Words Unlimited

Reading At The Troubadour in February

I'm slowly getting back into action following my broken ankle - a fall 2 months ago while in a remote part of Cuba! A long story about which I shall be writing.

It was on the day in November when I flew to Cuba that I heard I'd won a prize in the 2015 Troubadour International Poetry Competition. The plane landed at Havana, I turned on my phone and there was the email. I wasn't able to be in London for the prize presentation evening but I'm looking forward to reading my poem at The Troubadour in London on 22 February, along with other London-based prize winners. 

I'm delighted to be part of a great line up of poets this season

For full details  of all readings check out the website

 

 

New Collection From Rosie Shepperd

Top of my poetry 'to read' pile is the brand new collection from Rosie Shepperd, The Man At The Corner Table, just published by Seren.

Hugely talented, Rosie Shepperd was a winner of The Poetry Business Pamphlet competition in 2011/2012 when she talked to Words Unlimited about the way food feeds her poetry, what’s really going on in her ‘relationship poems’ and the parallels between mathematics and poetic construction. You can read that interview here.

I'm looking forward to publishing an interview by another Poetry Business Pamphlet winner, Paul Stephenson, so do come back next week to read that.

Meanwhile, you can read a review of The Man At The Corner Table, here, and purchase a copy, here.

 

Here/There Poetry

I'm delighted to have a poem in the December issue of the exciting new poetry magazine, Here/There

The Awkward Squad

Two minutes into this video hear Simon Armitage on why poetry can't ever be a mainstream art form, what accounts for the violence in his early poems and why he stays in Yorkshire.

 

T S Eliot Prize - How to Pick a Winner

I do love it that the T S Eliot readings mark the start of the literary year. Coming up on Sunday 12 January all 10 shortlisted poets will be reading at the Royal Festival Hall. If you only go to one poetry reading this year, why not make it this one?

Since October we at the poetry reading group [PRG] have been scrutinizing the shortlisted collections. We had our final meeting last week and came up with a short-short list consisting of, in no particular order: Robin Robertson, Helen Mort, Maurice Riordon, Michael Symmons Roberts, Anne Carson

 

We’ve been studying T S Eliot shortlists for 6 years and rarely predicted a winner. Could we make that list shorter? Okay, we got it down to 3:

Robin Robertson

Michael Symmons Roberts

Maurice Riordon

And if forced to pick one that seemed to rise above all the others we opted for Michael Symmons Roberts's collection, Drysalter.

Why? For the breadth of his vision, complexity of thought, his negotiation of form; for consistently producing poems that take your breath away and demand to be read again; for sustaining this over a book-length collection. These poems will last, they get better with each reading.

Having been so decisive we then backtracked and said that we thought the only thing we could be certain about was that this year's winner was likely to have an R in their name. See how tricky this prize malarkey is? Don't envy the judges.

I had the privilege of reviewing all 10 books for the Poetry Book Society, you can read what I think of the other nine, here.

More on the PRG and setting up a reading group, here.

 

On Poetry - Glyn Maxwell

A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to attend a Glyn Maxwell workshop. It was like no other workshop. He has a particular way of close reading a poem that leads into writing. This same approach is also in his wonderful book, On Poetry. 

I've just come across a series of interviews at Poetry East. Poetry East runs an impressive programme, coming up in January, Maurice Riordon.

Following a reading each writer is interviewed and videoed. All of these are well worth looking at, but for New Year poetry inspiration give yourself forty-minutes to sit back and listen to Maxwell.

 

 

A Poem a Week for 2014?

52 is an amazing challenge to write a poem a week throughout 2014.

It comes from poet Jo Bell, who describes herself as - Poet, boater, former archaeologist and director of the UK's National Poetry Day. Now the UK Canal Laureate for the Poetry Society and Canal and River Trust.

She describes 52 as "A weekly kick in the arse for your muse."

Start kicking, here.

Thank you, Jo!

Inspiration at The Lookout

The Lookout in Aldeburgh, with its programme of residencies, performances and exhibitions, is an inspirational venue. Caroline Wiseman keeps surprising audiences, as she finds artists to re-imagine the space.

The current installations, by Lynn Dennison, Lookout and Shipping News, make one of the most mesmerising exhibitions I’ve seen there. If you’re in Suffolk it’s worth a detour, on until 5 January 2014.  If not, you can view the videos via Vimeo, but there is no substitute for the real thing!

Lookout takes the sea inside and high up, a compelling disorientation.

 

The Shipping News, that Radio 4 institution, is much loved by poets. You can read Carol Ann Duffy’s poem, 'Prayer,' here. It ends with these lines:

Darkness outside. Inside, the radio's prayer -
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.

It's interesting to compare with Dennison’s visual interpretation of those hypnotising words and the way she has played with ideas of inside and outside:

 

 

Mark Doty At The Troubadour

I’m still thinking about that wonderful Troubadour event on 7 October – a reading by the marvellous Mark Doty. There was a moment when it looked as if he wouldn’t show. Gone 8 and no poet? It turned out he’d been stuck in a tunnel on the Underground.

Unleashed, he was soon pouring the characteristic energy and openness into his reading - mainly new work - and the Q & A session with Cahal Dallat.

Doty’s latest book, A Swarm, A Flock, A Host: a compendium of creatures - in collaboration with artist Darren Waterston - is a 21ist Century take on the medieval bestiary.  Dallat asked Doty about his pre-occupation with animals – dogs feature large in many of his collections. “Animals are sentient beings that have a consciousness but it’s not the same as mine. It’s the wordlessness of the animals that invites poetry. Poetry is about reaching towards the unsayable.”

 

The more he writes poetry the more he feels that, “The magic is in the sonics - It’s how a poem sounds that points to depths of meaning or feeling. Poetry is about gesturing in the direction of meaning, not nailing it down.”

For Doty, poetry continues to be “a practice of knowing,” a way of exploring and understanding experience.

When asked about influences, he singled out Frank O’Hara who he sets apart from others in the New York School. “O’Hara can seem all chatty surface, but the poems have infinite depth.” Currently he is reading a lot of Brenda Hillman, the Californian poet, who he admires for her boldness.

Either side of the Q & A he read several new poems from a series called ‘Deep Lane.’ He’s written 14 Deep Lane poems and they will form the spine of a new collection.

You can hear him read a Deep Lane poem, here; and he’s written about the significance for his poetry of the actual Deep Lane, a road near his home on Long Island, on his blog.

He reckoned the Deep Lane collection would probably be out in a year. Can’t wait. 

Reaching Out - An Anthology

I'm delighted to have two of my poems - 'Dear Occupier' & 'Reservoir' - included in this latest anthology from Cinnamon Press.  Edited by Rowan B Fortune, it gathers together a wide range of short fiction and poetry - a great way to sample new work.