Send your Freedom poems my way.
To celebrate NPD email your Freedom poems to worcspl@gmail.com
I will then blog a collection of NPD poems on this site.
Send 20 – 25 line poem on the theme of Freedom.
Please send poems in the body of an email.
You may send up to 3 poems.
Poems should not be previously published.
Write a short 3 sentence bio to appear alongside your poem.
The end of last month was so crazy busy I am only just tying up loose blog ends now, nearly midway through November!
October was a true turning point month, goals I have been working towards for a while came together and opportunities flowed one after another. It was a fab month I thoroughly enjoyed being busy. Half term was filled with writing events and I also managed (or was possibly forced by exhaustion) a couple of days off. Think I have had about a week so far this year because I love what I do – it doesn’t feel like work. 
I started reviewing my writing life in weekly chunks as it was becoming too much to blog in real time about my schedule.
OCTOBER highlights include;
National Poetry Day – I loved finding out how other people had marked this special day, some of the things people got up to were incredible.
I hosted the opening event of Arts All Over the Place – Poetry, Performance and Everything Else as the Poetry Princess, followed by a writing workshop with Jan Watts and Cathy Crossley, next I performed at Roy McFarlane’s Soulful Poetry Event – all part of the AAOTP Festival. Then I hotfooted to the library in Birmingham to watch the new Poet Laureate being announced. Adrian Blackledge became the new Birmingham Poet Laureate for 2014-2015
This day also marked ONE YEAR since returning to the OPEN MIC circuit!
RELATED LINKS:
Literature Festivals including Birmingham Literature Festival, Poetry, Performance & Everything Else Festival and Book to the Future Festival.
I went to see the recording of Radio 4 Poetry Please with Roger McGough, followed by With Great Pleasure, also recorded for BBC Radio 4. Rich McMahon was playing guitar and singing in the foyer before the evening show at the Rep Theatre of Tell Me on a Sunday, which was a storytelling event set up by Writing West Midlands and Cat Weatherill to share real life stories. Marking the end of 3 years on this project she had selected some of the top stories and tellers to perform and treated us a little to her own stories in between.
I then returned to the festival the following weekend to perform my own commissioned poetry about Urban Nature for Naked Lungs.
A spoken-word exploration of the intersection of urban and natural.
Our lives in the city are played out amongst the products of human endeavour, the frantic pace of the metropolis tending to obscure our innate intimacy with the natural environment. Yet nestled within the concrete and mirrors are jungles brimming with other lives. Birmingham has recently been declared a Biophillic city and is praised for its biodiversity. How does the city structure our experiences of the non-human? Is it valuable that we facilitate such experiences? A group of writers will be producing and performing work dealing with these questions.
It felt amazing to be part of the festival just one year after discovering it! My first commissioned performance project, I hope there are more opportunities in the future.
I performed a set for Phenomenal Women organised by Jan Watts for the Book to the Future Festival at Birmingham University and Arts All Over the Place celebrated the end of the PPAEE Festival with a huge party, I was delighted to perform an amusing set for the them and have Swingerella share the stage with me.
SpeakEasy also celebrated the 1st Anniversary, I was happy when they asked me to perform a set at this special event. More
I also completed my biggest poetry project to date and organised INKSPILL for the 2nd Year – an online writing retreat hosted right here on this blog. There is a pinned post on the front page of this blog (homepage) with links to the main articles from our INKSPILL weekend, go check it out. This year I was joined by Writer William Gallagher and Poets Charlie Jordan and Heather Wastie who wrote and filmed some wonderful guest posts full of knowledge, advice and experience.
My brother’s Wedding at the beginning of the month was a non-writing highlight. I read a poem by Roy Croft during the service to the tear stained faces of the bride and groom – toughest of audiences. It was a truly magical day!
That is a lot of highlights for just over 4 weeks!
Blogs & Projects
I continue with 52, although I am behind in week 40 something. I regret not being able to take full advantage of the community of this group, my own writing schedule has taken off this year and I am busy working when I am not writing and some weeks cannot find the time I promised to carve out for 52. We are all getting reflective as the year draws to a close.
Naked Lungs – My 1st commission – 2 other poets and myself performed at Birmingham Literature Festival in a piece called Urban Nature, it was an amazing experience.
Hanbury Hall Art Exhibition – an opportunity through the Poetry Society Stanza group to write poetry inspired by art in the gallery. I enjoyed the exhibition and still need time to create, write and edit my submission.
INKSPILL – kept me busy over the last week of October, writing and researching articles, communicating with Guest writers and organising the schedule of events. It was great fun and lots of people have accessed the posts.
Submission
I completed a poetry project and missed lots of end of month submissions.
Wrote poetry for my commissioned performance and received rejection from publications I submitted to over the summer.
Performing Poetry (which I attempted to cut back on to maximise writing time)
Events I performed at include;
Mouth & Music, Kidderminster, hosted by Heather Wastie, headlined by Jasmine Gardosi. Where I first performed my Halloween Set – to the theme of Ghosts and Ancestors, including two new poems written especially for the event.
SpeakEasy, Worcester Hosted by Fergus McGonigal – Worcester Poet Laureate, headlined by Antony Owen and Spoz, I was lucky enough to be asked to perform and was delighted as this was the 1st Anniversary Special! There was CAKE!
Poetry For Lunch, The Library of Birmingham, hosted by Jan Watts.
Restless Bones Birmingham Promo with Born Free Film at The Ort. 
42 Halloween Special
Mostly Halloween at the Ort – a 10 minute set.
Word Up, in Halloween Fancy Dress Birmingham, hosted by Ddotti Bluebell – a night of amazing poetry. Headlined by Daisy Edwards & Swingerella.
Workshops & Events
Writing Workshop David Calcutt Community Garden Walsall, WILD FIRE
Poetry Workshop Angela France in Stratford-Upon-Avon
AAOTP Award Evening – where I received a HERO AWARD for stepping in last minute to open the festival.
Alan Durham’s Hen Race Book Launch
Meetings and Projects
We had the annual meeting of writers with Writing West Midlands.
My 1 to 1 Mentoring Role for WWM was made official and planning started for these sessions.
I also managed to get to Stanza this month again, hosted by Sarah Kemp. 
The week before saw several poetry events & meetings. Mouth & Music, SpeakEasy, Stanza, the return of the Writing Group after the summer for Writing West Midlands at The Hive in Worcester and my One Year a Poet Party, peppered in between all this was a submission (of 3 poems) – fingers crossed.
Needless to say at the beginning of this, the 3rd week in September I was cream crackered – (TIRED)! The 15th was actually scheduled to be a heavy deadline day, a lot of the work was prose and I hadn’t had enough time to invest in it – it is shelved until a day it will be useful. I cut the stress by cutting out the deadline. 
It has been a hard lesson to learn – THERE WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH TIME TO DO EVERYTHING – I have to look at each week and decide on the focus – is it writing or performing, new work or a different genre, some days it is just reading – all of it important.
I had some notes by the end of 2013 – look out for X in 2014 – now at the back of the diary I have that same note for 2015 – sometimes you got to practise an aim before you can shoot. I need some more learning time before I am ready. It really is a waste of time to send anything less than your BEST work and if you need more time, use it for something else or save it for the following year – trends may have changed by then, but we are constantly told to write from where it takes us – not study and write to theme, that produces empty, authorless writing which will go out of fashion quickly. Why use crayons when you can learn to blend and paint with oils?
So basically I spent the 15th – bleary eyed, trawling through writing schedules, considering the remaining writing, likely outcome and how much my heart pulled and basically slashed an ink line through every item on the list. It freed a day to read and think and after the OYAP celebration, I needed that. Tuesday was also a full on writing day but I also had work, I looked again and chose what to pursue and what to strike off the list at this time. 
All the while conserving energy and getting over the week before. On Wednesday 17th some of the Worcs Lit Fest crowd – Maggie Doyle, Fergus McGonigal and Polly Robinson were performing in a tea room in Wolverley for an afternoon of Pop Up Poetry. The sun was shining, all the household chores had been done, I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to write – but listening to Poetry was something I could manage.
It had started by the time I reached my destination and I was having an off day with regards to confidence and feeling perhaps some people were getting fed up of me being absolutely everywhere – which I think was just in my own head, people seemed genuinely pleased to see me. I declined performing in the 2nd part and instantly regretted my decision especially when the question changed from ‘are you performing?’ To ‘why aren’t you performing?’
It was lovely meeting Sue, Susan Wood who organised it all and Sue Johnson (incredible workshops) and I met for the first time. It was great to hear a poet who had stood up for the 1st time and everyone seemed to feel inspired.
There is some film of this event, when I track it down I will add some to this post.
The Village Store/ Tea Shop
On Thursday I performed at Poetry For Lunch at the Mezzanine at the Library of Birmingham with Jan watts. It was fun and I am only sorry that I can’t get to more of these. I missed the special on Tuesday of this week, to celebrate 1 year since the opening of the new library and since then I have been working.
I couldn’t manage HIT THE ODE in the evening – Fergus McGonigal was performing, it would have been great to support him but I was just too tired.
On the 19th I hit the stage at The Ort to perform a varied set, last month it was really hot in the café and it was hot this month too – mainly because it was packed with people – which is great for Debbie Aldous as this night seems to go from strength to strength.
I had planned a weekend off poetry and a break from writing. I did celebrate a big birthday – it was Tim Scarborough’s 50th Birthday (the percussion poet I collaborate with).
I am fortunate that work hasn’t really started, I am on call but the 1st few weeks can be slack as no cover is needed. This has given me a couple of clear days for writing. This week I found out about an exciting new opportunity to present work or possibly even a workshop for a mental health festival. I am writing my bid today. Yesterday I researched some Lit Magazines and read some informative articles which I will link you up to during INKSPILL. Then the wireless connection started unfriending me and I spent time writing with ink and preparing my set for the Poetry Lounge.
Today I am working on a couple of submissions and having come home with a scribbled list of ideas after last night’s event would like to get some writing done too.
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This evening is our last time up the allotment, we are emptying the shed, digging up the rhubarb and carrying long beanpoles (bamboo canes) home and then we are handing the land back to the council. It is quite sad, we have had the allotment for 5 glorious years and it has been a big part of our story (me & Mr G) …I plan to pay tribute to the past half a decade of hard graft and bountiful harvests, through poetry. This year will be the FIRST year we don’t carve our own HOMEGROWN pumpkins for Halloween.
We are growing in our garden and still expect to fill the Christmas Dinner plates with homegrown wonders though.
© A.Cooke 2013
© 2014 Hark
HARK is a UK-based online magazine of poetry and short fiction.
I recently sent some poems to Hark Magazine, last night I discovered the email (on my phone – where there is offline access to my busy inbox) from Hark, I thought it was a speedy response and so had prepared myself for another rejection. Not only have they accepted my poem CLENCH for the July issue, they said there was fierce competition.
I am delighted and still dancing for joy!
YES! YES! YES!
© 2014 Richard Skinner
* 24 poems have been on display/used in Installation: DAN Arts Network Droitwich Library, MAC What’s the Agenda? Hayley Frances’s piece Hikkomori, Birmingham, Wenlock Poetry Trail/ Festival, Croft, Shropshire and on the Poetry Fence, Jean Atkin at Acton Scott Farm, Shropshire.
TOP TIPS:
I used the tech app for the 1st time. This was supposed to automatically post on 31st May!
Better late, than never!
Enjoy!
Another fantastic month in my writing world! 
Biggest lesson – be gentle and forgiving on yourself, keep trying but don’t run yourself ragged, it diminishes creative energy and can affect long-term health!
Blog
I was delighted to find my creative writing HOW TO articles have been linked on a High School Website, the blog has experienced an increase of traffic and hopefully the students have picked up some new knowledge.
We now have 742 followers, that’s an extra 28 people who have found the fountain this month, happy splashing!
Projects
I am still participating in 52, although recently have not had the time to read a lot of the poems or comment, I have also left most of my own writing offline, I am not sure I can catch up with the posts but I am determined to see it through for the year, no matter how busy I get.
There is an exciting meeting taking place soon and we may get the chance to perform as part of a festival.
Naked Lungs asked Spoken Word artists to take part in a Pop Up Poetry event as part of a Literature Festival in the Autumn, I have applied. Fingers crossed.
Events
I had a mini tour of events at the beginning of the month (which completely wore me out and pushed me to my limits), it was a great experience with some fantastic events and I met new performers. 11 days, 10 gigs (1 day off from all writing and performing), 3 Counties!
The first day was a Stanza Extravaganza as my local stanza group took over PFL *Poetry For Lunch – in the amphitheatre at the Library of Birmingham. Read all about it here PFL 
I experienced my first every SLAM – it was the first slam organised by Fergus McGonigal for Kidderminster Creatives, held at the BHG. I was asked to take part, make up the numbers, I knew my material and performance wasn’t necessarily right for SLAM – Maggie Doyle who was the eventual winner proved that you don’t have to recite poetry from memory, although I did learn my set. Which makes me proud of myself and allowed me the freedom to PERFORM the poem rather than read it dramatically.
There was a prize for every participant, so I wasn’t upset being knocked out in the 1st round, all the semi- finalists were slam champions, laureates and published poets (I am only 1 of these 😉 )! It was great fun and I would not hesitate to take part in another – as long as it was small and local. Not yet ready to play with the big boys, nor might I ever be. Maggie told me that she has one slam poem – she won with it – it might be worth me writing just 1! (For next time…)
Read all about it here SLAM 
Tim Scarborough and I collaborated for the 2nd time to perform percussion and poetry at Photogiraffe’s final exhibition, Abstract Elements. Our set received a very positive reaction – including possible future bookings, people said it looked/ felt like we had performed together lots – think we may have found some creative synchronicity! We probably should think about a name for the act! 
It was great fun and I enjoyed meeting new acts and listening to the diverse range of acts. The Warehouse Café (Vegan) hosted the event in Birmingham and we all paid for a buffet, which was lovely food! Abstract Elements
I returned to Ludlow to experience Deborah Alma/ Jean Atkin’s night, The Poetry Lounge in the Sitting Room. It is a long way to go for a 2 hour event but the writer’s are so talented and I got to listen to Andrew Frusk who I had met at Wenlock Poetry Festival. Read all about it HERE
The next night I went to Malvern and once again was introduced to some new faces as well as enjoying the sets of Adrian Mealing and Dizraeli, who has changed my opinion of beat poetry. 
Confab Cabaret
Following Confab Cabaret I went to SpeakEasy and enjoyed seeing new acts and Matt Windle. AF Harrold head lined. I was able to perform too. It was a great night. SpeakEasy
Friday saw Poetry and Pollination – Worcs LitFest and Ledbury Poetry Festival- I performed some newly written poems about bees. My set when down well. Poetry & Pollination 
This was the last event in my epic 10 days, 11 gigs (and working pretty much full time) run! There are some events I have missed this month as I needed to conserve energy for real world things too – let completing flat sale, securing work, celebrating birthdays etc.
Tim Scarborough and I collaborated on our 3rd set *with the theme of Body Hair – for Mouth and Music. We had a 4 hour rehearsal which resulted in lots of co-written and co-edited poetry being created around the theme – including a moustache tribute for Jonny Fluffypunk, we had great fun with a theme which originally made our hairs stand on end in fear!
We then took a medley of all our sets to Birmingham to perform at Spoken Word at The Ort, our set was thoroughly enjoyed by a room full of appreciative audience members! Spoken Word 
Sadly this month a bunch of Birmingham poets are saying goodbye to someone who spends a lot of time on the scene. Someone who threatened to give up poetry and then got accepted to take her one woman show to the Free Fringe Festival at Edinburgh this Summer, someone who can never escape poetry because it will find her. Someone who has decided to continue her travels across Asia and wanted to leave with one last massive party. Carys Jones – known on the circuit as Carysmatic (Jones) organised bands and acts to perform and enjoy each other’s work at a goodbye bash. I accepted the invite and worked on two new poems written about Carys. It was my Dad’s birthday on the same day, it is not a tradition to see him on his actual birthday, typically this year we were contacted over the possibility of a birthday meal.
Southway (an electro duo who Carys knows had travelled up from London to be there) – they were amazing.
Read all about it and Andrew Owen’s Book Launch – Portraits of Prose here
On Thursday Andrew Owens launched his short story collection, published by Black Pear Press, he invited performers to take part in this event. It was great celebrating with him and he even had a cake! I as flattered to open the event with my set.
After the book launch I took the Bank Holiday weekend off and went down to Dorset with friends, the main reason was to go to River Cottage and a food festival there – Mr G and I met Hugh and got our book signed, you can read about this adventure in the same post as the goodbyes and book launch (link above).
I was inspired by River Cottage and plan to use a programme to scrap journal a weekend collection – something has to be said about the cricket pate & caterpillar pate that was bought!
It was a great weekend and so good to get away – because we bought the house last year, we had no holiday.
The rest of my week off was supposed to be spent in my poetry skin but there was so much to do getting the house straight, sorting car insurance, MOTs, Dr appointments etc. not to mention a squeeze of poetry performances, workshops and events.
It is definitely not downhill for the rest of the month!
I originally planned to go to four gigs in the last week of May, I thought I could manage as I wasn’t working, but sometimes you have to listen to your body and soul and I was too exhausted to manage. Poetry For Lunch was taken over by the cast of Summer and it is a long way to go on the off chance you can perform. The photos look amazing, but my car wasn’t back from MOT in time to get across to the city, instead I caught up with old friends and had a few hours off relaxing! My car passed the MOT! The mirror that someone kindly knocked off as they drove up my street has been replaced. (At my expense!) York’s Bakery hosted Ddotti Bluebell’s Spoken Word night at the end of the month (30th) and I had originally hoped to perform my Bee poems there. Unfortunately, I thought I had booked a spot and I hadn’t – in the end I decided I was too tired for the city journey and spent the time writing new material – something I REALLY need to do.
I managed to make Poetry Bites at the beginning of the week and had a fabulous night, a lot of the open floor spots were filled with brilliant poems and a few stories, it was great to hear James Sheard read at length and I loved meeting Roy Marshall and talking to him about my old haunt of Leicester, where all this spoken word began. Jacqui Rowe hosted a great evening and I shared a couple of poems which had positive and encouraging reactions.
Read all about it Poetry Bites
© 2014 KGC
I also managed to get to 42 in Worcester on Wednesday evening, it was another amazing night of talented wordsmiths taking to the stage, many of the poets branched out to prose and the standard was extremely high.
Drummonds 42 read all about the night for yourselves!
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Poetry For Lunch – Stanza Group – Library of Birmingham Amphitheatre
Poetry Slam Kidderminster Creatives – BHG
Abstract Elements – Photogiraffe Exhibition Launch – The Warehouse Café
Poetry in the Lounge – Met Andrew Fusek Peters
Confab Cabaret – Olivers: Disraeli
SpeakEasy – Old Recifying House: A. F Harrold
Poetry & Pollination – The Hive – Ledbury Poetry Festival & Worcester LitFest: Sarah James
Writing West Midlands/ Assistant Writer – Creative Writing Group: Ian MacLeod
Mouth & Music – BHG: Jonny Fluffypunk & Four Tart Harmony
Spoken Word at The Ort
Writing West Midlands/ Assistant Writer – Creative Writing Group: Jean Atkin (cover)
Carysmatic Farewell Bash – Vertu Bar
Andrew Owens Book Launch – Black Pear Press
Poetry Bites – Kitchen Garden Café: Roy Marshall, James Sheard.
Drummonds 42
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I have spent most of May filling in my writing diary for June – with the Worcester LITFEST there is plenty going on, I am also scheduled to work full time during the LITFEST and am missing out on some great events during the day. It looks to be a busy month, I may take a bit of a backseat with performing, go and enjoy others perform. There are several clashes which I am gutted about between the cities (a foot in each camp) and some big decisions need to be made. 
SLAM or Poetry Garden Party – Worcester Laureate at the Guildhall (of which 3 poetry friends are finalists) or performing with Tim Scarborough in Birmingham, this decision has been made already, I am off to the announcement of the new poet laureate!
Submissions:
Raving Beauties – Bloodaxe books celebrating women’s bodies in a compassionate way.
WLF – Flash Fiction Competition for the Festival (made the deadline with 4 minutes to go)!
I managed to obtain a review copy of Sarah Hymas’s latest pamphlet – LOOK OUT FOR THE REVIEW ON A WRITERS FOUNTAIN NEXT MONTH!
Events:
Grayson Perry Exhibition
Rehearsals with Tim Scarborough for Abstract Elements – Photogiraffe exhibition
Stanza meeting
I continued working for WWM – Writing West Midlands – as Assistant Writer (which I am doing next academic year also) in Worcester with Ian MacLeod, I also had the opportunity to work with Jean Atkin and her group this month, I have another date for June. It is a good experience to spend some time in other writing groups.
© 2014 Jean Atkin
In other news …. My Flat finally SOLD, we visited Dorset and Devon with friends, went to a Food Festival at River Cottage, met and chatted to Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, my car passed its MOT, I recovered from a chest infection and found myself a new hairdresser.
Today is my first full writing day after the long Easter weekend. 
Last week – the first week in my writing skin, Mr G. took some half days and we celebrated the glorious weather together sitting in the garden and planting some more tubs up. Towards the end of the week I was performing at events and then came the Easter Weekend which ended with a marathon jungle/allotment expedition to get the next lot of crops in. All this activity resulted in a lack of writing.
I miraculously managed an early start today and was working away on To DO List tasks before 9a.m! My first mission this morning was to track back through my writing diary and drag up any websites I have neglected to take a look at. I had to make sure social media was OFF so I could get on with catching up with NaNoWriMo and NaPoWriMo challenges.
I also wanted to write and submit some farm poems to be displayed along the fence at Acton Scott Farm, Jean Atkin has recently taken up Poet in Residence there. A role she seems to be really enjoying.
I am also trying to arrange some collaborative performances (it was so fun the first time) – for events booked in May as well as editing a few poems for a friend. 
This morning I have found a new collaborative art performance opportunity for November in Walsall (UK) and I have received news from Jean Atkin that she has accepted the poem about the pig I sent this morning for the Poetry Fence at Acton Scott Farm. I saw her post on social media yesterday showing a cute half and half hybrid pig. Jean links the fence poetry on her blog so I will post a link for you all soon.
I have also been looking at the Wenlock Poetry Festival site and trying to organise myself for next weekend. My poem is one of the ‘croft originals’ mentioned, displayed in Croft Design and published on the website. 
SUBMISSIONS CALL for 2015: Poetry from Performers.
Opportunity – for stage poets.
The title is not strictly true, as a young writer I entered one or two and I have sent off poetry for FREE subscriber magazine competitions, however this was the first Poetry Prize Festival Competition I entered.
For the Wenlock Poetry Festival. Funnily enough I was thinking about this earlier whilst doing some chores, I decided that I don’t feel strong enough, whether that is confidence or belief in my work to enter PAID competitions yet. With the exception of some local ones I have chosen to support this year.
My inbox just confirmed that. I have only been back in the writing chair of poetry since September and in that time I have produced many poems. I should count them and make myself feel good – I know I have written about 14 this weekend!
I received a lovely email, they have now shortlisted from over 500 poems they were sent and I didn’t make the cut, or at least my poem didn’t. It was very hard having an OPEN theme – it could be anything…. I look forward to finding out at the end of April.
In the meantime it is a blessing, the Wenlock Poetry Festival and promotion of this competition takes place on the same day we are all having a family meal to celebrate my Uncle’s marriage to his long time girlfriend, they are travelling up from London.
My plan is to concentrate on one off submissions alongside some anthology work and still build my own reputation, possibly broaden the tech, get out there on You Tube, keep up the public performances and give my writing some time. I feel I am pushing the writing at the moment.
It is nice to know my poem will appear on the Wenlock Poetry Trail as part of the Festival.
For several months now my schedules have been daunting and I have been pushing myself to fit everything in and along the way I have lost both the time and energy to produce new writing. Reading time is pushed into that small window of time before I fall asleep and creativity is snatched in short notes in my ‘to be written’ pad.
People have warned me, poet friends, people who know – that at some point I will burn out. That doing 2 gigs a week is a lot for anyone, let alone someone who is now working 90% of the week as well.
Although the sensible side of me agrees, I know I could go on and on… but there comes a time when I should listen to the wisdom within and what people are telling me.
There are always so many events on at the same time as well.
Today there is a workshop at the Arts Centre which I really wanted to attend, linked to a festival taking place there next weekend. I have already got a note in my writing diary to submit Haikus for this festival but I only found out about the workshop on Monday! It is an Arts Council/ Community Project so the workshop is FREE! Music to my ears…. and it looked so good and tasty – exploring loneliness and heritage. Sadly the Ideastap website is refusing to acknowledge that I am not a spambot – it is not accepting any of the codes I put in and I have no idea whether there are tickets left.
I have attempted to email an artist involved and the non-working website – but have heard nothing back off either and it is a long way to go on the off chance they will let a ticketless poet in!
Maybe there is a higher force going on here – rest and write your own work… it is now too late to attend this workshop as it starts in 10 minutes and I live too far away.
The other opportunity I found out this weekend involves a film student attending a local university. He has put a shout out to all poets to come and be filmed for FREE – in return he gets his assignment done and we get a short film clip of ourselves to use however we wish plus the added bonus of an arts company having permission to use the material in promotion or however they want to!
He did a 3 hour open house session yesterday, which I couldn’t attend as I was working as an Assistant Writer for WWM. Today he is half way in and I have about 30mins to make up my mind about this and journey over.
I may give it a miss this time and ask him to let me know if he does it again.
I look shattered – so I wouldn’t be happy with the result even if artistically it was fabulous!
There is also an EmmaPress book launch today in the city at the Urban Coffeehouse, I fancy that – some local ‘real poets’ are in it like Deborah Alma and Liz Berry, to name a few. It was an anthology I submitted work to on the theme of Motherhood – I have submitted to Emmapress several times now and have always been rejected. It is interesting to see / hear the material that makes it – but one thing I have begun to realise is publishing – as with all things in life – is based on a catch 22…. editors like to choose KNOWN names, who in turn guarantee a certain amount of sales, these are often people who already have their own collections or a proper (by this I mean no alternative day job) career built up. I live in hope that this will be me in the future, it is early days and this kind of kudos and recognition doesn’t appear as easily as a cup of coffee in the morning.
There are no over-night success stories.
You have to work at being a writer.
And actually WRITE…
So the catch 22…. I am not yet (despite being accomplished and published often as a young writer) a known name…. I am achieving success though and that hasn’t been lost on me. Time will come. You have to be in it to win it – as they say…
I am sure I would have enjoyed the launch immensely but my decision to stay homebound has been made.
It is a beautiful sun shiny day and Ben has been here all morning fixing the Summer house roof – which was patchy anyway in places and with the deluge of rain and wind we experienced December- March it had flown off and water was going in. We patched up the inside and planted allotment potatoes in huge buckets to take the water if it rained through the roof, but obviously didn’t want to damage the timber.
The roof is now new, tidy and watertight and will probably last longer than the rest of the structure. So maybe I will go and sit outside with a writing magazine for a bit and have my own creative workshop. Besides I have just realised the St Patrick’s Day Parade is also happening in the city – the roads are bound to be a bit busy!
This weekend I also have a few submissions to complete and competitions (fingers crossed) to enter, would be great to win some prize money as my current financial record shows that I am approaching £1.5K on this past 15months of being a writer.
(That does include equipment, travel, tickets, festivals, books, etc. as well as all my work.)
This year I need to learn that all important SWITCH OFF and CHOICE lesson and know that I cannot do everything I want to do.
I am working all of next week and so far have events on every night of the week apart from Monday (which was booked as my writing day) and now has half a day of work attached to it! I may need to save my Sunday energy for next week.
It is so hard trying to be sensible!
It is also the Black Pear Press Anthology Launch this afternoon, I went to the first event in Worcester, so I don’t feel guilty missing this one! Time for solitude and creativity.
awritersfountain 