Economic productivity

I have been thinking about "economic productivity". Since retiring (at 67), on a personal level and now on a socio-economic level. It is all over the news. "We must get Britain back to work..." But why? It appears that "economic productivity" has come to mean: working to enrich... who? The already wealthy? If that is … Continue reading Economic productivity

Setting off again: telling stories for love

I do departures. In about six weeks I will set off on a ten-day wilderness (well, Dartmoor) fast, "The Mead of Poetry", led by Tom Hirons and Rozalie (Rozi) Hilton. Before this I have preparation tasks: to complete a day-walk with only water and to write my life story, confidentially. The setting off is formal, … Continue reading Setting off again: telling stories for love

Hard work. Close reading. In translation.

What is translation in poetry? Some poets seem quite translatable: Pablo Neruda; Valérie Rouzeau? I don't know. Hard work. Close reading. In translation. Valérie Rouzeau, Pas Revoir (2003), translated by Susan Wicks as Cold Spring in Winter (2009). With an Introduction by Stephen Romer. Arc Publications, Todmorten, UK, 2009. The poem, or collection of poems … Continue reading Hard work. Close reading. In translation.

Oxford Poetry Library

A crowded evening at This Is Just To Say: spoken word open mic: about 50 people all told: 16 readers + a guest poet, Em Pritchard. Em was great: finely observed, personal and well tuned pieces about life in between. I read last in the first half. In the audience were two of the poets … Continue reading Oxford Poetry Library

Feral Angels: wild

Tom Hirons runs the regular on-line Feral Angels Poetry Cafe. (https://tomhirons.com/events/feral-angels/feral-angels-poetry-cafe-february-26th-2023) This week the theme was: How does wildness exhibit itself in form and use of language - in how we put words on a page? That wildness we are pointing to, we are trying to bring that wildness into our poetry. What wildness? To find it, first ask, where can you be wild in your life?

Small cosmos: virtual hypertext

Sometimes poems are not ABOUT one thing. But, I cannot say they simply ARE; the mere fact of their existence counts for little. It is not enough that a collection of words gets splattered on a page. I think of a poem as a small cosmos. Poems are both LIKE a small cosmos as well … Continue reading Small cosmos: virtual hypertext

FloPk Open Mic 19 Feb ’23

I had an opportunity to read four poems this afternoon. Alan, who hosted and featured in one of the acts playing Hendrix tunes with his son on drums, said there had been 13 acts. I was the only spoken word.

Back at the Catweazle Club 09 Feb 2023 – the beat rolls on

Catweazle is important to my development as a poet.

It is about working in poetry

Mick Heron refers to "...anything for a sausage roll poets." A nod to (or at) the futile? Of course, he is right. But, I can make my own sausage rolls and do not need to compete with BAe or BP for a seriously-beyond-sausage-roll piece of the public purse to grift my my writing. So it … Continue reading It is about working in poetry

Curation note

Writing postcards in an Amsterdam brown bar a long time ago. Hello and welcome. I am recovering something through this blog. I recently started curating back pages, spurred on, in part, by quitting Twitter and engaging on Mastodon (https://mindly.social/@peaceful) through mindly.social and FediLab. I am making a new collection of poems, collecting as pages under … Continue reading Curation note