Saturday 30 April 2016

Don't miss it!

We're gearing up here for the annual Cheltenham Poetry Festival, running this year from May 6th - 15th. Do look at the website to see what's going on; there's a tremendous variety of events - some great poets reading, five workshops. poetry cinema and lots more.

I shall be reading with my Picaresque colleague Penny Howarth at Carrie Etter's event on Saturday May 14th at 8pm at the Wilson Museum and Art Gallery - the ideal venue as Penny and I will be reading some poems from "Poetry Amongst The Paintings", the pamphlet inspired by the Wilson's collections. All the ticket details are on the website but many of the events are selling fast, so don't miss out, book to join us now!

Friday 22 April 2016

Walks to work from

After a disappointing weekend (the "Writing About The Past" course not coming up to expectations), two lovely days over the border walking with my husband and the dog. And plenty of inspiration there! On Wednesday we climbed Skirrid Fawr, the last outcrop of the Black Mountains. The area abounds with myth and legend, the most striking of which is the story of how the mountain got its name. In Welsh the mountain is called "Ysgyryd Fawr" - the shivered mountain. The gospels tell how, after the cruxifiction, "darkness fell upon the land" - and in far away Wales, the mountain shivered and shook, part of it sliding downhill to form Skirrid Fach (Little Skirrid). Thus the earth on the mountain was considered holy and especially fertile; it used to be scattered on fields, on coffins and on church foundations. Pilgrimages would be made to the summit. Definitely a poem in that to go with my Celtic myths project!

Skirrid Fawr

Then a very different walk yesterday - exploring the area around the Whitebrook, a hive of industrial activity in the Victorian era, now a tranquil, wooded valley with all the scars erased. Or are they? Perhaps no longer scars, and well hidden amongst the trees and shrubs, suddenly you come across the ruined remains of an old mill, the contours of ancient quarrying. So many stories buried beneath the bluebells and anemones that carpet the woods there today - an interesting challenge to resurrect and tell some perhaps.

What stories could it tell?





Thursday 14 April 2016

Rather pushed for time!

I must admit to struggling a little with NaPoWriMo this time. For a variety of reasons life is extremely busy just now. I'm very glad I haven't committed to putting my daily poems on the blog! Some may see the light of day eventually but they are in a very rudimentary form in my notebook at present ... Still, at least they're there.

Tomorrow I'm off to the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester for a Relax and Write weekend course on writing about the past. It looks as if it should be really interesting and it certainly has direct relevance to the major project I'm undertaking at the moment. Talking about writing about the past - I'm currently reading "Portrait of Orkney" by the wonderful Scottish poet the late George Mackay Brown. It's a fascinating account of the heritage and islands from which he came - some poetry, mainly prose, but prose that is so poetic in nature there's really no divide. A lovely book to read.

Thursday 7 April 2016

Interesting evenings

We're well into NaPoWriMo now - but it's proving a time to listen and to read a lot of poetry as well as to write it. As it should be, of course - I don't think you can hope to write without being an avid reader too, taking every chance to widen your own knowledge and understanding of the art. And the past week has provided some great opportunities to do so - at New Bohemians last Friday, Buzzwords on Sunday and at a tremendous reading on Monday at the Suffolk Anthology bookshop here in Cheltenham.

Two American poets, Katherine E. Young and Rose Solari, had been in the UK for the Oxford Literary Festival. Their reading, "Wayfaring Strangers: Identity Beyond Borders", gave fascinating insights into two different approaches. The two women are obviously very used to reading together and complimented each other beautifully. Rose read from her third collection "The Last Girl"; I found her poems, several of which related to family, very moving. Katherine - a translator by background - read some of her own poems from "Day Of The Border Guards" but also a couple of her translations from Russian poets. I'm not overly familiar with Russian history and culture but her poems, and the stories behind them, have certainly whetted my appetite - lots to follow up there!

Rose and Katherine