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A week in poetry
Aug. 23rd, 2009 09:31 amI’m at my mother’s house at the moment, taking a break from Northampton and all its stresses! Actually, it was the last chance to see my mom before my birthday next week as she’s off to France (I wish I was going with her!) and I’ve given my little sister a hand moving into her gorgeous new flat – it is so lovely I am brimming with jealousy!
Last week I went to the Umbrella Fair. It was amazing to see the Racecourse so transformed: there were marquees a plenty, numerous stages, stalls, a bazaar, hand-powered rides, bike doctor, relaxation tent, art show... it was a proper festival and then some!
I spent most of my time in the spoken word yurt – it was a lovely space, lots of cushions incense and trailing ivy... I did a couple of poems at lunchtime and got all the kids present to draw me a picture of their favourite animal which I promised to put into a poem for them by my inauguration at 4 o’clock. As the festival was to promote green awareness the poem would have a green theme. I managed it and read it after my inauguration – I’ll pop it on here later.
The inauguration was basically me promising to take on the role of being bard and accepting all that entails. The ceremony was led by Justin Thyme who with JimTom and John Morrissey had envisioned the whole bardic competition and was observed by a local councillor. Then I did a short set, which went down well though I realised I was having to censor/reject some of my chosen poems to suit the age-level of some of the audience – I had no idea I was so crude!
Okay, well I might have.
As dusk turned to night, we had stories and soft music while the noise of the main bands got louder on the other stage. Our lights got switched off as the power of the generators was diverted over there, so the stories turned to spookier themes, though t was still reasonably early when Neil and I left in search of some painkillers for his ribs (still quite painful from his crowd-surfing accident).
My next poetry outing was on Wednesday when I went to the Raising of the Arwen – unfortunately this clashes with the Science Fiction Writers Group meetings, but as Bard I thought I should go to the poetry night, really.
The Raising of the Arwen is a mini-performance/sharing night, but in a friendly setting to encourage people on their first steps to performance – cool idea. The room itself was not so cool as it was one of the hottest nights of the year so far and there were a lot of people in a little room – it was sweltering!
I tried out a couple of poems including one I wrote as a snapshot poem of St. Nectan’s: the idea of a snapshot poem is you make notes as you walk somewhere of your impressions, then later you write a short poem that will give you an idea of the place, like a snapshot photo. I wrote about one of the ruined houses – abandoned probably because they were in a place that was too difficult for installing electricity:
Connected on a circuit:
St. Piran
St. Mildred
St. Mabyn
St. Nectan
The mud here runs like solder
under banks of golden fern,
where roots have pushed,
left all exposed: the brick, tin bath and broken shale.
The air, it tastes of water, burned.
How thick the plaster was here once,
now cracked and over-spilled with ivy wires.
And all is pulled. As iron pulls. As nature pulls;
towards the rushing stream that cracks and roars
until, with all its energy,
the house is earthed.
Which, you know is a bit quick, but it kind of works and that’s the main thing.
The rest of the week I have been writing (and wishing, and hoping...) as all this being a bard stuff has renewed an energy in me to actually write stuff, have confidence in it, and bloomin’ well submit it places. I just don’t send stuff off most of the time. Silly, really. With comedy though, it’s like the same bit of writing is on trial with different reading groups and if you’re prepared to accept those immediate and varied responses, the brown envelope of doom should be a piece of cake – that’s what I think at the moment anyway.
Hope the embed-media thing has worked - it is a promo video for one of the last books I copy-edited - a fab film made by Mr. Andy Remic himself!
Last week I went to the Umbrella Fair. It was amazing to see the Racecourse so transformed: there were marquees a plenty, numerous stages, stalls, a bazaar, hand-powered rides, bike doctor, relaxation tent, art show... it was a proper festival and then some!
I spent most of my time in the spoken word yurt – it was a lovely space, lots of cushions incense and trailing ivy... I did a couple of poems at lunchtime and got all the kids present to draw me a picture of their favourite animal which I promised to put into a poem for them by my inauguration at 4 o’clock. As the festival was to promote green awareness the poem would have a green theme. I managed it and read it after my inauguration – I’ll pop it on here later.
The inauguration was basically me promising to take on the role of being bard and accepting all that entails. The ceremony was led by Justin Thyme who with JimTom and John Morrissey had envisioned the whole bardic competition and was observed by a local councillor. Then I did a short set, which went down well though I realised I was having to censor/reject some of my chosen poems to suit the age-level of some of the audience – I had no idea I was so crude!
Okay, well I might have.
As dusk turned to night, we had stories and soft music while the noise of the main bands got louder on the other stage. Our lights got switched off as the power of the generators was diverted over there, so the stories turned to spookier themes, though t was still reasonably early when Neil and I left in search of some painkillers for his ribs (still quite painful from his crowd-surfing accident).
My next poetry outing was on Wednesday when I went to the Raising of the Arwen – unfortunately this clashes with the Science Fiction Writers Group meetings, but as Bard I thought I should go to the poetry night, really.
The Raising of the Arwen is a mini-performance/sharing night, but in a friendly setting to encourage people on their first steps to performance – cool idea. The room itself was not so cool as it was one of the hottest nights of the year so far and there were a lot of people in a little room – it was sweltering!
I tried out a couple of poems including one I wrote as a snapshot poem of St. Nectan’s: the idea of a snapshot poem is you make notes as you walk somewhere of your impressions, then later you write a short poem that will give you an idea of the place, like a snapshot photo. I wrote about one of the ruined houses – abandoned probably because they were in a place that was too difficult for installing electricity:
Connected on a circuit:
St. Piran
St. Mildred
St. Mabyn
St. Nectan
The mud here runs like solder
under banks of golden fern,
where roots have pushed,
left all exposed: the brick, tin bath and broken shale.
The air, it tastes of water, burned.
How thick the plaster was here once,
now cracked and over-spilled with ivy wires.
And all is pulled. As iron pulls. As nature pulls;
towards the rushing stream that cracks and roars
until, with all its energy,
the house is earthed.
Which, you know is a bit quick, but it kind of works and that’s the main thing.
The rest of the week I have been writing (and wishing, and hoping...) as all this being a bard stuff has renewed an energy in me to actually write stuff, have confidence in it, and bloomin’ well submit it places. I just don’t send stuff off most of the time. Silly, really. With comedy though, it’s like the same bit of writing is on trial with different reading groups and if you’re prepared to accept those immediate and varied responses, the brown envelope of doom should be a piece of cake – that’s what I think at the moment anyway.
Hope the embed-media thing has worked - it is a promo video for one of the last books I copy-edited - a fab film made by Mr. Andy Remic himself!
