Monday 29 June 2015

Working from a different angle

A busy weekend got off to a very good start at New Bohemians on Friday evening here at Deepspace in Cheltenham. The poet David Clarke was leading a workshop on "Poetic Form". I must say I wasn't much looking forward to an evening dissecting sonnets, villanelles etc. so his approach - that of using novel forms to stimulate creativity - was most welcome. After a brief discussion of the Oulipo (about whom I knew nothing - do look them up if you're in the same boat!) and an introduction through some very different types of poems, we launched into a few very interesting exercises. For example, David presented us with five poems in quite obscure languages - with which none of us were familiar - to be "translated" to the best of our understanding and imagination. Valiant attempts at examining rhythm, line lengths, word repetition etc. etc. yielded some impressively creative responses!

David Clarke

Thursday 25 June 2015

Swanwick, here I come!

I'm really pleased that this year I shall be free to go to the Swanwick Writers Summer School in August. For several years now I've been hearing really good reports of the week - the excellent speakers, the great choice of courses, the stimulation and excitement of meeting and working with so many other writers. I've not previously had the opportunity to go myself, but heard earlier this week that there were a few places left for this year's event so booked last night. I shall be going along with my fellow Catchword writers Richard Hensley, Pam Keevil and Susannah White; Pam has won a free place this year with an amazing children's story ("Old Stinky Feet") and Susie won the poetry competition for a place, so I shall be in elevated company!

The Hayes Conference Centre, Derbyshire

Tuesday 16 June 2015

A Writer's Paradise


Culbone Church
Tarr Steps
We have had a magical couple of days down on Exmoor. The glorious coastline, the windswept moorland - no wonder the area has generated so much wonderful writing! Coleridge is reputed to have thought out "The Ancient Mariner" here, Blackmore set his Lorna Doone amid the desolation of the Valley of Rocks and its wild surroundings - and present day writers are no less inspired by the locality.

On Sunday we climbed up through the wood from Porlock Weir to Culbone Church - the smallest (and probably the most secluded) parish church in the country. Once home to charcoal burners and vagrants, the woods were alive with rhododenrons; the church, dedicated to the Welsh abbot St. Beuno, was mentioned in the Domesday Book and the very stones seem imbued with the centuries of worship they have witnessed.

Yesterday, in warm sunshine, we visited the Tarr Steps, the clapper bridge that spans the River Barle, and walked the shady valley in the company of numerous irridiscent dragonflies, sapphire, gold and jade. A few hardy souls were swimming amongst the shoals of fish in some of the deeper pools though we decided to give that a miss! But at five locations we were delighted to find ....


"Poetry Boxes"! And, yes, they were that way up as they were attached to tree trunks. Opening the boxes, walkers find a notebook and pencil with the invitation to write a poem and to read the ones penned by earlier visitors. At the end of the summer season all the poems will be collected and exhibited in a local arts centre. What a great idea.

Tuesday 9 June 2015

Can you or can't you?

In the last year or so there has been much debate as to whether it is truly possible to teach creative writing, with august figures from the literary world weighing in on both sides. Last Saturday  I was at an event on the Fringe Festival of the University of Gloucestershire which made it abundantly clear that talent can certainly be nurtured in a supportive environment; whether the poets participating would have "made it" without their MA courses is open to conjecture, but they attribute much of their success to the time spent developing and honing their skills at the university here.

Mantie Lister
I have written about the poetry of Angela France and Anna Saunders before in this blog but two new voices for me were those of Mantie Lister and Lesley Ingram. Lesley's debut collection is based on the art of Maggie Taylor and I was struck by her seemingly effortless command of the short poem - few lines but clever wording delivering a message so succinctly. Mantie, an English teacher from Exmouth, is currently Exeter's youngest ever town bard; I can well imagine her firing up her pupils with the infectious enthusiasm she displayed, especially for the spoken word. A most enjoyable afternoon, rounded off by a reading from Nigel McLoughlin, Professor of Creativity and Poetics,  justly proud of the alumni from his department.  

Saturday 6 June 2015

Reminiscence

Over the (many!) years since leaving grammar school I've kept in touch with several old friends and in recent years we've met up annually, usually in one another's homes, for a reunion. This year we were blessed with a beautiful summer day for our get-together in Worcestershire and thoroughly enjoyed catching up on news and views, friends and families, hobbies and holidays. Someone had brought along a "rough book" (which we used to use for classroom working) from our very first term in 1960 and that started a stream of reminiscence.

Driving home afterwards my mind was still full of stories from "back in the day" - times perhaps not appreciated then but recalled with much affection now. School days are fertile ground for writing, of course - witness so many autobiographies, some, like John Betjeman's, in poetic form. A particular instance that I remember well was our "Valedictory", the end of year service to say farewell to leavers, held in the beautiful surroundings of Worcester Cathedral ...

Cathedral Church of Christ and Blessed Mary the Virgin of Worcester

Valediction

Generations have knelt in these pews before us,
outgrowing blazers, boaters, summer dresses,
an evening sun streaming valediction 
through stained glass, pouring benediction 
on their final days.

Did they too give little ear
to the Dean's earnest exhortation,
little thought to the familiar prayers? 
Were they, like us,
too impatient to leave,
too desperate to live?

(Copyright Gill Garrett 2015)

Monday 1 June 2015

Poetry and the family

Angela France


A good evening on Tuesday at Writers in the Brewery in Cirencester, now in the cafe rather than the theatre, which has rather more comfortable seats! A great improvement. The guest reader this month was Angela France, who teaches poetry at the University of Gloucestershire and also runs Buzzwords, the monthly poetry evening at the Exmouth Arms here in Cheltenham. A lot of her poetry centres on her family history but takes a universal perspective on it and her comments certainly inspired me to start thinking more broadly around the issues brought up in my own family research and writing.

Much of my reading this week has been of poetry suitable for funerals and thanksgiving services as we prepare to say our goodbyes to a much loved family member. Especially in his later years, family became everything to him and I think the poem I have chosen to read at his funeral reflects that. It was written by Leo Marks, who was not actually a poet but was responsible for agents dropped into occupied territories in the Second World War as part of the Special Operations Executive. The poem was used in broadcasts to resistance movements and is sometimes referred to as "Code Poem For The French Resistance".

The Life That I Have

The life that I have
is all that I have,
and the life that I have
is yours.

The love that I have
of the life that I have
is yours and yours and yours.

A sleep I shall have,
a rest I shall have,
yet death will be but a pause

for the peace of my years
in the long green grass
will be yours and yours and yours.

Leo Marks.

It may not be "great" poetry but what better words to express the handing on of life to children and grandchildren?