December 2015 Catch Up

It's been a great six months - passing my driving test means I can now attend meetings of the Fire River Poets! I can't wait to get back in the swing of discussing and workshopping poems.

I've spent the last four weeks in Hawthornden Castle near Edinburgh, where I was a fellow with four other writers. We had snow, and I even managed to spot the deer twice. Ruth Shannon provided the cooking, Hamish Robinson ran an excellent table.



Thanks for the snap, Anke!

I left Somerset with several foot-deep piles of paper, and returned with five thin wallets.

Before that, I was in Greece for a couple of weeks, exploring some sites from the Iliad, and the Mani region. Again, I also enjoyed some great cooking, and swimming, with poet Margaret Eddershaw and Keith Sturgess, who so kindly put us up.



Mistras, near Sparta

Do check out No Landing, the blog of Harry Man and Jennifer Essex's exploration of 
Hurst Castle. I was lucky enough to be stationed there a couple of days, and whipped up a couple of poems. 

I've a couple of placings to mention: 

‘Respite’ was shortlisted for the Live Canon competition, and appears in the 2015 Live Canon Anthology.

‘Putting Away the Birds’ was commended in the Torbay poetry competition. 

Earlier in the year, ‘The Sitting’ was highly commended in the Gladstones Library Mystery Lady competition.

And some publications: 

'After Peter Blake' appears in the beautifully produced Paris Lit Up, 'Classroom' in The North and my translation of 'A Grave Life' - by Ami - in Modern Poetry in Translation. ‘New Year’ appears in Live Canon's New Poems for Christmas.

I was also really pleased to have a poem in Other Countries - Contemporary Poets Rewiring History, edited by Claire Trevien and Gareth Prior, earlier in the year.

For those who can afford £47.99, I’ve 3 poems in the Teaching as a Human Experience anthology from Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

February Catch Up

20th January: a warm reception at Devizes school, where I taught the winners of the John Betjeman Poetry Competition for Young People for an afternoon. It was a terrific afternoon, at least from my point of view!




Since moving to Somerset I've been doing a lot of creative writing teaching, with adults in care homes as part of the Making of Me project with the Courtyard, for which I was mentored by John Killick; and for Story Door, a charity which raises literacy in schools through creative writing. So far, we've been to trips to Babbacombe Model Village and Exeter Cathedral, and written acrostics and collage poems. Students in both Ellacombe Academy in Torquay and Wynstream School in Exeter will be publishing (and illustrating) their own books in March, with a launch at the library attended by parents with the accompaniment of cake,

I've had a few poems out in recent journals: 'After Peter Blake' in the beautifully produced Paris Lit Up, 'Classroom' in The North and 'A Grave Life' - by Ami - in Modern Poetry in Translation. I was also really pleased to have a poem in Other Countries - Contemporary Poets Rewiring History, edited by Claire Trevien and Gareth Prior.

A couple of reviews of Boxing the Compass have appeared:

For the reader who revisits poems, and is able to join in their making, there are many pleasures here.  

                                                                                     Jane Routh, Magma 60

Bryden displays a confidence which ensures that this first collection hits the target.

                                                                                      Louise Crossley, The Interpreter’s House 57

A review of Ami's The Desire to Sing after Sunset has appeared in Cha: An Asian Literary Journal.

Lastly, I'll be delivering papers at a couple of conferences this year:

New Generation to Next Genereation in March, where I'll be talking about Glyn Maxwell.

In September, there is the Dreams as Deep As England Ted Hughes conference in Sheffield, at which I'll be discussing Hughes's collaborations with his friend, the painter and potter R.J. Lloyd. The two of them created four collections: What is the Truth, The Cat and the Cuckoo, The Mermaid's Purse and Earth Dances. He kindly allowed me to interview him at his home in Bideford last January, where I was treated to pea and ham soup with a fantastic Italian sherry.

Check Out My WEBSITE - click on the image

Writing blog tour

Thanks to the lovely Jenny Wong for inviting me to answer these questions

What am I writing on?

I’m completing a pamphlet of more recent material which collides different ideas of the foreign and ways we make it manageable, such as by reference to films. There’s a poem in there called ‘Thinking of Blade Runner in the Turkish quarter of Berlin’ for example. I’m also completing a more experimental pamphlet based on the work of three artists: Martin Creed, Michael Frank and Anselm Kiefer. On a separate level, I’m trying to find someone with an understanding of code to help me with a Poetry Map – 78 poems located at different places across the globe. The poems are written, I just need help realizing the project more dynamically. The prototype is here.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

A long time ago I read that you can recognize any great poet from one line taken at random, and that has stayed as a kind of definition of poetry for me. It’s important to be singular. I think I write by omission in some ways, hence my introductions at poetry readings tend to fill in all the necessary information. The downside of such a spare approach is that the reader might be left high and dry. Then again, there’s a pleasure in interpreting things your own way. One thing about Sylvia Plath is that because she left such a manageable body of work, with her poems written almost on a daily basis, after reading her chronologically there comes a point when you can ‘get’ exactly what she means – intuit her intention – no matter how obliquely she writes; or at least feel you can.

How does my writing process work?

I write very quickly and amass a huge amount of drafts, which I then edit and re-edit. I never throw anything away, because I don’t trust myself. Once I have a stack of new work I think it’s time to sort it out and I read through all the different drafts of a poem and see where it is heading, which approach of all the different edits works best, and shape it, often collaging it from different versions, and re-write the thing. I had a poem accepted recently that was begun about two years ago, which is not an uncommon time frame. It isn’t much changed: a few stanzas cut, a few words edited, a few lines in a different order, and it is now in quatrains.

I tend to write a lot when I am away from home, and end up with sequences about Portugal, Wales etc that aren’t particularly shaped (lots of *s) but contain interesting details. I often worry about whether I am a poet or a writer.

I find it a great help to write for competitions and journals – reading my drafts with an eye on a theme helps me see my work freshly. For example, that poem about the painting of the prematurely aged children might be seen to be about war. The deadlines get me digging stuff out and working on it. When I get a rejection I read the work again and can see it in a different light, more uncharitably. This too is useful. Didn’t Ted Hughes say that when a poem of his was completed he felt excluded, shut out from it? When a poem is finished I put it (and all its drafts) away and my pile is that much thinner so I can begin work on the next poem. 

Next up it's the great Pat Winslow and Marisa Sd

Some Upcoming Readings

Saturday 17th May 2.30 - 4.00pm Poets and Players John Rylands Library150 Deansgate, M3 3EH
FREE EVENT Poems read by Fiona Sampson, Nabila Jameel and myself; music by Arian Sadr

Wednesday 4th June Made in Greenwich gallery with Patrick Early. I'll also be performing a few tunes on guitar

Wednesday 18 June Lit Live! Peckham Pelican - readings by Goldsmiths Creative Writing students, alumni and staff, including Richard Scott, May-Lan Tan, Rachel Long, and special guests: poet Martha Sprackland, and spoken word artists Inua Ellams and Jacob Sam La Rose

1st August John Hewitt Festival Market Place Theatre Armagh, with Vona Groark

A Round Up of Things

I feel duty-bound to promote Nick Mulvey, whose music is sophisticated and has something to say. Here's an acoustic performance of my favourite song of his from last year. I especially love the lyric:

and the very thing that you're afraid of
that leaves you clean but unclear
is the very dirt that you're made of
and that's nothing to fear

though it's one of those songs where every part is your favourite.



(click to follow the link)

I also had the privilege of seeing Carrie Etter launch her third book Imagined Sons at the Yorkshire Grey on Tuesday.



(click on the image to purchase the book)

It's a collection of prose poems and catechisms (a repeated question with different answers) which imagines various meetings with the son she gave up for adoption in her teens. I particularly admire its rigorous form which seems perfectly able to channel the poems while eluding self-pity. It's a fantastic collection, and one which has special meaning for me as I know Carrie very well and was with her when she began writing most of these pieces.

Another recommendation is May-Lan Tan's Things to Make and Break from CB Editions.



(click on the image to purchase the book)

It's a collection that reminds you how great short stories can be (and has already received a rave review from the Guardian). It immediately reminded me of T.C.Boyle's collection After the Plague, the last story of which describes a man who falls in love with a household of women he watches on a 24hr internet channel. The fantasy is more vivid than real life. Eventually he approaches the real house to cross that barrier.

May-Lan is interested in identity, and Kim Novak's pinned-up hair in Vertigo flashed across my vision a couple of times as I read her stories of twins pursuing the same lover, or close friends divided by irrational jealousy after the casual confession of one with a newly-elevated status. Things are made and broken. May-Lan says she enjoys the idea of a book which tells you how to make things, and how to break them. She is also a poet, but these stories will be enough to get on with for now.





SOME UPCOMING POETRY READINGS


I'm looking forward to reading at Goldsmiths with fellow alumni May-Lan Tan, Rosie Rowell and Jeremy Worman,  Wednesday 26th March 5pm RHB 137

I've a couple of new poems up -

Visual Verse

The Lake

Ink Sweat and Tears

and CALM - The Campaign against Living Miserably, which exists to prevent male suicide in the UK.

and I've my first poem forthcoming in North magazine, called 'Classroom.'

I had a good time too at the Shuffle on 23rd February, reading alongside Claire Booker, Malika Booker, Mehmet Izbudek, Michael Scott and Rachel Smith. Thanks to Jill Abram for hosting.





Lastly, here's a recording of a couple of poems from my launch at Keats House:

A couple of forthcoming readings:

The Pat Kavanagh award readings, which includes the fantastic May-Lan Tan and Malika Booker, next Wednesday, Goldsmiths campus, 6.30 in the Ben Pimlott Lecture Theatre. Last year's was a brilliant event.

Next Wednesday at the Ivy House, Peckham from 8 o'clock.



and a return to Brighton to read at Colin Grant's spectacular Speaky Spokey 8pm Friday 24th January. Spice Monkey are catering, so there'll be curry (chicken and vegetarian) as well as performances:

Felstead and Waddel-100 word stories, Gilli Bloodaxe and Foz - poems and sound, Oh Standfast!'s comedy poems and music from Crawley and Ireland. Anyone in the Brighton area do come!

A Couple of Poems Up

... at ShopCurious? where I'm Poet in Residence.





Merry Christmas!

Everything Speaks in its Own Way, Kate Tempest

 

Why do I often think of Bob Dylan when I think of Kate Tempest? Aside from the precocious energy and her age, there's the twisting of language:

     Probably he thought he was invincible, he weren't
                                                                          ('Icarus')

which recalls Dylan's bending of words

     I don't wanna be hers, I wanna be yers
                                                        ('I Wanna Be Your Lover')

Dylan came from a folk background, gradually - systematically - falling under the influence of writers such as Rimbaud, Ginsberg and Brecht. Like him, Tempest mixes high- and low-brow (her latest play Brand New Ancients stems from the premise that we are all Gods worthy of worship should we just live up to that responsibility), if not different idioms. Inspired by hip hop (she fronts the excellent Sound of Rum, whose debut includes versions of several of her poems) she writes 'people seem surprised coz I'm a rapper whose rhymes reference the literary' and her language-play thrives on combining the informed and the vernacular:

     If you think Blake ain't the illest shit, well I beg to talk different.

Everything Speaks in Its Own Way, her first book of poetry, is already ruffling feathers. A comment on the Guardian message boards (her book was one of ten up for the Guardian reader-nominated first book award) takes her to task for not paying attention to line breaks. Tempest's lines are typically long, but it would be counter-intuitive of her to have revisited her poems and artificially broken them into a form they did not originally possess. It would also risk drawing attention to some of her more outlandish rhymes in a showy fashion. As Dylan famously dropped his 'g's, Tempest punctuates her writing with 'coz's, and having cut her teeth on the spoken word circuit she is expert at undercutting any appearance of arrogance or elevatedness. In person, onstage, she is nothing if not winning.

Tempest is blessed with the ability to communicate complex ideas on first listen, and the book is accompanied by a CD and DVD of her in action. Like reading Dylan's lyrics, it is easy to read the poems at her speed. However, to read the text with the scrutiny its complexity deserves, you take in such contradictions as this, from 'Icarus':

     he smouldered in these myths, so that we who never flew before can learn from what he did
                                                                          
and

     a lesson merely heard is never a lesson learned

Her attitude has it both ways:

     So give me space.

     No, wait, come here. Crowd me. 

is how she ends the opening poem, 'Give,' demonstrating a grasp of both line-break and punctuation. At her book-launch, she said she had come to realise that being foolish sometimes does not make you a fool. Apparent inconsistency is all part of the learning process. 

Often she demonstrates her ability for concision after long exposition, 'to cut a long short':

     and in one gaze exchanged we made love for an age even though
                                                   at that stage, we weren't allowed -
     we both had others to be thinking about.

Tempest has worked at Stratford on Avon, and her poem inspired by The Tempest 'What We Came After' is interesting in its criticism of Prospero: 'So go on then, conjure a storm on the head of your enemy - you will find yourself victim of negative energy.' If there is a major difference between her and Dylan, it lies in her positivity, her belief in everyone's potential. (She has something to say about the hip hop 'industry' equating hip hop with 'trash talk and negativity.') 

If Dylan once said 'really, all my songs end with 'good luck!'' then Tempest demonstrates a belief in the power of community. She set up Deptford-based book company Zingaro books, and hones her craft at Battersea Arts Centre. 'You can find me hanging about in New Cross,' she writes in the poem 'Renegade.' At her launch at the Old Vic on 24th August, she chose to showcase spoken word artists who inspired her: polar bear, David J Pugilist, Hollie McNish and John Berkavitch, as well as her friends Kwake Bass and Raven Bush from Speakers Corner Quartet who provided aural backdrop and warm up. Speakers talked about pride in their bodies, demonstrated belief in family and community, practised self mockery and expressed belief in the self and everyone's individual voice - yet not in any academic dry treatising way. Rather they demonstrated it in their work. There was a positive inspirational atmosphere. There's a gospel fervour to her performances, and at one point during her launch she stopped a poem mid-flow as she wasn't 'feeling it.' When she re-started, the delivery was far more commited, rising to a heightened pitch. She has found a way to perform to the best of her ability in public, while being present to the moment. Often, she'll smile wryly as she gauges the effect of a line on an audience. 

The Old Vic, site of Tempest's launch of Everything Speaks In Its Own Way

Another link to the spoken word arena is that most of her poems are written in the first person. 'Sometimes by someone saying this is how I feel, you can realise that you feel that way too.' She also employs the first person plural, not just in a title like 'What We Came After,' but more personally:

     I'm the junkie selling travelcards that used to be a mate of ours

She is speaking for us, but among us. 

What do we learn of her philosophy? Everything is as it should be. You can see beauty in the scaffolding. We are all born full of knowledge. 

In his autobiography Chronicles, Bob Dylan wrote that one day another kid would come along and speak truth looking things straight in the eye, as he had done. And we would know them by the fact they were completely different from anybody else. 

Well, to go by Kate Tempest's example, she will be an inspirational figure, a workaholic (Brand New Ancients started a run at the BAC this week) and risk-taker, a woman aware that failing isn't the end of the world. Which other spoken word artist is filling the Old Vic and receiving a standing ovation? Happily, her friends, family and influences seem to offer strong enough support for her to continue to take risks.