If I was to ask you to write down all your skills you’d run
out of paper for sure. We’ve all acquired so many skills in life that we take
most of them for granted. I’ve had two email chats this week that have made me
think about my skills. The first was about writing poetry. Sue from PoetrySpace Competition asked if I could write a post for her blog about my approach
to poetry writing.
“Yes, no problem,” I said and I picked up my pen but I couldn’t
find the words to describe it. Of course, I managed to find some words in the
end. I rarely am completely lost for words. [“That’s true!” says Mr A as he walks past my
desk.] The resulting article is here. I’d love to know if you approach your
poetry-writing in the same way.
The second chat was with Sarah from Empty White Pages. I’d commented
on her blog that a song she’d featured in last week’s post has satisfying guitar
chord changes. Sarah was surprised.
“You play guitar?” she said. “I never knew.”
“I’ll blog about it,” I said and we both agreed that it’s
fascinating to find out about other things that bloggers can do so…
I learnt to play the classical guitar as a child and moved
on to acoustic in my teens. I dabbled with the harmonica and for a short time
was an oboist in the school orchestra. I rarely play the guitar these days. My
once hardened finger ends have gone all soft and soppy and it hurts too much. I
prefer to sit at the piano where I can just about plonk out a tune. Oh yes, and
I also have a bodhran drum, a leaving gift from one of my teaching jobs, but
drumming is a skill that I’ve never quite mastered, although I can make the most
thunderous racket with it… especially when I’m stressed!
What skills have you got hiding under your bushel?
