Tag: stephen bone

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Poems coming out, new anthology, currently reading etc

Intro/bit of a rant etc (skip this if you’d rather go straight to The Poetry stuff)

Where has the month gone? (Rhetorical question.) Why am I being besieged by companies/organisations telling me I must re-subscribe to their emails? (Non-rhetorical question, although I think I know the answer – *some people* are spreading panic about new legislation and the country is alive with the sound of knees jerking.) A small rant: there used to be an acronym in Ye Olde Internet Dayes: RTFM. I’m too polite to say what that stands for but you can always Google it. My point is, if you read the ICO website and the text of the new GDPR then you will know IF you need to ask for re-confirmation of consent. Or NOT. Meanwhile I’m almost looking forward to not getting all those emails I used to enjoy getting.

In the last few weeks I’ve been suffering with back and arm problems which meant I had to limit my time on the computer. It’s all to do with posture, and related to the RSI I’ve had for nearly two decades. Nothing life-threatening, just annoying, and coinciding with the painstaking job of typesetting and formatting TRUTHS, the new Telltale Press Anthology (see below) not to mention endless need for posters and programmes for various concerts, workshops, recitals and assorted music-related ephemera. And five weeks of having work done on our garden. But HEY I am back on the comp (taking lots of breaks), the garden is finished, we have a new granddaughter (who I think is going to be a fine poetry critic), everyone is well and life is good!

bad poem, good poem

Needlewriters

I had a blast reading at Needlewriters earlier in the month, and we’re currently planning our June 14th event which will be a South Downs Poetry Festival Special. That means that as well as our regular evening of readings, there’ll be an open mic to kick off the evening, and in the afternoon five of us will be offering poetry ‘surgeries’ (not as queasy as it sounds) to which we hope lots of lovely poets and aspiring poets will flock. More on that another time.

Launch of TRUTHS: a Telltale Press Anthology

Yes, it’s finally here – or it will be – (long story) – next Wednesday 25th April, 7.30pm, upstairs at the John Harvey Tavern in Lewes… a dozen or so of the contributors will be reading their poems on the theme of truth/truths, and much over-excitement will be had by all, especially those of us mad enough to have a) suggested it and b) put it together. Once more the excellent Hannah Clare has created a cracking cover. It’s a stonker of a collection, but of course I would say that. You’ll just have to buy a copy to find out! The technicalities of producing TRUTHS has revealed to me another truth: I have so much to learn about print publishing. There were issues. But I am confident it will be good. Come and see! Free entry. Here’s the Facebook event page.

Coupla poems coming out here and there, plus pamphlet reviews

A few months ago I was wondering why I had nothing ‘forthcoming’ until it occurred to me I just wasn’t sending poems out. Duh. For some reason I’ve had a spate of sending to competitions rather than magazines, and being met with the sound of silence. But I’m slowly getting back on track. There’s one poem coming out in the next Interpreter’s House, which will be Martin Malone‘s last as editor, so I’m hoping there’ll be a launch somewhere that I can get to. Rumour has it that Martin is currently residing in a lighthouse on Shetland, clearly on a mission to move as far north as possible. So we’ll see.

Then a welcome surprise yesterday – a letter from Ann Sansom to say they’d like two of the poems I sent them for The North. I’ve only ever had one poem in The North and it’s been years since I’ve sent anything there as I’d convinced myself my stuff wasn’t for them. So I guess it’s always worth trying again.

Meanwhile I’d like to thank both Emma Lee writing on her blog, and Pam Thompson in London Grip for their thoughtful reviews of All the Relevant Gods, and Abegail Morley for this super mention at The Poetry Shed.

Currently / recently reading

A random selection… the March edition of Poetry and the Spring edition of The Poetry Review, in which I particularly enjoyed poems by Hannah Lowe, Ruth McIlroy and Rebecca Goss. Still to read the essays and reviews. Mary Ruefle’s The Most of It, a prose collection, although the stories (stories? somewhere between short stories and flash fiction) feel more like poems. I’m getting a lot of inspiration from this book.  Also the Spring edition of Rattle, in which I thought I’d read two poems by Sharon Olds, which I loved, but they’re not there. So where did I see these two poems? I thought it was in a recently-arrived mag. But can’t track them down. Do you know?

Stephen Bone‘s Plainsong (Indigo Dreams) is still on the ‘current’ pile – meaning I can’t resist dipping back into it (double-dipping?) before putting it on the shelf, and after a mention by Abigail Morley recently of Robin Robertson I’ve also got out my copy of Hill of Doors for a re-read and it’s paying off.

Peter Raynard is currently on tour promoting his collection Precarious, and it’s one of those books I hesitate to use the word ‘enjoyed’ about as I rather felt I’d been pulled along by my hair to arrive slightly scathed at the end. It’s breathless stuff – the language comes at you with force, a fire hydrant of feelings. There’s a great deal of humour, especially in the poems towards the end, but the overall effect on me was unsettling – ‘exposing us all to unending rounds of worry’ (‘They always come out fighting’).

Look what Ann Perrin pressed into my hand the other day – a copy of her lovely illustrated booklet The hole in the wall, produced by none other than the Dry Stone Walling Association, completely charming and one I will look forward to reading to the granddaughters when they’re a little older.

ann perrin - the hole in the wall

I also recently enjoyed Finishing Lines (Rack Press) by Ian Harrow, a very short pamphlet about illness, with a happy ending; ‘Come, Spring, make the difference.’ (‘Entreaty’). Yes indeed. I’m about to step outside and see for myself.

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Pamphlet launch night

Launch of poetry pamphlets at Printers Playhouse Eastbourne

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!
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Busy busy… pamphlet launch, Telltale Anthology latest

The Swan Theatre, Stratford

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.

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The new pamphlet is here | launch details

Box of poetry pamphlets

Exciting times. My third pamphlet (counting ‘Foot Wear‘ as one) All the Relevant Gods is here. A box of copies arrived last week, so now I have to go about emptying it!

There are reviews to solicit, copies to send out, readings to secure – I already have readings confirmed for Needlewriters Lewes in April, plus Reading and Cheltenham in 2019. I’m hoping to have some more in 2018 but it’s amazing how far ahead reading slots get booked. I ought to know this – at Needlewriters we’re booked up to 2020.

And of course the launch evening – which is shaping up into something fabulous. My far-too-modest poet friend Stephen Bone also has a new pamphlet out, Plainsong, from Indigo Dreams, so we’re having a joint launch party in Eastbourne at the suitably funky Printers Playhouse.

We’ve invited two horribly talented poets as our guest readers, and they’re probably going to show us up, but hey! At least in my dotage I’ll be able to tell people I shared the stage with fine poets Antony Mair and Sarah Barnsley…

Here’s the launch invitation, featuring a Titan Arum, a huge smelly flower about which Stephen writes most lustily!

Poetry book launch flyer

If you’re anywhere nearby, do come join the party and let us entertain you!

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Stephen Bone’s ‘In The Cinema’

 

In the cinema by Stephen Bone

I wanted to say how much I’ve enjoyed Stephen Bone‘s first collection, In The Cinema, just out from Playdead Press.

Moving images, set pieces and numerous characters play out through the book, as the poems go back and forth between childhood recollections, reflections on relationships (both the long-term kind and fleeting encounters), and the more recent past. Not new territory, perhaps, but many of these poems have a sparseness and simplicity that I found very compelling.

The title poem, although it appears in the middle of the book, is the shortest, but it encapsulates so many of the themes – the recollection (or replaying) of stories with known or unknown endings, glimpses/reminders of another era … disappointment, the passing of time, acceptance.

Your whispered
words silently
replay themselves –

don’t tell me how it ends
don’t spoil it for me.

(‘In The Cinema’)

The poet picks over every detail almost like an archaeologist, with care, precision and wonderment. There’s a strong sense of touch and the physical – Reluctantly, / a child braced for medicine I open up / to be fed a scoop of decay  (‘Medlars’)  and in ‘Windfall’ – I tidy your bottles, touch your face. Tidy them again. / I pour water, wind your watch. 

There are character portraits of people at their work – a pedicurist,  a hairdresser tending in silence to an elderly man ‘white hair falling from him like ash’ (‘Ash’), and a series of gentle tableaux where we’re looking in from the outside, often to a soundtrack of off-stage music or something being whispered that we can’t quite make out.

In the final poem (‘Voice-over’) a character from the past talks back from a photo, breaking the ‘fourth wall’, as if creating a kind of release or closure. A suitably cinematic effect?

Inevitably, not every poem in this collection worked for me. But overall I was intrigued and moved; there were many beautiful moments.  I found some of the most understated poems the most heart-breaking  – ‘Windfall’, ‘Pre-emptive’ and ‘Doreen’s Bath’ in particular come to mind – and the poignancy of the images stayed with me.

In The Cinema by Stephen Bone, £7.99 from Playdead Press.