Wednesday 21 April 2010

It's busting out all over.





























In the four days since I walked down the lane with Tess, so many plants have appeared - each day there are more. I took a few photographs on our afternoon walk


The wild gooseberry is in full flower and it is warm enough for a bumble bee to be busy amongst the flowers. Let's hope there is no frost until the fruit has set, although wild gooseberries are so very sour that I am not sure whether any creature eats them or not.
The first of the dandelions has appeared. What a pity these flowers are considered to be weeds because they are such a tonic on a dull day. Our roadsides will be thick with them within a day or two.
One of my favourite early flowers is the coltsfoot. It seems to grow where there is a gritty surface and the flowers always show before the leaves - in fact I am not sure what the leaves look like. Now the forget-me-nots (Mysotis) are beginning to bloom - some a very deep blue and some like the photograph a paler blue.
I also found one patch of Muscari (grape hyacinth) which I guess has been thrown out into the hedgeback with some garden rubbish. They really are an intense deep blue.
Then of course there is the celandine. Jim on Riverdaze had some wonderful photographs of celandine on his blog last week. I have got them all over our front garden and I am so loath to
weed them out as they have woven their way through Primula Wanda and they look so pretty
Maybe when they have finished flowering......
Last but not least - one solitary cowslip. I cannot tell you what a beautiful scent this little flower had Hopefully it is the first of many.
On a different note, this morning was our Writers' Group discussion meeting. Half a dozen of us meet once a month and submit a piece which we want everyone to discuss. As usual this morning was very interesting. One member had written a piece about judging people at face value - this provoked a very lively discussion. Next came a piece from a member who used to be in the BBC Chorus - she wrote about some of the amusing episodes when they sang in live broadcasts. I submitted a poem which we took to pieces and re-arranged. But the really interesting piece was from a lady who does not have English as her first language, but who speaks it fluently. She had written a "poem" - it was very long and was really just a piece of well-written prose split up into little bits. But the crunch came when we had to say what poetry was and why this piece was not it! We got into very deep water and really did not come up with really good reasons. Isn't poetry hard to define?
Stephen Fry in his book "The Ode Less Travelled" says: "With prose the eye is doing much more than the ear." And later "But prose, rhythmic as it can be, is not poetry. The rhythm is not organised." Would anybody like to have a stab at this? If so perhaps I could make a list
of your suggestions. It really does interest me. What do you think?

15 comments:

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

People often write me about some of my posts, calling them prose/poetry. I try not to think about it too much or it shuts me down. However, I do hear a rhythm in my head when I write, so maybe that's what Stephen is talking about.

When you think about it, the heart beats in iambic pentameter, doesn't it?

Heather said...

It is lovely to have you back Pat - I have missed you. What beautiful images of spring you have given us - our garden is awash with celandines but they are very pretty. No coltsfoot here as we are on clay but we have plenty of dandelions - the one in your photo is positively splendid! Our youngest daughter called grape hyacinths 'great Cynthias' when she was small - the name has stuck!
Poetry is very difficult to define as it means different things to different people. Many years ago I used to think it had to rhyme. Now I feel it should at least have a rhythm but times and ideas change.

Reader Wil said...

Prose might not be poetry but it could be poetical! And I think your posts are often very poetical when you describe your walks with Tess.
Thanks for your visit and comment. I haven't been to Malham Tarn or Janet's Foss, which I regret, but I have been several times to St Michael's Mount. It's impressive!

Tess Kincaid said...

I'm fascinated with your writers group. It sounds wonderful. Such thought provoking discussions. Wish I could tag along with you, Weaver.

Totalfeckineejit said...

Lovely stuff Weaver and an education to me as the only names of flowers I know are ..Red ones, blue ones, yellow ones, etc etc etc.

And poetry? Like all such things it easier to say what it is not and poetry is not in Stephen Fry's AWFUL book!

Teresa said...

How wonderful to visit (finally!) and see all those gorgeous flowers blooming. Was like a breath of fresh air! Sigh... thank you!

Golden West said...

Ah, forget me nots - such an old fashioned favorite of mine. I'm with you, Weaver, the lowly dandelion has much to recommend it!

Eryl said...

The flowers are fabulous, ours aren't out yet, but they can't be far behind, I hope.

As for the poetry question: if I could answer it maybe I'd be a better poet. But it has something, I think, to do with images and sounds combining to make something quite intense. Rather like heating raspberries just until their juices run and adding a little cinnamon: the result is so much more than either raspberries or cinnamon. Tomorrow, no doubt, I'll think something completely different.

Ivy and Haley said...

Oh those gorgeous flowers - I finally believe that spring is here!

Cloudia said...

I think coltsfoot leaves look like...the hoof print of a colt :)


Lovely walk through the eternal
English Springtime!



Aloha from Waikiki


Comfort Spiral

The Weaver of Grass said...

Thanks for the comments, particularly those which try to define what poetry is - I shall pass them on to the lady concerned.

Jinksy said...

I think you need to be a stickler for FORM, if you want to call yourself a true poet - a recognisable pattern with an organised rhythm, though not necessarily rhyme.

Verses should then follow the pattern of the form you have chosen, even if it is one you made up in your first verse, it needs to continue throughout subsequent ones.

I think the 'wandering down the page' so called poems are more an attempt at calligraphic, typographical design for prose which the writer wants to display as an artistic creation.

Rachel Phillips said...

I hope the poor lady is not put off coming to your group for writing "just" a piece of prose. Who are you to say to her it isn't poetry it is just a piece of prose? If she said it was a poem, it was a poem. I write some diabolical poems of all sorts, but they are all poems.

ChrisJ said...

Had to make a comment about coltsfoot as I remember from all those years ago in high school. The coltsfoot looks like a colts foot! Or to be more specific, it is somewhat the shape of a sycamore leaf but is fleshier and has a soft cottony webbing over it. We used to enjoy rubbing the soft cottony stuff off the leaves. Who know why? Just one of those things kids do.

Crafty Green Poet said...

I think that if poetry has form then it's easy to recognise.

I think there's also such a thing as free verse, but to be recognisably different from prose it meeds linebreaks (preferably after strong words (postmodern poets really play with my head when they write poems where all the lines end in words like 'the' or 'of'). Poetry also needs the poet to pay attention to the sounds of words whether using rhyme or not (and rhyme doesn't need to be end of line full rhyme). There needs also to be rythmn, though not necessarily meter.

There is also prose poetry, but I don't know how to define that.