Cathedrals, castles and celandines

A lovely week in Pembrokeshire, visiting beaches and castles, walking the dog in the ancient woodland on our doorstep and relishing the beautifully colourful spring hedgerows alive with wild daffodils, primroses, early violets and - my childhood favourites - celandines. No wonder the area inspires so much poetry - a good selection of which can be found in "The Poetry of Pembrokeshire" edited by Tony Curtis (Seren 1989),with poems dating from the seventh century up to the late 20th. One I particularly like is by A. G. Prys-Jones.

 "St. David's Cathedral" 

"Austerely beautiful it stands

In this green-bastioned glen,

The jewel of the fabled Western land

Beyond the haunts of men ..."

Our visit there last Friday, paying due homage at St. David's Shrine, was certainly atmospheric. I also felt very inspired to write by our visit to Carew Castle - home to some amazing stories, including one about the bad-tempered custodian killed by his pet Barbary ape and another about the sacking of the castle and the capture of Princess Nest, a not unwilling victim and a very adventurous lady who eventually gave birth to 21 children!

A fertile ground for inspiration!

World Poetry Day

Tomorrow is World Poetry Day. However, tomorrow I won't be blogging but, hopefully, on my way to a remote cottage in deep woods in Pembrokeshire for a week's break. I've got several novels loaded on my Kindle and a couple of poetry books ready to come too - I'm planning on a restful few days with the time for reading I rarely get at home!

But, as I chose the poetry books to take with me, it occured to me that I'm probably more than a bit parochial in my choice. Nearly all the poetry I read is British or North American; I must be missing an awful lot of interesting writing from further afield, from which I could learn a great deal. I can't think that I've read any African poets, or many South American ones. I've read some Japanese works - mainly in the haiku tradition - but nothing else from Asia. So I'm resolving when I get back to look more widely on the poetry shelves and try to get a more global perspective.

The Poet

They say the poet

unties a boat on a lake,

rows it from one world to another.

They do not tell

how she must learn oarsmanship,

get the feel of wind and water,

how she loses a paddle midstream,

circles wildly.

They make no mention

of wash from larger vessels,

unnerving and distracting,

of taking on water,

of baling out a fragile craft,

or righting it in stormy weather.

No, only the poet knows

the slack water, tangled weed,

the stagnant pools and devious currents,

the unseen rapids

between casting off

and coming safe to land.

(Copyright Gill Garrett 2014)

Out And About

There's more than enough to be getting on with here at the desk, but it's been another busy couple of days out and about - working with Rona Laycock to prepare two radio broadcasts on Life Writing, attending a workshop on Documentary Poetics and helping to host a coffee morning for Gloucestershire writers - a great opportunity to catch up with other writers in the county and to find out what everyone is up to. I'm sure other counties are equally productive but I'm always amazed at the  variety and amount of writing going on in the area! There does seem to be a definite literary buzz in the air here - perhaps it's stimulated by the heritage - Laurie Lee, the Dymock poets etc.

I was interested to find out more about Documentary Poetics. The workshop was run by Andrea Brady, professor of poetry at Queen Mary's, London University. Fourteen of us met at the Richard Jeffries Museum in Swindon to look at the plethora of poetry opportunities afforded by the use of "documents" - written sources as disparate as newspaper clippings, diaries, birth certificates, inquest reports. My own interest of course was mainly around family history certification and memorabilia and the session has certainly sparked some new ideas on that front.

Andrea Brady

"The Carter Chronicles"

My great grandfather, Thomas Carter,
and the ancestral home!

Three chapters in to the first draft of "The Carter Chronicles" (the working title for the first part of my family history) I realise that the research I thought complete is actually nowhere near! To put a lot of the action into context, I need to include much more background social history - so it's back to the drawing board before I can make too much more progress. I need to make haste slowly on this, to do proper justice to my predecessors of the last two hundred years.

Last night I finished reading "Just Me" by Sheila Hancock, a book which uses social history and discussion of her own exploration of it to great effect. I have always admired her acting ability but have only recently come across her writing - the fictional "Miss Carter's War" to start with, and now her autobiographical books. They are written in such a way as to concentrate of her ordinary, everyday life over the years rather than her celebrity - the ups and downs of family life, the grim reality of living through the second world war as a child - and she is candid in her discussion of her principles, her prejudices and what it took to shake them. Thoroughly enjoyable, and quite enlightening, reading.

Picaresque celebrate International Women's Day

A day early perhaps, but a great way to celebrate International Women's Day. On Saturday our Picaresque troupe had a wonderful morning at the Wilson Art Gallery and Museum, reading poems inspired by works in their collections as part of the preview weekend for the forthcoming Cheltenham Poetry Festival. We had a very appreciative audience, for whom it was a pleasure to read - we even had the People's Poet, John Hegley, amongst them, an honour indeed! As was the headline in the local newspaper "Festival's best showcased in preview event" - something to live up to there!

Cream Teas and Romantic Poets

What better way to spend a spring afternoon (yes - spring does appear to have sprung!) than to have a cream tea at a Elizabethan manor house and listen to expert readers recalling the best of some of our Romantic poets. This weekend sees the Preview for the Cheltenham Poetry Festival and events got underway with the Festival Players - Kathryn Alderman, Frances March, Robin Gilbert Taylor and Peter Wyton - holding their audience spellbound with favourites such as Byron's "She Walks In Beauty" and Shelley's "Ozymandias" along with other lesser known poets and poems to whet the appetite for more. It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon that was sold out almost as soon as the booking opened. There will be a repeat performance though, on March 16th, and reservations can be made with the Greenway Hotel in Shurdington (01242 862352) - well worth going if you're free.

The Festival Players

Dewi Sant

My father, an ardent Welshman, was always mortified if we didn't have daffodils flowering in the garden for Dewi Sant (or St. David's Day, for the uninitiated!). This year we haven't any out in our own garden yet but my daughter has one or two, pictured above, and this afternoon we were visiting a relative in a residential home in Chepstow where the lounge was alive with great bunches of them. Combined with Welsh cakes for tea, it was a fitting celebration!

An interesting few days to round off the week. On Thursday evening members of my writing group Catchword were the guests at Writers in the Brewery in Cirencester, reading a variety of poetry and prose, as well as a short piece of drama for voices, to a very receptive audience. On Friday afternoon. Rona Laycock and I recorded a programme entitled "Poets Talking" for Corinium Radio, to be broadcast this coming week. I was looking at the sources of inspiration for my poetry and Rona was talking about the background to some of her poems, written during her years abroad in countries such as Pakistan and Egypt at times of great national upheaval, including the assassinations of Benazir Bhutto and Anwar Sadat. Several of them are on her CD "Borderlands" - a fascinating collection to listen to if you should get the chance.