Ghost Child

[Kym]

Thanks Trisha, yes I have wondered the same thing in the past. One of the first poems I ever wrote was called Wild Horse Rain. It woke me up in the middle of the night, no pre-planned idea brewing or anything - and I hand wrote it from start to finish and I just seemed to be just sitting there, watching my hand write of its own accord. In the morning when I woke up, I read the poem, and although I knew that I had written it, it felt like the first time I had ever seen it. I actually thought, "Wow, *I* wrote this???" Mind you, I didn't know the first thing about metre back then, so I have since bashed it into more obedient rhythm, but the words just tumbled out of I-dunno-where.

But not all of my poems pour out that easily. At the opposite end of the spectrum, there the poems that I think are just a brilliant ideas, but even after I've laboured for hours, they just won't come out the way I want them to. They seem to keep going off in tangents and I've gotta go back to my original idea and start again with a new poem ... some poems are just plain old sweaty hard work!

[Trisha Patterson]

I have had many poems that have dragged me out of bed to pen...not always perfect as you say and then those that you cant seem to finish off. It must be some mysterious "muse" we poets have a connection with!
Trisha

[David Campbell]

Congratulations Kym and Terry. Interesting to read about your different results in the two competitions...just one more example of the difficulty judges have in making those final decisions, and the subjectivity involved. Tracking a piece of your writing through a series of competitions and trying to make sense of the varying results can turn the brain to mush!

Cheers
David

[Stephen Whiteside]

Mushed brains write good poetry.

[Irene]

Congratulations Kim - that is an absolutely beautiful poem!! I had the pleasure of reading it when I was preparing the entries to send off for judging for the Cervantes comp - the best part of the job, I might add, getting a sneak preview!!

Marty, I agree with you - it does depend on what grabs the judge!! And that is just the way things are - we can't change that! There are so many great poems being entered in competition - all of which have the potential to win, but somewhere, the judge has to pick a winner. That happened again in our comp - the one's that didn't win were not lacking in anything (well,maybe some were!! ) but they can't all win.

I also have written poems that just seem to 'come from nowhere"!! And Trish, yes I believe we also have a 'helping hand' that guides our hand.
I wrote a poem about a couple that should have perished in the Victorian fires - as told to me by their good friends in Jurien Bay. I only heard part of the story, and never spoke to them, but their friends wanted to give it to them. When they read it, and finished crying, their comment was - 'this woman has never met us, but she has written it exactly like it was!'. And that was a poem that I woke up from dozing in my chair one morning (just a little nana nap!!! ) and it was there, and written in half an hour - certainly not by me, just by my hand under guidance! I had the same thing happen with a story about a fellow from Northern NSW - not great writing in my opinion, but poems that very much touched the people concerned.

Catchya
IRene

[Heather]

A beautiful poem by a beautiful person. Congratulations Kym. Honoured to have my name next to yours.

Heather

[Jasper Brush]

Congratulations, Kym


Your poem is up there with the best.


John

[Henry Snicklesnorter]

Kym, I'm no judge of the finer points of writing poetry, but every now and then I read something that is so good it stays with me. Your effort is one of those. Congratulations.

[Kym]

Thanks everyone. I appreciate all your lovely comments.

[Maureen K Clifford]

Just thought I would bring this forward - yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of this wonderful ladies passing - perhaps she is herself now a ghost child who maybe comes to visit the forum sometime - if you do Kymmie - we still love ya matey.