LIEBSTER Award

Hello dear readers… Fellow blogger, Darell Philip, has nominated my site for a Liebster Award; a way of sharing and discovering interesting new blogs on WordPress.

Darell’s site is well worth a visit. He covers news, opinion pieces and poetry. Check it out, if you get the chance:

https://darellphilip.wordpress.com/

My prize/punishment is to answer some of his thoughtful questions and nominate other great bloggers. Which I’ll attempt below:

QUESTIONS:

1. What is your favourite book and why?
   • It’s very hard to choose just one, but the book I’ve read most is London Fields by Martin Amis. The prose is dazzling and every line drips with a cleverly constructed barb of black humour.
2. What song do you currently have on repeat?
   • This week I have mostly been listening to the song Fire by Waxahatchee.
3. Which season (Autumn, Spring, Summer or Winter) of the year best describes you?
   • I was a winter child but since I turned 30, I feel most alive in summer. Autumn is easily the most beautiful and inspiring season though. For me, the new year has always started in mid-September and Autumn has always been waiting there to paint it so colourfully.
4. In the event of an emergency home evacuation what is the first item you grab?
   • My pet rabbit, she loves an adventure.
5. Which historical figure would you most like to meet and why?
   • Does Carl Sagan count a historical figure yet? I’d love to talk space, humanity and the future with him.
6. What makes a good blog?
   • I’m a sucker for a simple, easy to navigate layout. I’m here for the poetry above all else. So, a blog which recedes into the background and just showers me with delicious writing is what I long to stumble across. A mix of styles, quality over quantity and something which offers a bit of background or context about the author (even if it only helps to deepen the mystery/enigma) is a nice touch.
7. Back to the past or forward to the future?
   • I would love to have traveled the world before globalisation; perhaps in the 1960s. I’m already headed into the future and quite happy where I am thanks.
8. Your dream vacation?
   • I’d love to take a year out and explore everywhere in Asia, writing about the people I see and encounter.
9. The greatest movie of all time?
   • Very hard to choose. I love the poetic cinema of Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieślowski (particularly The Double Life of Veronique) but I think the film which ‘has it all’ (for me) is Being John Malkovich; it has big ideas, it’s funny, silly, serious, sad, sci-fi, eccentric and melancholic.
10. Wealth or health?
    • Health, 100%.
11. Your proudest moment?
    • I’m proud of my career outside of writing and I’m proud of some of my writing. I don’t think there is one moment which stands out though.

MY NOMINATIONS:

Note to nominations: Don’t feel obliged to fill this out or to respond in any way. However, if you find yourself with half an hour to spare… Why not answer the same questions that Darell asked me and repost.

Thanks again to Darell for the nomination and to all the great writers and bloggers out there who inspire me every day. Please do check them out!

Devon Brock (the poetic champ who steered me onto WordPress): https://sweetandbittergreens.com/

John E Marks (a hundred floors above me in the Tower of Poem): https://johnemarks.wordpress.com/

Anonymously Hal: https://anonymouslyhal.wordpress.com/

Kimberly Ray: https://coffee-shop-sessions.com/

Ink of The Heart: https://kathrinesantos.wordpress.com/

Zerrgebiete https://zerrgebiet.wordpress.com/

Little Whisperer: https://littlewhisperer.com/

Lucy Works: https://lucysworks.com/

Feelings and Metaphors: https://feelingsandmetaphors.wordpress.com/

Allowing The Spaces: https://allowingthespaces.wordpress.com/about/

Finally, here’s a little piece which sums up what I love about writing and reading poetry:

Why Poems?

Poems are my photographs
my diary
my inner monologue
poems are my measurement
my record
the fingerprints of emotions
invisible no more
Poems are my expression
the sum of interactions
they show my working out
Poems are the breath
of lost lovers
against my neck
Poems are my kisses
for family and my friends
the hugs I seldom give

And your poems…
your poems keep me company
a little light
calling to my lost ship
I sip my tea
and slip into your mind…

Thanks for reading.

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