It really has been a surprisingly good month for me on the writing front. Today, I found out my poem Slivers had been chosen by Matthew Francis in the latest Guardian online poetry workshop.

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It was another great boost to get selected and receive some really helpful feedback, though I'm kicking myself on some of the editing points. It was also a good reminder to me about the dangers of sending stuff by email, without copying and pasting from simple text, as it messed up my stanza breaks! (The published poem can be viewed here but should have had a 'wafer' stanza structure of two lines, six lines, two lines, six lines, two lines.)

For once the 'snail' post also brought good news, rather than the usual bills and junk mail. It contained a photo book I'd created from some of my poems and some pictures I'd taken for the town photo competition. It wasn't easy to use the software and I was a bit worried about how it would turn out. However, I'm very pleased with the results.

I was also pleased to finally get a copy of Gift Songs by John Burnside (I'm trying to read more male poets). One of the things I really love about poetry is the more I read, the more I want to read. Similarly the more I read, the more I want to write. And the more I write, the more I want to read and write!

Well, it has also been sunny here today literally as well as metaphorically. My elder son and I had a lovely bike ride along the canal and parks today to school this morning. It was great fun, though my left leg is aching a little again! I also managed to snap a pic of the nesting swans' eggs. They don't move off them much and I never seem to have my camera handy when they stretch their feathers, so to speak, and quickly rearrange themselves. Today was the first time, though I wasn't close enough to get a good enough photo to post in the reduced quality size needed for the blog. And talking of pictures, I think uploading and sorting my online album might the next job of the evening...

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