WHAT ANNOYS – DELIGHTS – AND IS OFTEN UNEXPLAINED.
What is ANNOYING me this week?
Websites that do not show the full range of products that you can buy from their real shops.
What is DELIGHTING me this week?
The idea of running an International Poetry Film Festival in Polesworth.
LISTENING TO:
The Best of Radiohead.
SOME OF MY DOINGS.
As I said in my last blog, last week was a busy week. It started on Tuesday with THE FIZZ my bi-monthly poetry and spoken word event at Polesworth. The guest poet was the excellent Sarah James who read from her collection “Into the Yell” followed by an open mic, where a wide range of poets read a diverse collection of poems, diverse in subject matter and style. The Secret Writer has written a review on her blog of the event. The next Fizz is on 22nd March when the guests will be The Lichfield Poets – one for the diary.
The writers groups on Wednesday and Thursday offered their usual open constructive critiques which have become a necessity in the development of our writing craft. Both the Mad Hatters Writers and the Runaway Writers are well established groups with members who offer their thoughts and opinions with a trust and understanding that often sees great debates on the nuance of poem or the outcome of a short story. These are delivered with benefiting the writer and the writer’s potential success in mind. We all do it for the benefit of each other.
The Mad Hatter Writers meet every other Wednesday at the Red Lion in Atherstone at 8:00pm the next meeting is on the 2nd Feb and the Runaway Writers meet every other Thursday at the Brewhouse in Burton-on-Trent at 7:00pm the next meeting is on the 3rd Feb. All writers over 16 are welcome to both.
Gary Carr’s excellent monthly Spoken Worlds took place at Rangemore House, Burton on Friday 21st January. There were no guest poets this month, although previous months have seen Sarah James and Rachel Pantechnicon both of whom were excellent. The evening gave me a chance to wear my new “Sgt Pepper” jacket resulting in no end of comment, which were added too when I performed my silent piece “20 Seconds”, a tribute to John Cage, there we murmurs that it was the best poem that I had ever written.
Poet in a Sharp jacket - Take that you Napolionic fiend.
The evening saw an eclectic mix of pathos and humour. With subjects ranging from The loss of a fire-fighter, the loneliness of an unloved child who never-the-less still loved the world, to sea gulls who seem to have lost their way now live in Burton, to a game of Bridge and the tale of a goat who ate a ladies underwear, all life was there in the words of the poets who read and performed.
The event, which takes place in “three halves” saw local poets and writers such as the marvellous Margaret Torr, whose story of the goat and the knickers is not only funny but well written as a series of letters between the various parties who become entangled in this love story, Margaret’s poem about the irritations of people who do not get on, delivered through the auspices of making tea was also a triumph.
The delightful Dea Costelloe wondered about seagulls that were so far from the sea and read her recently published article about learning shorthand and typing as a sixteen year old in Essex. Dea is not only able to craft together these studies of life and the world through her unique observation, she delivers them with a calming charm that has a hint of the mischievous.
Further performances came from the remarkable Rob Stevens (who runs the Word Wizard’s Poetry Slam in Buxton) who entertained us with his poems and a song. Rob is regular performer as the Spoken Worlds and in the past has given us a wonderful poem on learning about contraception with a parsnip and a song about cyclists blocking the Peak District roads on Sunday afternoons.
The authentic Andy Biddulph who has a compelling ability to hold an audience with his poetic tales of a lonely childhood to being a cured diabetic, which were delivered with the gusto that has become Andy’s trademark style of delivery of these well crafted verses.
The terrific Terri and Ray Jolland delivered some wonderful pieces about characters such as Tugg and his pal, Terri and Ray have become a wonderful double act as well as producing individual well written pieces, Ray delivered a humorous piece on playing Bridge. At a previous Spoken Worlds, Terri and Ray delivered a sketch about a couple of ner-do-wells who want to steal a park bench and end up in the middle of drugs bust, which was a brilliant piece of writing, made even funnier by their comic timing.
Topped off with pieces from our compere and organiser Gary Carr whose words always delight, intrigue and trip of his tongue with all the cleverness that one expects from such a great poet.
Spoken Worlds is a great evening as you never know what to expect, with the mix of poetry, stories, songs and sketches, where normally quiet unassuming writers step into their performance roles, that creates a range of emotional waves that leave you thinking, laughing and longing for more.
The Spoken Worlds is a monthly event held on the Third Friday at 7:30pm at Rangemore House, Rangemore Street, Burton-upon-Trent, where all are welcome. The next is on the 18th February.
Enough of the personal alliterative adjectives, I look forward to what this week holds, it will be less busy and maybe I can put sometime into developing my collection of poems, now that I have a new concept and theme on which to glue them together.
I have added another blog to my list of those to follow, that of O’Bheal in Cork, which has some great reviews of the last Cork-Coventry literature exchange which saw Paul Casey, Billy Ramsell, Joe Horgan and Sue Cosgrave read at Polesworth last November.
COMING SOON DOINGS
The FIZZ 10 – which will take place in September, will be the last numbered FIZZ and to mark this milestone I am planning to hold the first Polesworth International Poetry Film Festival. I already have five films lined up with a further two in production and I am actively seeking permission to use a film from Ireland and another from the USA. Added to two Anglo/American films that I already have permission to show this will give us the truly international feel to the event.
If there are poets out there who already have poetry films that they would like to show at this event then please contact me at malcolmdewhirst@yahoo.co.uk. Films should be no longer that five minutes and full permissions must be obtained from the poets and film makers. Email me if you think you have something suitable and we can discuss including it in the September Fizz.
The next FIZZ is number 7 when we will have the Lichfield Poets reading from their latest anthology Battle Lines – on Tuesday 22nd March at 7:30pm at Polesworth Abbey.
pollysworda 