Small steps, success stories and reasons to be cheerful

Yes I know, a month has passed since my last update, so what the heck has been going on? I’d like to say we’ve moved house, but…it hasn’t happened yet. The expectation now is that it will be after our holiday (which was planned a year ago, in the certainty that we would have been in a new house by now.) Anyway, hope still springs eternal.

Finally writing again

After my little spate of submissions a couple of months ago I’m seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. A poem forthcoming in 14 Magazine, another in Obsessed with Pipework. And a ‘nearly, maybe’ from London Grip. Just the kind of encouragement I needed, so … onward. I woke up this morning with a line in my head and thought ‘yes’! One line. Enough to make a start. And I’m ready to revisit the pamphlet idea I’ve been working on.

Friends’ successes

I’m delighted to announce that my poet mate and fellow podcaster Peter Kenny has got his first full collection coming out with Poetry Salzburg – hurrah to that! I had the privilege of reading the manuscript and I can tell you it’s brilliant. Publication is next year I think and no doubt I’ll be mentioning it again. Peter has been getting his poetry published in magazines, on buses, in anthologies (and latterly a pamphlet or two) for decades, so a full collection is well overdue and well deserved. Meanwhile, Alex Josephy’s new book A Little Bridge is out with Pindrop, and I was lucky enough to take part in her Hastings launch recently, alongside Judith Shaw whose pamphlet The Land Called Me Back is also now out in the world (there we all are in the photo at the top of this post). Alex and Judith are both big supporters of other poets’ work, being  co-organisers of the Hastings Stanza. Fellow Telltaler Sarah Barnsley is one of three poets in the latest Mariscat Sampler (number 3) with ‘Find your own fascinator’. Sarah’s writing is always energising (I think that’s the word? ‘Vibrant’ seems to fall short and ‘unique’ a bit overused) and she delights in both challenging and entertaining the reader. A tasty sample! And finally, my old poet mate Charlotte Gann has a new collection coming out in the Autumn. More about that in due course.

That step aerobics thing

As mentioned in a previous post, I had this yearning to return to doing step aerobics – if you’ve never experienced it, it’s hard to convey the beauty of following a choreographed sequence of steps in infinite combinations, challenging both body and mind (more of that in a minute). From stumbling beginnings you get into the flow: it’s totally absorbing and it feels like you’re flying. Anyway, I’ve been teaching this class in Lewes for five weeks so far, but undecided about the future. Basically, my dream of devising a class around all the hits from the 70s and 80s has taken a kicking. I few weeks into the job I was told by the management that all instructors now have to change to a music platform that uses only unlicensed music. So my lovingly-created, beautifully mixed playlists are out, and we’re stuck with using 90s covers, house and dance mixes. It isn’t what I planned. But apart from the music I’m actually enjoying the class a lot, and after all the work I’ve put into it it would be very disappointing to give it up. The jury is out.

Mens sana in corpore sano

I absolutely love this quote (from Roman poet Juvenal, by the way)  who said we should all pray for a healthy mind in a healthy body, rather than for worldly riches. Hurrah to that! The mind-body connection is very close to my heart. And today I’m particularly grateful for my own good health. It’s my sister’s birthday. She would have been 75, if she hadn’t been struck down by a rare tumour four years ago. Sometimes I glimpse her in the mirror, or hear her when I speak. Cancer didn’t kill me (yet) and polymyalgia rheumatica didn’t put me in a wheelchair. My body attacks itself now and then, but so far it has always made good and we’re friends again. I regularly thank it for its service: each knee, each eye, each tooth, each hidden bit of my insides working away day and night. You are all amazing. Thank you, thank you, thank you.