Search the Community

As an experiment in getting poetry onto every day items, I thought a set of mugs might be interesting. This was an interesting trial. I chose The Goddess of Autumn as it is the most classical style of poem I have written. The font used is Ink Journal and the image is a vector traced version of an excellent image from Pixabay. I used Artistic Text and Alignment Tools to create the staggered line layout. The emboss effect was used to add a little interest to the main text design. Here are eight JPG files of medium quality to showcase the designs.

Since we are posting poems lately, here is one I wrote about half a century ago (in my twenties). It is a Slovak translation of a famous American song. I submitted it to the CEO of the then only Slovak music publishing company. He happened to be my older brother. He liked my version but said that unfortunately the song had already been recorded in Slovak years earlier with different lyrics (obviously). I said, so what? But he insisted it would not work. Years later he told me he did get my version recorded but had to pretend it was his lyrics because by then I had fled from Communist Czechoslovakia and so the government would never allow any of my work published. Anyway, here it is as done in Affinity Designer: If I should translate it back into English, though literally from my text, I am sure you will know which song it was. I cannot give you the original for copyright reasons, but the translation of my version should be fine: Together wondering in the dark, while we are alone In the night hour, two strangers. In this quiet time, I want to love you forever. The Moon shines for us, on the path beneath the stars. No one is alone, he is always with us. His pale shine, and your soft voice, make me see clearly, that we will live always happy. Together wondering in the dark, while we are alone In the night hour, two strangers. In this quiet time, I may love you forever.

Here is my latest poem laid out. Not sure I'm happy with the layout just yet but it's not too far off. I used Affinity Photo to edit the background and Affinity Publisher to layout the poem. Neo_Liberal Work Ethic.pdf

Originally published in 1897 as A Mad Song, Wandering Aengus (or The Golden Apples of the Sun) has been popular set to music, and it's haunted my since I first learnt it in the seventies. This image is a composite of two Unsplash photos, woodland by John Westrock and girl by Dylan Nolte. Sparkles, vignette and other fiddly bits by yours truly. I went out to the hazel wood, Because a fire was in my head, And cut and peeled a hazel wand, And hooked a berry to a thread; And when white moths were on the wing, And moth-like stars were flickering out, I dropped the berry in a stream And caught a little silver trout. When I had laid it on the floor I went to blow the fire a-flame, But something rustled on the floor, And someone called me by my name: It had become a glimmering girl With apple blossom in her hair Who called me by my name and ran And faded through the brightening air. Though I am old with wandering Through hollow lands and hilly lands, I will find out where she has gone, And kiss her lips and take her hands; And walk among long dappled grass, And pluck till time and times are done, The silver apples of the moon, The golden apples of the sun. The originals (reduced):--

Here is a poem which attempts to convey some of the challenges faced by caring for someone a relative with dementia. It is an experimental layout in Affinity Publisher. I found the layer effect emboss quite useful for adding interest to the page. Particularly using the invert option to create something unexpected. Adding 3D to the text also helped the output look far more interesting. This work is copyrighted. Treasure in Darkness.pdf

Here are some layouts I created for two poems with a spider theme in Affinity Publisher ... The corner spiders were created using the Autotrace function in DrawPlus X4 from a photo I took and saved as a wmf file. I wish Publisher would support the smf file type as well. The background image was created in Corel Paint It.

Okay this is the first time I've used Affinity Publisher to layout a poem without first laying it out in PagePlus X9. It works quite well and I love the easier access to the typographical controls in Publisher. Here is my 'Dancing With the Psychotherapist' poem. Dancing With the Psycotherapist.pdf