Final Thoughts: January 2009

Well, it’s been a hectic month for me. I’ve flunked my English and History exams, I’ve started reading Dracula (I’m enjoying it by the way) and I’ve realised that Paradroid for the Commodore 64 is one of the best video games of all time in my opinion. Poetry-wise, my mind has been puerile and you can read the evidence on this website. So after each month I’ll be frivolous and name my worst (there are too many contenders) and favourite poems of mine for the month.

The worst poem this month is ‘Void.’ It was called formerly 'Ambiguity' as it was ambiguous what the hell it was about. However thinking about it, I wanted the title to be clichéd so I changed it. If you didn’t know it involves me trying to create an allegory between a dark night and a science fiction staple; a void. However I’ve never been satisfied with the final product. I managed to write a somewhat more successful version in 'Rings' posted exactly a week later, where I made it a straight science fiction poem, rather than a fantasy one.

My favourite poem I’ve written this month is 'Lights.' Influenced by the images of ’Perchance to Dream’ (The Twilight Zone, Charles Beaumont, 1959) which involved a man having a continuous nightmare of a theme park which had an enigmatic showgirl whom he believed she wanted to kill him. I changed the perspective to the park being the horror towards the narrator. I couldn’t really dwell upon the park too much as it was merely a poem but I’m going to write a short story adaptation of this poem for my anthology of tales, which I hope to write in the first person narrative and evoke more emotion from the unnamed protagonist.

So that’s it for this month. For February, I have some weird ideas and I’ve actually written two poems which will be posted next week. So expect the unexpected...