Serendipity – Robin Houghton

Blog/ 06/12/2024

Finding my tribe again on Bluesky

Like many people I’ve been humming and haaing about moving from Twitter/X to Bluesky. This week it finally seemed to be the right time. So I secured my name, thinking that I’d set the account up properly at a later date. But the interface was so familiar, so similar to Twitter, that I jumped right in. I haven’t closed my Twitter account, but I have pinned up a message about having gone to the other place.

A while ago I tried opening a Mastodon account but I couldn’t get used to it and struggled to find any conversations there. Part of the difficulty of moving is that it’s a huge hassle, not to mention the fear of losing all your followers and followees. Plus Lists – I have always found Twitter’s List facility really useful. Although many of my lists are surely in need of a spring clean, nevertheless I’d be pained to lose them all. Then there are followers and following of course – though I suspect a big chunk of them are no longer relevant. I’ve been on Twitter since 2007 and during my really active years I was following tech types, social experts, futurists, PRs and anyone internet biz-related, clients, competitors etc. These days I have different interests and different reasons for spending time on social media. The serendipity of social networks has always delighted me, which is one reason I left Facebook about 5 years ago. Facebook just felt like a walled community/echo chamber with no prospect of encountering randomly interesting people or opinions. I remember someone saying years ago that Facebook is where you hang out with the people you went to school with; Twitter is where you meet the people you wished you’d gone to school with. Of course, Twitter has since then been wrecked. I’d given up on ever reliving the joyous early days of Twitter. So imagine my excitement at finding another place where I could start again.

But where to start? My first lifesaver was a nifty Chrome extension called Sky Follower Bridge. When you run it, it will show you which of your Twitter followers, followees or list members are on Bluesky, and an easy way to to follow them. This meant that within a few hours I was following a hundred or so people who otherwise would have taken me ages to find. Then the messages started – people who I thought I’d lost on Twitter, or in real life, old friends welcoming me… it was wonderful. I had become so dissatisfied/disenfranchised from Twitter, and now here was proof that the lovely universe of likeminds and generally interesting people were still out there, no longer blanked out by all the trash and adverts.

I posted a bit about what I was doing, including my updating the submissions spreadsheet. Boom! That got people’s attention. And now I’m looking forward to spending a small amount of time each day nurturing my presence there. Finding new people to follow, reading, replying and reposting. So far, it feels like fun. Fingers crossed the Bluesky momentum carries on building, and may it forever resist the combined devilry of force-fed ads, bots, trolls, paywalls and malicious takeovers. Come on in, the water’s lovely.

Blog/ 05/08/202005/08/2020

Advice to a poet, and a curious birthday thing

Q: Who are these poets and what do they (almost) have in common?

poets-born-on-29Oct

(Answers below…)

Advice lines

Recently I came across this delightful and very relevant piece on the Poetry Ireland website:

Advice to a Poet – words of wisdom from Maurice Harmon, critic, biographer, editor, literary historian and poet.

Even the title has an authoritative feel! But this is no harangue. When I read it I’m picturing a kind but firm teacher, one who challenges but encourages at the same time. So many good thinking points (‘All forms of laziness are fatal in poetry’ ….’You must, and will, find your own way of saying’ … ‘Poetry is above all a way of telling the truth’…’Does it make a difference?’) I don’t know about you but I have to read essays like this on a regular basis, to remind myself what the hell I’m supposed to be doing, because it is so, so easy to stray down those lazy byways or lose sight of the reasons I’m trying to write poetry.

Advice comes in many forms of course and sometimes poets don’t even know they’re giving it. One of the things I like about Rattle magazine is the regular poet interview at the back, and I’m just at the section of the Eavan Boland Sourcebook where we get to read interviews with her. There are always gems to be found in these chats, I think; there’s something both voyeuristic and educational about hearing what a poet has to say about their working methods, inspirations and general thoughts about what gives.

On a somewhat drier note, in the spirit of starting my ‘literary education’ from the beginning, I’m also reading Aristotle’s Poetics, translated by Anthony Kenny (Oxford World’s Classics edition 2013), although I’ve learned quite quickly that it’s actually about tragedy and ‘the epic’ rather than lyric poetry, which doesn’t get a look in. Aristotle rather slyly suggests early on that he’s going to come to ‘comedy’ in due course. And then he doesn’t. What a tease.

Calling all poets with late-October birthdays

I’m fast approaching a ‘landmark’ birthday, and I’m reminded that I share it (the date, not the year) with fine poet Sarah Howe (above right). So just for fun I got researching poet birthdays to see who else is in this 29th October club. According to his family at the time, John Keats was born on October 29th, although official records list it as 31st. Killjoys! Mary Herbert, Countess of Pembroke only just missed out – she was born on 27th October, as was Dylan Thomas and Sylvia Plath. So, if you, or any poets you know of, were born on October 29th (or let’s say 2 days either side, although that’s not quite the ticket) do let me know and we’ll sort out a club logo or secret handshake or something. (When handshakes are allowed again, of course.)

Blog/ 20/01/2018

TS Eliot readings, Needlewriters, some crazy January stuff

TS Eliot Prize readings 2018 - Royal Festival Hall

Hardly seems like a week ago that Peter Kenny and I dared travel to London’s Southbank for the annual T S Eliot Prize readings. Eschewing the very unreliable train service, I elected to drive, as I’ve done for the past few years, only to find the M23 (the main road to London from these parts) closed halfway up, enforcing a 45 minute crawl around the outskirts of Gatwick airport. Interesting fact: in 1833 it was possible to travel from London to Brighton in 3 hours 40 minutes. Last week it took about 3 hours by car.

Anyway, thankfully I had the pleasure of Peter’s company and we arrived 15 minutes before the readings began – not really long enough for the traditional schmoozing, poet-spotting and generally mwah-mwah-ing, but not a disaster. Sharing our row were the lovely Peter Raynard of Proletarian Poetry and Rishi Dastidar who seems to have been everywhere you looked last year, not least of all thanks to his debut Nine Arches collection Ticker-Tape which has been racking up some great reviews. Then how strange is this – who should we be sitting next to me but Maria Isakova-Bennett and Michael Brown, the editors of Coast to Coast to Coast who I met in Liverpool just a few weeks ago. Small world!

The readings this year didn’t excite me a great deal, I admit, and I regret not being able to go to Katy Evans-Bush‘s excellent pre-event reading day this year, in which she goes through all the shortlisted books and we read excerpts and discuss. When I’ve been to this in past years it has really enhanced my enjoyment of the readings.

Having said that, standing out for me were Tara Bergin, Caroline Bird and Ocean Vuong. All three of them grabbed my attention and kept it, albeit in quite different ways. I wasn’t surprised to hear that Ocean Vuong was the winner, given that his collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds has already been phenomenally successful. His reading was extraordinary – he’s a slight figure on the stage, but there’s a huge intensity about him that makes you lean forward in your seat so as not to miss a single word. (Interesting fact: T S Eliot wouldn’t have been eligible for the T S Eliot prize, as his books weren’t long enough.)

On Thursday it was the quarterly Needlewriters event in Lewes, in which three writers read from their work. I was drawn into poems on the theme of snow by Robert Seatter and couldn’t resist buying his book just out from Two Rivers Press, entitled (oddly enough) ‘The Book of Snow’ – as much for the look of it – the beautiful combination of words and graphics – as for the poems themselves – I admit – but then I am a bit superficial like that. Can’t wait to read it. The evening was bitter-sweet though – founder member and ‘head girl’ Clare Best is moving to Suffolk in a month or so, so this was her last Needlewriters (as one of the organisers, but I’m sure we’ll entice her back for the occasional visit.) Very sad indeed to see her go, although it’s wonderful and exciting transition for her.

Meanwhile I’m struggling a bit with a new computer (new software to learn, endless passwords to re-enter, various versions of files to consolidate ) which means my submissions spreadsheet is in disarray, so I must sort that out. I’ve also got a pamphlet launch to promote (see next post) and two choir concerts also to promote (and learn the music for) taking place a few days after the pamphlet launch. I’ve also recently started volunteering at Brownies, and have promised to teach the girls a song to sing for ‘Thinking Day’ – which happens to be the same day as my pamphlet launch – I’m going to make it all work somehow! Please wish me luck…

Blog/ 08/07/2015

Tennis, 1976-style

Encouraged by Jayne Stanton’s marvellous ‘this is not about poetry’ blog post, I’m going off-piste today. Which is a stupid metaphor really as this is not about skiing, but TENNIS.

I enjoy watching a bit of Wimbledon although to be honest I went off it big time during that period when all the women were shrieking over every shot. Thankfully there are only a few major offenders left and the newer players don’t seem to have the habit. Hurrah the young generation!

As a teenager I loved going to Wimbledon (it was cheap to get in on a ‘ground’ ticket, and you could get onto all the courts with it, even Centre Court, although you had to stand.) But even closer to home was Beckenham, one of the warm-up events prior to Wimbledon. It was much smaller and more intimate, but you could get all the top players’ autographs as they strolled from the pavilion to the court – Jimmy Connors, Arthur Ashe, Margaret Court, all wandering around amongst the crowd – it was nuts.

So if you’re interested in tennis, you may like this: snaps of the programme from 1976 which I’ve kept. It was a bit of a shock to pick it up again and see the cover, proudly displaying the Robertsons logo, the whole thing would today be seen as WRONG, but back then no-one blinked an eye:

… clearly £2,000 was big money back then … and look at the difference between Men’s and Women’s (sorry, LADIES’) prize money:

And here’s an advert for British Leyland, in those heady days before Margaret Thatcher did for it:

The last word has to go to Donnay, or whichever agency produced what still for me is a standout ad. Was Bjorn Borg cool, or what?

Angst/ 30/03/2014

Bit of a regroup after a challenging workshop

Ever had a bad day at the poetry workshop coalface? I think I had one yesterday. Here’s what happened and what came from it.

Firstly, I made some mistakes. I haven’t been reading or writing much poetry the last few weeks, as I’ve been consumed with work, research and a very different kind of writing. Tired from a late night, without having decided on a poem to take, I selected something in haste. It was an early draft of a poem in which I was trying something a bit different. For me, tired can mean ridiculously irritable. I also find reading and commenting meaningfully on other people’s work when seen ‘cold’ one of the hardest things there is, so going at it when tired isn’t a great idea.

Next, my poem came in for much criticism, harsher than usual, or so it seemed. I listened, I made notes. I was surprised to find myself feeling overly sad and disappointed. I could see it had been a bad move to bring something so unfinished, or rather something I was so tentative about. I understood most of the points being made, but I confess not all of them. Maybe I shouldn’t have come at all.

When I had the chance, I couldn’t explain my thinking other than that I’d been ‘trying something new’, which came across as a bit flippant and just fanned the flames even further. Yes, that’s the problem, this poem feels like you’re trying too hard to make it something it’s not. Well, I was taking on board previous comments about my poems being written in ‘neat boxes’ (couplets, tercets, all lines the same length etc) and I wanted to let myself go a bit and be less logical. Logical? What has the correct use of syntax and punctuation got to do with logic?

Dear reader, if you are tempted to say things like ‘I was trying to’ or use the work LOGICAL in a poetry workshop, I urge you to think again. I don’t normally get into ‘discussions’ as I prefer to write down all the comments, say thank you, then weigh it up later in quiet on my own. I’m usually also delighted (yes really) by the frequently insightful and valuable feedback. But yesterday I conspired against myself. Tetchy, frustrated at my inability to express myself and the pathetic draft of a ‘trying to be’ poem, annoyed that I couldn’t sit quietly and take the criticism gracefully.

And then I disgraced myself even further by not being able to offer useful criticism to another poet, instead just reacting and being picky in a way I hate.

I came home and tried to be grown up about it. At least I didn’t actually cry, even in private. I have so many things to be pleased about, and grateful for, that I shouldn’t let the the odd bad workshop get me down – I know everyone has them. All I can think to do is to read, and remind myself of what good writing is, reassure myself that I can do better, before trying to (sic!) write any poetry.

This morning I picked up and read a little of Sam Willetts’ New Light for the Old Dark – what a wonderful collection that is! And then, as if by some crazy sense of serendipity, I read a conversation between Troy Jollimore and Allan Fox in the Spring edition of Rattle, in which they discuss poetic process, anxiety and insecurity, getting at truth and philosophy. It’s a gem of a piece – here’s a short extract:

[Poetry] …. makes almost everybody nervous. [ … ] If you’re trying to write it’s even harder because you’re afraid of writing a bad poem, and if you do you’ll feel bad about yourself. That’s one of the first things I say to students: give yourself permission to write bad poems. Everybody does. You think that the poets you love don’t, because you never see them, because they’re smart enough, they put it in a drawer. They keep it for a while, then they look at it and say, “Is this any good?” I mean, they might know it’s bad right away, that happens too. But if they don’t know if it’s bad right away, they hold onto it for a while to see if it’s bad, they check back again in the few months, and if it’s bad you never see it. And so we walk around thinking, “Oh James Richardson never writes a bad poem.” I’m sure he’s written bad poems, but he hasn’t shown them to anybody. He’s smart that way. And that’s what we need to do.

I’ve subscribed to Rattle for a year or so now and I have to say I’ve really warmed to its content. These extended interviews/conversations are a regular feature and have a marvellously unedited feel, it’s like you’re listening in to an entire interview verbatim, rather than being fed an editor’s cut, and I really like that.

Events/ 17/11/2013

Poetry bombing

Came across this – Poetry Bombing – sewing poems into charity shop clothes – how much fun is that??

Except I think I’d be spotted in a jiffy in our small, local St Peter & St James Hospice charity shop, plus you’d need super-quick sewing skills. Knowing my luck I’d be fumbling about looking for my reading glasses then drop the needle as someone elbowed past me to the paperbacks.

But it got me thinking – you don’t need to sew a poem (as in, with a needle) when you can sow one (geddit?) on other ‘stony’ ground – for example, little pieces of paper can be slipped into books in bookshops or libraries, or magazines, and no doubt you can think of lots of other targets, retail or otherwise. (Although it reminds of the plot of a rather rude book by Nicolson Baker, where the main character slips erotic messages into unlikely books and then lurks to watch how some unsuspecting victim is affected by them.)

OK perhaps it’s not a new idea, but I’ve never come across a ‘guerilla’ poem, and I’d love to! Have you?

Mags & Blogs/ 28/08/2013

Hurrah! Poem finds des res

As a poet friend once said to me, it’s always lovely when a poem finds a home. It’s true – it gives you permission to stop worrying about them, messing with them and trying to make them something they’re not. And if they really luck out then they land up somewhere de-LUXE. Like The Rialto.

The thin-looking SAE on the mat wasn’t promising. As I ripped it open I was already saying to myself ‘OK where shall I send these next?’ But lo, only two of the three poems fell out. Michael Mackmin wants one for issue 78. Joyous! Thank you thank you! It’s always worth the 6 month wait when The Rialto gives you a yay.

Inspiration/ 20/08/2013

Another three great poetry blogs

Thought it was about time I shared a few more blogs, one I’ve been following for a while and two that have come to my attention just recently.

Clare Pollard's blog — Clare Pollard’s blog

I’ve particularly been enjoying Clare Pollard‘s ‘poetic journeys’ – most recently through Kent, from Broadstairs and Margate to Canterbury and one of my favourite places, Dungeness. The journeys are part-travelogue and part-personal pilgrimage, illustrated with poetry extracts. Clare also blogs about everything from gardens and lullabies to writing children’s fiction, her own poetry and that of others, and her day to day life as a working poet. A rich and interesting read.

Surroundings - Rob Mackenzie's blog — Surroundings – Rob Mackenzie’s blog

Rob Mackenzie isn’t a prolific blogger, but he always seems to put an effort into his posts – so I guess he comes under the ‘I’ll only blog when I’ve got something interesting to say’ category of blogger. Quality not quantity. There are some neat posts here – Rob’s musing on the nature of celebrity, the music of David Bowie and the real truth about what a poem in the Guardian gets you. And check out the sidebar – his blogroll is phenomenal, and there are masses of links to poetry magazines & webzines, poets’ blogs and resources, as well as to his own poetry publications, articles and reviews. This must have taken a lot longer to compile than a few blog posts. Respect.

Very like a whale - Nic Sebastian's blog — Very like a whale – Nic Sebastian’s blog

I think I have Rob Mackenzie to thank for pointing me in the direction of Very Like a Whale.

Although the most recent posted is dated May 2013, don’t let that put you off. I was very excited to find this blog – not least of all because of Nic’s interest in nanopress publishing (“aka alternative poetry publication, with gravitas”) something I’d not come across before. See this post about what it is, and Nic’s interviews with three nanopress publishers.

And that’s not all, Nic has written a ‘ten questions’ series in which he poses key questions to people in the poetry biz. I have only read a couple of the interviews in the ‘Ten questions for poetry editors’ series, and there are about a dozen more to feast on. I am glutton for this stuff – good thing it has no calories. I dare you not to enjoy it.

Inspiration/ 29/07/2013

A real summer

Funny how a couple of weeks of sunshine makes a difference in so many little ways. For example, walking through my home town in the last few days I’ve noticed in how people dress.

Usually, sunny days are so unexpected and untrustworthy. My feeling is it’s just not worth buying or making summer clothes when you live in the UK. I usually get by with my one summer (ish) dress or only pair of white trousers, a T shirt or top from a bottom drawer that’s not too shrunken or trashed from having been worn on a beach several years ago. As soon as the clouds appear it’s back to the usual.

But when this recent hot weather looked liked lasting and jeans & jumpers were off the agenda I realised I needed (gasp) a very thin cotton dress. And I guess it’s catching, because people seem to be walking around in genuinely summer clothes. Let’s hope we get to wear them again next year, and the next.

Anyway, sorry for the rather lightweight blog post, it’s just an excuse to post some pics of our little sojourn to Somerset the week before last – we stayed part of the time at the Lord Poulett Arms in Hinton St George, where the food and the garden were lovely, the village quiet and picturesque, but the bedroom was sweltering (not helped by being in a rather small double bed!) But of course I’m not complaining about the weather!

But hang on a minute – i knew there was a poetry connection to report – as I was leafing idly through the coffee-table books in the room at The Lord Poulett Arms, I bypassed the one about Dita Von Teese (bit of a burlesque theme at the pub, a tad odd I thought) but enjoyed another featuring photographs of British people who had upped and moved to France. Only when I got to the end did I spot a familiar face – none other than Antony Mair, my poet friend, fellow Brighton Stanza member and blogger of Hastings life! And then I discovered he’d also written the preface. It’s a small world, alright.

Hinton St George – it doesn’t get more English than this

Lord Poulett Arms

Moorhill House Hotel, the New Forest — Moorhill House Hotel, in the New Forest

Lytes Cary, a National Trust house — Lytes Cary (National Trust)

At Lytes Cary — I loved this hanging basket in the garden at Lytes Cary!

Inspiration/ 31/05/2013

Three featured blogs – writing and ‘X’

It’s funny how writing often goes together with a second passion or skill, and the ingenuity of bloggers in combining them in just one blog is often surprising and interesting. This week’s three featured blogs are to do with writing & gardening, writing & swimming, and writing & animals.

OK so I’m not a great gardener. I used to love looking through my mum’s gardening magazines but mainly for the garden plans. Planning (on paper) was my thing. Nurturing living plants and learning their names has never worked for me. I don’t know what that makes me: a virtual gardener? However I’m very happy visiting or sitting in a lovely garden. More a garden reader than a writer.

But that’s not true of the first of this week’s bloggers.

Sarah Salway was the Canterbury Poet Laureate last year and is famous for her photographs of benches, among many other things! Living in Kent, the ‘garden of England’, she has an appropriate love of gardens. So much so that her recent project is Writer in the Garden, which she calls ‘an idiosyncratic literary tour around the gardens of England.’

Sarah’s enthusiasm and energy are wonderful and her adventures in gardens are clearly a strong creative inspiration.

The second ‘Writing and X’ blog is the simply named Writing and Swimming by someone calling herself rather coyly ‘Aquamarina’. Dear Acquamarina, I couldn’t find your real name anywhere on your blog, so if you want to make yourself known to me please leave a note in the comments, thanks!

Aquamarina’s sidebar is a clever compilation of ‘Books featuring swimming’, ‘Films I like with a watery feel’ and even ‘3 swimming poems by Sharon Olds’. Clearly the blog’s author is a poet, and her watery writing-related posts are entertaining. (I was reminded of poet Clare Best‘s recent fundraising swimathon – maybe the swimming-poetry connection isn’t so unusual?)

Sheila Boneham is a prolific author “best known for her writing about dogs and cats for the past fifteen years” as well as an experienced creative writing tutor. Her blog, Write here, write now, features guest posts, writing prompts, author interviews and all manner of musings and articles of interest to writers and/or animal lovers.

write here write now — Write here, write now

A quick search brought up some quirky blog posts, such as an article on photographing dogs and another about New Year writing goals. My only quibble with Sheila’s blog is the navigation – most of the main menu links take you to her main website and away from the blog, and within the blog each time you click on a new post or search result a new window opens, so I ended up with rather a lot of tabs on my browser. But hey! That’s just the website pedant in me I suppose. I was interested enough in the content to keep clicking around, and that’s pretty important. Plus there were all those cute kitties.

if you’re interested in writing the odd guest blog post (great idea if you’re a writer looking to build your reach on the social web) then you may be interested in guesting on Sheila’s blog. Submission guidelines are here.

Category: Serendipity

Q: Who are these poets and what do they (almost) have in common?

Advice lines

Calling all poets with late-October birthdays