Monday, July 18, 2011

Ballad debt

Illustration by R J Fenton 2011
Click to enlarge

Having major pc woes folks - sparks, smoke and EVERYTHING! Would be exciting (and for my life that is all it takes) were it not for the fact that it is costing me. I wouldn't have bought a settee if I'd known my computer was listing. Many trips to local library are the order of the day. And who made orthodontists the yankers of the purse strings? My advice to my daughter is - should she ever have children of her own - choose a partner with perfect teeth...then again, if her partner's teeth were unmatching in a perfectly opposite way, would that....never mind.

On pearly whiter news - two poems, owing much to the ballad tradition, in the latest blackmail press. My sincere thanks to Liz Breslin and Laura Williamson.

Make a cuppa first. Warning, contains strong language. Best get a couple of biscuits, too....

Let me know what you think - always love your (honest) opinions.

11 comments:

Thomas Taylor said...

Good luck with your computer, Rachel. They are never more ugly and irritating than when they don't work. Good luck with teeth too.

Now I'm off to brew up some coffee and brace myself for your poems...

T

Rachel Fenton said...

Hey Thomas - think you've read a draft of "The Reading" - maybe just one biscuit needed to pull you through "Balladette".

Thanks :)

Lori said...

Such a great illustration, Rachel. I love it. What are those cats doing under the table? So funny. I am sorry to hear that your laptop is not recovering. But the library must make it feel better, right? A good reason to spend more time there.

Leslie Morgan said...

OH, Rae, these are such hard, real, unfluffed poems. I am going to have to read them more than twice in order to express anything cogent, other than my first reaction: "Not sugar coated in any way. Honest and straight. Deal with it. Things aren't always soft, beautiful and pastel." Love your illustration that includes the back half of my little black cat, Virginia Woolf. Thank you, as ever, for your shared brilliance.

Rachel Fox said...

The Angel Delight ref. works well. For those of us who ate it anyway (and I did - lots - in about 1977). I used to love whipping it up with an electric whisk!

Dominic Rivron said...

Liked these - especially the dramatic ending of Balladette - and the "the flushed, swollen starfish" in The Reading.

Rachel Fenton said...

HA - frolicking is what I believe the cats are doing, Lori. There should be more frolicking in the world. My son loves the library, too - alas, the library is less loving of him. And, for some inexplicable reason, the children's section is upstairs with a low glass bannister and no stari gates! Odd. Or not: goes to prove the child non-love.


Les, thank you. Yes, the illustration is owing to your wee feline. Love your new pic, too!
Will be having a mammoth catch up session soon as I can - toddler/library and pc permitting.




You were proper posh, t'other Rachel - Angel Delight AND an electric whisk! Elbow grease for me. Blancmange rabbits were regular birthday features though...thanks, glad you noticed the ref.


Thanks, Dominic. I've used way more starfish refs in my poetry (since moving to NZ) than is creatively acceptable but I'm pleased you liked it here.

Balladette is a current fave of mine but proving difficult to illustrate!

The Divorced Lady's Companion to Living in Italy said...

Dear Rachel,

Just finishing my cuppa as I ruminate over your poems. They are very good, very sitting-in-a-book-on-my-bedside-table for rereading. Are your poems in a book somewhere?

I like the punches and the toughness.

ciao cat

Rachel Fenton said...

Hey, Cat - thank you - I'm working on the collection - fingers crossed they'll make it into a book one day.

I'm really pleased you like those qualities on my poems. Thanks.


Speaking of books on tables - did "The Long and Short of It" arrive yet?

Group 8 said...

Love the pic.

ALso love the poems - v inventive, quirky, fast-paced. And funny. Nice one, girleen.

Rachel Fenton said...

Thank you, Nu - high praise indeedly from you!