February 2015 Update (on poetry and the 'pleasures' of OCD)

Well, here we are at the end of February 2015, my Son is now 19, my Daughter is now 6 and I am fast approaching 53 years of age. Amazing the impact of time on our minds and bodies - I still feel about mid 20's yet my Son is nearly out of his teens and I am ever closing on my dotage!

Over the last few months I've been working on a couple of things, mainly completing the next project (Silent As Sleeping, which was actually the first I started work on some twenty years ago). This is a set of poems which deal with the initial time when my Father went into hospital (dying some four days later without ever coming home again). Over the years following this, I wrote many poems and some of these were directly linked to this massive phase of my life. It is these that make up the Silent As Sleeping collection, which in time will be followed by 'Also Now Sleeping', an ongoing collection of poems linked to the recent death of my Mother.

Some years ago, I had a few copies of 'Silent As Sleeping' bound and gave them to family and a few friends; but they are long since gone I would think. In fact, it was so expensive that I didn't keep a copy for myself and I'm now not even sure how many were made! So, about two years ago, I decided to collect the originals (plus some newer ones that were as relevant as the older poems) and utilise the 21st Century's ability to self publish 'cheaply' and quickly. I was working on this when I became very unwell over a year ago, and even though I am not fit (and it has taken a long time due to many issues); I now have the necessary permissions to use the creations of others in this work (thanks to Chris W and Tony B). So now, after a long long time; I am nearing completion of this work first conceived over two decades ago.

This last (and hopefully final) draft of 'Silent As Sleeping' has been sent off to the printers and I await the resulting proof copy with eager anticipation. No doubt there'll be some tweaks that will be required - the screen is very different from the written page after all - but I hope that any changes required can be effected quickly and easily and that it can then go to print in March.

The second - and final - collection in the 'Sleeping' thread ('Also Now Sleeping') will probably not be ready this year. My Mother's passing was so sudden, so distressing, that I know there are many more poems specifically or loosely on that theme still inside. I know it won't take 20 years to complete it - I myself might not have that long! - but I know that I'll come to a point which will be the 'natural' place to stop, collect, collate and publish.

I have poems that are also being collected in another work (currently titled 'Empty Boats') and there are 15 or so of these already earmarked for that project. These are poems that follow on from the 'Poems of the Past' collection (available now to purchase from this very website!) which were published on January 1st 2015. The actual writing for that collection stopped on the last day of November as I wanted to give some copies to the person who sparked the thought process off to get it into print before Christmas. I managed that but it meant that, for the following collection, I would start with poems from December 2014 onward. Not very good for someone with OCD tendencies like me, who would have much preferred to end it at the closing of the year instead (much neater)! 
[Indeed, for me, OCD should really be CDO to pleasingly make the letters in order...].

Anyway, work is still ongoing on the short stories collections as well as the poetry collections but, due to my situation, this takes a lot longer that I'd like as I can only do bursts of a few minutes each time. However, like the little train that could, I'll get there. Eventually.

Thanks for visiting, thanks for reading. Come again and in the meantime, take care out there!