Brighten up a meeting!

So the new, 2014 calendar is up, but is there anything on it? You've opened your new diary too, no doubt, written your name on the flysheet perhaps, entered a few appointments and, if you write up your day too, a few details of the aftermath of Christmas and the on-off promise of spring. But what of fun?

You may be booking speakers for your society or club meetings. Are they all going to be serious and educational? All? Well, if you have any second thoughts on that, and live within a couple of hours or so's drive from Cardiff, you might like to consider a slight variation. How about a dryly humorous poetry show with freshly-written rhymes - and songs with classical guitar! - by... er... me? I now offer three themes:

The Mad Side of Modern
The Grim Side of Gardening
The Odd Side of Old


Details of all can be found on my other website: poemsforfun.wordpress.com (click respective pages). You'll find some new poems on all three pages too (written since Christmas).

I'm taking bookings now for this year onwards, and am happy to discuss any options or variations you may like to suggest. As for further venues, I'm happy to go just about any distance if you're happy to cover the costs!

But today is a sunny Saturday and I have an appointment of my own - with the spring sunshine... or has it gone again?

More rhymes - mostly silly...

To brighten this drab month, I've concocted a few new rhymes, available to peruse on my other site, poemsforfun.wordpress.com.

See Mad Side of Mod, Grim Side of Gardening and Odd Side of Old. There's fun and frivolity for gardeners, historians and the the other sort of middle ages too (e.g. 'What Did I Come Upstairs For?' on Mad Side).

Poems for children also available, as per usual, including an array on latest blog.

Finally, if you like reading poetry, whether serious stuff or lip-curling rhymes, why not get writing yourself? All you need is (a) to be awake, (b) writing materials - physical or electronic, and (c) a bit of patience while your brain juggles its way through the possibilities. Cost-free entertainment, to be enjoyed anywhere, anytime, anyhow!

More on this site soon.

Kate

A hum below the glum...

January may feel like the bottom of the world - dark, cold, wet, murky and sleepy - but listen carefully, and you'll detect a faint hum of activity! Be it dream or scheme, hobby or enterprise, study or creativity, it's probably just about at simmer-point now. After all, nature's spring begins a long time before we spot its first signs, and what are we, if not part of that nature? Yes, we're coming out of hibernation too, refreshed! Christmas is done and dusted and we're free and fit to move forward, with any luck!

I'm suddenly busy with rhymes, for instance - they're springing up all around me and sometimes it's all I can do just to catch them! It's the same with tunes: they seem to sprout up at me out of the garden squelch, the horizon's mist, the kitchen's pile of Christmas leftovers, or perhaps they're just emanating from post-Christmas relief.

As for actual work - the nitty-gritty of workshop planning, performance-revising, flyer-sending and all the rest of it - well, what could be a more conducive setting for it all than a Christmas-cheered, fire-warmed, lamp-lit room, cosily curtained by that steady grey drizzle down the window?

There'll be tougher times ahead, I know: dawn drives through deluges to unknown schools in unknown towns, followed by dashes through the downpours from car to entrance, probably to find it's the wrong entrance, or wrong school, or that I've left my guitar in the car, or at home. There'll be the creepy night drives too, to gardening clubs, over 50s gatherings, or whoever may have kindly invited me to brighten up their cold, dark evening. Yes, when I get there, it'll be my job do that, however chilly and soggy and drive-stressed I am by then - a fact that I'll be pinching myself awake about through SatNav's 'Re-calculating!'s and 'Do a U-turn!'s... And then there'll be the even darker, colder drives home, and then the stark, day-break rising for the next distant school...

But that's fine: it'll be one big adventure, as usual, and I'll love it once it's happening, especially after this snug winter's hibernation! Yes, January is okay: we need a murky window to huddle behind, a gloomy day to slump in, an enveloping fog to float about in - a little pause of the clock to bring us back up to the mark, freshly sharpened for spring.

Happy New Year, and all the best with your dreams and schemes, whatever they may be!

KateWebsite: poemsforfun.wordpress.com

New Year rhymes

Which Year?

A new year's here,
but what happened to the last?

I lost track a while back
when the last '19' went past.




New-Year Old-Year Solutions

New Year resolutions!
What shall I do?
Those from last year
still in the queue.
Find solutions
for all those resolutions -
and this time see them through!



New Year; Old War

In 1914 there was war.
In 2014 there is more.
What was it for? What IS it for?
Nobody ever seems sure.




Waiting Up for Midnight

I'm trying to stay awake.
If I drop off, give me a shake.
Hours to go before tomorrow
and who knows whose hands to shake?





All poems by Kate Williams.
Copyright: Kate Williams. All rights reserved.


Details of performances, workshops & published work @ poemsforfun.wordpress.com .

Christmas poems for perusing...

Hello and Happy Boxing Day!

Just in case anyone out there is twiddling their thumbs in the aftermath of Christmas Day, or has missed my previous posts, this is to mention (again) my Christmas-time and winter poems and rhymes - mostly humorous - on all pages here, with more (+ same) on my website blog: poemsforfun.wordpress.com .

Sympathy to all those flooded over Christmas! I shall be adding a rhyme about that too, later. At least we have a bit of crispy sparkle today... or did.

Deck the hall with sponge and bucket:
'tis the season to get flood-hit.

Kate

Christmassy & wintry poems for kids

Hello,

Having finally waded through the Christmas card-sending chore - I mean delight - and crawled out on the other side (just about), I've at last caught up a bit with my kids' page, and added some of my more Christmassy and wintry poems, with more to come.

They're best for older children or keen young readers, or for reading out loud. Adults usually enjoy my kids' poems too, so - who knows? - they could come in handy for family fun over Christmas! Perhaps they'll spur some ideas for a family verse or two as well! Or some illustrations for mine?

More to be found on my website, poemsforfun.wordpress.com. Click Kate Williams Poetry at top for all my run-up-to-Christmas poems through December and before. (See archived posts at side.)

Christmassy couplets tend to crop up in my Twitter offerings too, along with general pre-Christmas comments, positive and... well, let's face it, shall we, we're all stressed out, aren't we? See Twitter @Katypoet.


Feedback and comments welcome!

Wildlife Poems - book for kids...

Does your child like short, punchy poems? Atmospheric ones about foxes trekking through moonlit snow? Silly ones about dancing - oops! - slipping penguins? Fascinating ones about creatures hibernating under layers of snow? Then here's a book for their Christmas stocking:

Wildlife Poems (by me, Kate Williams)

£4.50 inc. post and packaging for UK orders. Best for older children - approx. age 8-12. (No illustrations - but see bright, crazy cover!)


To order: 

Order direct from me via my email: katewilliams.poetry@gmail.com .

Details: 

See Book (for kids) on my website for details.


Reviews & comments:

Congratulations on producing such a fine-looking book. Superior, I would say, to some published by the large presses. Roger McGough

These poems move quickly down the page like animals might, unleashing rhymes and rhythms everywhere.
Ian McMillan (poet, broadcaster, journalist and playwright)

Kate Williams finds a subject, gives it a twist and hey presto, that little bit of magic a poem needs is conjured up. Brian Moses (poet)

The book is a triumph … light of touch, with wonderful verbal imagery and playfulness throughout. Editor: Funny Poems (www.funny-poems.co.uk)

… well-crafted poems with a diverse range of forms, inventiveness of language, and clever employment of rhyme … always under total control.Graham Denton (poet, anthologist, and editor of Hands Up Books)




Sample poems from the book:

Monkeying Around

Trampolining, tree to tree,
bungee-jumping – look at me!

Backwards, sideways, upside down,
doing the dare-devil, acting the clown!

Swinging, leaping…
whoops, just missed…
saved myself with a mid-air twist!

Hanging down by my little toe…
oh…
and meeting two eyes
below.




Nature Walk

Slid in sludge,
flat on belly.
Stank my scarf,
sank a wellie.
Friends all laughed,
called me Smelly,
sent me off to have a bath
while they watched telly.




Polar Pyjamas

Pillow-puffy,
cushion-fluffy,
the dozy cubs twitch sleepy feet,
cosy, cuddly, snuggly and nice
between blanket and sheet
of snow and ice.




Jaguars and Jaguars

People think I have four wheels,
and another one too, to sit behind.
They think I go brmm, brmm, toot, toot!
But they'll find,
should they meet me one dark night,
that I'm a jag of a junglier kind -
not that I'd mind, but they might.




More on my website: poemsforfun.wordpress.com - Book (for kids) page.

Copyright:
All poems on this page and site are copyright Kate Williams. If you wish to use any for any commercial or public use, please contact me first. Thank you.

Kate