Author Archives: Christine Cochrane

Prompt 7 -a tritina

07 Thursday Apr 2016

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Our prompt for Day Seven comes to us from Gloria Gonsalves, who challenges us all to write a tritina. The tritina is a shorter cousin to the sestina, involving three, three-line stanzas, and a final concluding line. Three “end words” are used to conclude the lines of each stanza, in a set pattern of ABC, CAB, BCA, and all three end words appear together in the final line.

Confused? No problem — here’s an example!

Tritina for Susannah

The water off these rocks is green and cold.
The sandless coast takes the tide in its mouth,
as a wolf brings down a deer or lifts its child.

I walked this bay before you were my child.
Your fingers stinging brightly in the cold,
I take each one and warm it in my mouth.

Though I’ve known this shore for years, my mouth
holds no charms of use to you, my child.
You will have to learn the words to ward off cold

and know them cold, child, in your open mouth.

–David Yezzi

Here’s my tritina:

Tritina for Tiree’s Ringing Stone

From Balphetrish over moorland lies the way
to where the ringing boulder sings its song
when struck with stones beside the dark grey sea.

They say you came from Rhum across the sea
carried by ice sheets, left upon the way,
erratic filled with melody and song.

and if you split and shatter on that way
where seals swim in the brooding dark grey sea
Tiree will sink beneath the ocean’s song –

the sea way silent, gone the ringing song.

When set a form as the main aim, I find it difficult to settle on a theme.  The words of David Yezzi’s poem led me to the sea and the Ringing Stone on the island of Tiree where we walked last summer. The stone is a glacial erratic which stands on the north side of the island west of Balphetrish village. In the Neolithic Period it was carved with many cup-marks which suggest it was of symbolic significance to the people of that period. It is known in the Gaelic language as ‘Clach a’ Choire’ and, also ‘The Gong Stone’ due to the ringing, metallic noise it makes when struck with another stone. There are a number of legends associated with the stone, one being that if the stone is ever split open the island of Tiree will disappear beneath the waves.

Prompt 6 – the theme of food

06 Wednesday Apr 2016

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Here’s the prompt:

Today, I challenge you to write a poem about food. This could be a poem about a particular food, or about your relationship to food in general. Or it could simply be a poem relating an incident that involves food, like David Ignatow’s “The Bagel”.

My response goes back a long way:

The Cake Stand

It was about my height
in deep, dark wood
inset with shining butterflies:
mother of pearl, you said

On Sundays by the fire
we would start from the top
and work down, sipping tea
from flowered china cups.

White triangles of sandwich
or soft bridge rolls filled with
yellow mashed banana or
pink salmon from John West tins.

On the middle tier a cake,
an iced Victoria sponge;
or your warm scones, spread
with garden strawberry jam.

At floor level your shortbread
cut out with crinkled edges,
pricked with four fork marks
and dusted with sugar.

On warm summer days you took
the cake stand to the garden,
filled it with strawberry tarts,
listened to birdsong.

Years later I touch the glass
of a museum case and see it;
the dark wood, the butterflies
and my memories.

Prompt 5 – the pleasures of heirloom plant seeds

05 Tuesday Apr 2016

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Here’s today’s prompt:

April is a time for planting things. I’ve recently been paging through seed catalogs, many of which feature “heirloom” seeds with fabulous names. Consider the “Old Ivory Egg” tomato, the “Ozark Razorback” or “Fast Lady” cow-pea, “Neal’s Paymaster” dent corn, or the “Tongues of Fire” bush bean. Today, I challenge you to spend some time looking at the names of heirloom plants, and write a poem that takes its inspiration from, or incorporates the name of, one or more of these garden rarities. To help you out, here are links to the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and the Baker Creek Seed Company. Also, here’s a hint – tomatoes seem to be prime territory for elaborate names. And who knows, maybe you’ll even find something to plant in your garden! Happy writing!

The prompt came in late on a busy day and I thought I was going to be stumped again, as my knowledge of heirloom plants in non-existent.  However, dipping into the Baker Creek Seed Company’s website was a colourful experience which gave me a character called Plum Granny Muskmelon and some very nice veg names.  This poem had a few variants before it found its form.  It started as a series of haiku verses.  However, these had no zing about them and I realised that Plum Granny Muskmelon was asking for rhyme and rhythm.  It might even be a song.

Plum Granny Muskmelon, what do you grow?
What’s your take on those heritage seeds?
Do you go all organic in every respect –
in your farming, your diet, your deeds?

My purple potato is molokai sweet,
my corn it is hopi pink,
my peas are red rippers, my carrots are black –
my radish green luebo I think.

Jing orange okra is simply the best
and I love to grow rich scarlet kale.
Eat a rainbow each day!  It’s the only way
to be healthy and hearty and hale.

Prompt 4 – the cruelest month

04 Monday Apr 2016

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In his poem “The Wasteland”, T.S. Eliot famously declared that “April is the cruelest month.” But is it? I’d have thought February. Today I challenge you to write a poem in which you explore what you think is the cruelest month, and why. Perhaps it’s September, because kids have to go back to school. Or January, because the holidays are over and now you’re up to your neck in snow. Or maybe it’s a month most people wouldn’t think of (like April), but which you think of because of something that’s happened in your life. Happy (or, if not happy, not-too-cruel) writing!

Which month to choose?  I initially jumped to November, because it’s a forgotten month; the year gathers pace towards the end and people are so  busy anticipating Christmas that it gets forgotten.  But it’s not cruel, and you can still enjoy the autumn colours in the first half.  January can be harsh, but it holds the promise of a new year ahead.  In the end I settled on March.  This is why:

Mad March

March you are fickle:
with your brisk name
you push us forward,
one
great
leap
towards the point
of equal day and night,
the lure of warmth,
the end to darkness.
You paint in yellow,
wake us with birdsong,
tease us with T-shirt days
in sheltered gardens;
and then you take us
back
to
winter.
You sting and bite,
bury crocuses in snow,
and whip up bitter winds,
laughing as we reach
for scarves and hats
to watch daffodils dance
in the hail.

Prompt 3 – A fan letter

03 Sunday Apr 2016

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I challenge you to write a poem in the form of a fan letter to a celebrity. Now, this could be a celebrity from long ago, and needn’t be an actor or singer (though it could be). You could write to George Washington or Dorothy Dandridge, Marie Curie or The Weekend. Happy writing!

OK, I thought you’d got me here.  I despise the word ‘celebrity’ and anything to do with ‘celebrity culture’ – where anyone who has had a role in a soap or has wailed briefly on ‘The Voice’ is referred to as a ‘star’.  I have never written a fan letter in my life.  But then I had some unexpected fun with it.  This poem is, I think, better for being short.

Hiya Jane, I just wanted to say
your books are like totally awesome.
OMG I never thought Emma would
finish up with that Mr Knightley;
I mean he calls in on like the first page
and sits with her and her dad and that.
I never saw it coming.  Amazeballs.
And OMG Pride and Prejudice was so cool.
Have to say the title didn’t grab me  –
it was like kind of abstract? –
but I started reading and I was like
how are they all going to get a guy?
Another page turner, and some
well fit soldiers too.  Thanks, Jane.  x

Prompt 2 – a family portrait

02 Saturday Apr 2016

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Thank you to all who said they liked yesterday’s lune!

Here’s today’s prompt:

I challenge you to write a poem that takes the form of a family portrait. You could write, for example, a stanza for each member of your family. You could also find an actual snapshot of your family and write a poem about it, spending a little bit of time on each person in the picture. You don’t need to observe any particular form or meter. Happy writing!

My response is based on a photograph that came out at family slide shows!

Spotlight

In the days when years are long
we celebrate their silver wedding.

After the melon cocktail.
the turkey, the raspberry gateau
and Liebfraumilch sipped from
sparkling Edinburgh crystal
we stand, the family four –
heels sink into mossy lawn,
our father grey-suited, serious,
our mother laughs in
joyous, flowered crimplene.

For me a dress from Richard Shops
faux denim patchwork pattern,
platform-soled sandals my firm base,
make up by Mary Quant sets off
black page-boy hair by Vidal Sassoon.

And you with the Monkees hairstyle,
red kipper tie, brash checked jacket
and grey trousers flaring to infinity
smile for the camera, hoping
the posing will soon be over.

In later years we linger,
hold this moment of silver light.

Prompt 1 – April 1st

01 Friday Apr 2016

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So here goes with the challenge!

Here’s today’s prompt:

Today, I challenge you to write a lune. This is a sort of English-language haiku. While the haiku is a three-line poem with a 5-7-5 syllable count, the lune is a three-line poem with a 5-3-5 syllable count. There’s also a variant based on word-count, instead of syllable count, where the poem still has three lines, but the first line has five words, the second line has three words, and the third line has five words again. Either kind will do, and you can write a one-lune poem, or write a poem consisting of multiple stanzas of lunes. Happy writing!

And my response:

Lune

So what is a lune
you may ask –
the first thing being

a poem with a
particular
syllable pattern;

three lines per stanza:
five, three and
five syllable-count

like this poem here.
I researched
and discovered more:

that in real tennis
it is a
point-scoring opening,

and in French it is
the moon, from
the Latin luna,

in geometry
the crescent
shape that is formed by

two intersecting
circles: the
common ground they share.

And near my home town
the River
Lune winds to the sea.

 

 

Race for life

30 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by in Blogging on, Cancer challenge

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I have awarded myself a medal!  I just happened to have three kicking around the house, from when I did the ‘Race for Life’ in aid of Cancer Research UK in 2004, 2005 and 2007 in memory of my mother and a university friend who both died of cancer.  So when I completed my sixth chemotherapy on 10th March there was a small reward ceremony to mark the end of this stage of treatment.  Of course, I never imagined when I ran those 5 Km races that the funds raised would help to save my own life.  Very appropriately, I finished my chemotherapy treatment in Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, and I encourage anyone who is not sure of the symptoms of this disease to check out the websites at either Target Ovarian Cancer or Ovacome.

http://www.targetovariancancer.org.uk/

http://www.ovacome.org.uk/

DSC00438As I’ve discovered, treatments have come a long way since my mother was diagnosed with cancer in 2001.  My initial horror at the thought of having to undergo chemotherapy for ovarian cancer was based on fear and ignorance; the reality is that my chemotherapy drugs zapped my disease effectively and, most surprisingly, allowed me to enjoy a reasonably good quality of life during treatment.  There were other things that helped too, and I list them here in the hope of encouraging others who find themselves on the same path.

WALKING.  Nothing has helped me more than daily exercise and nature.  It didn’t matter that I wasn’t climbing the mountains I used to climb – in fact, I like the new walking routes which look very much like this:

DSC00429Which leads me on to FOOD AND DRINK. Coffee, scones, pub lunches – all have fortified me on my way, and we’ve bumped into lots of friends and had a pleasantly social time.

CHOCOLATE:  It deserves an entry of its own.  Thank you to all who took note of its therapeutic effects and supplied me!

TALKING.  I have kept on talking – to my family, my friends, my chemo nurses, the other patients.  It’s been good to be open and to give and receive support.  I feel truly blessed to have such a great social network – thank you!

LIVING AS NORMALLY AS POSSIBLE.  Yes, there are times when you are tired and will have to cancel things.  You have to listen to your body.  But, for a lot of the time, just doing normal things and being treated as normal is the best way to get on with something as big and scary as this.

AVOIDING CANCER GOOGLING.  A little goes a long way. Trust me, googling symptoms and survival rates will NOT make you feel better.  Forums are good if you read good things; they are bad if you read bad things.

ACCEPTING AND ENJOYING COMPLIMENTS.  Nod, smile and feel good when people compliment you on your new ‘hairstyle’, your slim figure and new clothes.  Some compliments are quite unexpected – recent praise of my ‘excellent veins’ from a nurse made me feel good for the rest of the day.

MAKING AN EFFORT WITH YOUR APPEARANCE.  Aim to try with your appearance and clothes even when you’re feeling a bit rough.

INDULGING IN THE OCCASIONAL REWARD CEREMONY.  Celebrate each milestone, and yes, you can mix a little Prosecco with your chemo.  I had a rule not to do alcohol in the week after treatment, but after that a little was ok.

prosecco2So now the journey continues.  It’s a bit like doing a course at the big University of Cancer.  After a bit of post-chemo ‘scanxiety’ I was told that my response had been excellent, better than expected  – 9/10!  My cancer hated that stuff and went running. But there is a risk of recurrence.  Continued work is needed to keep it at bay, so I will be having a little infusion of Avastin every 3 weeks until next January.

It’s been a harder few weeks since my last chemo – I’ve taken longer to get over the tiredness this time.  My eyebrows, which held on through five treatments, now need more artwork to make them look realistic, and even though I’m grateful for the help of Miss Wiggy I can’t wait to ditch her before the hot days of summer.  The baldness thing gets you after a while, although it’s a small price to pay.  Oh, and a bit of rethinking is required as I devise my ‘new normal’ – cutting out some of the things I used to do, concentrating on what’s important and learning to pace myself, enjoying the moment, looking at diet and lifestyle, booking myself on to a ‘Living well with cancer’ course with Penny Brohn UK.  http://www.pennybrohn.org.uk/

The recovery jargon tells you to set some meaningful goals now, so I hope to play my harp in a concert in June, go to a wedding in Germany in August and … oh yes … I have 17 Wainwright tops in the Lake District still to climb.  Onwards and upwards.

Some of you have asked if I’m writing about the cancer experience.  And at this point I’d just like to thank everyone who has bought and read ‘Shifting Sands: Tales of Transience and Transformation’ and said good things about it.  There are some lovely reviews on Amazon!  Over the winter it’s been too difficult to write something new; my own story has been too big.  I have stuff in my notebook, and I may write about cancer sometime, but now doesn’t seem the time; in a way I want to put it behind me.  I’ve been working on some poetry prompts in a small online group run by Helena Sanderson who studied with me on the OU course, and this has kept my brain in gear through the months of treatment.  Thank you, Helena!  The prompts took me in lots of directions and have given me things to work on for the future.  Only two were about the cancer experience, and I finish off with one here – it’s a ‘shape’ poem written for fun during one of my chemotherapy sessions.

shape poem_cr

From now on, expect my blog posts to less about cancer and more about life.

Thinking Smart

02 Tuesday Feb 2016

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I have finally gone down the road of the smartphone. After years of thinking my 2006 Nokia was small, neat and just what I needed (all I do is text, isn’t it?), I finally decided a girl on chemotherapy deserves better. The tingling in my finger tips which is a side-effect of chemo made the tiny buttons hard to manage and I couldn’t read all the cheerful, quirky emoticons people were sending me. The final nudge came from a (younger) friend who looked at the Nokia and remarked that she never thought I’d have a phone like that. I explained that I used a tablet at home and didn’t want to be welded to a smartphone on the street like the rest of the population. But then I thought again, and decided it was treat time.

Three phone shops later I was well served in O2. They had seats, for example, and an assistant who didn’t look as if he was dressed like someone from the planet Zog. He didn’t talk from a pre-learned script, and explained the twenty or so different tarrifs without being in the least condescending. I came out with a sleek new phone and have now moved on from ‘Pay as you Go.’

So I took my smartphone along to my fourth chemotherapy session last Thursday and stayed in touch with the world as the smart drips went in that are giving me my life back. Back in October and November I couldn’t have contemplated going into a phone shop at all; I led a life on the sofa watching ‘Homes under the Hammer’ and surviving on small bowls of soup. Ovarian cancer bloats you, and you can’t eat much. The treatment changed all that. A week after my first chemotherapy, I went into a supermarket after a six week break and actually selected food I wanted to eat. By Christmas, the days of yogurt and retro Sixties jelly with mandarins were over, and I enjoyed a full Christmas dinner with a sneaky glass of wine. The beginnings of hair loss and attacks of tiredness were a small price to pay. By January I was going out to meet friends again, driving, extending the length of my daily walks and even, by the end of the month, going back to my Pilates class. I received compliments about my slim look and new ‘haircut’, which gave me my confidence back. And on 20th January Miss Wiggy and I climbed The Helm, a small hill near Kendal, and admired the snowy Lakeland Fells; I never thought I’d do that on chemotherapy, but that’s what smart drugs do for you.

In three months I have come from planning my funeral to planning my future. I have learned what all cancer patients learn – think smart. ‘Keep up your PMA,’ the nurse said. I wondered if this was some sort of blood count, but no – it’s Positive Mental Attitude. When I was diagnosed in October I could hardly walk into the hospital. I knew the news wasn’t going to be great, but nothing prepares you for hearing the word ‘cancer’ spoken out loud and applied to you, followed by intimations of a long haul ahead. ‘Can I get through this?’ I gabbled, my mouth dry as the Sahara Desert.   ‘Yes,’ the consultant said. I realise now he couldn’t have said anything other than this; to sow the seeds of hope was perhaps the most important part of our interchange that day. All along the way it’s been more than the drugs that have helped; the chat and laughter with the chemo nurses do a lot of healing.

My scan after three treatments showed an impressive response, so they are continuing with chemo rather than going down the surgery route originally planned; some cancer cells are in a tricky place, apparently, so they need to do more smart zapping, adding in another drug. This change of plan was a bit of a blip for me, but I was encouraged to look at the advantage of not having a major operation. When I feel down, I look at this card given to me by some dear friends.

I can think of no better advice. And there are positives. Recently a friend whose husband is being treated for a brain tumour wrote that they were so moved by the love they experienced – and through these weeks our lives have indeed been enriched by your visits, emails and messages, kind thoughts, prayers, gifts and offers of help. My husband Iain has been a star, caring for me, taking me to hospital appointments and making our kitchen the absolute ultimate in organised spick-and-span. I’ve spent more time with family and friends than ever before and have really been able to concentrate on what’s important to me.

And who knows, maybe some day there will be bigger things? My friends Hugh and Pauline Symonds have spent their retirement going on long cycle trips, most famously spending a year cycling from Sedbergh to Kazakhstan and returning in time for market day. Their lives were put on hold when Hugh was diagnosed with bladder cancer and had to spend a year going through treatment. But this January they set off to cycle from Cancun to Colorado. What an excellent example of PMA! You can read about it at http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/HandPinMexicoandUSA

One step at a time. I just have to remember I still get tired and need to put myself on charge every day too. Like the smartphone.