'An Ode to Marking'

Now, I confess that I am no poet, but as the mountainous pile of assignments begins to overwhelm me, I felt the need to release and talk back to those nasty writer's notebooks, writing projects and folio drafts.

Anyway, here it is.  It has made me feel better for writing it!

‘An ode to marking’

I know you mock me.

You, you white sheets of purity,

You think you are so saintly.

But no, you are tainted.

Marked with blackness,

With your insipid romances

And melodramatic tragedies,

Your violence and your wars.

No, you are not pure or perfect.

Are you oblivious to your mistakes?

You are riddled with the diseases

Of poor grammar

And punctuation errors

And words that don’t make sense

Or sound just plain lame.

Do you think that you are everything?

That I have no other life?

Well, I do.  I have a LIFE.

A life that is my family, my garden,

A house to keep, and books to read.

Do you not think I deserve to sleep?

Or to eat? 

Maybe even watch a tv program, or a movie

Just once in a while ….

I know you do not care for any of that.

You just demand and consume me,

Trying to destroy me.

Well, you won’t.

I will have my life, and you can wait.

So next time you mutter

About deadlines and results,

Just remember:  I have a LIFE!

just an update ...

My creativity has been somewhat stifled by an overwhelming mass of Writing Project drafts of late .... (sigh)   However, I am still reading - Pearl in a Cage is the current tale of choice, and I have to say that I am quite engrossed.  I will endeavour to post some details in the near future ....   I am also very excited about the forthcoming release of Kate Morton's latest novel, The Darkest Hours.  I cannot wait for this - bring on November 1!!

Truth ...

I have just finished reading Peter Temple's Miles Franklin Award winning novel, Truth.  While I am not normally an avid reader of crime fiction (apart from my love of Patricia Cornwell), I did really engage with this story.  I loved the vivid Melbourne setting, and although I found the large number of characters a little challenging to keep up with, it was a fantastic story.  The portrayal of characters was believable and human; I liked that it was not ALL happy endings, and yet the narrative provided a satisfactory resolution to the plot lines.  Lots of complexities and subplots - a recommended read!   My only gripe was an error early on: 'women' instead of 'woman' - cannot help but get stuck on such mistakes  :(

What to read tonight?  I need to select from the substantial pile next to my bed ... perhaps Pearl in a Cage?