=zanZFMqG75o

And if you can think of anyone who might appreciate something a little different, why then ..Watching Swifts

[Marc]

Yay, well done you!

I know you do podcasts, but do you ever perform live?

[R.J.]

Marc wrote: "Yay, well done you!

I know you do podcasts, but do you ever perform live?"

I'd perform dead if anyone wld listen!

Yep, I done a few open mic stints here and there, not for about three years though. But I will do more when I get my act together, literally.

[D.D. Chant]

Well done R.J.!!!

[R.J.]

The Olympics kicks off tmr. The mood down on the Isle of Dogs has been building these past two days. I wrote this on my way into London this monring. The opening ceremony is tmr ..

YOUR GOLDEN DREAM

This is your moment in the sun;
You've travelled far to live this now,
To hit your personal best and how!
To make us one in peace and fun.

O how you wave and give a bow!
The starter's gun is in the air.
You are the one! you are the dare!
Now is your time to keep that vow.

O how you fly with golden flair!
To show the world how swift you are.
This race is yours, the gold is won.
This victory .. is sweet and rare.

O how we love your golden dream!
You are the one! we are the team.

*bows*

[Andrew]

Glorious! My innate cynicism about the Games has been sandblasted in the last week as the general mood of the capital has grown and swelled into something approaching excitement. I still won't watch much of it, as I have far too much writing to do, but I've lost my Olympic scowl.

There is also nothing at all wrong with the plentiful gaggles of lithe athletic ladies thronging the streets of East London.

Heartfelt congratulations on hitting your sale landmark, and may the second 50 copies fly from the virtual shelves forthwith.

[Emma]

Andrew wrote: "Glorious! My innate cynicism about the Games has been sandblasted in the last week as the general mood of the capital has grown and swelled into something approaching excitement. I still won't watc..."

And all of the (male) Athletes walking around Westfield yesterday was a real treat!!! (my perving goggles were in full use :-))

[Gingerlily - The Full Wild]

I'm sure your eyes were out on stalks Emma!

[Philip (sarah)]

Wonderful as always RJ!

[R.J.]

LONDON 2012 ~ the poem.

To all who compete, all who watch

Olympics write.

Recorded this 3 mins before the kids started their singing during the opening ceremony >> http://snd.sc/OUEyU5

And THAT! torch moment ~ respect Danny Boyle, real respect for all about the genius of that torch moment.


http://snd.sc/OUEyU5

*bows*