WHAT ANNOYS – DELIGHTS – AND IS OFTEN UNEXPLAINED.
What is ANNOYING me this week?
Nothing
What is DELIGHTING me this week?
The Staffordshire Poet Laureate
LISTENING TO:
Hedonism – Bellowhead.
SOME OF MY DOINGS:
STAFFORDSHIRE POET LAUREATE.
On the 4th October, National Poetry Day, The county of Staffordshire will appoint its first Poet Laureate and I am honoured and pleased to say that I am the poet that the Arts and Libraries team from the County Council have chosen to hold this position in its inaugural year.
I have lots of ideas on things I want to do, which I will be discussing with Council team over the coming weeks, my aim is to hit my year as laureate running, this is not a role to ease myself into, the year will pass far to quickly to allow that to happen.
So watch this blog to share in my year in the role, which I hope will provide opportunities for many poets in the county.
ANOTHER NEW PROJECT.
In my last blog post I mentioned that there will still a couple of projects that were still under discussion. As you can guess the Staffordshire Laureate was one of them. But there is one more that I can now mention.
This new project is a project that allows me to write, there is no organising of events or readings, just a chance to write a response to a historical research project.
THE BOUDICCA PROJECT.
The Project is Boudicca Project based around Mancetter nr Atherstone in North Warwickshire, where a group are engaged in researching the descriptions in contemporary documents around the Battle of Watling St in AD61 or there abouts, when Boudicca met her end as she led her army of Britons in rebellion against the Roman occupiers. The aim to establish if the Roman fort at Mancetter could be the location of this battle.
My role as the Poet in Residence on the project is to write interpretations of the life in these times.
THE STROKE ASSOCIATION – 20 Anthology
I have created a page on the menu bar above with the details on how to submit work for this exciting new project, which has already stirred some good interest, with submissions coming in with some really inventive interpretations on the theme of 20. The deadline is the 8th October and can be sent to me at maldewhirst@yahoo.co.uk.
COLIN GRAZIER ENIGMA.
The play entitled Colin Grazier Enigma – tells of the events of 30th October 1942 in the Mediterranean, when Colin Grazier, Tony Fasson and Tommy Brown boarded the stricken U-Boat U-559 and salvaged the Enigma machine and the important code books that enable the intelligence operations at Bletchley Park to decode the transmissions of the U-boat wolf packs that it has been said significantly reduced the second world war.
The play has had its first read through and will go into full rehearsals in the coming week, once all the locations have been agreed. I will be working on the technical features and assisting the Director Simon Quinn on the delivery of the poetry.
The performance will take place around the streets of Tamworth on the evening of 30th October.
POLESWORTH A PLACE FOR POETRY – DIG THE POETRY – 2012.
Since my last post there has been the final workshop of the Dig the Poetry programme and the spectacular reading in the grounds among the trenches.
Sat 1st September saw the wonderful Jo Bell’s workshop entitled Strata’s – which explored the layers of Archaeology and compared them to the strata’s of our own lives.
Jo drove us hard with constant writing exercises that considered how we could look at our lives and what clues that would exist to future Archaeologists discovering our remains. The realisation that things we take for granted would be lost, that in the future our stories may not be at all clear, and that you can infer the story from what was not found.
All this allows us to consider the lives of the ancestors that we are now uncovering with a better understanding, with a more questioning mind, with less jumping to an obvious conclusion.
The workshop produced some absolutely excellent poems on what was a wonderful day of poetry.
PLUS POETRY EXHIBITION ON THE HERITAGE OPEN DAYS 7th – 9th Sept – with Readings on Sat 8th Sept.
The events took place at Polesworth Abbey, Polesworth in North Warwickshire. Where on Saturday poets gathered for a very special afternoon reading in the early autumn sunshine.
It was an afternoon that you always imagine a poetry reading should be, al fresco in, in a garden with readers and listeners sitting on the grass, breathing in every word. A gathering of friends, fellow wordsmiths whose journey through the preceding weeks as the archaeology was unearthed and captured within the words that sculpted poetry on to pages.
A very special day that will live with those who were there for always. A fitting end to this wonderful project. Something I reflected upon when I took down the exhibition this afternoon and packed it away, hanging up my hat as Poet in Residence at Dig the Abbey.
You can see Gary Longden’s review of the afternoon on his blog at:
http://garylongden.wordpress.com/2012/09/08/poetry-at-the-abbey-polesworth-abbey-polesworth/
SOME OF THE POETRY IS ON THE WEBSITE.
Peter Ralley who is managing all the media and video for Dig the Abbey has uploaded some of the poetry written in response to the dig on to the DIG THE ABBEY website – you can see it through this link.
SOME OF MY COMING SOON DOINGS
Readings in October
2nd Oct – Poetry Alight – Spark Café – Lichfield.
4th Oct – Staffordshire Poet Laureate – The Library Lichfield.
Congrats again, Mal. The year will fly by. Like the Olympics, I feel you’ll leave a true legacy and give a voice to the spirits of place, time and community. Good luck.
Great to hear that you’ve been chosen to be Staffordshire’s first Poet Laureate Mal! Many Congratulations!
As Stafford is my home town and I work for Stafford Borough Council with my daughter working at Stafford Library Service and the Schools Library Service in Stafford, please get in touch with me if I can support you in any way! Not to mention me being a member of the Lichfield Poets so I have a vested interest in all things poetry and Stafford related!
Will you be attending Stafford Arts Festival on Saturday 15 Sept? There’s a lot of poetry going on! See Lichfield Poets Facebook page.
Cheers,
Jan Arnold
Hi Jan
Thank you – I am glad of all the support I can get – so I will be in touch I am sure.
I am away this weekend so I can’t make the Stafford event but I good luck with your readings
Best regards
Mal