I Love Words by Carolyn Cordon

Reading and Writing

I’ve always loved words, and I was certainly one of those kids who loved the library, at a time when having a book to read was one of the best ways to spend the hours of the day, away from school.

Meet Puss in Boots, my Muse who comes with me to all my gigs and meetings.

In high school, I discovered a talent for writing poetry, and while I didn’t go any further into it for quite a few years, once I started, I launched into poetry in a big way, as well as other types of working with words. Poetry is the one genre that feels most important for me personally, although I know writing a blockbuster that sells millions of copies would be a fine idea, financially

Money’s not Everything

Poets and megabucks don’t fit together naturally, so it’s fortunate that I’m not reliant on my poetry earnings to live the good life that I do! Life and living a good one are made up of many things — family and friends, a good sense of purpose, having things to do, look forward to, and enjoy.

I’ve discovered a love of editing and putting together books. I started by self-publishing my books, including poetry collections, and other quite different genres. I have published two books published with well-known South Australian publisher, Ginninderra Press including Angles on Ankles.

‘The Details’ tells a tale.

My first published book was actually a children’s school reader, published many, many years ago which still brings me a handy bit of money in Electronic Lending Rights, every year.

Money isn’t everything in life, though. Getting just the right word, in the right place, writing a Haiku so perfect it brings you back to the moment you wrote about every time you read it. That is what’s worth more than money.

Other Voices

One of the things I love about poetry in South Australia is how it seems to be opening up to a large variety of different voices, so that the older male white poet, though common, is not the only voice heard and read.

Not that there’s anything wrong with the male voice, of course, but it should never be the only voice available, particularly in a country such as Australia, where we have such a broad range of humanity sharing our land, white, coloured, straight, gay, and other, and many who have come to the English language at an older age, still able to do amazing and interesting things with their words.

Current Projects

One of the projects I’m working on at the moment is an anthology of words written in response to Covid-19, which has certainly brought some of those ‘other voices’ to me. I’m enjoying discovering and accepting these interesting words, written about situations alien to me, but written in ways that easily show the truth of what people have lived with.

This book ‘Plague Invasion – Creative Writing Responses to Covid-19’ is possibly the most important thing I have produced. I am proud to have had the idea for it and to make it happen. I have other ideas in my head too, and another poetry collection may well come to be next year, who can tell? Poetry happens when it happens; you can’t force it!

Poetry in the Community

Attending, or running a poetry reading where a mix of complete newbies and well-seasoned poets join together to make beautiful music with their poetry, what a wonderful thing that is to do.

You can read from your own work, and listen to the words of other poets, some of them already known to you, some new voices, and exciting times certainly can come when a poet absolutely ‘nails it’, and you feel the frisson on hearing the best possible words to show something to others.

That’s what poetry is, or can be all about, finding the best possible words, and bringing to the reader, or hearer of to an experience that meant so much to you that you had to write it down, in a way that would bring the same moment to others.

My Favourite Things

I’m a great fan of quietly sitting with a poetry collection and exploring the poet through the words they have written. Finding exciting ways of looking at something, new and unusual ways. I love this, and also to be able to talk with the poet later, to let them know how good it was to feel the truth in their words; a lovely thing indeed.

My Blogs

I run several blogs which connect with others; writers, poets, and bloggers, and people interested in the things about which I write. My main blog is about me, and I am often there, writing about my writing life. Another is about being a dog owner and gardener, which I go to sometimes, with news of those things.

An essential blog for me is the one about MS, which I began soon after my diagnosis. It has been a valuable tool of discovery as I found out more about this new disease I’d been ‘given’. Learning and teaching about Multiple Sclerosis were also necessary and liberating when my body was letting me down. It let me show that I could still keep in contact with the world and stay exciting and useful. You can find this vital blog here.

My Stoic blog is the most recent. Stoicism means a great deal to me and seems to be the way I wish to live my life. A Stoic life to me is about doing the best I can when I can; working to help others, whether people, society or the world, one step at a time. That is how I wish to live my life.

An earlier, critical blog of mine is about sexual abuse. It is not lovely, but over the years, it has been cathartic and healing not only for me but also for others. If you’ve experienced abuse, you can feel as though nobody understands. Still, I know that my words have benefited others who have moved with me from victim to survivor because I write honestly about these matters.

That’s probably enough for now, except to say that blogging is an integral part of my journey through life.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Photographs, images and and poems by Carolyn Cordon