Yesterday, as the
first event of the Taunton Literature Festival, Juncture 25 launched their first
anthology of poetry, Going On, with a
reading.
It was, for a
poetry event, well attended and all the poets read well.
Regular readers of the
blog will know that I am part of Juncture 25. Today I want to celebrate the
launch of the anthology. Thanks go to both Gram for editing the book and to
David at Corvus Press for the cover design and the printing. Thanks also go to
each of the group for allowing their poems to be used.
Going On is only
£5.00 and is available from Brendon Books in Taunton. The ebook will be out in
the near future.
Yesterday I attended
a poetry workshop ran by Philip Gross. It was organised as part of the PlymouthLiterature Festival. I have to say I enjoyed the afternoon and the way Philip
ran the session.
As part of the workshop
we looked at Wallace Stevens 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird. Philip then
invited us to write our own series of poems about anything we wanted to.
We then shared it
with another person and we were asked to contribute a poem to each other’s
sequence. I was working with a talented poet from Cornwall Helen Jagger.
Shards
I am told it can slow light
-especially if the pane is dirty.
*
This jigsaw
cannot be
reassembled
once the ball
has kissed it.
*
Hard enough to protect your eyes
so you can get the job done,
free from the fear of flying swarf.
*
Safety Tip
if you have built your house
from this material
do not throw a single stone
*
Heckles white light
Until it sees red
Through to violet
*
Our lives are too
brief to see it flow
*
Camouflage
Net curtains work
well
But do not
Put on the light
*
Craft Idea 1
wrap those coloured fragments
that are lying around the place in lead
to mosaic that hole in your wall
*
Scousers called their cleaners Sinbad,
as they never cleaned the corners,
Having learned their trade on portholes.
*
Helen offered:
Are you honest?
Is what you show me
What really is there?
*
You are fickle:
Tell lies in changing rooms,
Bitter truths at home.
Have you guessed yet?
I was writing about glass.
Tomorrow sees the
launch of Juncture 25’s first anthology. The event opens the Taunton Literature
Festival. Perhaps I’ll see you there?
This week’s poem
was written in a Juncture 25 workshop. I had set an exercise of writing a poem
about a picture on a postcard. I also asked the poets to look below the surface
and to reflect on more than what appeared to be going on.
I drew a photograph
of Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady that I think I bought in the City Lights
bookshop years ago. When I began to write I tried to ignore the obvious, that
here were two of the most famous Beats.
For some reason I focussed
on Kerouac’s canvas trousers. Yeah, I don’t know why either. They looked more
worn than Neal’s new Levi’s. I wondered how they had become worn and this was
my entry to the poem.
Face the camera,
the could-be brothers do not smile.
The light will not bend true,
more than this lens is flawed,
the photo blurs with more than age.
These are none-twins,
Yin and yang,
At the heart each is the other,
Everyone wants to be Jack,
And Jack wants to be Neal.
So take in the details;
note his canvas strides, frayed from
too many mediocre nights,
streets walked toward the dawn.
He will drown in the spotlight,
Run back to his mother-again.
Drink himself to death-at medium pace.
I had another line
at the end, it reiterated that I knew how this ends and when we discussed the
poem, after I read it out I discarded it.
I had re-ordered
the lines of the poem a number of times. It is always worth placing the ideas
of a poem in a different order-sometimes it makes for a better poem.
I am ending with
two videos today. The first is Alan Ginsberg reading Howl. This, for me, is a
magnificent poem. Deep, rich and powerful. I love to hear Alan reading it.
The second video is
10,000 Maniacs singing Hey, Jack Kerouac. Natalie Merchant is a superb song
writer.
