Get Your Premium Membership
Suzette Richards
(Click for Poet Info...)

Mission statement: I don’t use AI to generate or even tweak my poetry, because I am a better poet than it.

 

Poetry has been my passion since my retirement from an accountancy based career a dozen years ago. I currently live in South Africa and this rainbow nation has inspired many of my poems. I also have British nationality and embrace their grammar and spelling, but I read widely and am not fazed by strict grammar rules: A pavement/sidewalk; glasses/eyeglasses; judgement/judgment, et cetera; they are one and the same to me when I read poetry. To date, I have self-published a number of books, including the poetry anthology by international poets, © Time, 2014 ISBN 978-0-620-60578-6, and have been cited in many international publications, both poetry journals, as well as in scholarly handbooks. Some of my short stories have been published in international electronic publications, and one of my novellas had been short-listed for an Afrikaans SA publication.

I serve on the Board of Advisers, of Taleemi Baithak.

I have a number (14 to date) poetic forms to my credit, notably, Suzette Prime, 2012 (listed here on PoetrySoup under Types of Poems), as well as The Tesla 3-6-9, 2017, and Suzcrostic, 2021 (listed under New Poetic Forms here on PoetrySoup), Suzette sonnet (Suznet), 2023 - introduced via an article here at PoetrySoup, as well as the brand new Suzette Swan Arc, 3  April 2025. These all resist AI imitation.

My most recent books which include examples of my poetry as well as notes regarding poetry - available directly from me:

  1. © The Eutony of Words, 2018 ISBN 978-0-6399382-0-2
  2. © Docendo discimus, 2021 (Revised 2023) ISBN 978-0-620-95432-7
  3. © Flight of Thoughts, 2023 ISBN 978-0-6397-8880-7
  4. © Downtown - Poetic Devices, 2023 ISBN 978-0-7961-1968-1
  5.  © Rocking Poetry, 2033 ISBN 978-0-7961-2824-9
  6. NEW: moonwake - Suzette Prime poetry, ISBN 978-1-0370-1836-7(PDF). It is a collection of 61 Suzette Prime poetry spanning from 2012 (when I designed the poetic form), up till now.

Poison - an analogy

Blog Posted by Suzette Richards: 1/12/2025 11:08:00 PM

I had a harrowing experience this weekend. Saturday, when I returned from the mall with my weekly shopping, I had, what I thought, was a panic attack: felt dizzy, nauseous, racing heart, and struggled to breath. It was the first time that I had ventured outside my premises on foot after The Incident. I put it down to the incident on New Year’s Eve when I was mugged and robbed of my bottle champagne and salad ingredients mere steps from the safety of the security gate to my property. That afternoon, I was on foot as the shopping centre is a mere kilometre from my place. The perpetrator was identified by a kindly neighbour who had given chase and the police was notified. I am not holding my breath that anything will come of it.

Back to this weekend: My dog started coughing on Saturday and dry wretched the whole weekend. When my immediate neighbour returned late Sunday evening, I was outside with the dog for a bit of fresh air after being cooped up inside due to the inclement weather. At least the rain the past week had broken the drought, but all things creepy crawly had multiplied exponentially. As he opened his front door, I could smell the telltale stale odour of Room Fogger.

I am highly sensitive to anything poison – even if the label says that it is safe for pets! The units where I stay share a common roofs space (a building error as it is supposed to have a firebreak between each, extending into the roof area). He had his fan extractor on the whole weekend to circulate the poison fumes in his flat, but in the process, it seeped into my unit as well. There is no point in complaining about it as he has the right to manage his unit as he sees fit. He had a valid reason for using the poison – it is not his fault that I am sensitive to all things poison.

There is an analogy here with free speech …



Please Login to post a comment

Please stay on topic with your comments. Off topics comments may be removed. Thanks.



Characters Remaining:
Type the characters you see
CAPTCHA
Change the CAPTCHA codeSpeak the CAPTCHA code
 

Date: 1/14/2025 9:43:00 PM
Dear suzette, thats awful, and must be so terrifying, i remember my twin sister got car jacked once in malaysia and was so scary, and traumatizing, for a very long time. I hope you and your dog are doing fine and are ok. I feel for you: Sending you light always.
Login to Reply
Richards Avatar
Suzette Richards
Date: 1/15/2025 5:41:00 AM
Bless you, thank you, Ink.
Date: 1/13/2025 9:29:00 PM
Suzette, how awful to get mugged, that must have been so scary, and to have to worry about your pet being poisoned. They were spraying in my building once and I asked if it was poison for cats and they said best the cat is not there for 24 hours, so me and Snuggles (RIP) went to a hotel for the 24 hours, it was like a mini vacation, huge bed, huge tv, nice window view for the cat, plenty of snacks for me, (Gosh I miss Snuggles)
Login to Reply
Richards Avatar
Suzette Richards
Date: 1/13/2025 9:35:00 PM
Our pets are dear to us. I would like t give the neighbour the benefit of the doubt - I hope that it was not intentional.
Date: 1/13/2025 9:33:00 AM
wow, what a weekend. I've had ones like that too! Not too sure on your analogy. We can write how we want even if it's offensive to some? Sorry, I don't catch on to hidden meanings all the time!
Login to Reply
Dietrich Avatar
Andrea Dietrich
Date: 1/13/2025 6:41:00 PM
Ok I get that now.
Richards Avatar
Suzette Richards
Date: 1/13/2025 9:37:00 AM
The analogy means to me that some people seems to get away with stuff, even if it is detrimental to others - the onus seems to rest on the latter to complain, and it is not always effective to bring about change.
Date: 1/13/2025 8:00:00 AM
Wow! Hope you are feeling much better (and your dog too). How does one get away with such bad building and management! Doesn’t seem that anyone in a shared building should be piping out poison! Freedom involves responsibility. Freedom, obtained for all, holds to high standards. Hope things get much better. Sorry that you’ve been through all this!!
Login to Reply
Richards Avatar
Suzette Richards
Date: 1/13/2025 9:39:00 AM
Thank you, Kim, we are feeling better. I agree: Freedom should imply responsibility.

Previous Blogs

 
Go Fish - A Book Prize
Date Posted: 7/30/2025 1:37:00 AM
Mathematics, Poetry, and Trust Issues
Date Posted: 7/26/2025 2:10:00 AM
A Fascinating Cultural Tension
Date Posted: 7/20/2025 1:20:00 AM
Blasphemy
Date Posted: 7/14/2025 8:12:00 PM
A Gentle Nudge is not a Critique
Date Posted: 7/13/2025 3:17:00 AM
Tonal Slippage – The Ins and Outs
Date Posted: 6/30/2025 4:45:00 AM
THE AI-BRAIN SYNDROME SYMPTOMS
Date Posted: 6/26/2025 3:09:00 AM
JUDGING GUIDE FOR SPONSORS
Date Posted: 6/20/2025 1:10:00 AM
Suzette Swan Arc - Contest Finale
Date Posted: 6/14/2025 12:12:00 AM
Suzette Swan Arc and AI with Examples
Date Posted: 5/25/2025 6:00:00 AM
Lost in Translation
Date Posted: 5/21/2025 3:17:00 AM
Elements of Nature - Suzette Swan Arc Poetry
Date Posted: 5/14/2025 11:20:00 PM
Klein’s Vase Verse - A New Poetic Form Freer than Free Verse
Date Posted: 5/7/2025 12:54:00 PM
Free Verse – How Free is It?
Date Posted: 4/26/2025 11:37:00 PM
Gender Influences on Contests
Date Posted: 4/20/2025 2:54:00 AM
Memento on the Moon
Date Posted: 4/9/2025 12:26:00 AM
Tariffs on Penguins Limerick
Date Posted: 4/4/2025 7:02:00 AM
Light or Shadows
Date Posted: 3/25/2025 1:55:00 PM
Blood Moon Eclipse - Light or Shadows
Date Posted: 3/11/2025 12:46:00 AM
A Timely Intervention
Date Posted: 3/2/2025 12:42:00 PM
On a more serious note
Date Posted: 2/23/2025 5:40:00 AM
Weekend Wacky Limericks
Date Posted: 2/22/2025 3:34:00 AM
Saints and poets maybe – The Bride Trilogy challenge
Date Posted: 2/14/2025 12:37:00 AM
Saints and poets maybe
Date Posted: 2/9/2025 4:24:00 AM
According to the poem’s meter is stressed
Date Posted: 1/25/2025 9:53:00 PM

My Photos



Book: Reflection on the Important Things