Reach Poetry #205, Indigo Dreams Publishing

Bracelet Bay and the Mumbles Lighthouse, Swansea

An A5 package came through the letterbox this morning containing two magazines from Indigo Dreams Publishing, Reach Poetry #205 and The Dawntreader #032.

I have written before (here) about my long association with the press, and am always delighted when the latest copies arrive in my home. I tore open the envelope; and to my surprise, a cheque fluttered to the floor. My small poem about Bracelet Bay had come Second in the September contest of readers' votes. Thank you, Reach Poetry editor, Ronnie Goodyer!

My poem is a take (or perhaps a slight variation, since the key mid-line is split) on the Folding Mirror poetry form, devised by Dr. Marc Latham and included in The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics including Odd and Invented Forms by Lewis Putnam Turco (University Press of New England).

Reach Poetry is a monthly publication. You can subscribe for a year or buy a single copy. The Dawntreader (editor Dawn Bauling) comes out each quarter, and again you can buy a sample issue or an annual subscription. 

International Echoes (15): IMMAGINE&POESIA

The Boat House, Laugharne, South Wales, UK ~ childhood home of Aeronwy Thomas

I have just had the pleasure of having a poem published on IMMAGINE&POESIA, an international site run from Italy by Lidia Chiarelli, coordinator and ideologist of this global and ekphrastic artistic and literary Movement. 

IMMAGINE&POESIA was founded in Torino, Italy, in 2007, under the patronage of the late Aeronwy Thomas, daughter of Dylan Thomas. If you follow the link here, you will notice some familiar names - such as Peter Thabit Jones (The Seventh Quarry Press, Swansea, Wales, UK) and Stanley Barkan (Cross-Cultural Communications, New York) - among the members of the Movement.   

You can read my poem here, juxtaposed with the magnificent photography of Adel Gorgy. I won't say more as you may prefer to form your own impressions of Adel's work.

My poem, 'Thalatta, Thalatta', is a Folding Mirror Poem. The form was created by Dr Marc Latham, and appears - along with my poem - in The Book of Forms by Professor Lewis Putnam Turco (see e.g. entry for 4 May 2012 if you click the link to Professor Turco's site). The book is now available in its 4th Edition, published by the University Press of New England (and here). This new 'revised and expanded edition' has as its subtitle, A Handbook of Poetics Including Odd and Invented Forms, and Marc's Folding Mirror Poetry form constitutes one of these.    

• My post about The Book of Forms, A Handbook of Poetics Including Odd and Invented Forms
• Marc's post on his Folding Mirror Poetry site 
• Tenby in South Wales as inspiration (or why I wrote this poem)
• Some thoughts on Ekphrasis, a subject that has long intrigued me. It was also a key topic in my Quill and Parchment interview of January 2010 with USA poet-artist, Kay Weeks.  

Postscript ... another magnificent Adel Gorgy photograph has now been added and paired with Professor Lewis Turco's exquisite 'Flower Moon' poem. Do take a look here.

Publication Pointer (2): The Book of Forms (4th edition) by Lewis Putnam Turco

Professor Lewis Turco's work, The Book of Forms, is now available in its 4th Edition, published by the University Press of New England. This new 'revised and expanded edition' has as its subtitle, A Handbook of Poetics Including Odd and Invented Forms.

A copy of the third edition (published in 2000) has long been my constant poetry companion. I have learned so much about what Professor Turco calls 'the elements of poetry', comprising 'levels of language usage'. I have been fascinated by the plethora of covered forms, from one line adonics to 210 lined sonnets redoubled.

The latest edition contains all these features plus added extras in the guise of 'odd and invented forms'. If I home in on British contributions for a moment, you will find a description of Dr Marc Latham's Folding Mirror Poetry, with an example by Claire Knight and a second one by yours truly. Crossing the Severn and moving on into Wales, you will discover a most inventive, if somewhat discordant, form called The Clang, developed by Llewelyn Hugh Nicholas of Swansea's 'Tuesday Poetry' group. If this form reminds me of anything, I suppose it would be the poem, 'Denial' by George Herbert, but this is just a personal hunch. I can vouch for the fact that The Clang is a fun form to try.

Lewis Putnam Turco is an emeritus professor of English. He was the founding director of the Cleveland State University Poetry Center and of the Department of Creative Writing at the State University of New York College at Oswega. The new edition, with sample poems by established names like Robert Frost and newer names like Greg Pincus, can be purchased from UPNE: the details can be found here. You can read the reviews on Amazon here.

In these days when 'form' in poetry is not always a prized word, I find it encouraging to know that there is popular global demand for clear explanations about the numerous different styles of poetry. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to writer-editors like Professsor Turco, not forgetting movements such as Dr. H. Tulsi's 'World Renaissance for Classical Poetry', which was founded in Visakhapatnam, India. Many of us enjoy the challenge of experimenting with word and structure.

In drawing these thoughts to a close, I would also wish to express my thanks to those who create these new forms for us to enjoy. For after all ...

"It can be argued that to invent a verse-form which becomes immortal, 

living on in the works of future poets and in other languages, 

is one of the greatest achievements possible for a poet ..."  

Martin Lyon, 'Acumen', issue 71 (Sept 2011), p.71 

For reference

• Professor Lewis Turco's blog
• Dr Marc Latham's Folding Mirror Poetry site 

See also:

• Feature on Folding Mirror Poetry on the Writing Tips for Better Writing site
• This recommendation: I certainly second the hardback for ease of use! 

Poetic People (28): Dr Marc Latham of GreenyGrey and Folding Mirror Poetry

'Tangerine beaks'
Swan Summer Serenade

Those of you who read my blog from time to time will need little introduction to the creator of the Folding Mirror poetry form, Dr Marc Latham of the GreenyGrey website. Marc's eBook is now available for purchase as a download from Chipmunka. You can read my shortened review on the Chipmunka site here, or the full review here on my blog:-

Bipolarity and ADHD to Folding Mirrors: Poems reflecting on the Mind, Life, Nature and Space
Author: Dr Marc Latham

ISBN: 978-1-84991-023-1
Published: 2009
eBook: 112 pages

Publisher: chipmunkapublishing, the mental health publisher
Website: http://chipmunkapublishing.co.uk
Price: £5 (pdf download)


‘Let me take you on a journey, to the centre of my mind.’ Marc Latham

Have you heard of the GreenyGrey? This reviewer first became acquainted with Dr Marc Latham through his GreenyGrey website, in which he explains how his concept of the GreenyGrey ‘encapsulates the dominant natural colours of the British landscape, with the land predominantly green, and the mountains, rivers, sea and sky usually grey.’

Marc’s writing arises out of the wellspring of his medical conditions. His early poems in the eBook were inspired by rock lyrics on the subject of bipolarity, schizophrenia, paranoia, alienation and depressive illness.

‘I ... felt different and knew that my future would not run as smoothly as that of most people,’ Marc explains. He knew that writing was a definite ambition, but it was his creation of Folding Mirror poems that led to his increasing activity as a practising and published poet.

Marc’s Folding Mirror pieces are formed around a folding middle line. They reflect aspects of the bipolar moods swings that compass both sides of what Marc describes as ‘the fine
line of normality somewhere in the mind’. Football matches (with two sides and two halves), reflections, horizons and equinoxes have all been given the Folding Mirror treatment, along with a host of other subjects, such as science and art.

Early poems, prior to the Folding Mirror ones, demonstrate Marc’s understanding of traditional poetry techniques. The World Beyond Reality, for example, employs rhyming couplets and is structured in quatrains. Other pieces make use of poetic repetition and alliteration: the phrase ‘cirrus castellanus clouds’ occurs in Cloudy Sunset.

Pain is a recurring Leitmotif, but Marc is not afraid to explore positive aspects alongside the sometimes stark realities:

From the pain I want to develop
From the pain I seek to grow

Using pain to create...
(From: Me Driven by Pain)

Some poems demonstrate the poet’s anger and frustration: others highlight moments of great beauty. This reviewer’s personal favourite, Swan Summer Serenade, evokes a magical scene:

Tangerine beaks
are raised and lowered
like snakes charmed
unharmed
in a solar haze
to wondrous praise.

Marc has a great affinity with the natural world in all its wild and wonderful manifestations. He longs for others to share what this reviewer might venture to call his ‘GreenyGrey’ manifesto, and is prepared to communicate his eco-warrior message in unique and arresting ways:

So goodbye Mr. and Mrs. Manatee
it was nice eating you.
(From: Nice to Eat You Mr. And Mrs. Manatee)

A number of Marc’s Folding Mirror poems are laid out like horizontal triptychs (take for instance Motorway Manic Mind Metaphor and Foundations of Independence). Other poems run vertically down the page, with the pivotal line at the halfway point. The collection includes some fascinating ekphrastic Folding Mirror poems, written by Marc in response to his encounters with paintings by artists such as Blake and Constable.

This reviewer’s favourite poem is Hiking Hadrian’s Wall at Summer’s End. The Roman wall runs through the centre of this piece, stretching from coast to coast, between swathes of poppies and thistles. ‘Poetry’, Marc declares, ‘inspires one to learn a little about many things’, and this collection certainly challenges the reader’s perception of what is black and white - and green and grey.

CG, 2010

Caroline is a member of Disability Arts Cymru, and has six poems in 'Hidden Dragons/Gwir a Grymus: New Writing by Disabled People in Wales', ed. Allan Sutherland and Elin ap Hywel (Parthian 2004).

Dr Marc Latham’s websites:

• GreenyGrey
  
• Folding Mirror Poetry
  

Poems on the Web (1): Thalatta! Thalatta!

You may like to look at my poem on Dr Marc Latham's Folding Mirror Poetry blog here. I am really excited by Marc's FM venture.

Dr Marc Latham's sites

• Folding Mirror Poetry Blog
• GreenyGrey