tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8607291323437251742024-02-18T19:31:24.122-08:00The Dog Days of DumfriesshireJean Atkin is a poet, writer and educator
Jean Atkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09619733874421657191noreply@blogger.comBlogger80125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-91114106613367136932013-08-09T07:58:00.000-07:002013-10-14T08:23:00.337-07:00<h3>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Thank you for turning up here at <br />The Dog Days of Dumfriesshire. </span></span></h4>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Do peruse. </span></span></h4>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">But I </span></span><span style="color: #444444; font-weight: normal;">now</span><span style="color: #444444; font-weight: normal;"> </span><span style="color: #444444; font-weight: normal;">have an updated blog and website at <a href="http://www.jeanatkin.com/">www.jeanatkin.com</a>. Click<a href="http://jeanatkin.com/" target="_blank"> here</a> to visit</span><span style="color: #444444;">.</span></h4>
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Jean@ WordSparkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169262956196681888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-45901221813220214912013-04-29T04:22:00.000-07:002013-04-29T13:38:20.020-07:00I'm going to be Poet in Residence at Logan Botanic Garden!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Yes! At last I'm allowed to shout about it! I'm so honoured to be joining Gerry Loose, Mandy Haggith and Sue Butler as one of the four poets selected for the brilliant new project Walking With Poets, a partnership between the Scottish Poetry Library,<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px;"> </span>Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and Cove Park.. Each of us will have a month long writing and walking residency at our assigned Scottish Botanic garden, as well as a fortnight’s residency later on at Cove Park.<br />
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This fantastic opportunity has come about through the first aim of the Scottish Poetry Library: 'bringing people and poems together', and most appropriately, etched into the flagstone at the entrance to the Library, Patrick Geddes's words 'by leaves we live'.<br />
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We will each work from an iPad (and yes, this is also rather exciting for me) for the duration of our residency, with which to contribute regularly to an online <a href="http://walkingwithpoets.wordpress.com/">blog</a> Walking With Poets, with photographs, poems and observations from the garden. We'll run writing workshops and guided walks for various age groups during our stay in the garden, providing endless opportunity for sharing the wonders of these extraordinary places with the people who come along.<br />
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From the start I've been madly obsessed with Logan Botanic Garden. After 12 years living in Dumfries and Galloway I know it fairly well, and have always loved visiting it. Because it's so strange - an exotic garden in the warm Gulf Stream, perched on the long, thin, green peninsula of the Rhins, at the very edge of Scotland, lapped by the seas. <br />
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And inside it, those palm trees sheltered by tall, dusty walls, which are all that remain<span style="background-color: white; color: #444041; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> </span>of the old castle of Balzieland, said to have burned down at the end of the fifteenth century. <br />
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At the thought of waking up there, early on an August morning, my fingers itch for a notebook.Jean@ WordSparkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169262956196681888noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-3028899018195717112013-04-17T09:24:00.000-07:002013-04-17T09:24:22.342-07:00Quantum Poetics - unorthodox poetry with some laughs<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rvmOxcPljNc/UW7McL2ovnI/AAAAAAAAAaw/t99caUSiFCk/s1600/Quantum+Poetics+wordle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="247" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rvmOxcPljNc/UW7McL2ovnI/AAAAAAAAAaw/t99caUSiFCk/s320/Quantum+Poetics+wordle.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
As part of <a href="http://www.dgsciencefestival.org.uk/">Dumfries & Galloway Wild Science Family MAYHEM! Day</a>, I've been asked to provide a means of finding the poetry in science.<br /><br />I've enjoyed myself and invented <b>Quantum Poetics</b> (well I borrowed the title) - two fun-seeking and exploratory short workshops aimed at guiding scientists to the poetry that lurks in pendulums, and poets to the thrills to be had from theoretical physics. But no doctorates are required – just curiosity and a sense of adventure!<br /><br />I'll be there to help participants find their way into making a short poem inspired by science, using appropriately ‘MAYHEM! Day’ unorthodox and experimental techniques. Expect both laughter and some deadly serious creativity.<br /><br />The workshops are at: 11am – 12 noon and 1.30pm – 2.30pm. Free entry (age 14 to 104) but please book (<a href="mailto:rebecca.crawford@glasgow.ac.uk">rebecca.crawford@glasgow.ac.uk</a> ) as places on the workshops will be limited.<br /><br />Dumfries & Galloway Wild Science Family MAYHEM! Day takes place in theRutherford McCowan Building, The Crichton Campus, Bankend Road, Dumfries DG1 4ZLJean@ WordSparkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169262956196681888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-73088273852550845822013-04-10T11:15:00.004-07:002013-04-10T11:15:55.632-07:00Going Dada for Much WenlockMuch Wenlock is the sort of place where poets should indeed be leaning languidly against medieval oak and mullions. However, instead they were bounding purposefully along the winding streets in search of a very fine weekend of poetry indeed.<br />
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Venues were pleasingly dotted up and down the old streets, and the sun shone warmly down, so it was a real pleasure to wander from The Pottery to The Priory to lovely <a href="http://www.wenlockbooks.co.uk/">Wenlock Books</a>. It was a treat to meet Anna Dreda in person.<br />
My Saturday was spent mostly in The Pottery, a most attractive venue for readings with a glowing woodburner and racks of handmade pots above our heads. Grey Hen Press read to a packed audience: I especially enjoyed Angela France and Alison Brackenbury.<br />
Efforts to get into the George and Dragon for Poems and Pints with Mark Niel were defeated by other people having had the same idea slightly earlier... but we found an excellent bowl of soup in a cafe across the square, and ran into more poets.<br />
Then we went to readings by <a href="http://www.offaspress.co.uk/">Offa's Press</a>, and <a href="http://www.ninearchespress.com/">Nine Arches Press</a> - I bought Nick Pearson's collection 'Made in Captivity', and Angela France's 'Lessons in Mallemaroking'. <br />
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Among the large heaps of ice still lurking on street corners were colourful boards which turned out to be Dada Poetry Orienteering. I absolutely loved this! <br />
Here's my Dada Poem:<br /><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Line up alphabetically, by height,<br />Animal Upright - Grey and Purple.<br />Always a Plum, if you<br />could lick the surface of Jupiter.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Wild!</span><br />
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I read myself from my first collection '<a href="http://www.overstepsbooks.com/cat/not-lost-since-last-time/">Not Lost Since Last Time</a>' with Oversteps Poets - a huge treat to read with R V Bailey, Charles Bennett and Alwyn Marriage. We had a packed and lovely audience, thanks all, then dinner in the George and Dragon with Andy Forster from the Wordsworth Trust, then a fantastic reading from Carol Ann Duffy, Sean Borodale and Imtiaz Dharker.<br />
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Sunday I went off to find <a href="http://emergencypoet.com/">Emergency Poet</a> (my friend Deborah Alma) - who was having a weekend of High Demand for Poetic Cures. Nurse Verse (who was really Kate) was dressed in her Poemedic outfit because it's warmer, and reported soothing the anxious patients as they waited for their turn in the ambulance. Well worth clicking on the pic to read their ecstatic feedback (though I'm not sure about the one who says they have an attack of the Rumis).<br />
Later I read from my pamphlet '<a href="http://thedogdaysofdumfriesshire.blogspot.co.uk/p/read-review-buy-book.html">The Dark Farms</a>' and the slide show of the Galloway Forest worked a treat, thank you the technicians of the Edge. I also enjoyed meeting and listening to Paul Kingsnorth, with whom I shared the bill.<br />And a fabulous last night with all my family along to see Benjamin Zephaniah. Just how often have you seen a poet begged for an encore?<br /><br />
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Jean@ WordSparkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169262956196681888noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-2125334676884789752013-03-24T10:11:00.003-07:002013-03-24T10:13:22.552-07:00One must have a mind of winter<div style="margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 50px; margin-right: 50px;">
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One must have a mind of winter</div>
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To regard the frost and the boughs</div>
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Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;</div>
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And have been cold a long time...</div>
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as Wallace Stevens put it (<i>The Snow Man</i>). I'm the kind of wimp that if in doubt wears several vests, and is properly respectful about having no power for days on end - but today I know I'm missing out on experiencing south-west Scotland's heaviest snowfall in decades, and there's a sting in that.</div>
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So this blog post is a wallow in the white stuff, with poetry to sharpen the experience denied to me in actuality.<br />
Here's a beautiful photo of a small child (dressed in red!) absorbing the world made new near Dalbeattie.<br />
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Look at winter</div>
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With winter eyes...</div>
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<i>Douglas Florian</i></div>
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And here the beach under snow at Portpatrick, on the Rhinns in Galloway. It's about as far west as you can go, a soft coast of Atlantic air and Gulf Stream warmth. Just south of here is Logan Botanic Garden, where the palm trees must be bent with snow this afternoon.<br />
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the feathers</div>
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of some unimaginable bird</div>
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that loves us,</div>
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that is asleep now, and silent—</div>
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that has turned itself</div>
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into snow.</div>
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<i>Mary Oliver from 'White-Eyes'</i></div>
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And here is a lane near Tinwald, in Dumfriesshire. Snow re-writes.<br />
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The snow whirls over the courtyard's roses.</div>
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Didn't bring my boots and scarf, leafing</div>
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through books, don't know what to do with all this light!</div>
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<i>Tua Forsström (Poem of the Week in the Guardian recently)</i></div>
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Jean@ WordSparkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169262956196681888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-65192293370978620102013-03-11T16:51:00.001-07:002013-03-11T16:51:56.771-07:00How it snowed on StAnza 2013, but poetry melted usDry, bitter snowflakes whirled in the streets of St Andrews, where StAnza International Poetry Festival merely gained in warmth and conviviality as the thermometer fell. I'm just back from a fab four days in the north.<br />
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Highlights for me were Gillian Clarke reading from 'Ice', and explaining the principles of cynghanedd - and Eurig Salisbury reading in Welsh. Mark Doty read a beautiful poem about a - dog. Rare, that, but this one was perfectly weighted, humane, moving. Wasn't really just about the dog. <br />
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I fell big time for 'Found in the Fields', <a href="http://www.carryakroyd.co.uk/">Carrie Akroyd</a>'s work on John Clare. You felt it was a collaboration. <br />
Alvin Pang was great, and over my last Poetry Breakfast I heard him reading in Chinese, and then the translation. All the Poetry Breakfast discussions were absorbing. I especially enjoyed listening to friends Dave Borthwick and Andy Forster talking with Mandy Haggith and Carry Akroyd about how poetry engages with the environment. I had to rush from that one though, to beat my way through Arctic winds to St. John's Undercroft for my reading with Zoe Skoulding. <br />
Which was a sell-out, especially appreciated as it was the official launch of my first collection from Oversteps Books, '<a href="http://thedogdaysofdumfriesshire.blogspot.co.uk/p/read-review-buy-book.html">Not Lost Since Last Time</a>'. (Mandy Haggith told me later how she got the last ticket). I had a lovely audience, and since I went first I was able to enjoy listening to Zoe's work too.<br />
John Burnside's Masterclass was fascinating, and ran to time, though I could have taken more. Dumfries and Galloway poet Em Strang put in a tremendously strong poem, as did Fife based poet Barbara Davey.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jean Johnstone's book (collaboration with Jane Hirshfield)</td></tr>
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In the middle of one busy day I walked very fast (to avoid hypothermia) down to the Westport Cafe where I met with artist Jean Johnstone, who had brought her handmade artists books, created in collaboration with poets, specially to show me. We set the coffee and soup safely away to the other side of the table, and slowly unwrapped rough silk cloths to reveal the books. When I picked up the first book, I gasped. It had no weight at all, yet substance, like holding a songbird, with the same sense of both frailty and life pulsing. Jean sets words and images into beeswax, and the books retain a faint scent of wax alongside the woodiness of handmade and hand-moulded paper. Sensational. And she's coming to <a href="http://ludlowfringe.co.uk/page.php?Plv=2&P1=8&P2=4&P3=">Ludlow Fringe</a> to do a special event in June. Don't miss.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">From 'Unmapped'</td></tr>
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And I loved '<a href="http://www.unmapped-project.co.uk/index.htm">Unmapped</a>' an exhibition and poetry book by poet Rebecca Sharp and artist Anna King.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gael Turnbull's 'The Edinburgh Poem'</td></tr>
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And I played with Gael Turnbull's famous 'Edinburgh Poem' (slot the words together in magical serendipitous ways that always work). <br />
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And met Maureen Sangster and Paula Jennings, and admired their work on the collaborative Farlin project, involving artists and poets from Fife and Shetland. And we all missed The Byre as a venue, and hope it'll be back before long, but the spirit of StAnza certainly remained in place. And John Hegley and Jacob Sam la Rose were just great, as was Erin Moure's twinkly humour and experimental mind. I could go on, but it's my bedtime.<br />
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Basically, if you can get to StAnza next year, go.<br />
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<br />Jean@ WordSparkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169262956196681888noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-9947985278867671212013-02-20T14:40:00.000-08:002013-02-20T14:40:15.363-08:00Magma Poetry Awards Night<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me and a Magma<br /></td></tr>
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London was freezing cold, Bloomsbury at its sharpest. Like any good provincial I was distracted by the window displays but was securely borne along by my London-based friend so that we arrived at the RADA Studios almost without my noticing. <br />
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Inside, all was warm and friendly. We were briefed about the running order and given our free copy of Magma, before swigging some wine. <br />
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Short poems first, with winners reading both their own and a favourite written by someone else. This was often a perfect sidestep from where they'd started from, very good to listen to. Paul Stephenson, the winner, was really, really good, reading 'The Pull', a poem of 10 short lines, that began: 'Moon is a dare:// a raid on a haystack,/a stock of silver,/a salver of harvest...'<br />
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Then we had the specially commissioned poems from Moniza Alvi, Simon Barraclough, Tom Chivers and Claire Crowther: varied, surprising, skillful. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Paul Stephenson 1st Prize short poem<br /></td></tr>
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Gillian Clarke read from 'Ice'. I willed her to read 'Polar', the poem about the polar bear rug - and she did. <br />'I'm dreaming on the white bear's shoulder,/paddling the slow hours, my fingers in his fur'.<br /><br />She was a smiling, generous judge, who although she said she wouldn't comment on individual poems then suddenly changed her mind and did so. <br />Which did make us all very happy. I read my shortlisted poem <i>John Henderson Walks</i>, happy to think of it under Gillian's stone on her piano, having made it to her 'Maybe' pile. <br /><br />I thought the top 3 poems Gillian chose were all exceptional. Amali Rodrigo (who had come all the way from Mumbai!) read Glacier Lagoon, with its attenuated, perfect, inevitable metaphors - 'learning a new language// unable to shake off the foot-fall/ of an old tongue, floes drift, hang//back at the river-mouth, shape-shifting/...<div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gillian Clarke</td></tr>
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In Lucy Ingrams' poem Snow Tide, the 2nd prize winner, we were again breathing cold air, in a poem so understated you are halfway through before it makes its meaning simply, terribly clear: 'She starts, "You are my... my...?"/We laugh and answer, "...daughters!"/It takes no hold, she starts/again, stirs salt into our tea.// I trace the valley's freeze...'<br />
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Third prize winner Rosemary Hudis took me instantly and simply back to the house I grew up in with 'The Women of my Childhood' ...'who, as I came out of the fog/of my own play in a brick-quiet/yard, back through a kitchen door/were always bending/away into another act//their hands vanishing into bowls'<br />
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Thank you Magma for such a well planned, warmly executed evening. It was a treat to meet Rebecca Bilkau after we'd collaborated on the <a href="http://jeanatwordsparks.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/in-which-its-summer-in-december.html">Solstice poems project</a> last midsummer. And also Laurie Smith, Rosie Shepperd, Anja Konig, Simon Barraclough and Anne-Marie Fyfe. And finally, thank you Shona, who looked after me for two days. Long ago, we ran off to France by bicycle for a whole year, in the interests of avoiding Thatcher's Britain. But this week, as well as getting me safely to the Magma Awards, she took me to the Schwitters in Britain exhibition (which is another story, a good one), the John Soane Museum (weird corridors of the mind) and very much more.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Amali Rodrigo 1st prize winner</td></tr>
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Jean@ WordSparkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169262956196681888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-54431107649420567582013-02-13T11:04:00.000-08:002013-02-13T11:04:35.594-08:00'Not Lost Since Last Time' is published!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So excited to have copies of my full first collection from Oversteps Books actually sitting in a humble cardboard box on the floor of my cubby hole. <br />
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Should you want one, I have some copies to sell therefore. However, I cannot currently fathom what PayPal has done with my account and my 'Button' on this blog. (I log into PayPal, and all is deserted like no Button ever existed... though I get the <i>impression</i> they work for my other pamphlets.) <br />
While I'm locked in an unsatisfactory email exchange with them, do please just email me on jean at wordsparks.co.uk if you'd like a copy of Not Lost. £8.50 inc P&P, and my grateful thanks.<br />
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<br />Jean@ WordSparkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169262956196681888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-79816025127204193392013-02-08T09:47:00.002-08:002013-02-08T09:47:42.639-08:00A Poetry Party! Weekend for Ludlow<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I'm really enjoying working with Deb Alma (that's the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Emergency-Poet/242639889112296?fref=ts">Emergency Poet,</a> she of the white coat and the vintage ambulance, bringing joy to the verse-starved) as we develop a weekend of poetry for Ludlow Fringe.<br />
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Ludlow Fringe will take place from 21st to 30th June, and the first weekend will be A Poetry Party! (The exclamation mark in this case being part of the title). Wholly in keeping with the zeitgeist, there is no budget but nonetheless we have had so many excellent poets offering to come at their own expense to read/perform/lead workshops/add to the general gaiety. And of course we are trying to raise some dosh as well.<br />
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So far, we have a headliner reading from Helen Ivory and Brian Johnstone; and Helen will be judging the Ludlow Fringe Poetry Competition. Brian will take a Masterclass, to which you can submit poems, he will provide a crit, which is discussed with the poets and with the involvement of an audience. It's a fascinating process and we're so lucky to be able to offer this.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Work by Jean Johnstone in collaboration with Jane Hirshfield</td></tr>
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And then - we'll have readings from Liz Lefroy, David Calcutt, John Killick and Angela Topping... Angela will also be judging our Young People's Poetry Competition, and running a workshop. Artist Jean Johnstone will give a presentation and discussion of her beautiful work making artists books in collaboration with poets (she has recently worked with Jane Hirshfield, also with John Burnside and Kathleen Jamie). Writing West Midlands will be there to run a writers' information and networking session.<br />
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There will be poetry mummers performing in the town, and the Emergency Poet can be consulted in her ambulance in Castle Square.<br />
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Dizzy yet? All weekend there will be a room given over to the wild - in the shape of <i>POETRY IS PANTS!</i> We invite you (and that's poets of any age) to write your own poem on the subject of pants.....could be smarty pants, royal pants, pants for cold weather, magic pants, furry pants, animals’ pants, favourite pants, spy pants, pirate pants, witch pants, bank robber pants, dangerous pants......(or knickers!)<br /><br />……or you could write a poem about socks...<br />
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We provide the templates, and you write your poem on a pair of pants (or socks), decorate according to taste (or no taste) and we'll peg it on the washing line outside the <a href="http://www.ludlowmascallcentre.co.uk/">Ludlow Mascall Centre</a> on Lower Galdeford in beautiful Ludlow.<br /><br />(Big thanks also to the excellent Ludlow Mascall Centre, who are providing their very fine venue for nothing, and there will be a lovely cafe open, and a sundrenched, stone-flagged garden). <br />
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More and better will appear on the <a href="http://ludlowfringe.co.uk/">Ludlow Fringe website</a> as we go along. Look out for info on those competitions, we promise prizes...Jean@ WordSparkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169262956196681888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-13521085192129012052013-01-25T02:07:00.001-08:002013-01-25T02:07:46.204-08:00Hooray! a poem published on 'And Other Poems'<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thoroughly encouraged this morning to see my poem 'George Aiken's Map' published by w<span style="background-color: #fafafa; font-style: inherit; line-height: 14px;">riter and tutor Josephine Corcoran on her blog 'And Other Poems'.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; font-style: inherit; line-height: 14px;">I've always enjoyed reading her eclectic, open-hearted selection of poetry on this blog - so I'm very proud to see my work there.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: #fafafa; font-style: inherit; line-height: 14px;">Click <a href="http://andotherpoems.wordpress.com/"><span style="color: #e69138;">here</span></a> to find 'And Other Poems', if you haven't yet.</span></span>Jean@ WordSparkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169262956196681888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-43665249718027706932013-01-22T02:56:00.000-08:002013-01-22T02:56:29.511-08:00A Horse in the House<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vpMovKFtGUY/UP5rt_YhoNI/AAAAAAAAATg/S0U09eghH8U/s1600/Blossom+Jan2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vpMovKFtGUY/UP5rt_YhoNI/AAAAAAAAATg/S0U09eghH8U/s400/Blossom+Jan2013.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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Blossom is visibly an old horse. (She's been living with us in one cottage and then another for over 20 years). I rescued her from the barn eventually, where she'd been put 'temporarily' at some point) and fetched her down to Ludlow.</div>
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I need to find a very large hook and hang her up again on the wall.</div>
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<span style="line-height: normal;">She was built by artist and musician </span><a href="http://www.howdenjones.co.uk/intro.php" style="line-height: normal;">Kate Howden</a><span style="line-height: normal;"> for a community play in South Somerset. A little craquelure, barn-dust and paint-peel (and the deep snow lying outside) has only enhanced Blossom's affinity to Ted Hughes' poem 'Horses'...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I climbed through woods in the hour-before-dawn dark.<br />Evil air, a frost-making stillness,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Not a leaf, not a bird-<br />A world cast in frost. I came out above the wood</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Where my breath left tortuous statues in the iron light.<br />But the valleys were draining the darkness</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Till the moorline – blackening dregs of the brightening grey –</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Halved the sky ahead. And I saw the horses:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Huge in the dense grey –ten together –</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Megalith-still. They breathed, making no move,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">With draped manes and tilted hind-hooves,<br />Making no sound.</span></div>
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...Jean@ WordSparkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169262956196681888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-82649976110803253752013-01-06T02:46:00.003-08:002013-01-12T06:38:06.229-08:00Gareth Owen at Shrewsbury Coffee House Poetry Night<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W0mrJ7Tivw8/UOlHTYTzmUI/AAAAAAAAASI/Wc14AIktrnQ/s1600/Shrewsbury+Coffee+House+Poetry+Jan2013+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="226" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-W0mrJ7Tivw8/UOlHTYTzmUI/AAAAAAAAASI/Wc14AIktrnQ/s320/Shrewsbury+Coffee+House+Poetry+Jan2013+(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Organiser Liz Lefroy makes us all feel welcome</td></tr>
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Last Thursday the lovely Shrewsbury Coffee House welcomed in a large and lively audience for its monthly Poetry Night. Renowned poet, playwright and performer Gareth Owen was first-footing it into 2013 for us.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gareth Owen waves his specs for 'Are Yer There Moriarty?'</td></tr>
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What it's all about for Gareth is the sound of people talking. He set off with readings from his <i>Collected Poems for Children</i>, instantly entrancing us with <i>'Are Yer There Moriarty?'</i>, in which Uncle Arthur appalls the aunties and thrills the children by taking off his footwear and hanging his feet in 'condemned socks' where all could not avoid them. <br />
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That was not, in any way, the full strength of what Uncle Arthur did - after the '<i>sensitive ones who pressed flowers'</i> had faded away and <i>'only the strong were left'</i> they all played '<i>Are Yer There Moriarty?'</i> which involved a pitched battle with a rolled up copy of The Liverpool Echo.<br />
By the last lines the audience had become a little overwrought and had to steady up with gulps of our host venue's stonking coffee (thank you Evie and Simon). <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gareth singing us deadpan songs</td></tr>
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Gareth however did not let up the pace, and we had to cope with '<i>Miss Creedle teaches Creative Writing'.</i><br />
<i>'This morning,' cries Miss Creedle,<br />'We're all going to use our imaginations'</i><br />
We all winced along, and Miss Creedle importuned her class with suggestions:<br />
<i>'Foetid is an exciting adjective'..</i>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fine coffee, bottled beer and happy January people</td></tr>
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Gareth rounded off his set by introducing us to his alter ego, Virgil Clenthills, and taking to song and a keyboard. The pace never slackened and the air of theatre was only enhanced when at the last minute, an elegant blonde lady in a magnificent red woollen scarf swept up to the front and excused her early departure in husky Italian. <br />
"Ciao bella", smiled Virgil Clenthills, all unfazed.<br />
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Poetry Night at Shrewsbury Coffee House will be back on Thursday 7 February, when you can hear Rosie Shepperd (one of the winners of 2011's Poetry <span style="font-family: inherit;">Business <span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">Book & Pamphlet Competition), </span></span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">poet and novelist </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 18px;">Julia Bell, Jack Edwards and, er, me.</span><br />
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<br />Jean@ WordSparkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04169262956196681888noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-60115756833321171302012-12-28T11:29:00.003-08:002012-12-28T11:29:36.824-08:00Windows for Burns Night 2013 (there's just time)<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now we've, roughly speaking, survived 2012, the inspired combo of Hugh Bryden and Dave Borthwick are once again calling on living poets to help celebrate Scotland's best dead bard, Robert Burns.</span><div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKVf17twKjD_e2UIVEvhupXAU66H790yMV6ixYAJxIGIoCaR1NWAnDnAs7RQb93Qh7BVgQP_bfFsbigPAEvCMSND_wIAuygGKnL8aEEwNQMms8sRDPin4z9y9g4_eaNDD8YY6vbzZZvKU/s1600/JA+Coach&H+1+Windows+for+Burns+Dumfries+January+2012+%232+011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKVf17twKjD_e2UIVEvhupXAU66H790yMV6ixYAJxIGIoCaR1NWAnDnAs7RQb93Qh7BVgQP_bfFsbigPAEvCMSND_wIAuygGKnL8aEEwNQMms8sRDPin4z9y9g4_eaNDD8YY6vbzZZvKU/s320/JA+Coach&H+1+Windows+for+Burns+Dumfries+January+2012+%232+011.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Handwritten poems will fill the windows of the Globe Inn, The Coach and Horses and the Robert Burns House Museum from 14th January to 11th February, and as Mr Burns' birthday was on 24th January, there'll be plenty of time to raise a glass to his memory. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Windows for Burns Night 2012 expanded rapidly into an international event with hundreds of poems being submitted from Scotland, Europe and the USA. <b>If you want to take part this year, you should write your poem in a bold black pen onto an A4 sheet of paper, scan/save as jpeg and email to roncandorapress@gmail.com by Monday 7th January. </b></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwtNLywGyhl9GTufB0mvx17894N-A4Kwy-4BpV0lzMQgRyjLd_49Wy3Lwsu8fonYOwR2wxQ5x_icC3uFjm3NkSoalxTYTsBTk6kfU8JpkckwXXU90CaIhT5dS-hb8iAR6QfUyqr8aK6cw/s1600/Kris+Haddow+burns+poem+window.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwtNLywGyhl9GTufB0mvx17894N-A4Kwy-4BpV0lzMQgRyjLd_49Wy3Lwsu8fonYOwR2wxQ5x_icC3uFjm3NkSoalxTYTsBTk6kfU8JpkckwXXU90CaIhT5dS-hb8iAR6QfUyqr8aK6cw/s320/Kris+Haddow+burns+poem+window.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;">A ballot of Globe Inn customers selected o</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">ne poem written by Kelloholm poet Kris Haddow which has been engraved on a window pane in the pub.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And here's the original, by the Man himself.</span></span></div>
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Jean Atkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09619733874421657191noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-22761733107388823942012-12-16T13:22:00.001-08:002012-12-17T00:31:29.992-08:00Early Christmas present! A free download of 'The Crow House' this Saturday<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHOGWshpkre1fCJSgq7mAEyRIpS3pdrOadPyOlxtxh9iBXOxaa9s9zKNVleZCVbnkWLun5nBKN5gAp9K9bjdmD9MZhCh4XGtC6o-BNrVffTzlvOnE5ZEiLL3_mxDk-PEitfObpk70Jrw4/s1600/the-crow-house-cover2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHOGWshpkre1fCJSgq7mAEyRIpS3pdrOadPyOlxtxh9iBXOxaa9s9zKNVleZCVbnkWLun5nBKN5gAp9K9bjdmD9MZhCh4XGtC6o-BNrVffTzlvOnE5ZEiLL3_mxDk-PEitfObpk70Jrw4/s320/the-crow-house-cover2.png" width="249" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;">Another chance to read <i>The Crow House</i> for free via an Amazon promotion this Saturday 22 December. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;">Tie a knot in your hanky or get somebody organised to remind you and then download it for nothing to your Kindle/mobile devices/humble PC by clicking <span style="color: purple;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Crow-House-ebook/dp/B009YDWBOW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355304936&sr=8-1" target="_blank">here</a></span>.</b><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;" /><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;">Lovely reviews of The Crow House are already coming in - this from a 12 year old:</b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"I read this on my dad's Kindle and wasn’t sure if I’d like it or not. But it was really gripping and original. The time travel in this book is different from other ones I’ve read because it happens unexpectedly and causes trouble for Holly and Callum. It’s quite scary and I recommend it.”</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><b><span style="font-family: inherit;">and this one left on Amazon:</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"As a child I loved books like The Owl Service and House at Green Knowe, and this is in that vein - stories where the past and present mix, with some frightening results. </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 24px;">There is a strong female lead (always a good thing) but with a main boy character too. It is strongly rooted in a place with vivid descriptions.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 24px;">"</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><b>Please do tell me what you thought of <i>The Crow House</i>, or post a review on Amazon. Or you can find The Crow House on Facebook <a href="http://www.facebook.com/TheCrowHouse?ref=hl" target="_blank">here</a>.</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18px;"><b><br /></b></span></span>Jean Atkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09619733874421657191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-50679041666546189942012-12-16T00:57:00.002-08:002012-12-16T02:52:58.253-08:00Write Outside InI went for a walk a couple of weekends ago: early December, the border of Herefordshire and Shropshire, a hard frost. As I walked, I wrote, which is a habit. (So is talking to myself, unfortunately). And took photographs on my trusty point-and-shoot. Later on I had an idea, which I'm thinking of as 'Write Outside In'.<br />
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I put together my walk as a series of photographs, with short poems. If I was really clever I'd have put them through PowerPoint and converted them to video, and embedded it here. Or something. As it is, they're photos with poems in, but it's an attempt to record one walk, taken at one time, with the disparate imaginings and associations we carry along as baggage. Or rucksack. That's why it's Write Outside In, in this case, for a 5 mile walk near Richards Castle. <br />
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Hope you like them. Oh, and click on the photos so they enlarge enough to read anything.<br />
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<br />Jean Atkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09619733874421657191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-67946574961773435052012-12-10T14:29:00.000-08:002012-12-10T14:29:08.808-08:00Finding Poetry at Shrewsbury Coffee House<span style="font-family: inherit;">What a friendly place Shropshire is. Last Thursday night I found myself on the way to Poetry Night at Shrewsbury Coffee House, gathered up in person by Deb Alma, who is the Emergency Poet. I'd already had a warm welcome on Facebook and then another one in the Coffee House as I was introduced to a whole rhyming dictionary of various poets.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Gorgeous venue - it had lights to die for, see below, and last Thursday the school coat racks that operate as a picture rail around the room were twined with twinkly little Christmas bulbs.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnnJ41g7bs95efSJTyT73Z1fIlrGZ9bDlixZ9c5mc0jpNCXet7DQWocdpLWH9Q4jS59WnKBHnzzwgj-yVtCz0erKXDntaOfU43WpbbNb0apajA9RNuoVYY3WQ0wONoH2Ye-X1SP5zpfQ/s1600/Shrewsbury-coffee-house-lam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSnnJ41g7bs95efSJTyT73Z1fIlrGZ9bDlixZ9c5mc0jpNCXet7DQWocdpLWH9Q4jS59WnKBHnzzwgj-yVtCz0erKXDntaOfU43WpbbNb0apajA9RNuoVYY3WQ0wONoH2Ye-X1SP5zpfQ/s320/Shrewsbury-coffee-house-lam.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Also, the coffee was good. Really very good, which is always a good portent. Turns out Poetry Nights at the Coffee House are a kind of well-managed open mic, where 8 poets are invited to do a spot of no more than 10 minutes each. There's an interval to buy the wonderful coffee (or bottled beer) and then more verse. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">It was all kept flowing and warm by organiser Liz Lefroy, who is<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> a Senior Lecturer in Social Care. She's had two poetry pamphlets published, <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Pretending the Weather</em> in 2011 and <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Gathering</em> in 2012, and she won the 2011 Roy Fisher Prize. <b> </b>I discovered that Deborah Alma had been a runner up; she was one of the readers on Thursday (and she was good). </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm looking forward to the next Poetry Night.</span></span>Jean Atkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09619733874421657191noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-37000582933297236072012-11-30T08:09:00.000-08:002012-11-30T08:09:02.939-08:00Verse for the Salt Smugglers I'm coming to the end of long, lovely project 'Viewpoint Voices', working with the National Scenic Areas Officer in Dumfries and Galloway.<br />
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We've taken many different groups of people, of different ages and backgrounds, up to the six viewpoints along this gloriously beautiful coast. The youngest was 8, the eldest folk certainly in their 80s (I was too tactful to ask). We created cinquains (like a slightly bigger haiku). We're putting them together into video-clips of 'Viewpoint Voices', where you hear each participant read out their cinquain, set over images of the coast. I will put them up.<br />
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I haven't often recorded anything I've written with these groups, but here's a cinquain for Gutcher's Isle, with its ruined laird's house and hall, its smugglers' bay, its legends of violent death and the threat of the excise men.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Cargoes<br />of salt we risked</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">at sea or sculled at night</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">through the stacks, our breathing shallow,<br />chancy.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="465" id="il_fi" src="http://www.walkscotland.plus.com/otherwalks/stew_s_area/porting/images/12a.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px;" width="620" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gutcher's Isle, near Rockcliffe, in summer, admittedly.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Jean Atkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09619733874421657191noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-10015075962270216852012-11-21T02:05:00.001-08:002012-11-25T13:40:04.648-08:00'The Crow House' is FREE this Saturday<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHOGWshpkre1fCJSgq7mAEyRIpS3pdrOadPyOlxtxh9iBXOxaa9s9zKNVleZCVbnkWLun5nBKN5gAp9K9bjdmD9MZhCh4XGtC6o-BNrVffTzlvOnE5ZEiLL3_mxDk-PEitfObpk70Jrw4/s1600/the-crow-house-cover2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Front cover of 'The Crow House'" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHOGWshpkre1fCJSgq7mAEyRIpS3pdrOadPyOlxtxh9iBXOxaa9s9zKNVleZCVbnkWLun5nBKN5gAp9K9bjdmD9MZhCh4XGtC6o-BNrVffTzlvOnE5ZEiLL3_mxDk-PEitfObpk70Jrw4/s320/the-crow-house-cover2.png" title="Front cover of 'The Crow House'" width="249" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Front cover of 'The Crow House'</td></tr>
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<b>Do help yourself to a FREE copy of <i>The Crow House</i> this Saturday 24 November. You can download it for nothing to your Kindle/mobile devices/humble PC by clicking <span style="color: purple;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Crow-House-ebook/dp/B009YDWBOW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352737234&sr=8-1" target="_blank">here</a></span>.</b><br />
<br />
<b>Reviews appeal! </b> Earn my undying gratitude by posting a review on Amazon! I gather that's what's needed to help <i>The Crow House</i> er, fly.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #783f04;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">...Drifting past the table with the glass case, he was struck by both
curiosity and rebellion. He fished in the drawer for the key, and
unlocked the top of the case.</span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #783f04;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">This was strictly forbidden by Liddy.</span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #783f04;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Callum lifted the glass lid, and settled it carefully back as far as its hinges would allow.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #783f04;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">The Grete Herball lay grandly in the safety of the case, not a very
large book, but thick and impressively bound in high quality tooled
leather, with gilt decoration. He bent his head and sniffed
appreciatively. Then he did the banned thing, and opened the covers.</span></span></span></span>Jean Atkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09619733874421657191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-44890332952650642412012-11-14T08:24:00.000-08:002012-11-14T08:24:58.775-08:00We launch 'The Dark Farms' in Dumfries - by candlelight<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNbF64xPq0cw_dLDUFcvZ8HKm32aXYTEqEnjbldyK-3aSl97VA46XJeEYm4Z2EQzKo0JdQZTJmYui_BXa6m5x5bcOYIHcaQMPAuWF0ZEPRZJ2lhiTZO35w1r09RT1P6ve0SlqXBPk0vfI/s1600/The+Dark+Farms_book1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNbF64xPq0cw_dLDUFcvZ8HKm32aXYTEqEnjbldyK-3aSl97VA46XJeEYm4Z2EQzKo0JdQZTJmYui_BXa6m5x5bcOYIHcaQMPAuWF0ZEPRZJ2lhiTZO35w1r09RT1P6ve0SlqXBPk0vfI/s320/The+Dark+Farms_book1.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'The Dark Farms', Roncadora Press 2012</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Roncadora Press are about to stage (and I think that's the right word) the Dumfries launch of 'The Dark Farms' on Wednesday 28 November.<br />
<br />
I'm looking forward to reading poems about the night skies of the Galloway Forest by candlelight in the cafe at Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries. <br />
<br />
The show starts at 7.30pm, free entry, and there Will Be Wine.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-WMsGRw3_NLvNerY2J_bhg9cE2h_03zaPFlYBnX9oaShY-s8nTjKymP3g2A5LvKjnXjgF0y0QT85HZCEmsOucYYnBgoEJujo0RnabyIUpeFDhWNOAJHXJIVemKK8hSpbQwgOLknRM1TE/s1600/untitled.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-WMsGRw3_NLvNerY2J_bhg9cE2h_03zaPFlYBnX9oaShY-s8nTjKymP3g2A5LvKjnXjgF0y0QT85HZCEmsOucYYnBgoEJujo0RnabyIUpeFDhWNOAJHXJIVemKK8hSpbQwgOLknRM1TE/s320/untitled.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">'The Dark Farms' will be read in a dark cafe...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Jean Atkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09619733874421657191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-12590026122285197282012-11-12T08:34:00.001-08:002012-11-12T08:34:40.411-08:00<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHOGWshpkre1fCJSgq7mAEyRIpS3pdrOadPyOlxtxh9iBXOxaa9s9zKNVleZCVbnkWLun5nBKN5gAp9K9bjdmD9MZhCh4XGtC6o-BNrVffTzlvOnE5ZEiLL3_mxDk-PEitfObpk70Jrw4/s1600/the-crow-house-cover2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHOGWshpkre1fCJSgq7mAEyRIpS3pdrOadPyOlxtxh9iBXOxaa9s9zKNVleZCVbnkWLun5nBKN5gAp9K9bjdmD9MZhCh4XGtC6o-BNrVffTzlvOnE5ZEiLL3_mxDk-PEitfObpk70Jrw4/s320/the-crow-house-cover2.png" width="249" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The front cover of 'The Crow House'</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The Crow House</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> is my new novel for 9-12 year olds. It's a mystery horror thriller set in Wigtown, a Georgian village by the sea - and Scotland's Book Town. Click </span><a href="http://thecrowhouse.wordpress.com/" style="background-color: white; color: #888888; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-decoration: initial;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> to find photos and read an extract on </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;">The Crow House</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"> website. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">Time travel was never this inconvenient – or terrifying. Holly and Callum have to cope with a dangerous old book, a witch (perhaps) and worst of all, the cold-eyed Hermetic Doctor of Wigtown: Jared Sliddery, inhabitant of The Crow House.</em><br />
<br />
<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: start;">Hooked by the slow charms of Wigtown, I started writing </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: start;">The Crow House</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: start;"> in 2005, when my eldest son was the right age. By 2007 I had a finished first draft, which he read before getting on with growing up. I managed to complete a second then third draft in time for my second son to read it in 2011 or so, and amid work, family, a smallholding and then a big house move involving three generations of us, I managed to thread my way through the formatting labyrinth to publish it on Kindle just in time for Halloween this year. So - </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; text-align: start;">The Crow House</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: start;"> is actually real and available from Amazon</span><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Crow-House-ebook/dp/B009YDWBOW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352737234&sr=8-1" style="color: #888888; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: start; text-decoration: initial;" target="_blank"> here</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: start;">. </span></em><br />
<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: start;">And you don't have to have a Kindle, actually - you can download it straight from Amazon to your pc.</span><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: start;" /><br style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: start;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: start;">If you do read it, and like it, then please do leave a little review or share to your FB friends. I'd love to hear from readers.</span></em><br />
<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; line-height: 18px; text-align: start;"><br /></span></em>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR6a0ySdDWIfr3vVTJUsZVDJKqm3CmIngk9CRa7EqTiqutN2G_1hC3zriPWLupgo5rkhzJwElC_I6Uuntlq7eaKtR36gm9JEDB8xIvSGvJJBLYcvERvJQXm7-S49i5XoQjhizVkbGYv_4/s1600/Door+and+bell+Wigtown+lr.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR6a0ySdDWIfr3vVTJUsZVDJKqm3CmIngk9CRa7EqTiqutN2G_1hC3zriPWLupgo5rkhzJwElC_I6Uuntlq7eaKtR36gm9JEDB8xIvSGvJJBLYcvERvJQXm7-S49i5XoQjhizVkbGYv_4/s320/Door+and+bell+Wigtown+lr.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wigtown is full of irresistible front doors... </td></tr>
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<em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"></em>Jean Atkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09619733874421657191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-21763807583089684182012-10-19T03:34:00.000-07:002012-10-19T03:34:00.875-07:00On discovering Nantucket and the Angel<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_OttIva8nTNGpHuLDhB8_K98L7yd-CebDwqXol7o_all-g5INH2Hzo1fz2r4UoXjrADobXN4IlBvRnPD1Hm4aGBphC_7SgjJwgx_CnajhAOAUoJLGycWQD8pqAOriiBFxR11S-Uc60Bg/s1600/nantucket.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_OttIva8nTNGpHuLDhB8_K98L7yd-CebDwqXol7o_all-g5INH2Hzo1fz2r4UoXjrADobXN4IlBvRnPD1Hm4aGBphC_7SgjJwgx_CnajhAOAUoJLGycWQD8pqAOriiBFxR11S-Uc60Bg/s1600/nantucket.gif" /></a></div>
I found it in the public library. Let's hear it for Britain's embattled public libraries! I opened the book by the shelves and was gripped from the first lines of Gillian Allnutt's prologue:<br />'the saints set off without their woolly vests<br />
the little saints set off into the snow<br />
they leave behind their hagiographies<br />
but humbly take their shoes'<br />
<br />
Her words plunged me instantly into another space, the long ago of other kinds of purpose. She reflects on age, other generations, spiritual life and the way it catches on objects and places. There is humour too, in incongruity and a keen, wry, sense of the ridiculous.<br />
<br />
This now out-of-print collection from Bloodaxe, published in 1997, was shortlisted for the TS Eliot. Allnutt's preoccupations of secular and sacred thread the work, many poems step one from another with a linking word or thought. The poems are close-ups, often invocations.<br />
'Half lovely is the little morning light<br />
in patches.<br />
I have brought Harriet's sleeve to gather<br />
in running stitches.'<br />
<i>(My heart unsettled)</i><br />
<br />
The half-rhymes are characteristic, and fantastically crafted -<br />
'There is the big yellow bucket of weed and wedding.<br />
There on the hill are the wet stars wading.<br />
There is Rembrandt's mother reading.' <br />
<i>(Ennui)</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Or from the gorgeous, intoning poem<i> 'On hesitating to depict my grandmother'</i> -<br />
'Her stone's among the stones<br />
of gentlemen within the wall, the toll<br />
of bell, bird-chortle.<br />
But she's flown.'<br />
<br />
Bloodaxe do help you in a bit. This is the 'spiritual biography of Allnutt's imagined 90 year-old 'elder ego' Nantucket, and her impact on a too-long-lingering angel Gabriel as he falls under her mad spell'. <br />
(There's a poem where the angel takes himself off the cathedral and rolls himself a fag, and lights a candle for Nantucket's soul).<br />
<br />
I've renewed it once already. I'll have to find a copy.<br />
<br />Jean Atkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09619733874421657191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-87190265255000404112012-10-16T07:46:00.002-07:002012-10-16T07:46:58.569-07:00A Move with The Crow Road<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGKOepntMhlXj2UgsyRGw8VgwOkOu-_ibhEnXkegvVjzybxEr8gHszkx42uoMHD4RGH9B_JIdUevDUOhBGLZOcyWIduCR064X12un1Dh8fIXskUUCJE20V9ktR94KNmJQs8prSlHFXp54/s1600/crow+road.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGKOepntMhlXj2UgsyRGw8VgwOkOu-_ibhEnXkegvVjzybxEr8gHszkx42uoMHD4RGH9B_JIdUevDUOhBGLZOcyWIduCR064X12un1Dh8fIXskUUCJE20V9ktR94KNmJQs8prSlHFXp54/s1600/crow+road.jpg" /></a></div>
Caught in the mayhem of moving house, heartstrings still twanging for Scotland, and because I found it when finding anything in a couple of hundred brown boxes was a small marvel, I've been reading (well, re-reading - but it was a long time ago) 'The Crow Road' by the very fine Iain Banks. <br />
<br />
The one that starts 'It was the day my grandmother exploded.' <br />
<br />
What an extraordinary canter through a coming-of-age experience - a family so gothically packed with eccentrics, missing people, wife-beaters, runaways, atheists, poets and as it turns out, murderers. Satisfying, of course, that it's a member of the posh end of the family who eventually turns out to have gone so thoroughly to the bad. On the way you can't help noticing the phenomenal amount of alcohol - and more - that accompanies the revelations and (frequently) catastrophic decisions taken by our youthful protagonist. But you have to love him, and all the many and various voices of this novel. <br />
<br />
Still a great read, and a truly helpful distraction from the personal chaos inflicted on my family by British Telecom. Two months and still no phone...Jean Atkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09619733874421657191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-68876635613034392562012-09-28T02:46:00.001-07:002012-09-28T02:46:35.284-07:00Launch of 'The Dark Farms'<br />
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">I've been happily distracted for a couple of days creating a slideshow for my reading </span><span style="font-size: 15px;">at Wigtown Book Festival on Wednesday 3 October when m</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">y new
pamphlet from Roncadora Press, </span><i style="font-size: 11pt;">The Dark
Farms, </i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">will be officially launched. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlUclwfPcyQ6kw8KdNFIIdNxc0BFSeKRvo4jLg6ZfkmqOFnV_3VM_UqX3qCCtfFlfqB9oNUUiCw8qDbaB9CIgIVoOUzCN6_XxTrGKjX5vcYUI9YNzgcHFtpnznxmqxtMQH0AzJ2Nj_8k0/s1600/Dark+Farms+Glenhead++yew+and+boulders+lr+bw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlUclwfPcyQ6kw8KdNFIIdNxc0BFSeKRvo4jLg6ZfkmqOFnV_3VM_UqX3qCCtfFlfqB9oNUUiCw8qDbaB9CIgIVoOUzCN6_XxTrGKjX5vcYUI9YNzgcHFtpnznxmqxtMQH0AzJ2Nj_8k0/s320/Dark+Farms+Glenhead++yew+and+boulders+lr+bw.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">The Dark Farms</span></i><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">
focuses on the Galloway Forest Park, its depopulated glens, shrinking
agriculture and extraordinarily dark skies. I worked on <i>The Dark Farms</i>
for eight months during 2011, walking the Forest, talking to residents and
reading old books and maps. I also
spent quite a few hours dodging 2011’s steady rain in Newton Stewart Museum,
which was where I first encountered the Bull Mask, and the Necklace of Horse's Teeth.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">What emerged is poetry about very remote
places; saturated stones; the ghosts of sheep; the vast night skies. I took photos of abandoned sheepfolds, farms with their windows bricked up, rotting carthorse stalls.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11.0pt;">Award-winning publisher
Roncadora Press is owned by artist Hugh Bryden, who has created a handmade
‘black book’ for <i>The Dark Farms</i>,
complete with black edged pages, poems lit only by stars and an embossed front
cover.<i> </i>If so moved, you can buy it at
Wigtown Book Festival and then via <a href="http://www.hughbryden.com/">www.hughbryden.com</a>.
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-style: italic;">The Dark Farms</span><b style="font-style: italic;"> </b>is </span><span style="font-size: 11.0pt;"> in the Main
Hall in the County Buildings at 1.30pm, tickets cost £6. Please book via the Book Festival website -
click <a href="http://www.wigtownbookfestival.com/book-festival-scotland-event.asp?wbf=1923&festivalday=2012-10-03">here</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Jean Atkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09619733874421657191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-56952071228260497632012-08-19T14:32:00.000-07:002012-08-19T14:32:52.391-07:00It must be in the stars...<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRZkllxc7eZdN7NQlnS26fvXYbwpCl-gaOLoCBua16NyDJM8YVpmDD3EGjEj1ew38vwfY05X83hSG4gv6EJZ5FxXOrAdp47P16U7CpUZJrmib7bf_aa0sN9q0zKFp0wtZt4lebgCv5guM/s1600/The+Bull+Mask+lr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRZkllxc7eZdN7NQlnS26fvXYbwpCl-gaOLoCBua16NyDJM8YVpmDD3EGjEj1ew38vwfY05X83hSG4gv6EJZ5FxXOrAdp47P16U7CpUZJrmib7bf_aa0sN9q0zKFp0wtZt4lebgCv5guM/s320/The+Bull+Mask+lr.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bull Mask in Newton Stewart Museum<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Now he sees what<br />the bull sees: two dim<br />curved worlds.<br />He swings his head<br />and now and then<br />a horn of daylight splinters<br />from the edge.</span></td></tr>
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The wayward laws of serendipity have introduced me to artists Jo Hodges and Robbie Coleman, who have been appointed artists in residence for the Galloway Dark Skies Park and Galloway and South Ayrshire Biosphere.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRLnlF0F4Gb4HvjxAifQafLH0ru0cnqo9Xum_zZiNbs_epKG6TY9yvscEeFlZqQmqGpzsWaiYrk_8nQu5GgeL-8HefQYIKExhUhFWcfwM3jeWC2ob4k7pkkKsfwRTIraLW-boPTrAZwiQ/s1600/Dark+Farms+Glenhead+and+Holm+Wood+027+oak+growing+from+stone+lr+bw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRLnlF0F4Gb4HvjxAifQafLH0ru0cnqo9Xum_zZiNbs_epKG6TY9yvscEeFlZqQmqGpzsWaiYrk_8nQu5GgeL-8HefQYIKExhUhFWcfwM3jeWC2ob4k7pkkKsfwRTIraLW-boPTrAZwiQ/s320/Dark+Farms+Glenhead+and+Holm+Wood+027+oak+growing+from+stone+lr+bw.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Forest near the Buchan Burn<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">...We breathe in oak air, laced<br />with draughts of peat and the sudden<br />swing of a jay.</span></td></tr>
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My new collection, 'The Dark Farms', published by <a href="http://www.hughbryden.com/?page_id=14" target="_blank">Roncadora Press</a>, will be launched with a reading at <a href="http://www.wigtownbookfestival.com/documents/WigtownBookFestival2012.pdf" target="_blank">Wigtown Book Festival </a>on Wednesday 3 October, as part of the Festival's Dark Skies strand. I had a great meeting with Jo and Robbie, who are planning a variety of curious and interactive ways to introduce the Dark Skies Park to festival-goers, and we're developing a collaboration which looks really exciting. For more click <a href="http://darkskiesresidency.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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I spent 8 months of 2011 walking in the Forest, exploring ruins, talking to residents, poring over old maps and books and (while dodging some of last summer's rain) delving in Newton Stewart Museum. I became completely absorbed by this remote, roadless place where hill farming is shrinking back off the high ground, and farms are abandoned, in some cases disappearing completely, except for a placename on a map, under the commercial forest plantings that have been put in during the second half of the 20th century. The nights are very black, and very starry, with an extraordinary lack of light pollution.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYib5tO6Wq0K8fntm2oLCg1_8ZkwJukYwbmWgHr-G_UasP0OyIz4DL3ijxKHZT2BGwj0HhUrI8h9JkxAQFKobUFOKWuY0Mbw0ZZvC97tjVrKMz-11LyMW6ElSWhUkAI_2Oj-gLvOBIr1A/s1600/Dark+Farms+Glenhead+bricked+up+lr+bw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYib5tO6Wq0K8fntm2oLCg1_8ZkwJukYwbmWgHr-G_UasP0OyIz4DL3ijxKHZT2BGwj0HhUrI8h9JkxAQFKobUFOKWuY0Mbw0ZZvC97tjVrKMz-11LyMW6ElSWhUkAI_2Oj-gLvOBIr1A/s320/Dark+Farms+Glenhead+bricked+up+lr+bw.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Bricked up farm at Glenhead</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">...I touch raw breezeblock</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">mortared where the panes should be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The same for every window, every door.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">In every room, the dark's walled in.</span></div>
Jean Atkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09619733874421657191noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-860729132343725174.post-52451586818592483722012-07-24T11:20:00.000-07:002012-07-24T11:20:16.906-07:00Locating the Nest through the TramblesIn Edinburgh's almost-sunshine, on the final day of the exhibition at the Royal Botanic Gardens, we finally went, hauling along our sceptical teenagers. But do you know? They liked it.<br />
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Locating the Nest has been a collaborative exhibition involving willow artist <a href="http://www.lizziefarey.co.uk/" target="_blank">Lizzie Farey</a>, artist and publisher <a href="http://www.hughbryden.com/" target="_blank">Hugh Bryden</a> and poet <a href="http://www.tompow.co.uk/" target="_blank">Tom Pow</a>. It was one of Tom's great ideas, born out of his perambulations around Europe in search of dying villages. As Tom says in the introduction to the beautiful little book that accompanied this exhibition: "I see... that nests too concern themes of home and abandonment".<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyoXpfqJrxCGffOU8RV5ynV6UPckx9wzSnNlR3lMs0J-Xg8vEStodIyHRCWZWRmhdaFJ2-1B03AzHO78xD2jyD_8Cd8Lg05NQ_lUv6tMOSvHUNFz7EQS8eVdC1aYFmpCZuydlNNt9j7gw/s1600/Locating+the+Nest+2012+002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyoXpfqJrxCGffOU8RV5ynV6UPckx9wzSnNlR3lMs0J-Xg8vEStodIyHRCWZWRmhdaFJ2-1B03AzHO78xD2jyD_8Cd8Lg05NQ_lUv6tMOSvHUNFz7EQS8eVdC1aYFmpCZuydlNNt9j7gw/s320/Locating+the+Nest+2012+002.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In the darkness/ darkness thickens/ the nest made whole <br />Tom Pow </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTW5GkDdW0nyUp3dqG42tA49tc4_g_fWOWBLLpYhGAISci6nvz2cWFxGxQezwDaHRfNMIAi_WHcOMca7SghUFpNXhO7NmYi1kZIh-FRUr-zlxOmfU8a2KQInFPvXKFw71w9Yrk_4w8Lew/s1600/Locating+the+Nest+2012+004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTW5GkDdW0nyUp3dqG42tA49tc4_g_fWOWBLLpYhGAISci6nvz2cWFxGxQezwDaHRfNMIAi_WHcOMca7SghUFpNXhO7NmYi1kZIh-FRUr-zlxOmfU8a2KQInFPvXKFw71w9Yrk_4w8Lew/s320/Locating+the+Nest+2012+004.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unravel a nest</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlryon2JBs_W81Z1wMIHl0Bp8rc9M9uIHE0HDH6Eg9k1KOgDrstr6PpkEkGOR0LSTujM5nZtVDl2TzGchhzj-4tUDiYv9I813f1V1D0blzn8INnpLj1O2Iqckxe62mDL5GVrlf8CNXdNY/s1600/Locating+the+Nest+2012+005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlryon2JBs_W81Z1wMIHl0Bp8rc9M9uIHE0HDH6Eg9k1KOgDrstr6PpkEkGOR0LSTujM5nZtVDl2TzGchhzj-4tUDiYv9I813f1V1D0blzn8INnpLj1O2Iqckxe62mDL5GVrlf8CNXdNY/s320/Locating+the+Nest+2012+005.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Think of the abandoned</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWcpB4Jc-dHiQCc_Aur9IXJ6pvTNfnntwWli1RCfE7ozkDZtCx77DpP_mNXaGkvGyEfo8-sWEk19vRlZZJChGsahYgWe6aHkPgDTSQX5kCmy1-01uW8OFrKVH5_iWx0IhhOya5aHSAqbk/s1600/Locating+the+Nest+2012+007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWcpB4Jc-dHiQCc_Aur9IXJ6pvTNfnntwWli1RCfE7ozkDZtCx77DpP_mNXaGkvGyEfo8-sWEk19vRlZZJChGsahYgWe6aHkPgDTSQX5kCmy1-01uW8OFrKVH5_iWx0IhhOya5aHSAqbk/s320/Locating+the+Nest+2012+007.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Many nests<br />Hugh Bryden</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ70QdfCx5W0q1XVaI0YiaEgIAyRrHyOQgQ5djfS3UcnrIw3oUcgbVVxnGFQFkJKvHKwBpRPZS_wQlWpiFlGw8BqjmbbqaVN86rab7vmRbuJRHBViwHOtBqJCVguaPH4gSZT1auDEqwmE/s1600/Locating+the+Nest+2012+010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ70QdfCx5W0q1XVaI0YiaEgIAyRrHyOQgQ5djfS3UcnrIw3oUcgbVVxnGFQFkJKvHKwBpRPZS_wQlWpiFlGw8BqjmbbqaVN86rab7vmRbuJRHBViwHOtBqJCVguaPH4gSZT1auDEqwmE/s320/Locating+the+Nest+2012+010.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A nest almost indiscernable<br />Lizzie Farey</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuIbr9zFq3CloWAnCSZNMxZ1OUkNeHe5dhPvfwZPT4yBsf-pFEyFgoBr5Luyq2Lc4CjJcbiuYouUA-h2ozLJ2VUlxJQQQ6uyYfLWOyqb2stGNXG8iIDWogdu7JhiE3dI4srT253ubsOhE/s1600/Locating+the+Nest+2012+011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuIbr9zFq3CloWAnCSZNMxZ1OUkNeHe5dhPvfwZPT4yBsf-pFEyFgoBr5Luyq2Lc4CjJcbiuYouUA-h2ozLJ2VUlxJQQQ6uyYfLWOyqb2stGNXG8iIDWogdu7JhiE3dI4srT253ubsOhE/s320/Locating+the+Nest+2012+011.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nest becoming crannog<br />Lizzy Farey</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia8UUpSbE19H26_fjv6CVeb2J0cOR7exFPu0NcRxtN9BpoG61VPoPgTWpYYe-9RwDU-KCqvh_gsuQhjPkv-fmjE4kJRk80nRsDeb9fNaNZ4gJXR3ZW5BUC9CHgY40flHqg5NJavju1Q_Q/s1600/Locating+the+Nest+2012+015.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia8UUpSbE19H26_fjv6CVeb2J0cOR7exFPu0NcRxtN9BpoG61VPoPgTWpYYe-9RwDU-KCqvh_gsuQhjPkv-fmjE4kJRk80nRsDeb9fNaNZ4gJXR3ZW5BUC9CHgY40flHqg5NJavju1Q_Q/s320/Locating+the+Nest+2012+015.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ah. The Trambles.</td></tr>
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<br />Jean Atkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09619733874421657191noreply@blogger.com0