Something More poetry booklet

I compliled the Something More poetry booklet in 2012. I remember 2012 as being a good year, my dad was still alive and we travelled to Edinburgh and Cornwall with him. My parents celebrated their 50th Golden Wedding Anniversary. London was in celebratory mood with the Olympics. The voluntary olympic embassadors were fantastic and there was a lot of comforting pink and purple everywhere. The years before 2012 were quite difficult and after it were deaths and losses. Something More is full of light verse written by me and light, childish pictures drawn by Amy, which were also on their way out in 2012.

Still Life poetry booklet

Still Life is my second ALF poetry booklet. It consists of my three poetry collections on WattPad. Teenage Troubles features a selection of poetry I wrote as a teenager and includes Dave was a Caveman, a poetry competition runner up, and the Antique Junk Shop, which is now also a YouTube video. An Anatomy of Love features romantic poetry I have written over the years on different aspects of relationships from Valentine's Day to Anything but Love. All Grown Up is about specifically an adult view of the world including expanded older poems Crossing the Bridge and Opening the Door. The poetry booklet also features drawings by myself and my daughter some of which can be found on our Pinterest pages here. The three collections of poetry can be found on my WattPad pages here. Below is a collection of poetry books produced by ALF Creations, which I sell on our craft stall.

SubVerse Writers

It has been ten years since I hammered the final nail into the coffin of my poetry group. 'SubVerse Writers' was the child of Web One, mostly active from 2000 to 2006, although we didn't do much in 2005 and I wound everything up in 2006. We had an old fashioned website and were on newsgroups and the IRC. We met once a month on a Saturday in a cafe in central London, men and women of all backgrounds and ages came to discuss 'the poetry of surrender', to share our verse and our feelings. We ran workshops and exhibitions, gave talks and recitals, produced books and other paraphernalia. I always felt that external forces were acting against us and it had to come to an end, which it did, however I am glad it existed, I felt it was mostly good while it lasted. I thought I would share one of my favourite poems from that era with my blog, it's called 'Malleable'.

Valentine's Day

I wrote this poem when I was a teenager. Much has happened since then, mostly surrounding marriage, mortgage and motherhood, but also music, other creative endeavours and my degree and 25 years working in libraries. However Valentine's Day has continued to be a small source of disappointment for me, so these days I spend it at home with my family, rather than on any great romantic quest.

Lorna on Wattpad

I joined Wattpad three months ago, but I remember at the time not being able to fathom it out very well. I was looking for a place to put my creative writing and my daughter's friend said she put writing up on Wattpad, so I felt this might be the place to aim for. Looking at the site anew it seemed to make a bit more sense and so I decided to take the plunge and upload one of my flash fiction pieces, it's called 'The Watering Hole' and you can find it here.

The Temps

Before I had my daughter I was always doing evening classes; tap dancing, French, computer networking, yoga, all sorts. One class I attended was the WEA writing course in Northwood Hills, while there I managed to get one of my poems published in a Katabasis volume entitled 'Work'. The poem is called 'The Temps'. I was on a fixed term contract when I wrote it, but am now in a permanent post and much happier in my work.

The Temps by Lorna Finnigan

This place is like a railway station

So many people come and go

Some you vaguely recognise

Some you barely know

I suppose it's to remind us all

Just how brief our lives will be

It makes you feel quite desolate

Temporarily