Tag: antony mair

And there goes February flying past… 

This is not my favourite time of year I confess, although I love all the early signs of Spring – the first sunny days, the first buds, daffodils and birdsong. Just look how grand the beach looked the other day! We even had breakfast outside on Friday! But this month in particular I’ve been plagued by asthma. Struggling to swim, or jog, or even walk uphill is a bit depressing. I’m managing to do a little yoga, and I’m still singing, although my chest sometimes hurts afterwards. Roll on warmer and dryer weather.

But what about the writing, you might ask. I’m kind of in a no-man’s land at the moment. I’m not writing poetry with any great intent. But I feel as if I might be moving towards writing something. Hard to describe the feeling really but it’s there.

As regards the prose, I’ve had two rejections so far of my manuscript, with four more probably to come. I will send it out to another six agents, but unless I get a bite I’m not spending any more time on it now. I feel as if that ship has sailed. On a positive note, I’ve already started on the characters and an outline plot for another book. I’ve got a list of the mistakes I think I made in the first one, and the things I could do better this time, starting with characterisation. I’m also setting this one in the present day. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Meanwhile I’ve started putting out feelers for readings early next year when my poetry collection will be coming out with Pindrop Press. So if you have any suggestions of places I might read, please let me know. I will travel (within reason!)

And of course Planet Poetry is my regular connection to the poetry world. I’m continual kept on my toes by our excellent guests, and by my co-host Peter. Interviews I have planned in the next few weeks include Roy McFarlane and Seni Seneviratne, both of whose work I’ve really enjoyed getting up close with.

Coming up: This Friday 23rd I’ll be in Seaford to hear my poetry pal Antony Mair reading his work at the Seahaven Poets Open Mic, then on Sunday 25th at 4pm my group The Lewes Singers are giving a concert at St Saviour’s Church Eastbourne. The church is huge, so I hope we have at least fifty people in the audience or else we shall be rattling around! The interior of St Saviour’s is gorgeous – Victorian ‘arts and crafts’ red brick, beautiful mosaics all around the walls and an amazing painted ceiling.

 

Self-sabotage, womansplaining and other poetry joys

I should be preparing for a recording session this afternoon, for a Planet Poetry episode that’s going out on Thursday, but I’m feeling a bit guilty about neglecting this blog. So herewith a quick update. Subheadings are here to help you skip forward (or skip it all if you so wish!)

Reasons/excuses for not writing much poetry right now

Mid-November and everything’s kicking off as regards Christmas – I mean for those of us involved in concerts. I’m personally only singing in one, but my choir-director husband is full on with more ensembles and gigs than I can keep up with. In his wake, here I am helping out by creating posters & programmes, placing adverts, liaising with concert organisers and ticket selling outlets, managing ticket sales and worrying about things like whether the heating will be working at the venue and have I got someone’s up-to-date biog, have I got the right date and time on the posters, managing the music hire and allocation for The Lewes Singers and making sure we have enough tea, coffee and gluten-free biscuits for our rehearsals. Etcetera. I’m also knee-deep in executor stuff, trying to sell my sister’s two properties & dealing with buyers pulling out, estate agents/managing agents/solicitors and endless questions to answer and forms to fill in. Not a great time to be selling a flat, or two. But hey. I’m alive. I’m healthy. Neither my home nor my livelihood is on the line, so it ain’t really stressful, just time consuming. Then again, I’m such a self-saboteur that I’m probably secretly quite happy not to have too much writing time on my hands.

Recent and forthcoming poetry gigs

On Sunday I was at the Eastbourne Poetry Cafe to hear Karen Smith give a reading – Karen is a class act I have to say, she lit up the room. I think I first met Karen on a New Writing South course, then she had a collection Schist published by Smith Doorstop, and that set her on her way.  There’s a very nice interview with Karen here. It was also great to meet Christopher Horton and hear him read, someone I’ve not come across before.

I’m looking forward to hearing my Hastings Stanza pal Antony Mair at Needlewriters in Lewes this coming Thursday. Another classy poet who always gives engaging and entertaining readings.

At least I am writing a BIT…

Bill Greenwell’s online workshop has forced me to come up with some new poems, hurray! I will try to send something out this month. I have a few poems ‘out there’, some of which are due back soon I think, so that will be an added impetus. I may even try sending a pamphlet submission to Broken Sleep before that deadline passes.

and reading…

There’s always reading to be done to prepare for Planet Poetry interviews. I read somewhere recently that writing poetry reviews (the traditional kind, for poetry mags) is a good discipline as it makes you really read closely and engage with poetry collections. I have to say that interviewing a poet on a podcast takes all that and then some – thinking up relevant questions to ask, talking with the poet about your reading/understanding of their work, suggesting which poems they read and commenting in a way that listeners may find interesting… it’s not easy, and I often curse myself for sounding like an idiot, a sycophant or a ‘womansplainer’, sometimes all three in the same episode. It’s all  good fun though!

Faith, hope and podcasting

The sun is shining and I’m going to be gardening this afternoon. The weather is becoming less glacial and I may even be able to plant out the tomatoes. Hurray! I feel my mood lifting. The diary for May and June promises much, it looks like Nick will be working again after 15 months of enforced layoff, and musical events are on the calendar again. Not before time. I was starting to find it hard to get out of bed and not succumb to dark thoughts. But at least the pool has reopened!

In fact, the last week or two have brought some brilliant moments – not least of which was Wednesday’s launch of Antony Mair‘s new Live Canon collection A Suitcase Filled with Hope. I was proud to be able to say a few words about Antony, in front of his friends and family and many, many fine poets in the audience. He is a very modest person, but with a big talent and a huge heart. I think this is his best book yet. Highly recommended.

Last week I met up with my Planet Poetry co-producer Peter Kenny and poet friend Charlotte Gann for a few beers in Lewes. A bit of rain didn’t put us off! This is the first time Peter and I have been able to meet properly since last November, and although we thought we might do some recording for the show, we ended up just socialising.

We’re really proud of Planet Poetry;  we’ve learned as we’ve gone along, made mistakes and haven’t quite reached BBC standard yet but hey! This week I attended some sessions of a Podfest Masterclass, and although the things I heard about how to take a podcast ‘up a notch’, promote it to a wider audience, make it easier to subscribe to etc wasn’t anything I didn’t know, it was a fantastic kick up the backside. As a result Peter and I now have a domain name, plans for a website and lots of ideas for the future. We’re currently working on Episode 14, due out next week and it’s all about poetry publishing. Looking at the list of previous episodes I’m reminded how much wonderful new poetry we’ve encountered, and how many fascinating poets and editors we’ve spoken with – most recently the eminent American poet LeAnne Howe. Meanwhile here’s Peter and I in one of our recent recording sessions. Peter is ‘Proud Parsnip’ here…. don’t ask!

Robin Houghton and Peter Kenny on Planet Poetry podcast

 

Poetry & alcohol, contentious essays and more

Ah, December. The month when I may be found stressing over the kerning and leading of some choir’s concert programme, editing singers’ lengthy blogs and updating the Christmas card list. Yes! I am still a Christmas card aficionado, despite every year it becoming yet another soul-search about whether the negative impact on the environment of all that paper, print and roadmiles outweighs the social benefit of sending and receiving something with physical presence handwritten by a human being. I’m sure my parents must have faced similar moral dilemmas but I can’t imagine right now what they were.

Having just emerged from a ‘dry November’ – no, it wasn’t for charity, just for a challenge – I feel just a tad liberated. I mean, to return to alcohol. I wonder if the occasional injection of alcohol actually loosens up my brain in a way that allows me to think poetry – rather like allowing one’s gaze to soften and see those 3D ‘magic eye’ images that had their moment in the 1990s. It feels that way, anyway. I’m sure it’s not a scientific fact, otherwise there would be no teetotal poets. Which I’m sure isn’t the case.

Read this please

I came across this piece by the big-thinking Jon Stone, on how we could be re-thinking the traditional poetry book blurbs and steer clear of the dreaded ‘ceaselessly inventive and original, utilises precise, finely wrought language, deft musicality’ etc etc stuff that we read every day. This appealed to me greatly. I try to suppress the copywriter in me but It’s very hard when yet another claim about ‘clear-eyed poetry that demands to be written’ or whatever makes me want to be sick into a bucket. Although I admit I also fall into this particular bucket from time to time.

Jon’s essay is a fab read on its own, but don’t miss also part 1 in the series, on Prize Culture, sure to quicken a few pulses (“If the Forward or the Eliot mysteriously stopped producing spikes in sales for shortlisted books, a serious reform would be undertaken immediately, as a matter of emergency”). I can’t find parts 3 – 5 of the series, but I’m waiting for them with bated breath. These essays were written in 2014, so why have I only just discovered them? Conspiracy theories on a postcard, please.

Readings, launches

A couple of weeks ago I went over to Chichester to read at Barry Smith’s excellent Chichester Poetry Open Mic. Twas a fairly foul night, but the small audience had a big heart – not only was the open mic element one of the best I’ve experienced, but the lovely people bought a few of my pamphlets as well as my ‘Guide to Getting Published in UK Poetry Magazines’ (yes! another plug! But if I can’t plug it on my own blog then what kind of a marketer would that make me? No need to answer that one.)

A few nights ago I attended the launch of Antony Mair‘s wonderful new collection, Let the Wounded Speak. Antony had invited two other poets to read from his collection, and the whole event had been impeccably planned. Having others read his poems was a bit of a masterstroke. I love hearing Antony read, but giving the poems to another voice meant we got a different slant on the work. I admit I was surprised to find it so moving, although I’m not sure why I was surprised, because I’d been to the launch of his first collection performed partially by the actors of Live Canon, and enjoyed that immensely.

Antony has a theory that my poetry-related doo-dads such as the quarterly windows updates and the ‘how to’ book are displacement activities designed to stop me getting on with the first collection. There could be something in that. But there’s also the pleasure of dipping in and out of diverse projects.

One thing’s for certain, I need the relative quiet of January to get on with thinking about the collection. Music for now. I’m still enjoying laying out the programme and learning the music for our upcoming concert…

Recent reading: Hugh Dunkerley & Antony Mair

OK, so July wasn’t a prolific blogging month for me but I did an awful lot of gardening (well, watering), singing (in Westminster Abbey, dontcha know) and (drumroll) reading – oh yeah and bit of writing too, but more about that in another post.

I wanted to post up my thoughts on two books I recently bought at readings and have enjoyed a great deal. Hugh Dunkerley teaches creative writing at Chichester University and our paths have crossed a few times, but it was the first opportunity I had to hear him read when he came to Eastbourne Poetry Cafe earlier this month. I really enjoyed his poems and bought Hare, not a new book, but then again poetry books have a long shelflife. As luck would have it, I’d just been to the London launch of Bestiary, and Other Animals, the first full-length collection by Antony Mair. So it was interesting to read these two animal-themed collections back to back. Antony is a good poetry friend, the founder and mainstay of Hastings Stanza which has been so good for my writing, and a super-nice super-talented person. It’s very exciting to see him doing so well (another collection is in the pipeline I believe) – keep an eye out for his name.

Hare (Cinnamon, 2010) by Hugh Dunkerley

When I first picked up this collection, and seeing the cover especially, it brought to mind Ian Duhig’s The Lamas Hireling, its title poem a strange parable rooted in the myth and superstition surrounding hares. We have to wait until the end of Hare for the title poem, in which the narrator makes love to a woman who seems to be transformed during the act of coitus into the mysterious hare seen earlier ‘bounding […]/across the astonished fields.’ Myth and mystery make their play also in poems such as ‘The Guardians of the Water’ with its three strange night visitors, and ‘Discovery’ in which the shipwrecked ‘murmur dry mouthed prayers of thanks’ despite the forest ‘crowding out all thoughts of passage’.

The book is in three sections. ‘In The Darkroom’ begins with a number of poems dealing with lone characters undergoing extreme or extraordinary trials, including an abducted child, an astronaut about to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and a woman who believed she could exist on air alone, setting out a number of recurrent themes: individuals facing end of life, returning from a near-death experience, or enduring loneliness in many diverse disguises. Actual death surfaces quite often, but many of the deaths are of animals or birds. Dunkerley seems to have an eye for birds in fact – magpies, bantams, geese and swifts all come under his gaze.

The central sequence of sonnets (‘Under Cover’) deals with a doomed love affair, which at its climax resembles a ‘huge ship’ pulling out of dock as ‘wife, husband, children all slide away’. But before long the narrator is ‘wondering who she is’ and the it’s clear where things are going. Although this sequence strains against a hint of bathos, elsewhere in the collection there are poems of convincing sensuality, the most surprising of which are ‘Weasel’ and ‘Mussels’ (‘In the sink they open slyly,/ the occasional shift as one/nudges against another’). Personally I was more repelled than seduced by the image of a woman shaving her legs in the bath (‘Razor’) but it takes a brave man to write about periods (‘Cycle’) and intra-uterine insemination (‘IUI’).

A lot of lovely wordplay in this collection. Some phrases I particularly enjoyed – ‘at night the stars rustled, tugging / at you with their tiny gravities.’ (‘Fast’) ‘It made a hole in the day/ where the bird had been’ (‘Killing Geese’), the baby ‘starting suddenly / at the zoo of her own voice.’ (‘Giant Steps’), the ‘slippery sacks of nothing/that were once squid.’ (‘In a Japanese Supermarket’).

 

Bestiary, and Other Animals (Live Canon, 2018) by Antony Mair

Shortlisted for the Live Canon First Collection prize, this book is a smorgasbord of animalia. It’s not nature poetry as such but more a meditation on human nature as reflected in, sometimes personified by, the creatures within its pages.

In two sections, the first is the Bestiary of the title – an A to Z where each creature is identified solely by its first letter. There is a key at the end, but it’s more fun to try and guess. Some are much more obvious than others!

A medieval concoction designed to both entertain and moralise, a bestiary presents all kinds of opportunities for the contemporary poet, and Mair has a great deal of fun with it. Some poems are heartbreaking reminders of man’s cruelty to animals, such as the elephant ‘hating these people that taught us shame’, or a panicked turtle caught in a fishing net. There are animals-as-human-stereotypes (bulldog, cougar) and reflections on loss, ageing and coping with trauma. ‘W’ surprises with its paean to a creature universally disliked, bouncing out its funny ending.

As befits any animal-themed collection there are witty nods to Ted Hughes (for example ‘F’ and ‘P’) and some enjoyable satire, such as the poem-as-bureaucratic-report forming a sly comment on the destruction of natural habitats (‘Y’, for Yellowhammer). Mair is comfortable with form and subtle rhyme schemes, but just as happy to take risks. ‘H’ evokes a hawk in two simple lists of verbs, distilling the freedom, power and simplicity of its existence to a series of crisp actions.

Section two, ‘Other Animals’ takes the reader further into a contemplative world in which animals as portents appear in dreams, and the boundaries between human and non-human life blur and coalesce. Personal testimony (‘Coming Out’, ‘Tom’, ‘Black Dog’, ‘For Ro, in her last days’) rubs along with (usually black-ish) humour. I particularly enjoyed the moving ‘Everything will be fine’ –

[…] the day
stretched ahead like a field of slate.

A longing for somewhere else sneaked under the door –

‘The Pigeon’ begins with the dilemma of what to do with an injured bird, and ends with a burden of guilt, comparing the bird’s destiny to ‘an abandoned child in a Darfur cellar / or others whose plight I turn my back on’.

Antony Mair isn’t afraid of taking a stance and speaking out against injustice. He’s also happy to put the boot in from time to time where he sees fit. But there’s a tenderness and frankness to his work , a richness of language and reference, and attention to craft.

I felt a sense of gratitude running through the book, and of hope, even in the face of death, sadness and the worst kind of human behaviour. The animal world is cruel, but animal intuition is something we can learn from. The last words are a fitting ending (‘For Ro, in her last days’):

[…] Forget
the lingering metallic taste and look up:

as light fades the stars hang out small flags
signalling welcome in silver and indigo. Let
the horse have its head. He knows the way home.

Pamphlet launch night

Stephen Bone and I had a blast last Thursday launching our pamphlets in Eastbourne, at the brilliant Printers Playhouse. The audience was a sea of fantastic poet friends, non-poet friends and supportive other-halves… we had excellent guest readings from our good friends Sarah Barnsley and Antony Mair, and what else can I say except massive thankyous to everyone who came, read, listened and bought.

If you couldn’t make it but would like to buy a signed copy of All the Relevant Gods, you can do so through this link – please just put your name and address in the ‘note to seller’ – and thank you!

Antony Mair at the launch of All the Relevant Gods
Antony Mair
Sarah Barnsley at the launch of All the Relevant Gods
Sarah Barnsley
Stephen Bone at the launch of Plainsong
Stephen Bone reads from his new pamphlet ‘Plainsong’ from Indigo Dreams

 

Robin Houghton at the launch of All the Relevant Gods
I think I was having a bit too much fun at this point!

Busy busy… pamphlet launch, Telltale Anthology latest

It seems to be a busy time of year, both for poetry and for music. I’ve been busy promoting our Lewes Singers concerts this coming weekend in Eastbourne and Ringmer, as well as learning the music of course… it took an hour this morning to sort out the seating plans, making sure tall people weren’t in front of short people and no singer was next to anyone singing the same voice part – ugh!

This afternoon I was happy to spend four hours making up ten more copies of Foot Wear. The first 20 copies are sold so now I have another ten. I’m making no more than 50 in all. Based on today, it takes 24 minutes to make each pamphlet – printing, folding, trimming and binding. (Of course that’s after the actual writing of the poems, finding/choosing the illustrations, doing the layout and typesetting… oh well, it’s a labour of love!) Then I put them under some heavy books overnight to flatten them, before numbering each one ready for selling – in this case at my pamphlet launch on Thursday – oh! Haven’t I mentioned that??

With two days to go I’m a bit nervous, not having decided for certain what to read, or my introductions. When I’ve finished writing this post I’ll be onto it, I promise. And practising tomorrow. Stephen Bone is my lovely co-host and co-launchee. Stephen’s Indigo Dreams pamphlet ‘Plainsong’ is fabulous, and it’s his poem about a Titan Arum that gave the launch flyer its phallic illustration – currently blown up (sorry!) to A3 and proudly sitting in the window of the Eastbourne Tourist Information Centre – I’m expecting letters of disgust next week in the Herald.

Our guest readers are Antony Mair, a fine poet teetering on the edge of some well-deserved recognition, and fellow Telltaler Sarah Barnsley, also frighteningly talented and due some serious poetry success. It’s going to be a fantastic night. I just need to decide what to read and what to wear!

Other things taking me away from blogging lately: a wedding anniversary trip to Stratford to see ‘Twelfth Night’ (in the presence of HRH Prince Charles, although he was accommodated very discreetly – a future king has to go the theatre now and then, y’know) and ‘Imperium’ at the Swan (photo above). Great fun but lessons learned about what seats to book in the future. Anticipation of Spring (please, are we nearly there yet?) and plans for the garden. Other writing and work-related stuff.

Meanwhile Hastings Stanza has been a boon as regards workshopping and poet camaraderie and I’ve got quite a few new poems on the go at the moment. So once this week’s events are over I’ll be back to the editing. Which reminds me, our Telltale Anthology is well under way, I have the first round of amends to do on the proofs, but we’re on track for a late April launch. This is shaping up into an amazing collection with some first class contributions. More about it soon.

Slam Dunk at the Printworks in Hastings

Last night I took the train (yes! there and back! and only slight delays!) to Hastings to Slam Dunk, a regular poetry night at the Printworks, where Hastings Stanza rep Antony Mair was doing a set.

Although it’s not far away, Hastings is still a bit of an unknown quantity for me, but it has an unmistakeably youthful and creative vibe that’s irresistible. There’s an edge to it too – and my first challenge was to find the way in, which turned out to be down a dark alley and without any external signs…a cross between a speakeasy and some sort of squatters’ den – ha! (The experience reminded me of a ‘foreigners only’ bar in Rome about 30 years ago where you had to know the correct (unmarked) door to knock on, and someone slid open the hatch to check you were a) not Italian and b) not male. Men were allowed but only in the company of a woman, and in the proportion one-man-one-woman. I don’t think Rome was ready for any other relationship possibilities in those days. It sounds bizarre but for me as an eighteen-year-old alone in a foreign country it was a ‘safe place’ away from the pests that followed a girl everywhere.)

Anyway, I was rescued by Judith who appeared at what I took for the emergency exit. The room turned out to be one of those cavernous industrial spaces taken over by artists and the hipster crowd – girders/concrete/crittal windows/bar made of chipboard/Edison lightbulbs etc – and buzzing with energy. The Hastings Stanza poets were there in force to support Antony – a few of us for the first time – and in fact the intrepid Roz Balp took part in the open mic with a high degree of panache (that’s her in the featured pic -trust me!)

The format was that open-mic-ers each read one poem, and there was a time limit (two or three minutes – I missed the introduction so not sure) – and after each reader the audience got to give them marks out of ten, with deductions if they went over time. Somebody then did a quick calculation and came up with a number – I couldn’t work out the formula, but there was much cheering as ’24!’ or ’26!’ were announced. Another knockout round followed, with an eventual winner, then a generous break, then the first headliner poet (the previous month’s slam winner – in this case, Antony), then ANOTHER headliner…. and all over by 10pm.

I’m not a huge fan of open mics, but I thought the format worked well, discouraging the bores who only want to go on and on, and keeping the audience engaged with a bit of friendly competition and banter. People paid attention but there wasn’t the reverential hush of your typical poetry reading – the bar was busy and we were kept entertained with blasts from the Dyson hand dryer in the loos behind our table.

Spam poetry at the Printworks, Hastings

The audience was mostly young, creative types, but all ages seemed to be represented – quite a few people even older than me! Several of the readers were young men with beards, fabulously long hair, or both, most of them reminding Steph of her first husband. We had plenty of anti-Trump rhetoric, relationship angst and a surreal poem from Brian Docherty which appeared to be about aliens taking hostage a bloke who tells them Winston Churchill is dead, all taking place on the set of The Only Way is Essex. I may have got that completely wrong, but entertaining as always is Brian. The average age of the poets was significantly lowered by the presence of 15-year-old Ruby, who made it to the read-off with her excellently angry and witty poems. Such confidence! She would have known how to handle those groping Italians back in the 80s.

Antony presented another fine set, although at one point he had to call for the ‘live open fire’ projection to be turned off, in case he had an epileptic fit. It was a teensy bit of a shame though, as the room seemed decidedly chilly once we were no longer looking at the flickering flames.

Antony Mair at the Printworks Hastings poetry slam

Final poet of the night was headliner Sally Jenkinson, who was a new name to me – as she said herself it’s great to visit a part of the country you don’t know and to come across new people. In Sally’s case she’s from Doncaster, but has been living in Brighton a couple of years. She gave a strong reading and I liked her style. It’s not easy to go last and she kept us listening to the end.

Then I only had to wait ten minutes for The Train, which actually took me home, and my dear husband surprised me by meeting me at the station. Top night out!

Seven Questions for Poets #3 – Antony Mair

Today’s poet in the spotlight is Antony Mair. Antony has been a brilliant poet friend of mine for some years, firstly as a supporter of the Brighton Stanza and member of the ‘loose committee’ when I was the rep, and latterly as the founder and chief corraller-of-poets at Hastings Stanza. He has an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster, and is widely published in magazines including Acumen, Agenda, Ink, Sweat & Tears and Poetry Salzburg. Antony recently won the Rottingdean Writers National Poetry Competition.

1 – What was the last poetry book you read, that you would recommend?

The one that’s given me most pleasure recently has been ‘Cradle Song’ by Andrea Samuelson, who’s a member of the Hastings Stanza group. It gives a voice to her great-grandmother, who was confined to a mental hospital in Sweden from her early twenties to her death some fifty years later, and whom Andrea identified with as a result of suffering from severe post-natal depression herself. Andrea’s been working on a novel since this collection, but I want her to give us some more poems!

2  – Philip Larkin and Dannie Abse are both alleged to have said they only wrote one or two decent poems a year. How is it for you?

I wish it were that simple.  There’s the usual cycle of completing a poem, thinking it’s a masterpiece, leaving it for a month or so and then seeing it’s a turkey.  Even when I’ve done something I’m pleased with it may not survive an editor’s scrutiny.  If Larkin or Abse were to come back from the dead and consider half a dozen of my efforts ‘decent’ I’d be delighted.

3 – What would be your ideal place for a writing retreat?

An apartment in the old town of Nice would do quite nicely for a week – preferably when something’s on at the opera house!

4 – Do you enter poetry competitions?

Yes, though I’ve wised up quite a lot over the past few years, and can see that even my swans may be geese compared with other’s offerings. It’s a bit of a lottery, but everyone enjoys a flutter.

5 – If someone has never read any poetry, where would you suggest they start?

By reading Lifelines – my edition is New and Collected, from Town House, Dublin.  The project involved asking numerous people, eminent in a wide variety of fields, to nominate their favourite poem and explain why.  The result is an anthology with a considerable plus.

6. Why is end-rhyme considered a good thing in performance poetry, but rarely found in contemporary magazines?

Hearing poetry is difficult.  We’re out of the habit of it.  Rhyme helps to anchor the attention by giving us a sense of structure.  When it comes to contemporary magazines, rhyme is simply out of fashion – I don’t think there’s an easy explanation for that.  Contemporary poets who use rhyme well, such as Gjertrud Schnackenberg in the USA, can achieve effects that are sometimes quietly miraculous.

7 – A murmuration of starlings, a murder of crows etc – what would you call a group of poets?

How about a ‘jabber’?  I was going to suggest a ‘parnassus’, but fear it sounds a little too like ‘up-our-asses’ which is of course a million miles from the truth.

QUICK PLUG:  Antony Mair is one of four poets who have been commissioned to write a poem inspired by the Bayeaux Tapestry. The poems have been set to music by Orlando Gough and will be performed at Clash! a special event in Hastings on 24th September. It’s all part of the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. Full details here.


Previous ‘Seven Questions for Poets’:
#1 – Clare Best
#2 – Jill Abram

Some poetry readings etc in next two weeks…

Just a quick shout out for some poetry readings & events coming up in the next couple of weeks … we’re always being told how people turn to poetry in times of trouble, so perhaps we need to start promoting poetry readings as an antidote to brexit woes. I already foresee a tranche of poems on brexit-related themes starting to appear in magazines from the autumn… But let’s not wish the summer away. I’m trying to see the sunshine through those dark trees.

Anyway, starting with this evening, 29th June – I’m pleased and proud to have been invited by Abegail Morley to be a guest reader at the launch of her Nine Arches collection, The Skin Diary, alongside Jeremy Page and Mara Bergman. It’s taking place at The Pitcher & Piano in Tunbridge Wells at 7pm – free entry!

Tomorrow evening 30th June I’m in Eastbourne talking to the New Eastbourne Writers about best ways to use Twitter, and hopefully launching the follow up to my ‘How to Use Twitter’ ebook. (I know, not a reading as such but a writers’ event. If you happen to be based in this area and are looking for a writers’ group to join then do come along.)

Next Thursday 7th June at 7pm it’s Telltale Press & Friends at the Poetry Cafe in London – readers are Sarah Barnsley, Siegfried Baber, NEW Telltale poet Jess Mookherjee – more on her very soon – and special guest John McCullough who will be reading from his new collection Spacecraft (Penned in the Margins). These events are always fantastic so do come and meet the Telltales if you can.

On Friday 8th July at 7.45pm at The Writers’ Place in Brighton I’m excited to be reading at ‘New Writing South presents’ alongside Michaela Ridgway and Akila Richards. Tickets are £6 and there’s also an open mic.

And then on Saturday 9th July at 6pm I’ll be joining fellow members of the Hastings Poetry Stanza in the The Bookkeeper bookshop in St Leonards, for an eight-hander reading billed as ‘Beside the Seaside’. It’s part of the St Leonards Festival, the poetry elements of which have been co-ordinated by our intrepid and resourceful leader, Antony Mair.