Found Alphabet. No 6. The letter F

Slowly my found alphabet is finding me.

Here is the letter F.  A piece of straw lying on the yard as I was sweeping this morning. I very nearly swept it up without noticing.

Only another 20 letters to go.

haiku. drought ending. rain

It was wonderful when the garden took a deep breath in the rain.


 rain
whisper in still air,
surrender to soft caress,
warmth rises, rain falls

Full Moon. Poetry. Lovers and Others.

There has been the most astonishing and beautiful full moon this week. 

The moon is special for lovers,  yet some people don't notice it even if they are up late.

Here are two poems;

no curtains
she looks at the window,
seeing reflections making love
encircled by the moon

awake
he knows the refrigerator landscape,
always a season of plenty
under cold light that soothes his tired eyes
as he gathers a chilled harvest.
he never needs to look out of a window


these two poems come from my collection of poems Blue Moon at the Map Shop. They are published in a handmade seed packet.
You can find them  in my Etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/quarto17

Waterlilies. Poem. Airborne?

twirling
perhaps
though humid air
to alight
on still water

The pond in my garden is tiny, but has an exuberantly leafy waterlily in it. This morning, three flowers! I am convinced they landed, and did not grow.

How delightful to see airborne waterlilies floating down into ponds - I wonder when they do it?

High Tide. Summer Poem. Heat.

  High Tide

The fields are flooded with sunshine,

It swirls through parched corn,

Washes over dusty hedgerows,

Drenches weary trees,

Dripping into trembling shade.

A tide of heat drowns the land,

Every living thing submerged,

Slow and breathless in the golden ocean.

There is nothing to do but wait,

Wait for the tide turning,

And the slow ripples of night.



This is a high summer poem, from my collection Garden Seasons.
You can find it on my Etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/153337724/poetry-collection-garden-seasons-in-a?ref=shop_home_active

When I took the photograph I didn't have my glasses on, so had no idea that I had captured a hoverfly in front of the poppy! 

two summer haiku. sweet peas. tomatoes.

sweet peas

so simple in shape

they cannot be photographed

you just have to look

watering the greenhouse

stretching to the sun

tomato leaves smell so good

as water splashes  

These are two poems from my collection Garden Seasons, which you can find here https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/153337724/poetry-collection-garden-seasons-in-a

Ahoy Cwmbran! Sea Dogs. Congress Theatre.

ARGH! The final Sea Dogs performance of the summer today in the Congress Theatre, Cwmbran. 

Played by Gwent Youth Symphonic Brass, conducted by Cap'n Sean.

I narrated my words to Gareth Woods fantastic music.

Here is one of my favourite pirates, Midshipman Lloyd.

He's played Sea Dogs with three different bands now!

Here are the crew getting ready to play in the relatively cool darkness of the empty theatre,

and waiting in the Green Room, before a rampaging performance in front of an audience of about 300 very excited and enthusiastic children. Seriously, it's better than a real job!

If you want to hear Sea Dogs, it's on Soundcloud.
https://soundcloud.com/francescakaypoet/sea-dogs-a-pirate-tale-for
Many thanks to all the players, and of course to Charlotte Griffin at Ty Cerdd for organising this summer's SEA DOGS performances. Until next time, shipmates!

Seven Deadly Zines.

Here is a photo of my latest project - The Seven Deadly Zines. I don't know if zines usually feature knitted finger puppets, but these will!

from top left;

Envy, Avarice, Anger, Gluttony, Sloth, Pride, Lust.

I have started writing the text for each little book, and am having an interesting time looking behind the strong Christian interpretations to older, more elemental ideas.

How many of them have you experienced? I've only managed three!

log cabin quilts

Years ago I made quilts. They were mostly about 45 inches square, because that was the size of the floor space in the tiny sitting room in the very small house I lived in at the time, and were intended to be lap quilts or wall hangings.  I made and sold several in the 'log cabin' style, and was recently sent a photo of this one - sold  possibly 12 years ago, and now looking very nice hanging on a wall. A friend had seen it and recognised it!

This encouraged me to try and find my journal from that time, with all my other quilt photos in. I haven't found it yet, BUT I did dig out an unfinished log cabin quilt that I have carried around for years, and not finished.

The colours are a bit more challenging than I remember, but I am inspired to finish it.
I think I stopped sewing because I thought it was taking up time I should have been writing poetry - or perhaps it was because I moved to a larger house and the floor space in the sitting room was too large!

Finger puppets leaving home

I am delighted that my Shakespeare finger puppet gift cards are on display in the wonderful book shop 

Book-ish in Crickhowell. www.book-ish.co.uk 

 

AND more excitement, as my Operatic finger puppets and a selection of letterpress composer cards can now be found in the excellent Abergavenny Music shop, in Abergavenny.  abermusic.com

I am thrilled that these two great shops have taken some of my work. Thank you, Emma and James!

You can see lots more of my work, including seed packet poetry, in my Etsy shop  http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/quarto17

Bold colour in the garden. Orange.

Orange is a great colour for the garden. It's bold and bright and beautiful. Encouraged by Christopher Lloyd's wonderful book Colour for Adventurous Gardeners, I use it a lot in planting my small garden.

I am really enjoying the orange flowers today, as I sit outside, writing copy for a  local business's new website. 

It's amazing where the skills  learned in writing poetry come in useful - brutal self editing, striving to find exactly the right words - oh, and search engine optimisation as well of course!

Here are million bells

Wonderful snapdragons

achillea

a rather lovely pale rose, with a very decorative snail sitting on a petal

a tangle of roses and million bells

and the first nasturtium of summer.

Crickhowell Craft Fair. hot day. hot crafts.

A stall at the craft fair in Crickhowell today, sitting in the cool shade of the Clarence Hall.

Here are my wares.

And here we all are before the doors opened at 9.30.

And here is the best idea! Felted soap, made by FfolkyFfelt.

here's the website

ffolkyffelt-creation.wix.com/ffolkyffelt

delightfully wacky!

I said good bye to finger puppets and cards, in exchange for money of course.

sheep. rural traffic jam.

Even the lanes of rural Herefordshire suffer traffic jams.

The sheep look so much happier shorn of their heavy fleeces.

letterpress printing. love.

Blissful in my shed, printing with my beautiful de Little of York wooden font.

Look at the lovely black ink gleaming.

I made words that just came into my head.

I printed LOVE and OH YES

and then

DON'T FALL and NO!

I don't know if the four are related. I was too busy enjoying the process to ask myself!

The First Dragon. Words and Music.

The First Dragon 

A story for narrator and orchestra, with my words and the most wonderful music by Mervyn Burtch. This is the first piece I wrote for a composer, and very close to my heart. 

It's about a dragon, some foolish adults, and a wise little girl.

Here's the link to SoundCloud, where you can hear it. 

http://soundcloud.com/francescakaypoet/the_first_dragon

Here is the recording session, with Adrian Partington, who commissioned the piece, conducting. The orchestra are called the Dragon Sinfonia for the purposes of recording, but most of them were members of the National Orchestra of Wales, and they played it brilliantly, as you would expect.

It's had lots of performances, about 30 I think - Mervyn and I can't remember! And it's amazing to me as a writer what composer Mervyn did with my words, weaving the voice into the music as if it was another instrument. I love performing it, and the ending (it is a happy ending) always brings tears to my eyes because the music is so beautiful.

It's been used as part of an education project with Ty Cerdd, the Music Centre for Wales, with children writing their own stories and music, and then coming to hear the original.  I am always hoping funds will be found to do it again. Perhaps we need to find the Dragon, and ask him for some of his gold.

Sea Dogs ahoy in Swansea Museum

It's Monday, it must be time to perform SEA DOGS!

Today, with the Treherbert Brass Band, performing Sea Dogs before a large audience of children. We were in the Maritime Museum in Swansea, a fitting setting for the pirate story, with my words, and the wonderful music of Gareth Wood.

Absolutely everyone was dressed as a pirate. 

Here we are rehearsing in front of a case full of rather lovely model ships.

The Band looked magnificent.

Here's one of my favourite shipmates.

I can't think of a better way to spend a Monday afternoon.

Thanks to the Museum, to the marvellous Band, of course to Charlotte Griffin from Ty Cerdd, who commissioned Sea Dogs, and continues to support it. Thank'ee, matey.