I am delighted to be leading a poetry workshop on Tuesday 15th October,
11am to 12.30 pm, as part of this Elders Programme, created at Storyhouse
Chester. ...
Monday 29 October 2018
Algebra of Owls
Algebra of Owls is one of the best webzines around, so I'm especially pleased to have a new poem there today (see this link). Of course, the term "new" is often relative, as is the case with this piece. I wrote a first draft some twenty years ago and it's gone through at least a dozen versions since then before finally coming together a few months ago. All that effort for so few words...
Saturday 27 October 2018
Recipes and poems
While thinking about my event at Poetry in Aldeburgh next weekend (where I'll be reading poems with a gastronomic and oenological slant) I was reminded how recipes resemble poems. Once you show them to other people, they cease to be yours and take on new interpretations.
Sunday 21 October 2018
Opening the floodgates, S.A. Leavesley's How to Grow Matches
When reviewing, it’s usually wise to
avoid invoking a metaphor or an image that might draw attention away from the
poet and towards the critic. Any such flashiness invites accusations of
selfishness and flashiness, because a review should be about the book in
question, not about the reviewer.
However, there are a few cases where
an exception is justified, where a metaphor can enlighten and illustrate. S.A.
Leavesley’s pamphlet, How to Grow Matches
(Against the Grain Poetry Press, 2018), is a good example: each piece finds her
opening the floodgates at a precise moment, her delicately controlled releases
of anger bringing about effects many miles downstream.
One such instance occurs in the
closing stanza to ’Her Cumuli Collector’:
“…The day he left, not a single wisp
of white
or grey against the bright blue sky.
But it rained non-stop inside her:
heavy,
pounding – the rain of dark angels.”
These lines demonstrate Leavesley’s knowledge
of language’s nuts and bolts, of how to subvert them to effect, as she removes
the main verb from her first sentence, thus unsettling the reader, before
homing in on her clashing, conflicting final image. Moreover, her line break
between “heavy” and “pounding” exacerbates that very sensation.
How
to Grow Matches uses the challenging of linguistic
convention to ramp up its implicit conflicts, as in the final lines of ’Bowl
of oranges: a still life’…
“…She pinches her mouth closed,
tightens her heart muscle to a fist,
hands her husband a fresh orange.”
The pivotal word here is “closed”.
It’s unexpected and casts a new, more powerful light on the verb that precedes
it.
Anger often implies and involves the
loss of control, but S.A. Leavesley shows that its impact is actually far
greater when used with a deft touch. How
to Grow Matches is an excellent pamphlet from a new press that deserves to
find a spot at the top table of U.K. poetry pamphlet publishing. I’ll be
keeping a close eye on its development.
Monday 8 October 2018
Tickets for Poetry in Aldeburgh
With little more than three weeks to go, tickets for Poetry in Aldeburgh are selling fast. A quick look at their website (see here) tells you that several of the workshops have already sold out, although seats are still available for all the readings.
As for my own event, it's titled "Poetry of Food and Cooking", and will take place in the Peter Pears Gallery on Sunday 4th November at 1 p.m.. Helena Nelson will be introducing Alison Brackenbury, Rosie Sheppard and myself, and there's also sure to be a drop of free Spanish wine on show, maybe even from deepest Extremadura.
The build-up to the festival is an exciting time: I've already got tickets for several events apart from mine, and I'm now weighing up whether to fill up my timetable even more or leave some gaps to relish the people and place as well as the poetry itself...
As for my own event, it's titled "Poetry of Food and Cooking", and will take place in the Peter Pears Gallery on Sunday 4th November at 1 p.m.. Helena Nelson will be introducing Alison Brackenbury, Rosie Sheppard and myself, and there's also sure to be a drop of free Spanish wine on show, maybe even from deepest Extremadura.
The build-up to the festival is an exciting time: I've already got tickets for several events apart from mine, and I'm now weighing up whether to fill up my timetable even more or leave some gaps to relish the people and place as well as the poetry itself...
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