kids these days

I am very very nearly finished on the anthology. By which I mean, having the whole thing up to final first draft status, ready for the first run of proof reading and feedback on the layout etc.

I have saved one nice thing until last, as a delicious sweet treat to keep me going. This is choosing the little line to go on each of the 'blank' intro pages for each section. E.g. "Poems from the Open Section" will have a italicised line from one of the Open section poems as a wee sampler of what's to come.

Am currently doing the Junior Section ones and am having trouble picking one. Am spoilt for choice and also, I want to set the right tone. I definitely have my favourites and that's probably because they stand out from the ones about cats or native plants or snow storms. (Oh trust me - the adult writers have just the same tendencies).

However, the overbearing committee is always on my mind, so self-censoring as I go and not even bothering with some I'd really like to use.

your delirious womb

When you come to me without telling me

Wake up so I can hate you.

I think I'm gonna go with " clinging to its slippery self " in the end. I quite like that. I'm trying to find ones that work as stand-alone lines and perhaps say someting about poetry in general. For the Junior Haiku section I've chosen " Looting from flowers " which is lovely on so many levels and comes from a really great lil poem comparing bees to helicopters.

The book is called tiny gaps and I can't mentioned it without saying what a hero the Bartlett has been over the last fortnight. Its going to be launched on the 18th November, more details closer to the date - when I am feeling less frazzled by it all.