Tarn

I wanted to take the opportunity of a long walk in the Lake District last weekend to get some inspiration for new writing, that I can use for the first MA workshop. I have been mulling over what my strengths and weaknesses are in writing, and it's scared me off of using old work in front of a group of strangers who don't know me or anything about my interests. But then I don't want to play it safe either.

So I wanted to aim for something that was representative of my writing style and of my academic background. Poetry about geology can get a bit tired, but I thought I would give it a punt, perhaps thinking that I may have a right to this topic after spending years studying it. What I ended up with was not a geology poem at all, just a poem about a body of water in transition. I may well use this for the first seminar.

Copyright 2009 Ruth Allen

I like lilies. I oft find them on my camera. This one was from a garden in Jo'burg. Nothing more to say about it really.

Mother spider

This little spider has been travelling with me for over a week now. I feel a duty of care for him/her. I try to stick to 30mph as any faster and I worry his web will blow apart. I have deliberately avoided washing the car despite it being covered in tree juice. He has an unnerving knack of rushing in behind the wing mirror when I am forced onto a faster road. There he sits - two feet sticking round the mirror, waiting for me to stop, then he quickly reappears. Perhaps this is like those who insist they are preserving a natural meadow instead of owning up to an overgrown garden. When I leave work I am glad to see he's still around, and drive him carefully home. I know he'll leave/die soon. I just hope he doesn't go to another car. I would feel quite offended.

For now he's carved out a niche on my Leon. Who am I to send him back into the Wilderness.

(Atlas Moth. Photo copyright R. Allen 09)

There is something sad about this.

Maybe the dirty, ripped gauze. The small companionable butterfly. The resigned wings of the moth.

I don't know.

But I like this photo.