I Love to Write

@hartfire Thank you! :-)

@helensusanswift
I've bought a copy. It sounds interesting.
I'm a beginner writer. I've a fairly solid idea just how difficult it is to get published. And getting this good review will certainly help to launch you.
With all the competition out there, it's a great achievement.

@hartfire You bought a copy? That was very kind of you! Thank you. I hope that you enjoy it - some people like it, others don't. You'll have to read to the last paragraph to get the story though.
What do you write?

@helensusanswift
I'll be sure to read to the end.
I write poetry and short stories. Have started ten novels but finished none. It seems, at the moment, that I'm no quite ready for the marathon that the novel always is. But I'm confident that I'll get there eventually.
My main interest is in writing around environmental issues. But I have other topics too.

Word Wine

Some days, I just don’t feel like cooking.
Somehow, I’ve let pantry and fridge run low.
Nothing right is there — I must make do.
It will be nutritious,
but the result, oh, the result.
What work it is to chew —
to ignore the slightly off flavours,
and make myself swallow
the truth.

A book of poems mellows
and grows richer with the years.
The sweet grape ferments
to the dry of wine,
thick and smooth as velvet,
berry and cinnamon savours of a black sauvignon,
luscious!
I find I am drunk with words.

Cabbage stowed airless with salt
turns delectably sour.
Cream, with patience, churns to butter.
The point of a word
turns upon itself in a sentence
to reveal another sense.

With five knives kept ultra-sharp,
the right knife will
skin, slice, core, julienne or chop
precisely.
Dripping in slippery dressing, raw,
or simmered to subtle brew —
texture calls attention,
just as words trigger feelings and thought.

And then, other days,
the garden yields such harvest
the herbs and spices sing, and then
the syllable is to poetry
as the molecule to perfume.
And the new poem is fit for a dish
to set before the Belovéd.

@hartfire Not bad at all! Very good in fact. You don't have to write a novel all at one time. When you get the urge, write a bit - it does not have to be in sequence at first. Then cobble together later and smooth it in the second and subsequent drafts.

@helensusanswift
I like that idea. Quite freeing. I often have thoughts about what character do or what happens to them - and they're totally out of sequence with the plot. This cobbling or patch work idea is great! Thank you! :)

@hartfire You can put any character in any situation - and change names and places later to fit in with the text. You are in charge- you do what you think best.