… as I’m no good at writing about lyric poetry – my vocabulary in this respect consists of ‘wow’ and ‘hmm’ – but I thought I’d draw your attention The Scent of Blue, a poetry pamphlet by one of our contributors, Catherine Czerkawska.
These poems feel like memories, with seemingly ordinary moments and sights transformed into something beautiful, nostalgic, sad, or amusing by the powers of time. Some of them were inspired by time spent in Finland and Poland, and as Catherine lives in Scotland, there’s a distinctly northern feel to the imagery. You can read the beautiful title poem on Catherine’s blog, and here’s a sample of the more humorous poems, ‘Drunks in Winter’:
The big drunks are
waltzing homewards through the snow,
their cloudy heads fur hatted,
their feet thrust deep
into clumsy boots.
They fear no cold.
Instead they spread
their arms wide for love
and when they go,
they topple like felled trees,
with a dull thud.
Not an uncommon sight in the Finnish countryside…
You can purchase a copy of the pamphlet here or here. (Unfortunately my scanner refused to obey, but I think you can just about make out the cover if you use a magnifying glass.)
Oh god, I think that’s just described several members of my family. Wonderful stuff. Thanks, Leena, for flagging it.
‘their arms wide for love’ Great line. I can almost hear the drunken ballads. I’m not able to comment on poetry but I read the title poem as well and found it very sad.
I read the “…Blue” poem on the blog and…WOW! The imagery, the word pictures, the use of perfume as metaphor. It’s a poem that needs more than one reading to absorb all of the flavors.
The one posted here is amusing and shows a humorous irony, but also shows the very vivid word pictures. What tremendous skill!
Yes, they’re lovely, aren’t they? The imagery is vivid and beautiful throughout the pamphlet, but ‘The Scent of Blue’ has got to be my favourite. It’s like an entire life in one poem.
Thank-you Leena, and thank-you to everyone for the positive comments – fairly cheered up a bleak Scottish November (almost December though…)
Have hardly had a moment even to contribute to the site, what with one thing and another, though I will, I will! Think I’ve been going through a bit of a ‘road to Damascus’ period with the writing, but see my way more clearly now, largely thanks to an observation from a fellow writer – very much to the point, and one of those times when you can’t see the wood for the trees – but somebody else can. This is the problem with writing. Everyone else has an opinion on how you should be doing it, and it’s all too easy to get sucked into pleasing everyone but yourself. At least that’s what I’ve been feeling recently. But in this instance, an old friend simply pointed something out, rather than suggesting any solution. That was for me to discover. The comment was like somebody dropping a stone into a pool – I can still see the rings widening, and feel better about writing than I have for about a year.
By the way – the version of The Scent of Blue on the blog is, I think, an earlier draft. Not that it has changed all that much. So I had better post the later one as well, for comparison! And you’re right. It’s a bit sad!
Thank-you again…
Thank you, Catherine! I’ll change the link to the new version instead. And good luck with your new direction in writing – you sound quite excited, and the results should be very exciting indeed…!