Dreamtime poetry

Art, as I have come to understand, is the means by which the dreamtime is carried across generations. The dreamtime is that from which "we" emerge/d, became something like what passes for self-aware, individually and as a species, some time ago; and, that to which we return, the same. Animals live mostly in the dreamtime. I debate … Continue reading Dreamtime poetry

Brum Radio Poets

Sunday 27 October 2024, 1000 GMT The monthly Brum Radio Poets are Leah Atherton and me, in conversation with Rick Sanders, aka Willis the Poet. We each read five poems. Listen on Sunday, and there will be a link in the Brum Radio Archive. Here https://www.mixcloud.com/BrumRadio/brum-radio-poets-with-rick-sanders-october-2024-27102024/ Friends! The studio session was energising and fun. I … Continue reading Brum Radio Poets

Forgetting reasons

Writing is always an act of recovery. Truths cannot be told. What was I about to say? Tinnitus of the edge closing in: call it a demented pleasure-seeker's journal, the slip into or off something more or less comfortable. Sell a million. Measure the benefit. That way more utility? Identity and tradition, culture and place, … Continue reading Forgetting reasons

Project-ing Spoken Folk

Tobias has expanded my horizons a bit further. And this post notes the inception of a project. We can still call it Spoken Folk. So, carry on. Music enhances voice and words enhance music; together they help sustain and enhance life. This is the hypothesis, the big theme. There are two aims and an emerging … Continue reading Project-ing Spoken Folk

Spoken Folk

An evolving post of signposts to a process, a performance and then an archive of texts and recordings.

X-Files

An atheist, materialist, anticapitalist poetry that trusts no one, not even itself? What kind of cultural capital does poetry have? How is that capital distributed and redistributed? And how does the distribution of that capital relate to the distribution or redistribution of any other kind of capital?

Verve Poetry Festival Celebration of Live Poetry

I am celebrating in Birmingham tonight at the Hippodrome for the Verve Poetry Festival https://vervepoetryfestival.com/ celebration of four different Brum open mic scenes. There will be a few open mic slots. I hope to get one but won't mind if I don't. Should be an inspiring night. Poetry filling a big theatre.

What I want from my poetry

I like clusters, soups and smoothies, putting things together and feeling the energy generated between the one and the many. My cluster of three: individuation, compassion and capacity. Individuation: each person, place and thing is unique, a moment, a point, an instance. Compassion: treat each and all with kindness. Capacity: know your shit; have allies. … Continue reading What I want from my poetry

Poetry in the sauna

The time I recited one of my poems to a Premier League player in the sauna of a local gym

Spoken Folk

Spoken Folk is what I/we do. Spoken Folk is/are public and/or performances (piece/s) of (mostly) words punctuated with music. There may be print and images or objects but words drive Spoken Folk. The scale can be adapted to venue and event. Spoken Folk could be a small piece of something bigger, or an organising principle … Continue reading Spoken Folk