Blue Moon. Be careful! Strange events!

There's a Blue Moon rising on Friday 31st July. The second full moon in the calendar month, a blue moon is a seemingly random event that is really to do with lunar months being 28 days, and our calendar months 30 or 31.

I wrote a collection of poems about the night of the blue moon, imagining the moon's light shining through the windows of an old map shop, and the maps becoming liquid, and merging in the silvery light. And what happens to them in the shop happens outside as well. Some very odd things happen.

They are published in seed packet form, with the poems on separate sheets, held together with a little full moon shape clip. The packet is individually letterpress printed. I've been trying different packet forms for a few years now, and have finally found the one I really like!

You can buy one from my Etsy shop http://etsy.me/1SmwClh or come and see me at the Bath Artisan Market on 9th August, or Outlaw Summer Market in Falmouth on 10th, 11th, 12th August.
In the meantime - take care tonight and enjoy - the next blue moons are in January and March 2018!

5th member of a string quartet - out with the Mavrons.

A gala concert at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama on Saturday. Here is the outside of the theatre in the foyer, which I always think looks a little like the bridge of a spaceship.

The concert was organised by Live Music Now, a fantastic organisation who put talented young musicians together with audiences who don't usually have access to live music, and the concert was a showcase of some of these performers.

I was there with the Mavron Quartet, who were playing a piece by Peter Reynolds called footsteps quiet in the shadows. The title came from a poem of mine, and I read the poem before the quartet played, and after Peter introduced the piece.

Here we are in the very posh dressing room before the performance.

I saw this photo a moment or two after it was taken, and wasn't concerned about being so old (the quartet are very young and energetic), but wasn't too sure about my great big head. So when I found myself alone in the dressing room, I took one photo to make me look as though I am tall and my head is the right size, and another to remind myself that, if nothing else, I have character.

The Mavron quartet played brilliantly, and the whole evening was hugely enjoyable.
www.mavronquartet.co.uk
www.livemusicnow.org.uk/wales

Poetry Book Fair. Alison Brackenbury's book 'Then'

I was so delighted to meet Alison Brackenbury at Free Verse: The Poetry Book Fair at the weekend, and be able to tell her how much I love her most recent book Then.

Her poetry looks delicately made, often beautifully rhymed, and is so strong and incisive it goes straight to the reader's heart.

She writes about horses better than anyone.
 

 Horses are poetry.

Printing for Free Verse: Poetry Book Fair. Covered in ink.

I am printing poetry in my shed, ready for Free Verse: The Poetry Book Fair, at the Conway Hall in London on 7th September. 

Starting as it gets light,

and happily typesetting. Here is one of The Season's Key. It's a winter haiku.

I love the process of taking poetry from an idea through to the printed word, and I have done all of it. The absolute attention to detail needed to write the poem is mirrored in the setting and printing.

 I relish the clutter that comes with each printing task, to be tidied away at the end.

In a small way, it gives me a connection with printers of old, the basic process being essentially unchanged until the advent of computers.

Really looking forward to the Book Fair!

poetrybookfair.com

a chariot drawn by cats

 Poor Freya. Not only a goddess in a brutal Norse world,
but having cats instead of horses for her chariot.
Here's my poem;

Freya
Oh, imagine the
inconvenience of a
chariot drawn by
cats

This poem can be found in my collection
Mythical Beasts, which you can find in my Etsy shop.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/153620685/mythical-beasts-legendary-poems-in-a

There are some more poems from Mythical Beasts on my website, under the tab Poetry.

www.francescakay.co.uk

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

planting poetry ready for Diffusion publishing fair

Poetry to plant in your imagination.

I've never really liked the idea of poetry trapped on pages in a certain order, so I came up with poetry seed packets. The poems are printed on separate sheets, contained in a seed packet.

 Free range, if you like!


All handmade by me. That's what I am mostly doing this week, preparing for the Diffusion Festival Publishing weekend at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff on 25th and 26th May.

www.diffusionfestival.org

floral ampersand. haiku.

Ampersands keep the seasons flowing. Here's my haiku;

open ended
seasons passing &
leaf & bloom & fruit & seed
& seasons passing

I have been drawing aceo floral ampersand cards to take to the fair at the Diffusion Festival Publishing Weekend in Cardiff on 25th & 26th May.
www.diffusionfestival.org

I am really enjoying my pointing finger pen nib. 

haiku. alphabet trees

alphabet trees

seed, sapling and tree -
every season, stories grow
letter by letter

 There is something magical about wooden type.

And how it prints.

Cardiff Children's LitFest. Photos. Poetry.

Here are some photos of my poetry performance in Cardiff Central Library as part of the Children's LitFest.

I am performing Spiky Hedgehog, which is one of my oldest and most favourite poems, which has actions for the children to join in with, and is always hugely noisy and enjoyable.

 This photo I really like!

At rest again.

Many thanks to Jennifer Haywood for the photos. 

www.francescakay.co.uk

Cardiff Children's LitFest. Poetry. Libraries. Fun.

After a rampaging poetry reading at Cardiff Central Library with an audience of young children, I staggered out into the fresh air with a slight headache from laughing so much,  and went to look at the children's poetry exhibition in the Old Library.

I had worked for a morning at Penyrenglyn Primary School, and some of the children's work was exhibited. It looked wonderful, enlarged from the original A4, and displayed in the beautiful exhibition space, along with lots of work from other schools, who had all had visits from writers.
We had written about Can't You Sleep Little Bear?  

It doesn't get much better than this - to perform poetry and songs to a young audience enjoying words and ideas, and then to see the results of workshop work displayed in a lovely exhibition.
All thanks to the Cardiff Children's Literature Festival. I am proud to have been part of it.
www.cardiffchildrenslitfest.com
www.francescakay.co.uk

Poem. Heralds of change. Daffodils

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Heralds of change

A splash of cold as

sharp spring rain is falling,

Nature wakes.

Stout stems and long leaves

moving in harsh spring wind,

New season comes.

Look at these flowers

glowing in pale sunshine,

Winter creeps away.

Bright trumpets pointing

through spring to summer glory,

The world is turning.

Wild daffodils are my favourites, so dainty and yet so hardy in the cold days of February and March. 

This poem has rather more capital letters and punctuation than I usually use, but it's spring, so why not!
 www.francescakay.co.uk

Haiku. frosty morning. March 1st

March 1st and the garden is shivering, waiting for the thin warmth of the spring sun.

daylight

early spring morning -
sunshine slowly unbuttons
a cold coat of frost

www.francescakay.co.uk

Haiku. Secondhand book warehouse

All trails have gone cold,
Outside, traffic races past,
Dust settles, quiet shelves









Nothing like a freezing cold warehouse full of secondhand and remaindered books to make an author think!

www.francescakay.co.uk