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November titles

October 27, 2010 by sunnydunny

Judith Stewart's coverMercedes Claraso's cover

These are the covers for the next two Calder Wood Press titles, due in November. Judith Stewart’s poetry is sharp, witty and unsentimental. Her poem The Rantin’ Dog the Daddie O’t is a brilliant description of Robert Burns’ affair with Mrs McLehose’s maid Jenny Clows, conducted during his passionately platonic relationship with his ‘Clarinda’. Downstairs was satisfied, as well as Upstairs, and Jenny bore him a child, for which he paid her five shillings. She ranges from classical subjects to the personal.

This is the second chapbook by Mercedes Clarasó that I’ve published. Her first one, A Blessing of Unicorns, was devoted entirely to that wondrous beast, and it sold out very quickly. Her new collection, Setting Out, contains poems on a variety of subjects. Her sight problems are dealt with in an honest way, and without a trace of self-pity. She is eloquent, moving, and highly skilled. When I was thinking about a cover I remembered a tonal painting that my wife Jane did a couple of years ago. Since both covers will be printed in black and white, I thought it would work.

Both Judith and Mercedes are on the shortlist for the Tyne & Esk Writer of the Year competition, the winners of which will be announced on Monday night. So I’m holding back sending them to the printers until I know the results.

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Poets’ places

October 25, 2010 by sunnydunny

Most writers have favourite places, in that a novel, for example, is usually firmly set in a particular location, one which the author knows thoroughly. With some Scottish poets it’s the same, so that George Mackay Brown’s work is rooted in Orkney, Norman MacCaig divided his time between Edinburgh and Assynt. Hugh MacDiarmid doesn’t seem to me to be circumscribed by place, however, although he did have favourites. These days opportunities for travel are better, and less expensive, and we have the whole world, more or less, to write about. And yet a sense of place seems to be more significant somehow. Just look at the philosophy and work of Kenneth White, to see how the centrality of place affects him and his poetry.

What about the rest of us? Are there some aspects of places that influence the way we write? I’d isolate some specific themes – mountains, waters, islands, remoteness, scale, history – that I know come into the poetry I write. Does this affect the places I like to visit? Of course it does.

My favourite places would be:

  • Assynt
  • Shetland
  • Perthshire
  • South of France
  • the Outer Isles
  • Japan
  • Western USA, especially the national parks
  • China
  • Iceland
  • Tibet
  • and of course Dunbar and the coast of south-east Scotland

You’ll notice I haven’t included any cities in my list. I’m quite fond of some, for short visits, but I wouldn’t want to live in one.

What about you?

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The hidden door

October 16, 2010 by sunnydunny

Hidden Door is a creative festival that sees 40 bands, 60 artists, 20 poets and 20 film-makers come together for an exclusive weekend in Edinburgh. It’s held in what was the old Roxy Art Centre, and before that a church. It’s a good space for events like this, with a main stage area, exhibition space, and several smaller performance spaces. I read there last year, the first Hidden Door mini-festival, and I enjoyed it very much. The audiences were different from the ones I usually see at poetry readings, and they enjoyed it too. I’m delighted that it’s on again this year, from 22nd to 24th October.

There’s a strand – Impossible Journeys – which sees poetry-based installations which have arisen from collaborations between poets, artists and film-makers. Then there’s a series of poetry readings spaced through the 23rd and 24th. Subject to confirmation, I’m in the 5pm slot on the Saturday, along with Jennifer Williams and Kevin Williamson. Images will be projected behind us as we read, and I’m spending some time this weekend deciding what I’m going to read – which is normal – and which images will go with them – which is exciting and different.

Tickets are available from Brown Paper Tickets.

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The ‘ashes’ poem

October 12, 2010 by sunnydunny

Every month I go over to Eyemouth to meet with a small group of other writers. It’s a ‘no-pressure’ writing group; no exercises, no workshopping, no deep analysis. It’s more a relaxed group of friends than the conventional group, and I like it for that reason. We start with an organ recital – where we talk about our various ailments (we’re of an age when we’ve all got health problems). Then we share bits of our recent writings. They’re usually on any subject we choose, but lately we’ve started suggesting key words, starters, thoughts, for the next meeting. Last month someone suggested ‘ashes’, and, having been overloaded with other things, it wasn’t until 10pm last night that I wrote my piece. I happened to mention on Facebook that I’d done it, and a well-known Scottish poet, teacher and anthologist (there’s a clue there) responded, saying, in effect, that ‘ashes’ were a common metaphor in many of the poems he’d read recently while compiling his anthology. It’s absolutely true – ashes are commonly used metaphorically. There’s a poem in the Mad Yak which starts from a memory of scattering my father’s ashes in his beloved St Fillans, and extends the metaphor, ending up in the Sunderbans (which I’ve not yet visited).

[Poem removed for revision]

The next challenge is to write something for Thursday night’s Dunbar Writers meeting, on the suggested theme – fertility.

 

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Knitting the Harbour

October 10, 2010 by sunnydunny

Knitting the Harbour is an ambitious project developed by Dunbar Arts Trust in August this year. Wool was donated by local hill farmers – there’s no market for it at the moment. A dyeing workshop was the first part of the project, then a number of fabric crafters, helped by members of the public, spun, wove, felted and knitted the wool into shape, on a base model of Dunbar harbour. The fabrics were used to cover block models of the historic buildings surrounding the harbour, and all assembled within McArthur’s Store, a 17th century fishermen’s store newly restored and refurbished. Other arts events added to the project, with the community choir, local folk musicians, and the Dunbar Writers providing entertainment. The ‘knitted harbour’ is currently on exhibition in the Peter Potter Gallery, Haddington, and will return to Dunbar later, before hopefully going on tour (discussions are under way).

 

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National Poetry Day 2010

October 7, 2010 by sunnydunny

It’s the day for trying to raise the profile of poetry in the awareness of the general public, and many poets, publishers and others  have engaged in a variety of activities with this aim. Of course, others don’t, and this is not to criticise them, but my feeling is that if there’s a big publicity wave out there we should try to ride it.

This morning I introduced local poet and painter Anna Davis on my Bookshelf spot on East Coast FM, and I’m going to spend the afternoon trying to finish the next two Calder Wood Press poetry pamphlets to send to the printers next week. Yesterday, I got James McGonigal’s new biography of Edwin Morgan, Beyond the Last Dragon (Eddie’s characterisation of his cancer). On Channel Four News last night Jonathan Pryce read an unpublished poem by Ted Hughes about the last day in the life of Sylvia Plath. I missed the broadcast for reasons I’ll talk about later, but I saw and heard a clip from it on Facebook this morning. I found it painful and very moving – it brought a tear to my eye. The emotions felt and eloquently expressed in the poem struck hard and raw.

Tomorrow I’m off to Montrose with Anna Dickie, where she’ll join Morgan Downie and Juliet Wilson for a reading organised by Rachel Fox. I’m delighted that Rachel asked me to put this Calder Wood Press showcase together. I’m very proud of the authors I publish, and of the books I’ve made with them.

On Saturday I’m manning a stall at the first Fife Bookfest in Glenrothes (details here from Rob Mackenzie), where I’m looking forward to catching up with old friends.

Last night I was in Linlithgow for a reunion of the friends who went on the Barcelona trip last month. It was great fun, and several friends there asked me for copies of the poem I wrote there, and which was read on the bus to the airport. I won’t post it here, because I’m going to send it to a mag very soon, but whether or not it goes in a mag, I’d like it in my next collection, now beginning to be planned.

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Autumnal notes

October 2, 2010 by sunnydunny

Rosa gallica

Into October again, and the signs of Autumn are increasing, but this Rosa gallica in my garden has been blooming since summer, and it will carry on until the frosts.

Walking along into town this morning I noticed that the ivy flowers are opening, and the bushes are busy with late-season wasps keen to fill up with nectar. The smell of ivy blossom is something only a wasp could love, but the black berries which follow in winter are welcomed by thrushes. The sea looked lovely today, fairly quiet, but with a widely-spaced low swell, and the waves breaking creamily on the rocks. Sycamore leaves are starting to brown and fall, and in places the air has that sweet smell of fermentation as things start to rot down.

Harvesting on the allotment is carrying on, but for how much longer? The courgettes will stop soon, and I’ll see how many of my onions are ripe enough to dry for winter. Pak choi has been great – I’ve two or three left – and so has the fennel. Carrots and beetroot are wonderful, but the mice ate my pea crop. The dwarf French waxpod beans have been very prolific, and I’ll leave the rest to mature into haricot jaune for drying. The success of the allotment, in the short time since I started it in July, means that we are definitely going to invest in a freezer. The one we have in the kitchen is far too small. I’m already planning what to plant next year. I’ll have a corner for oriental veg, and I’m growing raspberries along a fence I’ve built at the back of the plot, on the sunny side next to the grape vine. This afternoon we’re having an allotment meeting, combining it with a social get-together. The weather seems set fine for it, and I’ll take some more photos later.

My brain’s getting itchy to do more writing now, but I’ve got three more pamphlets to publish before the end of the year, and the Arts Trust and writers’ group commitments are filling in the remaining spaces in my schedule. Together with my fellow Dunbar poet Jo Gibson I’ve launched a new website for the writers, and yesterday I built a new forum and linked it to the site.

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Morden Tower 2

September 27, 2010 by sunnydunny

I arrived in Newcastle city centre to find there was a home match on last night. Before the reading the crowds were streaming away from the ground and along the streets. Fortunately the walls of the Tower are very thick, so the noise outside didn’t penetrate.

For those who haven’t been to the venue before, it’s small, circular, intimate, and steeped in poetry history. Hugh MacDiarmid, Ted Hughes, Allen Ginsburg, Basil Bunting and many others have read there in the past.

As the flyer in the previous post says, we were eight – an octopoet reading, to coin a phrase – four from the Newcastle area, and four based north of the Border. I’ve got Newcastle connections going back a long way, and I knew the local poets and some of the audience members, so I felt at home.

For my own reading I decided to experiment, by pulling out one of the themes from the collection – the broken relationship thread – as a reading group, followed by a selection of some of the other poems. So my set list was:

Erosion, The To-Do list, Don’t, and Thin, followed by Spermsong, Sealskin, After Fire, Hide and Find, and A Short History of Xi’An.

A good night, and a privilege to read in this venue, and with such outstanding poets.

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The Morden Tower reading

September 25, 2010 by sunnydunny

Morden Tower is Newcastle’s premier venue for poetry readings. The building itself dates back to 1290, although the poetry readings are more recent – ‘only’ forty years. So I was delighted that I was asked to join seven other poets to read there on Sunday 26th September. Here’s the flyer with the details:

Poetry reading at Morden Tower

I’ll blog again when I get back.

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The Barcelona Fahrt

September 21, 2010 by sunnydunny

It never fails to amaze me, that 50-odd friends go off together on a journey (=Fahrt) every couple of years, and throughly enjoy each other’s company, but that is exactly what happens. We call ourselves the Fahrters (what else do you expect?), and our magnificent Fahrtmeister and friend Bruce has led us through Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, Prague, Madrid, Naples and Sorrento, and the Somme. This year it was Barcelona, and it was up there with the best.

We left our car in the driveway of a friend’s house in Linlithgow (this is significant), and the coach picked us up in torrential rain and driving winds to take us through to Prestwick for the flight to Girona. We settled in to our hotel (excellent), explored the local area (a bit run down), and walked down to the sea for our first meal (for 53) in a good restaurant.

The next day was our city tour with guide Meritxel (I never did discover the full range of differences between Catalan and Spanish, but they use  a lot of X’s). The Sagrada Familia quite simply, and for once literally, took my breath away. I gasped when I went inside and stared up at the columns supporting the ceiling, I was hugely impressed by the stained glass, by the stonework, and by the detailing of the surfaces. I think it’s the most inspiring piece of architecture I have ever seen. It’s still years from completion, but even in its present state it’s one of the wonders of Europe, and I don’t say that lightly.

La Sagrada Familia

The other Gaudí buildings we saw in the city had too much surface ornamentation for my taste; over decorated with the brightly coloured broken tiles that were his trademark, but the organic shapes, the curves and the inventiveness of this one-off genius are staggering. I suppose my aesthetic is that of a cool Northern European. The evening entertainment consisted of a walk up las Ramblas and another good meal in a local restaurant. The following day we took a trip to the stunning Mostserrat mountain, with its Benedictine abbey. The natural landscape, of weathered sandstone cliffs and weird pillars (the so-called Finger of God), was stunning.

That evening we enjoyed a tapas supper and a flamenco performance, which inspired a new poem. We emerged from the restaurant to find ourselves in the middle of a ferocious thunderstorm, with the water running down the street like a river, and soaking us to the skin. How we laughed. (Well, what else can you do?)

Flamenco dancer

Next day we were off to Tarragona, to see the Roman remains, and thence to La Vinyanova, a restaurant in a converted 16th century farmhouse. It was the best meal I’ve had in ages – one of the highlights of our trip.

Vinyanova restaurant

The following day was free for us to do our own thing, and we chose to visit the Picasso Museum in the city’s Gothic quarter. The collection is arranged chronologically, and it was fascinating to see the artist’s development in this way. The series of paintings Picasso based on Velazquez’s Las Meninas (which we saw in Madrid on a previous trip) occupies two rooms in the gallery , and they were another of my Barcelona highlights. Picasso deconstructed the original painting into a series of individual paintings, and then re-constructed them into his own personal interpretations. A triumph of 20th century art.

Our final meal was in a local restaurant, with a course which surprised and delighted me. After heavy rains the locals go out collecting snails, and we had them cooked in a spicy, peppery sauce. They were terrific.

We flew back to Edinburgh via London the following afternoon. The Edinburgh plane was delayed by a technical problem – they couldn’t get the auxiliary engine to start – and then at Edinburgh airport a lot of us suffered a delay in getting our bags back – the baggage handlers missed a trailer load of 20-odd bags – and we thought they were lost. So it was after a considerable delay that we got on the coach for Linlithgow. We reached our friend’s house and found another car behind ours in our friend’s driveway. We woke the neighbour and discovered he’d used the driveway while the builders were using his.  We got home at 2am, exhausted but happy.

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