Publication Day ... 'Driftwood by Starlight', The Seventh Quarry Press

 

I am excited and delighted to announce that Peter Thabit Jones of The Seventh Quarry Press in Swansea has just published my first single-authored poetry collection, Driftwood by Starlight. I am immensely grateful to Peter.

The book can be purchased from the online shop on The Seventh Quarry website - here. 

Fellow poet, Susan Richardson, has written the following words:

 

Laurence Hartwell generously provided the cover photograph of Cadgwith Cove on The Lizard in Cornwall, UK.  

As it happens, one of my poems in the collection, Elegy for Idris Davies, is currently a Poem of the Month on the SecondLight website here. 

My Latest Poetry Round-up

 

Linnet, RSPB Red Conservation Status

My forthcoming poetry collection, due out later this year with The Seventh Quarry Press, has been announced in the latest issue of The Seventh Quarry magazine by editor, Peter Thabit Jones. 

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I am looking forward to reading at the online launch (Tuesday 30th March, 7.30pm) of the Locked Down anthology, published by Susan J. Sims of Poetry Space Ltd. The event is free but donations afterwards to Dr Mark Sim’s fund for Cancer Research UK will be very welcome on this Just Giving page. 

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I have just heard that three of my short 'endangered species' poems, including one about the Linnet, will be published in a booklet produced by Suffolk Poetry Society as part of a collaboration with The Lettering Arts Trust, who will be holding an exhibition in July called On a Knife Edge - Nature in Peril UK. 

Going Global on World Poetry Day, 2018

Happy World Poetry Day, 2018

The image above shows a previous package from India, but a similar one (practically identical but with different stamps) arrived yesterday, containing a contributor's copy of the Golden Jubilee issue of Metverse Muse, an international poetry journal edited by Dr. H. Tulsi. It is always a joy to read poems from different parts of the world and to feel connected in this way. Most issues have offered a Fixed Form challenge: the last one was for a Burns Stanza, a form of Scottish origin, and the new challenge is for a Terza Rima, a form that developed in Italy. 

And this, for me, is one of the joys of poetry, that there are countless influences, methods, techniques and forms (see here for example: I contributed three poems to this Handbook from Lewis Putnam Turco in the USA), spanning not only the centuries but also the globe. 

There is much talk in the present climate about letting down the proverbial portcullis, but poetry enables us to see new vistas through the eyes of another. It encourages us to lower the drawbridge instead, allowing literary influences to flow and circulate. I feel this is particularly important at the present time.

Back in the days when the internet was considered a fledgling phenomenon, I remember starting out one year with a fresh goal. I wanted to have a poem published in an international journal. Since then I have had the privilege of collaborating, albeit mostly in small ways, with poets and editors in Romania, Australia, the Netherlands, USA, Italy and Slovenia, to name but a selection of countries. Most collaborations or communications have been via the internet, but occasionally I have had the privilege of enjoying a face-to-face meeting. 

One such occasion was the launch of the chapbook I co-authored with North American poet, John Dotson. It was arranged by our publisher, Peter Thabit Jones of The Seventh Quarry, at the Dylan Thomas Birthplace, 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, in Swansea. John was over from the USA, and we were able to read our poems together. 

Publisher: The Seventh Quarry (Wales) with Cross-Cultural Communications (New York) 

Another of my multicultural forays in the name of poetry occurred when I was invited to conduct an interview in Philadelphia with Donald Riggs, Teaching Professor of English from Drexel University for Orizont Literar Contemporan, Daniel Dragomirescu's international literary journal from Romania. While I was in Philadelphia, I was also able to spend a day with fellow poet, Kay Weeks. We have collaborated on one or two poetry and art projects, including a charity one, Blossoms of Hope.

with Don Riggs in Philadelphia

A year ago Jongo Park, a visual artist from Seoul, South Korea, supplied a painting of a mermaid as a poetry prompt for me. The paired picture and poem were published in an eBook anthology produced by Italian poet, Lidia Chiarelli of Immagine&Poesia, alongside 94 other contributions from 5 continents and 35 countries. You can download this free eBook (Volume 4) from this site. 

In these uncertain times, it seems particularly important to celebrate our global community of poets and the immense joie de vivre that this ancient art can bring to the modern world.

And if you are wondering why the top photo is not of the actual parcel that arrived yesterday, well, in my haste to preserve the Indian stamps for the work of TLM (The Leprosy Mission), I made rather a mess of the packaging!

Poet Profile: The Seventh Quarry Poetry magazine

Leaving Ellis Island and Liberty Island, New York, 2013

Issue Twenty-Five of The Seventh Quarry has just been published.

It hardly seems possible that this poetry magazine from Swansea has reached its quarter-century of issues already. Editor Peter Thabit Jones has worked with tireless enthusiasm to make the magazine the eclectic and international publication it is today. Thanks are also due to Stanley H. Barkan of Cross-Cultural Communications in New York, who has collaborated with Peter from the outset, and to Vince Clemente, the magazine's Consultant Editor in America.

The current issue contains contributions from America, Wales, Israel and Czechoslovakia, to name but half the places mentioned on the back cover.

I feature in the Poet Profile slot in this issue, along with four of my poems - including one about Ellis Island, hence the picture above from my visit to this unusual destination in 2013.

The issue includes the poem, 'Oasis', by Jean Salkilld. This poem about Syria is particularly poignant at the present time. Jean has just brought out her first full collection with The Seventh Quarry Press - The Familiar Road, which I am reading which much enjoyment.

If you would like to take out a subscription to The Seventh Quarry, details can be found on Peter's website here. 

And finally... back in 2012 Peter published my Poet to Poet chapbook, The Holy Place, co-authored with John Dotson: I am posting a picture of the cover.

The Holy Place

StAnza Map - Poems about Scotland

Thanks to Eleanor Livingstone and her fellow poets in Scotland, my Lewis Chessman poem has just been added to the StAnza poetry map of Scotland, and you can find it here.

In 2014 during Scotland’s Year of Homecoming, StAnza set itself the challenge to see if the shape and nature of Scotland could be drawn entirely in poetry. The map continues to fill up with poem-flags, which you can see here.  

My poem, 'Lament of a Lewis Chessman' was first published in my chapbook, The Holy Place, co-authored with John Dotson, and published by The Seventh Quarry (2012) in conjunction with Cross- Cultural Communications (New York).

Poetry Evening at poetrywivenhoe with Martin Malone

Wivenhoe, late afternoon yesterday

Sincere thanks are due to Peter Kennedy, Pam Job and other organisers of poetrywivenhoe for a wonderful evening with you last night, headed up by Martin Malone, poet and editor of The Interpreter's House. Martin was the outright winner of the Wivenhoe Poetry Competition 2011, with his poem 'Digitalis' about his father's 'summer of love'. 

Martin Malone at the microphone

Martin shared with us a mix of old and new work. He gave us a flavour of some of his latest poems, new takes on Great War themes, that will make up the practice element of his PhD. He also read from The Waiting Hillside, his first collection, published by Templar Poetry (2011). 

I had attended a poetrywivenhoe event once before, for the 2014 launch of the so too have the doves gone anthology, and it was good to return.  It was a privilege to be invited as the (relatively) local reader and a joy to be there among a host of poets, many of whom read to us during the 'out of the hat' Open Mic slot in the middle of the evening. 

My set comprised poems largely but not exclusively from my chapbook, The Holy Place, co-authored with John Dotson, and published by The Seventh Quarry in Swansea in conjunction with Cross-Cultural Communications in New York. 

Martin signing copies of The Waiting Hillside and The Interpreter's House (with Stuart Mugridge's cover illustration)

It was good to meet up with Rebecca Goss again. I had attended her stimulating workshop at Writers' Centre Norwich on the 'coast' last autumn. It was also a pleasure to meet MW Bewick (last month's poetrywivenhoe reader), one of the two editor-publishers of Dunlin Press, who have just launched the volume of 'Collected Reports from East Anglia', Est.  

Peter Kennedy, Pam Job, Caroline Gill, Martin Malone

ditto

Conversation with MW Bewick (left)

• poetrywivenhoe
• poetrywivenhoe site: a poem by Martin Malone ('Wood on the Downs') and a poem by me ('The Ceilidh House' - see photo below) 

The Ceilidh House, Skye

 Thank you, poetrywivenhoe! 

Wivenhoe at sunset

Update from Romania ~ Orizont Literar Contemporan

Daniel Dragomirescu in the centre

Orizont Literar Contemporan continues to go from strength to strength. Daniel Dragomirescu, Romanian-based editor-in-chief of this international literary journal with the strapline, 'all the world in a magazine', has written an updated account of the story so far. You will find his account here.

The photo above shows me interviewing Donald Riggs, Teaching Professor of Creative Writing at Drexel University, when I was in Philadelphia in January 2012. The interview appeared shortly afterwards in Orizont Literar Contemporan.  

There was an excellent feature recently on a dozen Scottish poets, and more recently still, I have been delighted to find work by my publisher, Peter Thabit Jones (The Seventh Quarry Press, Swansea) in addition to poetry from Gillian Clarke, the National Poet of Wales, and Owen Sheers, Welsh poet, author and scriptwriter.

If you would like further information about the journal, please leave a comment here or contact Daniel via the website.

'The Holy Place' chapbook: Review Corner

The Holy Place by John Dotson and Caroline Gill (£3.50 inc. p&p in UK)

Online Reviews

• Matt Merritt has posted a review (here on his Polyolbion site) of my poetry chapbook, The Holy Place, co-authored with John Dotson. The chapbook is published by Peter Thabit Jones (The Seventh Quarry Press, Swansea) in conjunction with Stanley H. Barkan (Cross-Cultural Communications, New York).

• Juliet Wilson's review can be found here on her Crafty Green Poet site. You might also care to read this (feline orientated) page on Juliet's blog. 

• Sally Evans, editor of Poetry Scotland, has just posted a review here on the Poetry Scotland Reviews blog. 

My thanks to Matt, Juliet, Sally. Further comments on the The Holy Place can be found here.

Copies of The Holy Place can be purchased (£3.50, inc. UK p&p) via the email link here.

Poetry: Invisible Architecture (ii), Antlers Press, The Roundhouse, Camden

 

We had a snowy train journey to London on Saturday to visit the Invisible Architecture Installation in The Roundhouse, Camden, curated by Antlers Press, in celebration of World Poetry Day 2013. This was our first visit to this extraordinary venue. The building itself is well worth exploring if you have the chance. You can read my previous post about it here.  

Arriving at The Roundhouse ...

... with its steam engine shed relics.

 

We were feeling pretty chilly after a train and two buses, so we warmed up with a spot of brunch at Made in Camden, the restaurant-cafe bar that adjoins the Roundhouse. We can both recommend the chipped potato wedges, and I thoroughly enjoyed the apple pancakes with passion fruit coulis.   

 

It was soon time for the opening of Invisible Architecture, a literary 'library and listening station' curated by Nichol Keene of Antlers Press. This unique cross-cultural library (of visual and audio works) has been developed for the purpose of 'forging international links and creative collaborations between writers and publishers, swapping stories from around the world as they build their cities through what they say.'

It was this global dimension that caught my eye in the first instance. I strongly believe that writers and artists from diverse geographical and cultural backgrounds have much to share. The experience of taking part in a collaboration of this kind has many benefits.  

 

Part of the Invisible Architecture Installation

 

We walked through the dimly-lit engine shed, emerging into a central circular space. There was a display of English PEN literature against the wall. There were also a few musicians testing the sound in preparation for a later event. Some of you will know that I am fascinated by echoes, and it was fun to stand on a silver square and try out the acoustics for myself.

 

One of the tunnels receding from the centre

 

So here we were, in a dark space that would once have housed the turntable for steam engines. The arches all round the edge led off into short tunnels rather in the way that spokes on a wheel spin outwards in all directions. It seemed to me, and this is where I would need a pigeon's eye view, that each tunnel was soon intersected by a middle wall, before extending further back into the darkness. 

 

The Roundhouse: interior, with tunnel

 

Nichol Keene, the force behind Invisible Architecture, had set a ring of fold-up chairs around the central area. Most visitors were pleased to have the chance to sit down in these extraordinary surroundings.

 

 

Antlers Press was founded as a small nomadic press by Nichol Keene in 2011. Nichol is keen to participate in projects concerning pamphlets, book design, illustrations, paperbacks, hardback books, Japanese bindings, presentation documents, portfolios, slipcases, solander boxes, photo albums, invitations, posters and fine art prints. It was good to meet her, and to learn about the hand-crafted books that she produces and about the collaborative work that she undertakes. We chatted about poetry and linguistics, about TEFL and Gertrude Stein.  

 

Nichol Keene (supplied by Nichol)

So where does Invisible Architecture come in to the picture? The library and listening station comprised poems and prose pieces from many corners of the globe. My poetry chapbook, The Holy Place, (co-authored with John Dotson of the USA, and published by Peter Thabit Jones of The Seventh Quarry, Swansea, in conjunction with Stanley H. Barkan of Cross-Cultural Communications, New York) had been selected for inclusion in the Installation. A copy of the recent Antologia, the Orizont Literar Contemporan anthology from Romania (edited by Daniel Dragomirescu) had also been chosen for the display, along with an audio mp3 file of 'Turner's Loch Coruisk', one of my poems about Skye.  

 

With The Holy Place and the Antologia

 

There were many other items and we were able to 'borrow' these as we sat on the chairs. We could also listen to the audio files, as our recorded voices echoed through the tunnels. I encountered a huge variety of publications, ranging perfect bound volumes with photographs to small pamphlets (including one that contained a map of part of Wales). One large (A4 plus) handwritten work, Long hand, had a minimal but memorable Pepsi poem on one page. 

 

Long hand and other selected items

 

Nichol showed me some of her 'products'. The term, however, seems out of place for such finely crafted publications. There was something very special about the new pamphlet, Invisible Architecture, that had been put together by hand just in time for the Installation. It was the result of Nichol's pairing of those participants in the Invisible Architecture project who wanted to write a shared poem or piece of prose. 'The Wanderer' by Amber Massie-Blomfield and Anil Godigamuwe made an arresting opening poem, with its 'shadows that flicker' and the smell of 'the candle's light'. I bought a couple of copies of the new collection. I was also tempted by Bought, a publication in a small green envelope. It is available from the Antlers Press online shop. The narrative entitled 'The Kamikaze Dingo' is written by Toby de Angeli and illustrated by Nichol. Again, this is a novel and innovative publication, and this is the beauty of Antlers Press.  

 

Antlers Press publications can be bought from the website by clicking here

 

It was good to meet some of the other visitors to the nomadic library. One man had heard about the Installation through a news article (which he thought had been in the Daily Telegraph). Another was the author of a Turkish publication. There was a work by Oona Grimes and another by Alev Adil. 

 

Photo of the Installation library ...

 

I found myself enjoying the poetry in a day without olives is like a day by Jack Piers Scott. There is some delightful artwork on the accompanying digital album. Hallucinated Horse, another anthology on display, is a Pighog Press publication of New Latin American poets. The volume has been translated and edited by Nicole Cecilia Delgado and Tom Slingsby. There were free copies of back issues of Popshot magazine for us to take home.

 

... and another

 

There were times when we browsed at the display, times when we sat down to read and times when we listened to the audio files. It was a strange and positive experience. 

 

David browsing

 

Nichol had placed large empty sheets of paper and small blank cards in the centre of the circle, along with pens and a fat black marker. We were encouraged to participate by writing creatively on these. David and I attempted short Haiku.  

 

 

What a great day. Thank you, Nichol! 

Antlers Press

Email: antlerspress[at]gmail[dot]com
Follow: on twitter
Check out the Press on facebook
Keep up to date on the blog and join the mailing list

 

Invisible Architecture was curated by Nichol Keene. 

 

Individual participants include: 

 

Alev Adil * Amber Massie-Blomfield * Amir Hedayat-Vaziri * Anil Godigamuwe * Caroline Gill * Django Wylie * Dorothy Lehane * Emily Fitzell * Fani Parali * Jack Scott * Jennifer Brough * Kymm Coveney * Mark Pawson * Mert Erkan * Mischa Pearlman * Miss Quotes * Moya Pacey * Olga Koroleva * Peter Swaffer-Reynolds * Sascha Aurora Akhtar * Selina Nwulu * Stefania Salamida * Tania Hawthorne-Marchori * Theodoros Chiotis * Toby de Angeli * Zia ahmed *   

 

Presses involved include:

LemonMelon * Onomatopee * Pighog Press * Popshot Magazine 

  

N.B. Many (but not all) words in bold are livelinks, so do press through to the linked sites.   

 

Calendar Corner: World Poetry Day 2013

A world of poets: the First Swansea International Poetry Festival (2011)

Today

is

 UNESCO World Poetry Day

Many celebratory activities seem to be overflowing into other days of the week, making it a time of celebration for all involved. You may like to read about the UNESCO beginnings of this day by clicking here. For some more up to date poetry news from UNESCO, you can click here and here.

Naturally, not all the activities that go on in the poetry scene are organised by or officially affiliated to UNESCO, although many would represent the same cultural aims. There are many independent events, and I, for one, seem to be having a busy poetic time!

Last night I attended the first of a series of poetry workshops, organised jointly by students at University Campus Suffolk and members of the Suffolk Poetry Society. It was a great opportunity to hear and offer poems in progress and to give and receive feedback.   

I shall be at the Ipswich Poetry Workshop this afternoon in Gainsborough Community Library, where we will be reporting back on the writing-related books we have been considering over the last week. My chosen book is The Bridport Prize 2012: The Winners.

Some of my work (a copy of my chapbook, The Holy Place, co-authored with John Dotson along with an audio mp3 of one of my poems and a hardcopy of the recent multicultural and multilingual Antologia from Orizont Literar Contemporan, Romania) has been selected for inclusion in an Installation created and curated by Antlers Press. The project is called Invisible Architecture, and the Installation, comprising a nomadic and international library of poetry books and audio files, will be up and running from 2pm to 5pm this weekend at The Roundhouse in Camden, London as a continuing celebration of World Poetry Day. Invisible Architecture is 'a library and listening station forging international links and creative collaborations between writers and publishers, swapping stories from around the world as they build their cities through what they say.'

I hope you will be able to engage with some poetic activity. Here are a couple of events ('A' then 'Z'), in the hope that you may feel tempted to look out for something in your corner of the world.

• World Poetry Day in Armenia, where The Writers' Union of Armenia will host recital of Hrachik Tamrazyan’s poems.

• Poets will come together tomorrow (Friday) for Zimbabwe's maiden World Poetry Day commemoration at Book Café. Kundai Marunya reports on this event here.

And did you know that today is also the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimation and the International Day of Forests?

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Postscript ... you might also enjoy

• a feature for World Poetry Day on young poets in India
• Milton Keynes Poet Laureate, Mark Niels, is to visit nine libraries in Milton Keynes, UK
• World Poetry Day in Jamaica 
• Regina Mayor challenges cities to recognize World Poetry Day in Canada