Honey soaked, troubled notes
Pierced within cracking walls
Unreleased burdens, build and topple
Foraged for tranquil peace
Regarded as flotsam – inestimable instead
Paragon of the genetrix cue
Lumbered pressure allotropes does make
Verse (c) T. Altman 2017
(Image: Woman Aflame by Dali)
We want equal pay and equal rights
Who cares about fucking traffic lights
Tax Payers forking out the cash
To look at female signs whilst they dash
There needs to be more gender equality
But this my friend is simple council polity
(C) T. Altman, 7/3/2017
Inspired by the news that Melbourne council is adding female walking signs:
News Article Link: Victorian Pedestrian Crossing Equal Walking Signs
Astro
Conjuncting planets
Surface inner wounds
Heal Heal Heal
Numbing emotions
Starving the loons
Heal Heal Heal
Retrograde complices
Cultivates clear transmutation
Heal Heal Heal
(C) T. Altman 2017
A Tribute to the Prioress
Hoodwinked mink draped, disheveled
Acid lined lips, solarium burns
Archaic Bitch diesel, mingled menthol
Yellow talons tapping antagonistic dissimilarity
Vacuous ill-disposed soul
T. Altman 2017
I wrote this poem and submitted to the Festival for Poetry and is now featured on their site:
I have always been inspired by stories of and by women. I recently re-read “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood.
I have to start off by saying this book was recommended to me by a friend and I am glad she did as its become one of my favorite all time books.
The scary thing is that our current political climate can potentially lead to this dystopian world where women’s rights and reproduction are controlled by men in power and with that in mind its quite a thought provoking read.
This book has had a deep impact on me and my personal connection to feminism and the resulting treatment of women and their bodies.
Hulu has created a tv series based on the books airing in March and I look forward to seeing this great novel on the small screen…until then:
I was around 21 when I showed a friend some of the poetry I had written up to that point. We were planning on attending a poetry reading group and I wanted some feedback on my work before going “public”with it. It was a huge deal for me, as before this I had never shown anyone my poetry.
This friend was very focused and silent, whilst she looked through my notebook of handwritten poems…mostly in neat print which at times became cursive. After what seemed like an eon, she looked up at me and said “you write like Sylvia Plath” to which I replied “Who?“, as I had no idea who Sylvia Plath was at the time.
Like I’ve mentioned before – I wasn’t exposed to the best English literature at the working class public schools I attended growing up. For the most part and if I am speaking frankly, I don’t ever recall being taught anything about poetry or poets for that matter. The poets I had been exposed to were the ones I found on my own. These tended to be poets from the Romantic era like Byron, Shelley, Keats and Poe, as I had developed an obsession with the Victorian period as a teen.
Soon after, I found myself borrowing my friends copy of her collection of Sylvia Plath’s work and realized that my poetry did resemble her style. This was completely unintentional and worried me so much I stopped writing for a while. I was so fearful about not emulating that it made me stop creating any work at all!
Then, I finally read “The Bell Jar”. I completely resonated and understood where the protagonist was coming from. Something inside clicked. I released the expectation and worry I had placed upon myself.
I went back to writing poetry and I write the way I am compelled to. Whether it be free or rhyme, flowing or constructed, personal or observational – I don’t care what I sound like. As long as I am getting my feelings out and expressing myself as I feel compelled to, I feel good about it.
Syliva’s style was autobiographical and so is mine and we deal with the same subject matter of depression, disturbances and death. The older I get the more comfortable I get with my poetry and as long as I personally feel something when I write it, I will keep at it.
If you would like to read some of my work, here are a few poems I have written in the last year:
“Wear your heart on your skin in this life.”
― Sylvia Plath
(c) T. Altman 2017
A writers life can be a solitary undertaking but it doesn’t mean you are alone…
A Witch’s Life
When I was a child
there was an old woman in our neighborhood whom we called The Witch.
All day she peered from her second story
window
from behind the wrinkled curtains
and sometimes she would open the window
and yell: Get out of my life!
She had hair like kelp
and a voice like a boulder.
I think of her sometimes now
and wonder if I am becoming her.
My shoes turn up like a jester’s.
Clumps of my hair, as I write this,
curl up individually like toes.
I am shoveling the children out,
scoop after scoop.
Only my books anoint me,
and a few friends,
those who reach into my veins.
Maybe I am becoming a hermit,
opening the door for only
a few special animals?
Maybe my skull is too crowded
and it has no opening through which
to feed it soup?
Maybe I have plugged up my sockets
to keep the gods in?
Maybe, although my heart
is a kitten of butter,
I am blowing it up like a zeppelin.
Yes. It is the witch’s life,
climbing the primordial climb,
a dream within a dream,
then sitting here
holding a basket of fire.
It was Virginia Woolf who in her essay “Street Haunting” said:
“Second-hand books are wild books, homeless books”
Well they can come home with me and be tamed because I absolutely love second hand books – they have so much character!
When I have the chance I like to peruse though second hand bookstores. Due to my addiction to books, I rarely ever leave a second hand book shop empty handed.
I especially love coming across books with dedications at the beginning of the book as well as personal annotations on the side of pages which highlight some important point to the reader. I find these even more precious the older they are and it makes me wonder why and how these books with so much personal attachment to them, made it to me.
If you can, visit your local second hand book store and rescue a wild book!
(C) T. Altman 2016
Other than my mother who greatly influenced my love of reading, growing up – I was surrounded by people who didn’t read for pleasure or personal growth. I, however spent a significant amount of time reading for the love and knowledge.
I know people who say they haven’t read a book since they were forced to in school and that boggles my mind because I couldn’t imagine that myself. A couple of these same people have then gone out and read the Twilight or 50 Shades trilogies due to the hype in the media and think its the best literary creations they have ever come across (simply because they haven’t exposed themselves to reading anything else). I completely disagree but the way I look at it is that at least they are reading SOMETHING!
I personally believe you need to exercise your brain and reading does that.
Regardless of the book being good or not according to best seller lists, reviews, recommendations or the like – just do it – read a book and expand your mind as its never too late to do that!
tinaaltman.com 