THERE IS WONDER

 

 Juncture 25, the poetry group I facilitate, appeared at the Purbeck Literary Festival last night, and in the afternoon I ran a poetry workshop. I'd like to thank all the people who attended and contributed so creatively. I would also like to thank the cafe Not just Sundaes who so professionally and warmly hosted the event.
The evening was a great success as was the workshop.

As an opening exercise, just to get the brain working, I asked the group to think of a postcard, describe the picture on the front and to write what was on the reverse. It did not have to be to a real person.
This was mine:

Blue sky, anonymous sand dunes. A four wheeler driving down the dune at a steep angle, sand pluming from the wheels.
And written on the back:
you never did this
but would have loved to
if it was free and in another's car
you could have whispered 
simple words from starved lungs
of the science and the skills required
but you never did

that's life in'it

The main exercise was to write a poem as a series of instructions. A task I had recently set Juncture 25. 
My own initial reaction was to reach back to my engineering days, I don't understand why, but as I had done so last time, my response was to write about Tai Chi.

this sequence of movement

each posture elegantly named

whose aim is to stretch a specific set of ligaments

slowly

you may claim the act of exercise as excuse

yet still ponder why you do it

but the diaphragm controls the breath

[each an end and beginning in itself]

centred

palms may tingle

hands cut through fabric air

the chi as thick as soup

so focus

there is oneness

there is wonder

Before this I had half sketched out a poem about Engineer's Blue. I completed a rough draft today, not sure about the layout, but i think it captures the fact I was not a happy apprentice.

industrial woad

thick and navy

engineers blue

can stain fingers beyond

soap and water rescue

designed to reveal the high points

so you

the killjoy

can scrap them away

just as factory life

steals your day

It just occurred to me that a title for it could be Engineer's Blues.
Here is I Jah Man singing Jah Heavy Load. Inspiring stuff indeed. 

LATHE LOVE SONG

Or workshop poem 8. 
This one I've been working on for a while and I'm reasonably happy with the draft. Before I go any further though, a word of explanation. 
A lathe is a machine to turn metal [or wood] and when I was an apprentice fitter/turner [40 years ago] I was taught how to use one. My trade originated from skilled artisans who could make and fit machinery to order. I was never that good...

I recently ran a workshop where the brief was to write a poem as a set of instructions and this is what I came up with.

LOVE SONG to a LATHE

You need the equipment,

the knowledge to use it,

or the foolhardiness to do it anyway.

I liked to watch the swarf

spiral off the spinning cylinder;

high speed; slow feed,

milky coolant lubricating the cutting edge.

You are looking for a metaphor,

I don't have one,

this centre lathe is our ages combined,

it's design even older.

Place the job in the chuck,

there is skill in centring the metal,

or practice, or a plodding predictability.

Always ensure you tighten each jaw separately

and never leave the chuck key in,

it has a tendency to fly at a tangent

and embed itself into the wall [or you].

Select the correct speed,

turn the chuck to ensure the gears have engaged.

In my day you wore a hairnet

to keep your fashionably shoulder length

[or in my case longer] hair

from being scalped off your head.

High speed, fast feed,

the waste metal complains as it it torn away,

in a series of razor edged nail clippings

[remember to clean the machine at the end of each day].

Measure by micrometer.

Each as beautiful a mechanism

as a good pocket watch.

If you so desire you could turn a cube,

simply counterbalance the plate,

disengage the drive, spin.

Add weights as required.

Grinding the cutting tools is an art form.

Get it right and you can cut a buttress thread

-male or female.

Slowly the tungsten bit will reveal the perfect helix.

But those days are over,

and this is a history lesson.

Here are The Decemberists at Manchester on Tuesday.

I have to confess The Rake's Song is not one of my favourite Decemberist's songs. This, though, I think is.

Until next time.

KLEE IN WIDNES

I have been revising my work with the help of Juncture 25 and the Secret Poets. They are both poems you have seen before. The poem that lends a line to the title of the post was slightly longer in its last incarnation. The last couplet has gone and I've changed some of the other lines as well.

KLEE IN WIDNES

hobbles his palette to grey and black,

then goes hunting for other colours.

He walks terraced streets and

sketches the Transporter Bridge.

Bumps into Lowry by the Empire.

together they bemoan the films on show:

Too bloody American for my taste.

End up in the Queens

drinking bitter with the bus drivers.

Outside again the sunset stops him short,

more colours then he has seen all day.

Lowry disabuses him of any grand design:

It's all the muck the factories pump out.

He leaves that nigh from Farnworth station.

CORBUSIER in BRIDGWATER

this higgledy-piggledy town of twisting streets

is an offence to a man in love

with the right angle.

None of which cuts the mustard in Bridgwater.

After all, they have the first concrete house,

a ruin to be sure, but still history.

The Big C has the last laugh,

when they pulled the place to pieces

and speared roads through its heart.

THE MARX BROTHERS IN LIVERPOOL

are looking to get laid,

after Paradise Street disappointed.

Chico checks The Echo

his horse has yet to finish yesterday's race.

That rich boy cousin Charlie knocked about with,

used to say Manchester was where it was at.

But they are booked in Huddersfield tomorrow,

wherever the hell that is.

What do you think?

Dolphin Watching in Oman

The sound of two hands clapping.

Repeated.

It will, I am told, draw the dolphins.

A hundred people,

in six boats, 

mill around the bay.

The large hands slap again.

Engines idle, the man maintains his rhythm.

Applause as the mammals surface.

We chase them or they follow,

it is difficult to tell.

Do they care an industry 

has developed around them?

They left the land to us,

returned to the water long ago.

Now we search for them

as if they had answers.

This second poem benefited greatly from the input of the Secret Poets. You can read the previous draft here. The scratched, old record in my head cannot help repeating that you need to work with others to improve your work. 

I leave you with a cool new surf, garage band, Somerset's own Lakota Five. I'm hoping to interview them soon.Having seen them live I can tell you they are the real thing. There is an energy and an edge to them.  Judge for yourself.

Dr FEELGOOD FARMING

Or workshop 7.
I recently ran a workshop for Juncture 25 and based it on an idea by Tony Williams that had been published by The Guardian. Essentially the idea was to write a poem from the perspective of a commodity. 

The first idea I had was this:

Modern Farming Methods

The land endures.

You cannot own it but we believe do,

are willing to die for this illusion.

But look at the results of our husbandry;

speed freak intensive production,

cranked up Dr. Feelgood farming.

If this field was a man

he'd be stick thin, with rotting teeth,

and dark circles under each vague eye,

lined up with the methadone brigade,

waiting for that sticky, sweet dollop of grace

that each morning brings.

I was thinking of how intensive farming has depleted the land how it is dependent on the chemicals we add.

This second attempt was about the forced harvesting of organs from prisoners.

eyesight to the blind

Each has it's price.

Worth more than this captive life,

which is stamped and set for execution.

Once the deals are done,

and the logistics of modern medicine

have arrived at an optimum date,

a harvest festival of human organs.

We shall give thanks,

but not enquire too closely

how they have come here.

Pretty desperate stuff eh? Hopefully next post will be a little lighter...

Here's Brooke Sharkey and Adam Beattie.