End of August Review

August was a magical month with lots of engaging events and writing completed.

I am currently working on two written projects: my first pamphlet and continue to edit and adjust this collection and a collection of Caldmore Gardens Poetry, we are hoping to achieve a grant to publish our poems from David Calcutt’s Poet Residency.

I had the summer off from the day job, which meant no income – but I had the joy of being a full time Poet for two months.

Over the summer there were;

5 workshops

3 performance events

11 Open Mics

1 Headline gig

7 submissions

Approached to perform at a Book Launch

My first trip to The Poetry Café, my second performance in London

My first time exploring the British Library

Application and acceptance for a one off Poetry Event to be held in October

and plenty of missed events due to lack of energy and transport/funds.

Two anthologies published with my poetry in them – Schooldays, Paper Swans Press and Birmingham Bound, Book Club

 The British Library

WEEK 1

I booked tickets for Angela France’s workshop in Stratford-Upon-Avon, for Swingerella’s Wrecking Ball Tour, which toured to Edinburgh Festival and is back in Birmingham in September and John Hegley’s workshop in Ludlow that I have been looking forward to since March!

Claire Walker has her first pamphlet coming out with V Press in October and asked me to read at her Book Launch for ‘The Girl who Turned into a Crocodile’, I was delighted to accept.

I went to Stirchley Speaks to perform and support Myfanwy Fox in her headline slot, it was a lovely evening and I was able to enjoy poetry from people I have either never heard or only recently discovered. Holly Daffurn is a wonderful local poet and I cannot believe I have only just discovered her work. It was great to hear Joe Cook again too.

I had several writing days before my trip down to London and the Paper Swans book launch at The Poetry Café. I have been working on my own manuscript for a while now and also have embarked on a collaboration which hopefully (depending on funding) will result in a book. I finished my 2nd notebook of poetry over the summer and have been delighting in filling my next notebook. These notebooks get smaller every time, as once the poems are glued in they soon get heavy and cumbersome to use on stage – the other way around that issue is to recite off by heart and I am delighted to have several sets I can do just that with. I still have a long way to go to have 3 hours worth of material swimming around like Candy Royalle! It is very handy if and when I am put on the spot to perform though.

LONDON was AMAZING! https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/the-poetry-cafe-schooldays-anthology-book-launch-paper-swans-press/

WEEK 2

I enjoyed a writing working facilitated by Claire Walker (who I am delighted to find out plans to do more). https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/avoncroft-writing-workshop-with-claire-walker/

Headlined alongside Sophie Sparham & Carl Sealeaf at HOWL. https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/howl-headlining-the-sun-at-the-station/

I made it to a KAF (Kidderminster Arts Festival) event eventually! It was also my brother’s birthday, so I had driven in the opposite direction, wolfed down a meal, celebrated with family and then rushed off to the event. Blair Dunlop and Liz Berry performed in the amazing space of St. George’s Church, it was a splendid event. I enjoyed meeting them both and sadly forgot to take my copy of Black Country to get signed as I rushed out with my brother’s birthday bits instead.

http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/editions/birmingham-roller/9780701188573 You can BUY your copy here.

We had a great Stanza meeting.

I had planned to go and perform at the Oxford book launch with Paper Swans, however WLF created an event that clashed which involved writing poetry for a National Poetry Day competition and after all my busy travelling in London and Buckinghamshire I fancied staying closer to home. Also I wanted to write a poem for the NPD competition and had no idea of the wonders to be found inside Kidderminster Carpet Museum, which was open for us to find our muse and scribble away for a few hours on Saturday the 15th August.

WEEK 3

Started with my birthday (17th) that was much celebrated…. I started the festival of me at the weekend and celebrations ran for a week.

Due to these celebrations and lack of transport funds (from no income), I missed two great events in Coventry that I had planned to attend.

Fire & Dust at the Big Comfy Book Shop – which I have managed to attend just once. Reuben Woolley and Ruth Stacey were performing (19th). The following evening Antony Owen had his book launch for his new collection Margaret Thatcher’s Museum, at the Inspire Café. I was especially sad to miss this, but I know he will come and tour Birmingham at some point to promote. It is likely our paths will cross soon enough.

I was published by Nutshells & Nuggets ‘A Day at the Seaside’ one of my three Seamus Heaney poems.

I went to a special WORD UP event where they had linked with I Am Not A Silent Poet – Reuben’s website, who kindly published some of my poems earlier this year. It was different to perform this sort of material at Word Up. Alongside Reuben were the headliners Marcia Calame and Jess Davies. It was a fantastic night and a rare after party pint or two was had by a small collective. Always good to catch up with a chat, the events never give us enough time to chat and listen to/perform poetry.

I submitted one of the poems I wrote at the Arboretum workshop as part of Walsall Arts Festival.

Sunday saw my last KAF event Mouth & Music Slightly Circus, it was lovely having M&M on a Sunday afternoon, very relaxed – despite the theme, headlined by Amy Rainbow and her incredibly talented son, Merlin, on the Hula Hoops & Dave Reeves – who performed an incredible set with Heather Wastie. It was lots of fun and I am so glad other people dressed as CIRCUS for the event!

This event unfortunately clashed with a special summer OPUS which took place on a barge on the canals of Birmingham and looked immensely fun. Feedback I have heard was all positive and the photographs were wonderful.

WEEK 4

I caught up with more writing and editing. Applied for a poetry based commission – one off show organised by Caged Arts for Halloween and met up with Suz Winspear & Heather Wastie to organise and plan our NPD (National Poetry Day) performance. It was great to indulge in some extra time at the carpet museum, make extra notes and firm up ideas.

On Wednesday 26th I returned to Stratford-Upon-Avon for another workshop with Angela France. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and spent some spare parking time afterwards browsing the shops and leisurely walking down the river.

I found out about National Suicide Prevention Week and saw that Abegail Morley was taking submissions to be shown on the Poetry Shed for a fortnight in September. Unfortunately a few days passed before correspondence became a submission and by then she had been inundated. I love Jo Bell’s 52 Project and all spin off groups, but I have to say when it comes to open submissions it is a marathon of hundreds now hurtling towards that finish line. It was good to spend some time focusing on NSPW and writing some new poems.

I performed at 42, which is becoming ever-popular. It was another great and varied night. I shared old and new poetry.

The end of the month was meant to finish in Cannon Hill Park with a poetry picnic organised by Apple & Snakes & Bohdan Piasecki. The weather wasn’t good over on my side and I decided it would be a wash out – it wasn’t, again great photos and feedback. It had been a very busy month and I am not sure the extra journey would have done me good, although obviously seeing everybody would have been fun.

I have also decided to try and go to Edinburgh Festival (as a spectator) next summer. I have been meaning to go for about the past 20 years and this month have been following so many feeds of poet/ performer friends who were forging their way on the Fringe.

I didn’t go – I couldn’t afford it – but I did borrow a Library book set in the festival (‘a jolly murder mystery’ the cover said) it was a good read and made me feel a little closer to the action.

 LINKS AND PICTURES TO FOLLOW

WORKSHOPS

Claire Walker – Holiday themed Writing Workshop

Angela France – Journey themed Writing Workshop

OPEN MICS

Stirchley Speaks

WORD UP

Mouth & Music Slightly Circus – KAF

42

HEADLINE

Howl – Birmingham

BOOK LAUNCH / EVENTS

Schooldays Anthology Paper Swans – London

KAF Festival Liz Berry & Blair Dunlop

Museum of Carpet Open Day for NPD Poets

Stanza

Poetry Wrap 4

Poetry Wrap 4 – is bursting! It covers 3 weeks instead of just one, settle down, get comfortable and have a read!

————         ————–             ————         ————–

WEEK 2

In the 2nd week of May I had a gorgeous 3 day run of poetry events, starting with Mouth & Music on the 12th – the theme was Love in times of Revolution and I really struggled to write to this theme. One of the hardest challenges this year. In the end I managed to write 3 poems on the day all about Love and Revolution, I performed the final set of the evening and these poems performed back to back made for a moving set. I am beginning to explore form thanks to the University of Iowa and my current MOOC study; ‘How Writers Write Poetry’. It was a Pantoum for those of you who are interested.

Pantoum Structure

Written in four-line stanzas; and the second and fourth line of each stanza become the first and third of the succeeding stanza. In the last stanza, the second and fourth lines are the third and first of the first stanza; so that the opening and closing lines of the pantoum are identical. Each line is a repeton.

One expert insists that it should be both rhymed abab bcbc … zaza and that the lines be isosyllabic. This was more true of the Pantoum in French. English is a little more loosey-goosey as was the Malay version. The same expert says that there is a variation where the poem is ended with lines 1 and 3 used as repetons in reverse order as a couplet.

Copyright © 2001-2013 by Charles L. Weatherford – Source Poetrybase

The night was headlined by Roy MacFarlane – former Birmingham Poet Laureate, a favourite poet of mine and an incredibly lovely chap! It was great to catch up with him, as I hadn’t seen him since last summer. His set was moving, sexy and exciting! Music was provided by the wonderfully talented David Coughlin, who made me feel like I was away on my holidays being treated to a great gig.

The following evening I headed to Kings Heath to join in with HOWL, an event that Leon Priestnall has been running for a while now, due to work commitments and energy levels I hadn’t been able to make it over before.

Another superb evening – INCREDIBLE talent from both performers and open mic-ers. WOW! Another lovely venue and great support from the staff too.

Leon has built up an incredible reputation for both himself and this event in a relatively short period of time. Topping the night off was a lady (audience) who actually HOWLED her appreciation all through the night!

The following day I received some exciting news. I had been LONGLISTED for Worcestershire’s Poet Laureate Competition 2015-16, which I entered back in March, in secret! My interview went well and I have been shortlisted for the final (12th June) here’s a link to the full story COMING SOON

I went to SpeakEasy, where I didn’t perform but I thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

 Sarah James and Angela Topping have recently published a collaborative pamphlet called ‘Hearth’, they launched the book at Cheltenham Poetry Festival and will continue to promote it. If you get a chance go and see them and buy the book! RRP is £5, available from the poets directly or from mothersmilkbooks

Lots of talent from all the performers and the evening was finished off by the energetic performance poet Jeff Cottrill, who is from Canada. International Guest Slots going on now.

WEEK 3

Then I took a week off from performing, concentrated on working, Hay House Summit and my MOOC course with the University of Iowa. I also received some great news, another poem published in a print anthology, another book launch. LINK COMING SOON

Stanza was the last thing I did before half term.

WEEK 4

I missed Poetry Bites (sadly) as I had a 4 day run and I decided that with MOTs for the car, optician appointments and visiting relatives, I wouldn’t have an abundant amount of energy left. Maybe the meditation from last week has helped, I seemed to have sailed through.

My first performance was at Drummonds 42 where the theme was Fairies, Pixies, Witches & Warlocks. Most of wrote about the Fae folk – who have plenty of shadowy, darker elements.

I took great pleasure in working on a poem about two ceramic pixies my Great Aunty used to let me play with as a child, another poem about an online ‘Which Fairy are You?’ quiz, one about Scottish fairies and finally with so much research left over I wrote a short piece of Flash Fiction, which seemed to go down well.

All of these pieces were written at 5 AM! I woke up really early on Wednesday and couldn’t sleep, I had originally factored in plans to do three things before the evening’s 42. I decided I may as well get my set ready and spent the best part of 3 hours creating it. I had planned on going back to bed, but this never happened.

The evening was brilliant and there were some top notch performances as well as some new faces.

The following morning, I was up early (I haven’t actually managed a late morning or lie in all week), to go to Stratford-Upon-Avon for a Poetry workshop with Angela France.

We were editing today and I was reminded to take a poem. The day before I had read an article/ conversation posted on social media. It was a conversation between Jonathan Edwards & Tishani Doshi as part of the Walking Cities project. I was immediately inspired to use it as base stimuli and emailed Jonathan for permission, which I am delighted to say he has honoured. So I made use of the early morning and penned a new poem to take to Stratford – and I am glad I did because it is now even stronger than the first few drafts. It has changed quite considerably. I will share it with Jonathan Edwards and then submit it for publication, I would love it to feature in my first collection too.

The workshop was great (as always) and it was lovely to see everyone again. The sun even came out in the afternoon for us to write in the garden. My notebook is full of references & poets to look up as well as two newly penned poems.

The next day Friday, I went to Word Up. I took the train in, which was great for my writing notebook which now has snippets of conversation. The evening was thoroughly enjoyable. Headlined by Jan Watts, Leon Priestnall & Heather Wastie. It was a great night of performance and poetry. It was nice to see Carys Jones, who is now back in the UK too, even better to hear her perform new material. She is currently working on a show to take to Edinburgh Fringe this year too.

Last night saw the last event of the month – Opus Club at The Dark Horse in Moseley. Both this night and Word Up are hosted by Jasmine Gardosi and are definitely worth going to. I decided to perform with the House Band and it was AWESOME. Initially I was worried because it was a whole band and I had expected just one or two musicians. I needn’t have worried, family genes are full of musicality (thanks Dad) and it was so good people thought it had been rehearsed that way. I managed to learn two poems off by heart – which was a minor miracle because I changed the set 3 or 4 times and spent most of Saturday with Mr G in a local Garden Centre!

Here’s some flavour of the night, it was certainly eclectic, Headlined by Hannah Silva.

 

Photographs used with permission from the wonderful Rang-Zeb Rango Hussain. A second post about OPUS will be posted where you can see more photos.

https://awritersfountain.wordpress.com/2015/05/31/opus-club-the-dark-horse/

It was lovely to see people I hadn’t seen for ages and meet new ones. And that – as I used to say back in the days of showbiz, is a wrap!

Review of January

An exciting start to 2015, the month has flown by!

My car completely died on me the first day back at work and had to have a new battery, I’ve worked at ‘World’s End’, survived the first month of Mr G working away from home, been a Guest Poet at The Poetry Lounge in the Sitting Room -Ludlow, I was invited to be a guest poet at Word Up, Birmingham – alongside Antony Owen and Lily Blacksell, I was booked as a Special Guest for a charity event in March and as a headliner/Guest Poet for a new Open Mic Night in Stourbridge – that’s booked in for May, was worried March was looking a little full already. I’ve read 4 books, made contact with Rachel Kelly after reading her book ‘black rainbow’ and was inspired to write a New Year blog post – I have been really touched by this connection, got copies of Heather Wastie’s and Bert Flitcroft’s books, was the team leader in Mouth & Music’s Spark Off Event,

FINALLY got an appointment with my Doctor (have been trying since November), avoided all January SALES (mainly due to the car costing a small fortune and the rest being spent on poetry),

Had to survive with my mobile phone dying on me (for the 4th time) finally getting it sent away! I laughed at how they mistook my age to mean techsavvy lending me a Samsung Galaxy without any manual! The loaned charger didn’t work either – fortunately mine is designed to fit different handsets so it seems.

Mr G and I adjusted to a working life apart only to be reunited several months sooner than we expected.

It snowed! Four times – the 3rd time I narrowly missed two collisions on the brow of a hill and had to call in to cancel work as all exits were snowed in. Even people in Landrovers were struggling – I stood no chance – my car has a moped sized engine and is as useless as me in ice and snow.

BLOGS & PROJECTS

Delighted to see a new flow of followers this month, I have managed to blog about this month and also I think there are probably a high percentage of people looking and searching for things in January. Great to see the activity remain strong. You know me, always trying to beat the stats!

52 came to an end *which I missed as I was offline for Christmas, we are being weaned off with some new prompts from Norman and have the promise of books and anthologies to look forward to.

This year I am seeking to place my poetry in suitable places, rather than spending my life writing to theme (although no doubt I will do this also).

Work re-started (after Christmas break) on my own personal poetry project and will probably be the case for most of the year. I also submitted work for magazines and a collection of poems.

I continued to attend David Calcutt’s Community Garden workshops in Walsall. This month we were writing in the moment. My poetry can be seen on his website (link to follow). I was nearly an hour late but caught up with pages of ideas and two almost poems. Our path has been raked over ready for the community path to be built up to the wild area, this path will feature our group poem written in December.

Our Poetry Society Stanza group was invited to submit poetry for a competition at Corinium Museum, Cirencester  http://coriniummuseum.org/, a group of us went on Poet’s Day Out Trip – cake, museum, lunch, shopping. I thoroughly enjoyed my day with Kathy Gee, Maggie Doyle & Claire Walker. I have written pages of notes, chosen the artefacts to write about… now I just to need to WRITE!

SUBMISSIONS

I submitted work to publications and poetry press.

Popshots Outsider

Magma Violence

Faber New Poets

PERFORMING POETRY

This year I decided to pull back on the 100+ gigs of last year to allow more time to work on writing. Despite this promise I couldn’t resist January, especially as I missed most of December. Wonderfully I started and ended the month with Guest Poet slots. I have more events booked through until July, which is brilliant.

The Poetry Lounge in The Sitting Room – Guest Poet alongside Bert Flitcroft – Jean Atkin, Ludlow

SpeakEasy New Year , Fergus McGonigal & Maggie Doyle, Worcester

Mouth & Music, Spark Off! – Team Leader in opposition with Peter Williams – Heather Wastie & Sarah Tamar

Drummonds 42 (the 42nd event) – Andrew Owens

Word Up – Guest Poet alongside Antony Owen & Lily Blacksell- Ddotti Bluebell & Jasmine Gardosi

It feels like I have attended more events than this – there were plenty I didn’t go to – needing writing time and having a different focus this year and of course, some just clashed; Spoken Word at The Ort (I hope to make it by March, the dates clash with Stanza meetings), Luck’s Weight Exhibition poems and photographs by Jean Atkin & Andrew Fusek Peters, Hit the Ode, Spoken Worlds, Sunday Xpress, Shindig, Grizzly Pear, Purple Penumbra, Je Suis Birmingham.

EVENTS & WORKSHOPS

Stanza

Writing West Midlands – Assistant writer/ Mentor- the new mentor role (which was a time-limited position came to a close this month to praise and positive feedback)

The Stanza Group working on Museum Poetry

David Calcutt – Caldmore Gardens Workshop & Poetry on the Path Project

A great start to the New Year and my 3rd year in the world of writing, 2nd year in the world of poetry.

PS: Like all Bloggers I keep my eye on the traffic and I forgot to add this gem to the review: BOOM!

Your blog, awritersfountain, appears to be getting more traffic than usual! 38 hourly views – 2 hourly views on average

A spike in your stats

Stafford Arts Festival – 6th September

 

Photographs © Tom Wyre 2014

An Invitation

I was invited by Tom Wyre (Stafford Poet Laureate) to take part in Reams of Dreams, a poetry event at St. Chad’s in Stafford Town Centre as part of Stafford Arts Festival on the 6th September.

I lived in Stone (a small canal town close to Stafford) ten years ago and at Jo Bell’s 52 Stratford-Upon-Avon Poetry Festival Event I met fellow 52ers John & Liz Mills, who live in Stone. We talked about me visiting them, I hoped I could, Liz and I thought I might make it in the holidays, but the summer was jam packed. Then I found out John was also performing at this event and our reunion was booked.

A Pilgrimage to a Previous Home

It was strange going back to Staffordshire, I have not been back for ten years, Stone had sprawled, changed a lot but was still familiar and it felt like I had never left once I was back there. I drove around the town and bought some Oatcakes from the General Store. Saw the pub we used to drink in and drove past the end of the road I used to live in.

I arrived late – I had hoped to get a day in Stone, but I had accepted some work and had to take some wedding clothes shopping back for a refund, I spent way too much on clothes that I hope won’t fit me soon. Although the pre-Wedding diet/ exercise plan hasn’t gone so well since the summer. My younger brother gets married in early October.

John and Liz were wonderful hosts and great cooks too, we had a fabulous night and I was wined and dined. We had an early start the next morning as the event started just after 9am. John was one of the ‘red eyed poets’ as he said.

Reams of Dreams

A celebration of poetry and spoken word at St Chad’s Church, Stafford as part of the Stafford Arts Festival hosted by Staffordshire’s Poet Laureate Tom Wyre. In beautiful settings with wonderful acoustics, many of the best local wordsmiths will showcase their work throughout the day, culminating with the announcement of Staffordshire’s Young Poet Laureate 2014-15.

STAFFORD ARTS FESTIVAL POETRY at St Chad’s Stafford today at 9.30am – 3.30pm — Free Entry and please come along to listen to some of the finest local and UK poets.

© Tom Wyre 2014

A wonderful line up it was too! Many of my poetry friends made the trip across to Stafford for this event too, including Surjit Dhami, Mal Dewhirst, John Mills, Gary Carr, Al Barz, Mike Alma, Mogs & Fergus McGonigal.

STAFFORD ARTS FESTIVAL POETRY —-

SAT 6TH SEPTEMBER 2014

“LINE-UP” ST CHAD’S CHURCH, GREENGATE ST, STAFFORD.

START / RBW Writers (TBC) /

Public Open Mic Slot 09.30 – 09.45

Surjit Dhami 9.45
Janet Jenkins 9.55
Jack Edwards 10.05
Mal Dewhirst 10.15
David Calcutt 10.25
John Mills 10.35…
Gary Carr 10.45
Runaway Writers 10.55–11.10
Brendan Hawthorne 11.10
Cherry Doyle 11.20
Kuli Kohli 11.30
Kezzabelle 11.40
June Palmer 11.50
Phil Binding 12.00
Al Barz 12.10
Mike Alma 12.20
Mogs 12.30

LUNCH 12.40– 13.00

The Young Poet Laureate Applicants 13.00–13.30
John Williams 13.30
Stoke Poetry Stanza 13.40 -13.55
Nina Lewis 13.55
John Lindley 14.05
Ben Wilkinson 14.15
Fergus McGonigal 14.25
Barry Patterson 14.35
The Lichfield Poets (Tribute to Jan Arnold) 14.45–15.00
Tom Wyre 15.00
Natalie Cotterill 15.10
Presentation of Young Poet Laureate 15.20

 

It was a fantastic day, an overload of poetry and audience who came and went. The Young Laureates were good, glad I didn’t have to judge that one! A great event to be part of and lovely to see the town alive with Arts and hear Poets I had not come across before.

Where I Am At – 21 Months in…

I love the fact that even when I am not writing, I am reading about writing. This summer I have also looked for art opportunities for paid work – the whole idea of teaching irregularly was to bolster on arty days too, last year it was a big leap of faith and I decided that over complicating it would send me crazy, budgeting for the year, I realised I could get by on just supply teaching – although the long holidays and short ones in between have seen me dip into the savings… that’s what they were there for. The leap may have taken a nano-second but it wasn’t impulsive, I have saved wages to bolster this new artistic/creative life of mine and I know – potentially – when I am strong enough I can equal my salary, not through writing alone as I am sure you understand, but having fingers in all the pies – which has always been my style. At 15 my careers advisor advised that I give up half of my hobbies! I have never uttered the words ‘I am bored’ but I am prone to an occasional day of collapse, like yesterday.

Each year of this 16 year plan I am sending my self an email from my future self, stating current position and outlook, hopes and upcoming opportunities and a fantasy projection into the next year. I know I have already surpassed my expectations for 2014 (name on bills, booked for slots, paid performance work, involvement in Literature/Arts festivals) but unfortunately my Outlook inbox froze and somehow the future self email got deleted. I checked the deleted file, nothing – I searched for it – it had gone – POOF! Disappeared…. maybe there was something that I wasn’t supposed to read. But just in case I might copy the email somewhere else this year as back up!

Excitedly in 6 days time I am hosting my first event, a poetry party (with a sprinkle of short stories too). I decided that I wanted to mark One Year in my poetry skin with a celebration. I have invited people who have been a great influence, support, become poetry friends, all of them incredibly talented and all of them willing to perform in an open mic poetry party.

Last year on the 14th September I attended my 2nd network event (Writing West Midlands) drove for hours to the border of Wales to attend as I very much wanted to hear the speakers; SIMON THIRSK & IAN BILLINGS.

Here’s a link to my original post about this turning point day in which I speak to people, get a writing job, attend a book launch, meet lots of lovely poets who I now consider friends.  A whole day with poets – 12 hours and 140 miles….

Turning Point

Book Launch

This was the day I decided to be a poet, to rekindle my love with the pen. After spending the first 9 months of 2013 revising and learning the craft of writing & submitting short stories and the occasional poem. The actual date of my first open mic was 2nd October, this clashes with several festivals including Birmingham Literature Festival and a Mental Health Arts Festival, so I decided the pinnacle turning point should be celebrated instead!

I CAN’T WAIT!

My Birthday Week, Poetry Events and Special Times

The Birthday week started – the birthday week is when normal social occasions get preceded by ‘birthday’ regardless of whether they have anything to do with my birthday at all.

 

I LOVE birthdays – but this year I have decided I don’t want to grow any older. That’s the downside.

The week started with a day of writing, research and relaxation, long overdue and most necessary as there is barely a blank diary day now until October. We went for a meal on Monday – which was nothing to do with my birthday – but happened close enough to the celebration week to be included.

I caught up with friends on Tuesday afternoon and also went to Mouth and Music, which was an amazing night (own post to come later), yesterday I had a busy day and just enough hours to finish a special poem for my brother on his birthday – we celebrated with a family meal last night – his birthday, not mine. A great night out! We started early and were all home before 9pm as my nephews have gone off on holiday today, but I was exhausted. Happy and exhausted. Had an earlyish night and slept through. This is brilliant – Tuesday night I only managed 3 hours and Wednesday was a tough one to get through on that little sleep.

Today I would have loved a lie in but needed to get to the doctor’s. Mr G and I have less than a fortnight to sort out the allotment and we went up last week to hack back (the bit we managed will probably already be all overgrown already again)! I noticed on Friday marks on my calf and shin, they were bright red and fairly painful, I just presumed it was nettles or caught on a thorn. Not wanting to waste Doctor’s time – I let my body self heal – which it is doing – but I don’t need scars on my legs or further infection and after seeing family last night I was persuaded to take the matter more seriously. I have some cream.

Today I went to Birmingham where I performed at PFL – I cant remember the last Poetry for Lunch I managed to get to, it was the Stanza group one in June I think.

Andrea booked me a few weeks ago for a special comedy themed one. It was funny.

I was able to meet fellow 52er Rueben Woolley too.

Tonight I went to SpeakEasy, I enjoyed the entertainment and definitely count it as my 2nd Birthday outing – the 1st being Birmingham earlier and PFL, well we did all go for a drink afterwards.  Ben Parker headlined SpeakEasy, an Oxfordshire poet originally from Worcester, a passionate page poet, we all enjoyed his refreshing set.

I spent the afternoon in between gigs attempting to write some poetry for submission. Nothing hit me earlier, but I did manage to grab a title and write a poem about another subject entirely – all was not lost.

I am going to attempt to get some poetry down before bed after my long and pleasant day poeting!

Tomorrow I am meeting up with friends who can’t make my weekend celebrations and also need to buy (or bake) a cake for Stanza tomorrow night.

 

Poet Cloning

Seriously – poet cloning – it is a necessary experiment! I have struggled since re-launching my writing career with clashing events. It used to be two things I wanted to go to – nowadays it is double bookings and I really get a lot of negative feelings rising when I come across one.

I have missed the last two months of Stanza (and some before the last meeting I made it to back in May) due to performing at events in Birmingham. This month’s meeting was last Friday and I missed it as I was promoting Restless Bones in Birmingham. As it happens, although it is not customary for poet’s to do so, I could have gone to most of stanza, missed the last few poems and made it across the 20+ mile trip to promote the book as our set was late. I had no idea of the running order of the night or our set of 6 promoting poets before the event so couldn’t have made the decision to do both and to be honest I was mid a 4 day run of poetry events which may have turned into a run of 6 had I not fallen short on energy, so the idea of squeezing 2 events in and being barely present at either didn’t really make sense.

Next month’s Stanza was booked back in June, it is 2 days before my birthday and I have arranged to take cake! Then yesterday I discovered Word Up – which is an open mic event I regularly attend is celebrating a 2nd Birthday on the 15th AND they have Rueben Woolley, Jacqui Rowe AND Sammy Joe as headline acts AND I CAN’T GO!

Then later in the month 21st August I was already booked for a KAF Festival show and then discovered this was the evening of the Restless Bones Book Launch. Argh! There are 7 days in a week – why does everything have to fall short?

 

Today is my first writing day in a while, I have been scribbling in my notebook over the past week when I was out on the road and have managed to get some material edited and completed. Mr G has taken this 1st week of the summer holidays off though, so I had to get up at 6AM to squeeze in writing time.

I was working on Monday still and yesterday had a private tutoring so today IS my 1st holiday! I am 2 hours in on a Things to Do List…. less than 1/3 through it.

After my busy poeting weekend I was sad to miss poetry events on Monday night and Tuesday but my energy levels are back to normal and I am going to the Theatre tonight, I know if I had gone to Shindig on Monday and Poetry Bites last night I would not make it through the show tonight nor would I have the energy to complete my submissions, next on the To Do list.

Mr G and I have managed to pack lots into the time we have had together so far and we do have the rest of this week to do more. Today my priority is not the garden, or the man, it is writing… there are deadlines…. I need to knuckle down.

My plan now is to go and write, submit and then come back later to update the blog on the wonders of the past couple of poetry days. It has been an EPIC weekend, truly and I cannot wait to share it with you.

 

Happy Writing

 

 

 

The Quiet Compere (21/3/14)

What an event, this one…
I only knew Sarah L Dixon through 52, Jo Bell’s challenge (which I have blogged about before – 52 poems in a year – one a week) there must be many poets meeting or at least making connections virtually. I hope to ask Sarah L Dixon to tell us more about her Quiet Compere idea, when she is less busy.
Basically she runs an open mic night in Manchester, the difference from other event is the format. To allow the poet more time to share work she books 10 acts and gives them 10 minutes each.

She had the idea of taking this format on the road regionally, got Arts Council Funding for her idea (I slip that in as if it were easy – but I am fairly sure that was a process on its own!) then starting taking herself on tour. Each venue hosts 10 local poets who are pre-booked and they each delight the audience for 10 minutes. She has ‘toured the North with a jaunt into Birmingham’ – luckily enough.

I saw the line up in late January/February and recognised many of the names. We heard the Manchester night sold out so we made sure (my poetry friends Claire Walker and Maggie Doyle) we had our tickets well in advance.
You would expect to pay more than a fiver to go and see many of these names. The tickets were an ASTONISHING £3.00! Entry to some open mic events is more than that!

The Birmingham night took place at the MAC – Midlands Arts Centre – recently reopened after a 15million pound facelift! It has been closed for a while. There is so much that has been built up around it since I went over 10 years ago! It sits nestled in Cannon Hill Park and is a great venue and just a few miles out of the city.

Gary Longden was one of the 10 performers and although I knew him, from other poetry friends and his wonderful blog (to which there is a link), I had never met him. He runs Poetry Alight – the night in Lichfield where Michelle Crosbie performed last month. Another great night I missed…. so frustrating when there is so much on and I still have to work!
I finally got to meet him, it was brief as he didn’t know who I am.

I hope to make it over to Lichfield soon, Andrea Shorrick (Swingerella) thinks they would like my poems!

The Performers were

In the 6 months I have been back on the performance circuit I have been lucky enough to perform alongside 7 out of 10 of these poets. I met Sarah James at her book launch for Beyond  – the same evening I watched Jenny Hope perform and met Ruth Stacey. These are the first poets I met in Worcestershire (on this set list) and they have all given so much to me over the past 6 months, including welcoming me to their celebratory curry meal – where I met lots more poets.

Sarah has her next event this Tuesday for Poetry Bites and has headlined at SpeakEasy (she has done a million other things but these are the connections to me). We also all went to The Writers’ Toolkit together in the Autumn. Jenny Hope is a lead writer for Writing West Midlands and Ruth Stacey works alongside her as an Assistant Writer. I had already arranged to work for Writing West Midlands as an Assistant Writer, the same day I met them. They have all performed at SpeakEasy and also attend Stanza meetings, Sarah is the Poetry Society leader in our region.

As well as SpeakEasy, Ruth, along with Bobby Parker performed with me at the Kidderminster Creatives re-launch, BHG Gallery event. Bobby has also headlined SpeakEasy and I have also performed at the same Mouth & Music events – the open Mic in Kidderminster.

Charlie Jordan I met through events we attended at Birmingham Literature Festival in October. We first performed at the same event in October, at Jan Watts Phenomenal Women at Birmingham University for the Books of the Future UOB Festival. Since then we were at a Twilight Poetry Event at The Rep, organised by Joanna Skelt *Birmingham’s current poet laureate. We have been in the arena together at the amphitheatre at the Library of Birmingham performing for Jan Watt’s Poetry For Lunch. Charlie is also in the Decadent Divas although due to a top secret mission she was unable to make the latest Confab Cabaret event, this means the Decadent Divas have to come back and entertain us as the full 4 piece another time.

Laura Yates, one quarter of the Decadent Divas headlined at Mouth & Music, as well as performing at Confab Cabaret as a Decadent Diva.

Ddotti Bluebell runs Word Up at York’s Bakery and also performed at Najma Hush’s Dance Exhibition Gallery opening, which is where I met her and performed newly written Dance poems. I have seen her perform at Word Up too. She is another encourager on the scene and having only recently met her, feels like I have known her a lot longer.

There were 3 new to me poets to enjoy; Gary Longden, Matt Man Windle and Ian Bowkett. Sarah L Dixon treated us to some of her poems too. When you are an active poet you often hear the same poems being performed by people in different venues so it is great to come across new poets who have 100% unknown material. That’s not to say that I dislike hearing great poetry being repeated.

Everyone was incredible and the audience were blown away in quick succession by each performer.

The evening was kicked off by Sarah L Dixon – I enjoyed her poems, observations of her three old and the world children inhabit, touching and entertaining. She introduces each poet simply by name and lets their poetry speak for itself.

Sarah L Dixon © 2014 Gary Longden

 

Ruth Stacey was the first to step up to the mic. I love Ruth’s poems and I know she doesn’t often perform. She is currently having great success in print and I look forward to reading her Foxboy collection when it comes out later this year.

It was a real treat to hear Ruth and she shared poetry I hadn’t heard before alongside some of my favourites of hers that I have heard before.

Ruth Stacey © 2014 Sarah L Dixon

 

Laura Yates performed next and treated us to her Birmingham poem which I will never tire of. She is such a confident performer and we all enjoyed her work. Another poet that I could have spent all night listening to.

Laura Yates © 2014 Sarah L Dixon

 

Sarah James performed next, I haven’t heard her for a while – as I missed her headline at SpeakEasy due to Mr G’s birthday. I love listening to anything she reads her play on words and intelligent understanding of linguistics makes much more sense when it comes from her voice.

Sarah James © 2014 Sarah L Dixon

 

Gary Longden performed next and treated us to some cheeky poems, none of which I had heard as this was the first time I met him, I liked what I heard and hope to listen to some more of his witty poetry soon.

Gary Longden © 2014 Sarah L Dixon

 

Bobby Parker in complete contrast took us all deep inside of him and shared some extremely raw poems which he performed confidently and then he shared one of my favourite poems about a friend who encouraged him to go to a special event, I won’t say more – you will have to buy his books or hear him perform.

Bobby Parker © 2014 Sarah L Dixon

 

Charlie Jordan kicked off the second half with her wonderful performance. A true performance poet. She has been a Poet Laureate for Birmingham and the first poem she performed, I had heard before. The second one was new to me and absolutely adorable. She took us with us every step of the journey when she performed that.

Charlie Jordan © 2014 Sarah L Dixon

 

Ian Bowkett came next with his PHD and humour – he would have helped me understand Maths if I had met him earlier in my life for sure, he makes numbers fun, very entertaining and for his final piece he performed from heart and completed a Rubix Cube at the same time! COMPLETED! WOW – WOW – WOW! The Brian Cox of poetry (I mean that as a huge compliment) he is much younger of course.

Ian Bowkett © 2014 Sarah L Dixon

 

He said he didn’t want to follow Charlie, I have been there and it is a hard act to follow – he did brilliantly!

In fact that was something special about the Quiet Compere tour – these 10 Poets were all top class, there was no judgement on my part but you couldn’t have judged them apart if you’d had to… good job!

Jenny Hope and her beautifully quiet voice, soft and metred came next. Again I love hearing Jenny perform and it had been a while since I last saw her. I loved her set. Could have listened all night. She hooked me in and I didn’t want the bubble to burst.

Jenny Hope © 2014 Sarah L Dixon

 

Ddotti Bluebell came next sharing dynamic poetry, some I had the pleasure of catching at York’s Bakery, it was brilliant – she must have had to use at least 4 voices and entertained us all with memories of her childhood and her brothers and being the only girl. Something I can empathise with.

Ddotti Bluebell © 2014 Sarah L Dixon

 

Matt Man Windle finished the night, great emotive performance he again was another natural born performer and I have since found out a boxer – well his poetry was certainly punchy!

Matt Man Windle © 2014 Sarah L Dixon

It was an AWESOME evening (in the true – yes, wow at the universe and it’s awesome expanse) type way and my Birmingham poetry friends met and saw my Worcestershire friends perform. Everyone had time to mingle afterwards, it was great having so many friends at this event.

And the bit I can’t get my head around… Sarah L Dixon (coming from Manchester) had not seen these poets perform before – the evening was slick and each poet brought something special to the event.

Here are the shots from my seat – I really need to upgrade my mobile! © 2014 N Lewis

Check out Gary’s review – through the eyes of a performer.

http://garylongden.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/the-quiet-compere-mac-birmingham/

And Claire Walker’s review here

http://thegirlwhogrewintoacrocodile.wordpress.com/2014/03/23/the-joy-of-publication-and-an-evening-with-the-quiet-compere/

 

Sarah L Dixon’s next event can be seen as part of Cheltenham Poetry Festival which starts this week for a week.

A Matter of Life, Death and Poetry
Friday 28 March 2014 at 8:00pm

A touring poetry show.

The Quiet Compere presents A Matter of Life, Death and Poetry

The legendary Quiet Compere events enlist established poets and emerging voices.

The Quiet Compere introduces them with little fanfare, so that the poems (and not the poets’ track records)
tell you all you need to know.

This festival special features a stellar line-up – Rosie Garland, Samir
Guglani, Sarah Maxwell, Bethany W Pope, Stephanie Portersmith, Rod Tame, Avril Staple and
of course the compere herself, Sarah Dixon.

Let poetry show you what really matters! Join us for a selection of darkly funny, thought-provoking and life-changing poetry

Tickets are £5.00/ £4.00 and can be bought here

http://www.cheltenhampoetryfest.co.uk/eventdetail.php?ID=70

 

You can also catch Bobby Parker at the festival