A Poetry Party! Weekend for Ludlow

I'm really enjoying working with Deb Alma (that's the Emergency Poet, 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.

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.

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.

Work by Jean Johnstone in collaboration with Jane Hirshfield

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.

There will be poetry mummers performing in the town, and the Emergency Poet can be consulted in her ambulance in Castle Square.

Dizzy yet?  All weekend there will be a room given over to the wild - in the shape of POETRY IS PANTS! 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!)

……or you could write a poem about socks...

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 Ludlow Mascall Centre on Lower Galdeford in beautiful Ludlow.

(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).

More and better will appear on the Ludlow Fringe website as we go along. Look out for info on those competitions, we promise prizes...

Hooray! a poem published on 'And Other Poems'

Thoroughly encouraged this morning to see my poem 'George Aiken's Map' published by writer and tutor Josephine Corcoran on her blog 'And Other Poems'.

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.

Click here to find 'And Other Poems', if you haven't yet.

A Horse in the House

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.

I need to find a very large hook and hang her up again on the wall.

She was built by artist and musician Kate Howden 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'...

I climbed through woods in the hour-before-dawn dark.
Evil air, a frost-making stillness,

Not a leaf, not a bird-
A world cast in frost. I came out above the wood

Where my breath left tortuous statues in the iron light.
But the valleys were draining the darkness

Till the moorline – blackening dregs of the brightening grey –

Halved the sky ahead. And I saw the horses:

Huge in the dense grey –ten together –

Megalith-still. They breathed, making no move,

With draped manes and tilted hind-hooves,
Making no sound.

...

Gareth Owen at Shrewsbury Coffee House Poetry Night

Organiser Liz Lefroy makes us all feel welcome

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.

Gareth Owen waves his specs for 'Are Yer There Moriarty?'

What it's all about for Gareth is the sound of people talking.  He set off with readings from his Collected Poems for Children, instantly entrancing us with 'Are Yer There Moriarty?', 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.

   That was not, in any way, the full strength of  what Uncle Arthur did - after the 'sensitive ones who pressed flowers' had faded away and 'only the strong were left' they all played 'Are Yer There Moriarty?' which involved a pitched battle with a rolled up copy of The Liverpool Echo.
 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).

Gareth singing us deadpan songs

 Gareth however did not let up the pace, and we had to cope with 'Miss Creedle teaches Creative Writing'.
'This morning,' cries Miss Creedle,
'We're all going to use our imaginations'
We all winced along, and Miss Creedle importuned her class with suggestions:
'Foetid is an exciting adjective'...

Fine coffee, bottled beer and happy January people

 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.
"Ciao bella", smiled Virgil Clenthills, all unfazed.

*

 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 Business Book & Pamphlet Competition), poet and novelist Julia Bell, Jack Edwards and, er, me.

Windows for Burns Night 2013 (there's just time)

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.

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.  

Windows for Burns Night 2012 expanded rapidly into an international event with hundreds of poems being submitted from Scotland, Europe and the USA.  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.  

A ballot of Globe Inn customers selected one poem written by Kelloholm poet Kris Haddow which has been engraved on a window pane in the pub.

And here's the original, by the Man himself.

Early Christmas present! A free download of 'The Crow House' this Saturday

Another chance to read The Crow House for free via an Amazon promotion this Saturday 22 December.  

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 here.

Lovely reviews of The Crow House are already coming in - this from a 12 year old:

"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.”

and this one left on Amazon:

"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. 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."

Please do tell me what you thought of The Crow House, or post a review on Amazon.    Or you can find The Crow House on Facebook here.

Write Outside In

I 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'.

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.

Hope you like them.  Oh, and click on the photos so they enlarge enough to read anything.