tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30046181044373048262024-02-07T11:28:26.597+00:00Caroline Gill: Poetry and Other WritingNew poetry collection for 2021: 'Driftwood by Starlight' (The Seventh Quarry Press)Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.comBlogger803125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-74804667252340781432024-01-01T22:38:00.004+00:002024-01-01T22:50:51.028+00:00'World Poetry Anthology' edited by Hassanal Abdullah<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMjh8cCXqgbylMV0m65mgLprUvB3Q2WS7RfkLY3fi-EZbH9QkJR6RI9kljDPc41mGK0iSCzu4I-0SLm1jlR6U8xl2HGhKyfWlVqRTV_h3z9dN3ElpVpFpUhkxTUoTJplM3koTORPm7xiTZf9HhHbcBhXwUlbA5N5YEEQHBLZMdSydXG2WMm2iAC4-HTXc/s642/world%20poetry%20anthology.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="642" data-original-width="422" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMjh8cCXqgbylMV0m65mgLprUvB3Q2WS7RfkLY3fi-EZbH9QkJR6RI9kljDPc41mGK0iSCzu4I-0SLm1jlR6U8xl2HGhKyfWlVqRTV_h3z9dN3ElpVpFpUhkxTUoTJplM3koTORPm7xiTZf9HhHbcBhXwUlbA5N5YEEQHBLZMdSydXG2WMm2iAC4-HTXc/w420-h640/world%20poetry%20anthology.jpg" width="420" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="http://www.davidgill.co.uk/index.html">David Gill</a> and I are delighted to be included in this new anthology of poetry from across the globe, compiled and edited by Hassanal Abdullah to mark 25 years of his international poetry journal, <a href="http://www.shabdaguchha.com/"><i>Shabdaguchha</i></a>. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">This volume published by <a href="https://www.darklight.nyc/books">Darklight Publishing</a> (New York and Mexico) features, among many others, poems by Pablo Neruda, Aeronwy Thomas, Stanley Kunitz, <a href="https://www.peterthabitjones.com/en/">Peter Thabit Jones</a> (poet, writer and editor of <a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/">The Seventh Quarry Press</a>), </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>Louise Glück</span></span><span> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">and Lidia Chiarelli. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">You can buy the anthology <a href="https://www.amazon.com/World-Poetry-Anthology-Hassanal-Abdullah/dp/B0CPXQ6928">here</a>. <br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">David's poem is a nod to Edward Thomas. My poem, 'Preseli Blue', concerns a bluestone from Stonehenge and was triggered by the sight of <a href="https://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2008/06/bluestone.html">one of these boulders on display</a> in the National Botanic Garden of Wales, way back in 2001. </span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small;">Previous post: click <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><b><a href="https://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2023/12/winter-special-solstice-ebook.html">here</a></b></span>.</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small;"><br /></span></p>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-51352441554816775482023-12-22T12:53:00.006+00:002023-12-22T12:59:57.387+00:00'Winter', a Special Solstice eBook<br /><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRjevQc2MkSjoK_a0JD9gYpEGM5DFZwrzIGrRbmu33n_-ApJSTNDGKlRYJscxRg7n5VHVIQSUyRnaELd05wVWlAg20FxbMklY3JLeCXNBJ6EF4TtmbFL20TXNGdSgTti4EOumGn-fO9k-QrgEfBRURtmYhJrQMZXS2j5qUmeGLMeZDFJr9OsszV-GFU0U/s1914/P1000652-ShingleStreet.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1914" data-original-width="1766" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRjevQc2MkSjoK_a0JD9gYpEGM5DFZwrzIGrRbmu33n_-ApJSTNDGKlRYJscxRg7n5VHVIQSUyRnaELd05wVWlAg20FxbMklY3JLeCXNBJ6EF4TtmbFL20TXNGdSgTti4EOumGn-fO9k-QrgEfBRURtmYhJrQMZXS2j5qUmeGLMeZDFJr9OsszV-GFU0U/w590-h640/P1000652-ShingleStreet.jpg" width="590" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shingle Street, looking inland from the Suffolk coast (taken 17 Dec. 2023)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #674ea7; font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> </span></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #674ea7; font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">May I wish you all </span></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #674ea7; font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">a happy Christmas </span></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #674ea7; font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia;">and a productive New Year.</span></i></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"> </span></i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">Mark Davidson, editor at The Hedgehog Poetry Press, has brought out the fourth in his seasonal Stickleback eBooks. <i>Winter</i> is published today to coincide with the Solstice. The anthology contains ten poems, including my 'Christmas Questions'. You can download a free copy <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><a href="https://www.hedgehogpress.co.uk/2023/12/22/a-hog-blogs-free-download-stickleback-anthology-four-seasons-in-poetry-winter-various-artists/">here</a></span>. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">P.S. My previous post concerns two international anthologies, one from Romania and the other from the USA. Do take a look </span></span><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><a href="http://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-new-volume-from-romania.html">here</a></span><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;">. My poetry collection, <i>Driftwood by Starlight</i> (The Seventh Quarry Press) can be ordered <a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">here</span></a>. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNcAhszatiAzK4ZDVurtzK-u07bHsRJp5kPBoFiY2ub0hJKtqwYs_HassbActOLkgIA2U8D5-YMx1PlpAcXIVXvr7SJxCRpKyC8Cjb6rsxU6tJ4R2aOTnQ4TXRXKhyphenhyphenJRz4hYjIt3MNWgR1gUqtgHhjWk0C3ZTXYGBunt6hpHbEIeY46ohBzZVLyby-XFw/s737/stained%20glass.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="737" data-original-width="425" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNcAhszatiAzK4ZDVurtzK-u07bHsRJp5kPBoFiY2ub0hJKtqwYs_HassbActOLkgIA2U8D5-YMx1PlpAcXIVXvr7SJxCRpKyC8Cjb6rsxU6tJ4R2aOTnQ4TXRXKhyphenhyphenJRz4hYjIt3MNWgR1gUqtgHhjWk0C3ZTXYGBunt6hpHbEIeY46ohBzZVLyby-XFw/w370-h640/stained%20glass.jpg" width="370" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nativity scene from St Peter and St Paul, Peasmarsh<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p><br /></p><br /><p></p>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-7073505723827607802023-12-11T21:45:00.004+00:002023-12-14T16:03:53.375+00:00A New Volume from Romania<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEithqUudsnZ6Ql1SKOGxS7Z0NcOxiooYNUHB1sqWhZo0dEygiiL4tFrEUStAzI6Sp86IQakg2tBVxiPq8y1GDCmZWl6jO3bykTM30kXgE7MyWvjPItNi7pHk61Fk48Irpxy_NYfVAVsv97_eBG9uoE9rtqoItu95JL3BpbRtborWc_9sbuAJ_EIcfB4QQk/s600/Daniel%20book.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="433" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEithqUudsnZ6Ql1SKOGxS7Z0NcOxiooYNUHB1sqWhZo0dEygiiL4tFrEUStAzI6Sp86IQakg2tBVxiPq8y1GDCmZWl6jO3bykTM30kXgE7MyWvjPItNi7pHk61Fk48Irpxy_NYfVAVsv97_eBG9uoE9rtqoItu95JL3BpbRtborWc_9sbuAJ_EIcfB4QQk/w462-h640/Daniel%20book.jpg" width="462" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Those who have popped across to this blog over the years will know that I have had links <a href="https://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2017/09/celebrations-afoot-at-orizont-literar.html">for many years</a> with <i><b>Orizont Literar Contemporan</b></i>, the international literary journal from Romania produced by Daniel Dragomirescu. This new volume, <b><i>Retrospectiva Revistei</i></b>, highlights the writing of fifteen writers of 'prose, poetry and essays' who come from very different parts of the world, including Chile, Romania, USA and Portugal. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpD6IepcIERLW_1yOTQVBIwVRtCmDKwXi5V2ezzQtmn4LuzMlSkxuLQkSLJC8B6QD1Dm9g_J0LerGjr0-JODgHKQbe-_2gEDEKf9Bi_bKW73dn34jO-cMQwTBS3gtRzxe0CVI6gC78Mdu9H3kUniN-5bzCNjYozQUHzQsdtAxRXzzIvJprKN_X0075rdo/s571/Daniel%203.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="571" data-original-width="341" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpD6IepcIERLW_1yOTQVBIwVRtCmDKwXi5V2ezzQtmn4LuzMlSkxuLQkSLJC8B6QD1Dm9g_J0LerGjr0-JODgHKQbe-_2gEDEKf9Bi_bKW73dn34jO-cMQwTBS3gtRzxe0CVI6gC78Mdu9H3kUniN-5bzCNjYozQUHzQsdtAxRXzzIvJprKN_X0075rdo/s16000/Daniel%203.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">A few pages have been allocated to each of the selected contributors to the journal. Each set of pages contains an author bio with photograph, a CV and a sample piece of work. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGp-tWfquetm2gib_xD56xnVhJboVat6lWk7S1G-f3RHpbZYE2duIxRddxp5Go1K5QN1CE4JO-LLyILyNPxqEodEBzINMG5u955LGg7O_FTHWZwlt_Pc4muyHTwY7V8wpGsZwqu1n8FSB19Ko8Se_rjaM1WTkUTxEAJkzvZL3y4jnY1VvCQKqc1Tm1T68/s978/Daniel%2010.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="787" data-original-width="978" height="515" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGp-tWfquetm2gib_xD56xnVhJboVat6lWk7S1G-f3RHpbZYE2duIxRddxp5Go1K5QN1CE4JO-LLyILyNPxqEodEBzINMG5u955LGg7O_FTHWZwlt_Pc4muyHTwY7V8wpGsZwqu1n8FSB19Ko8Se_rjaM1WTkUTxEAJkzvZL3y4jnY1VvCQKqc1Tm1T68/w640-h515/Daniel%2010.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I am very grateful to Daniel for including me in such an international list and for profiling my work and my poetry collection in this way. <i><b>Driftwood by Starlight</b> </i>can be purchased from The Seventh Quarry shop (link <a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill"><b>here</b></a>). </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">POSTSCRIPT<br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Speaking of international volumes, I am excited to learn that the new <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CPXQ6928/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1"><i><b>World Poetry Anthology</b></i></a> (</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Darklight Publishing), edited by Hassanal Abdullah, has just been published. It contains poems by Pablo Neruda, Peter Thabit Jones, Aeronwy Thomas, Stanley Kunitz, Lidia Chiarelli and John Kinsella. My Stonehenge poem, 'Preseli Blue', and my husband, David Gill's poem, 'Gloucestershire in The Negev' have also been included. </span><br /></p>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-82904185268282232402023-05-13T23:30:00.003+01:002023-05-13T23:30:00.145+01:00International Dylan Thomas Day, 14 May 2023<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtk3j-lULn8IQTTUfVY1OVE9UJqES9gBpKCHlDATK7eLBEZvJX_ccxABqYPeWZhuywwpIfry7PGrCMwkMyLdJwRA6MIuwm0NZuBcJVcn0lv8NO5mUEQBxG_IeFzoZCYujg7rNAKXY5RfC_4PI3bvlAs4SUnke2GjrtVOnwpD16wv07KLrTEXZLk9Im/s3648/bl_174laugharne1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2736" data-original-width="3648" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtk3j-lULn8IQTTUfVY1OVE9UJqES9gBpKCHlDATK7eLBEZvJX_ccxABqYPeWZhuywwpIfry7PGrCMwkMyLdJwRA6MIuwm0NZuBcJVcn0lv8NO5mUEQBxG_IeFzoZCYujg7rNAKXY5RfC_4PI3bvlAs4SUnke2GjrtVOnwpD16wv07KLrTEXZLk9Im/w640-h480/bl_174laugharne1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Laugharne</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Vast Shadow; font-size: medium;">Wishing all my friends </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Vast Shadow; font-size: medium;">a Happy International Dylan Day</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: Vast Shadow; font-size: medium;">2023</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Vast Shadow; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">David and I enjoyed many happy visits to Laugharne and the Carmarthenshire coast from our Swansea home. You can barely make out the Writing Shed, but the Dylan Thomas Boathouse is the last white building beyond the castle on this side of the estuary, where the tidal stream bends to the left. You can see it more clearly in the photograph below. <br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>Lidia Chriarelli*</b> has once again curated an anniversary website to mark the occasion - <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><a href="https://dylanday2023.jimdofree.com/">here</a></span>. My thanks to Lidia for including my Swansea-based contribution, a picture-poem. You will find it <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><a href="https://dylanday2023.jimdofree.com/haiku-haiga-gogyoshi-picture-poems-for-dylanday-2023/">here</a></span>, if you click the <a href="https://dylanday2023.jimdofree.com/haiku-haiga-gogyoshi-picture-poems-for-dylanday-2023/">link</a> and then scroll down. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">You might also be interested in <i><a href="https://indigodreamspublishing.com/dear-dylan">Dear Dylan</a></i>, an anthology of Dylan-inspired poetry and prose from Indigo Dreams Publishing, edited by Anna Saunders and Ronnie Goodyer. This volume (see <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><a href="https://indigodreamspublishing.com/dear-dylan">here</a></span>) was published on #DylanDay 2021 and contains one of my poems, 'Tentacles and Tar'. <br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfIkCotXTmu34nJtqKbE2UoqernTkWNPe_Lte-JDGWr0YuY7P7PkwhGEpGnButQsZF8XqUPADzGVYKm8ZCTfFA-1qRNf4bRSUHycHEzq2-JLeJnXRDeLEGY8F4ipTrZAZ3AEf8yBW6frMqhU_Q5zJuAd-oVJ5_IemDIRu5Yh1Q0Rca8K5k2zTorOcw/s896/bl_Laugharne_12751.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="592" data-original-width="896" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfIkCotXTmu34nJtqKbE2UoqernTkWNPe_Lte-JDGWr0YuY7P7PkwhGEpGnButQsZF8XqUPADzGVYKm8ZCTfFA-1qRNf4bRSUHycHEzq2-JLeJnXRDeLEGY8F4ipTrZAZ3AEf8yBW6frMqhU_Q5zJuAd-oVJ5_IemDIRu5Yh1Q0Rca8K5k2zTorOcw/w640-h422/bl_Laugharne_12751.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Laugharne, evening light<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">* There is an expansive interview with Lidia Chiarelli <a href="https://www.thepoetmagazine.org/interview-with-lidia-chiarelli">here</a> in <i>The Poet </i>online; do take a look. <br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Vast Shadow; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Vast Shadow; font-size: medium;"> </span><br /></p>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-64494605038848040332023-03-21T22:40:00.003+00:002023-03-21T22:40:36.392+00:00WORLD POETRY DAY<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSV4q6XAo7IdfhLL9jVLK2NNvXnDQoqLmLoMsybdzHffK9IWwsD4cYgQKKybsVJA7RDhf52FQSajm_KVghj79O3bzvxokrRvzTUT0EYz-Zs7gHMvh3FN4U4Ur-DURDre2J7_iSe_uUrLWy-y_HXpcuYMj7K9B3XGNla081hD20Yz_8Rtuks0b0IOjw/s4450/0243Driftwood_CarolineGillPortrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4450" data-original-width="3438" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSV4q6XAo7IdfhLL9jVLK2NNvXnDQoqLmLoMsybdzHffK9IWwsD4cYgQKKybsVJA7RDhf52FQSajm_KVghj79O3bzvxokrRvzTUT0EYz-Zs7gHMvh3FN4U4Ur-DURDre2J7_iSe_uUrLWy-y_HXpcuYMj7K9B3XGNla081hD20Yz_8Rtuks0b0IOjw/w494-h640/0243Driftwood_CarolineGillPortrait.jpg" width="494" /></a></span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I hope everyone has been enjoying <b><a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/world-poetry-day">World Poetry Day</a>,</b> 2023. Some of us 'celebrated' with a trip to the dentist ... but I am just in time to say that <i><a href="https://www.hedgehogpress.co.uk/2023/03/20/free-download-four-seasons-in-poetry-poems-of-spring/"><b>Spring</b></a></i>, a new Stickleback download, has been produced by Mark Davidson of the Hedgehog Poetry Press. It contains one of my ekphrastic poems. Do take a look <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><a href="https://www.hedgehogpress.co.uk/2023/03/20/free-download-four-seasons-in-poetry-poems-of-spring/">here</a></span>. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The photo above shows me with my poetry collection, <b><a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill"><i>Driftwood by Starlight</i></a></b>, which can be purchased from Peter Thabit Jones of The Seventh Quarry Press <a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">here</span></a>. The poems concern heritage, conservation, Cornwall, our fragile coast and other topics. </span><br /></p>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-49301826668842041072022-11-15T23:32:00.002+00:002022-11-16T11:33:06.857+00:00'Voices For The Silent', New Anthology from Indigo Dreams Publishing<span style="color: white;">.
</span><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYnJlq622z09tpQh4ElUaV3AbLfQ_0ra02SD7wtUpgXoOV3np2HxPAjGJw2FWIRJuuMZgQP4WhdFxZOQbwyrnFTMGzmYnkNOX8r2BcC3AC4lQMowUMrsvk80RRDMtWam0OT49Dahl-pA7bN5Z0UDZmaSM_b-xjDAUxxfxrUZDAqLIBaYf9Fo4rnLse/s1556/Voices%20For%20the%20Silent.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1556" data-original-width="1417" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYnJlq622z09tpQh4ElUaV3AbLfQ_0ra02SD7wtUpgXoOV3np2HxPAjGJw2FWIRJuuMZgQP4WhdFxZOQbwyrnFTMGzmYnkNOX8r2BcC3AC4lQMowUMrsvk80RRDMtWam0OT49Dahl-pA7bN5Z0UDZmaSM_b-xjDAUxxfxrUZDAqLIBaYf9Fo4rnLse/w582-h640/Voices%20For%20the%20Silent.jpg" width="582" /></a></div> <p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">What can poetry do? </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">There have been many who advocate <i>art for art's sak</i>e, or <i>l'art pour l'art</i>, as the slogan was initially rendered in nineteenth century France. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">There have also been many, and indeed there are an ever-increasing number, of artists (in the broadest sense) who see their work as a focus for, or extension of, their activism. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I feel fortunate to have had poems included in a variety of charity anthologies over the years, raising funds and awareness for Macmillan Cancer Support, Welney WWT and the Born Free Foundation, to name but three. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I am delighted to add another to the list in the form of <a href="https://www.indigodreamspublishing.com/voices-for-the-silent"><i>Voices for the Silent</i></a> (Indigo Dreams Publishing, 2022), the new companion volume to <a href="https://www.indigodreamspublishing.com/for-the-silent"><i>For the Silent</i></a> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(Indigo Dreams Publishing, 2019)</span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">, edited by Ronnie Goodyer, Poet-in-Residence at the League Against Cruel Sports. These companion (or stand-alone) volumes have been produced to aid the work of this charity, and not surprisingly some of the selected poems concern animal cruelty. Others focus on habitats and the wonders and complexities of the natural world. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The new book includes poems by well-known names such as Margaret Atwood, Gillian Clarke, Pablo Neruda, Philip Larkin, John Clare, Mary Oliver, William Cowper, William Blake and Thomas Hardy, alongside a host of contributors who are part of the contemporary poetry scene. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><i>Voices for the Silent</i></b> costs £15 in Great Britain. Prices for other parts of the world are listed on the Indigo Dreams Publishing <a href="https://www.indigodreamspublishing.com/voices-for-the-silent">website</a>. The book includes six wonderful pages of illustrations by Sam Cannon. The superb cover photographs are by Andy Parkinson. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Subjects in the anthology range from a
stag to a sparrowhawk, from a Chequered Skipper butterfly to an
elephant. My poem, 'Basking Shark Blues', was inspired by the brooding Hebridean waters
off the coast of Skye where I spent an evening watching one of these gentle giants of the ocean. <br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgliHc-MhJF5-0VGbPEZ0yCHABSLn5h-_dXj04JomPA8_byczfLVRB_5XZyPPCFifDZPxRphhYkd1eQFDq9Y82HwKYtDkjSGFEmzziOeywaNwuhzhsvUyANbZ-Us2N8zmTo07U6yTWDe7ivBBxk90-JQE4kVYB7B2K86kX4nFOKgaJsBEbbqQ5nBu-_/s3992/cal2014_z525elgolme1-Edit.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2498" data-original-width="3992" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgliHc-MhJF5-0VGbPEZ0yCHABSLn5h-_dXj04JomPA8_byczfLVRB_5XZyPPCFifDZPxRphhYkd1eQFDq9Y82HwKYtDkjSGFEmzziOeywaNwuhzhsvUyANbZ-Us2N8zmTo07U6yTWDe7ivBBxk90-JQE4kVYB7B2K86kX4nFOKgaJsBEbbqQ5nBu-_/w640-h400/cal2014_z525elgolme1-Edit.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Evening, Loch Scavaig, Isle of Skye<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span><p></p>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-4813771969283974182022-11-09T21:41:00.005+00:002022-11-09T21:49:45.560+00:00Fingerstone Poem Quoted in 'The Maker', The Charles Causley Literary Blog<p style="text-align: center;"> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPArxQVt74alHXa50Lhl7r8edVe_yOjT8Xdpp5RdjFFCSCJhVuBmHVvyzxNYvIeAjXgXt5GgAkE9I4Dm1o4YGStrxWML7Llsdz0gsDBZEiW3Mgolj9chDqYM1PJ2zSjBIZbpJr8Tkqik6_hlyWcKbaF9yRb8qEGtZ33nAnM7HJ8mcYmSw_Z2ONvw6-/s4739/Launceston.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="4739" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPArxQVt74alHXa50Lhl7r8edVe_yOjT8Xdpp5RdjFFCSCJhVuBmHVvyzxNYvIeAjXgXt5GgAkE9I4Dm1o4YGStrxWML7Llsdz0gsDBZEiW3Mgolj9chDqYM1PJ2zSjBIZbpJr8Tkqik6_hlyWcKbaF9yRb8qEGtZ33nAnM7HJ8mcYmSw_Z2ONvw6-/w640-h440/Launceston.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Launceston Castle<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Those who know me will be aware of my love affair with Cornwall. It is a county I have visited all my life, initially to spend time with relations who lived at Widemouth Bay on the north coast. I recall many days further south, not far from the Helford River in the 1970s and 80s, enjoying occasional walks along Frenchman's Pill and the tree-lined watercourses that inspired Daphne du Maurier's <i>Frenchman's Creek</i>. I began to discover other writers who made Cornwall come alive on the page: Charles Causley, Thomas Hardy, R.S. Hawker, </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Anne Ridler, </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Jack Clemo, W.S. Graham, </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span aria-level="1" class="yKMVIe" role="heading">John Betjeman, Ursula K. Le Guin</span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"> and Lionel Johnson, to name but a few. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I forget how I first encountered the poems of Charles Causley, but I was immediately drawn to them. And indeed, I have found some firm favourites among his body of work, favourites such as '<a href="https://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/who-2/">Who</a>?', with its brilliant repetition in line 1 of the first stanza, and '</span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Morwenstow', in which the speaker interrogates the sea on the subject of its wildness</span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">. I have visited Causley's hometown of Launceston a couple of times in recent years and have enjoyed exploring the <a href="https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/launceston-castle/history/">castle</a>, which dominates the scene. I even tried to do a quick pen-and-ink sketch of it.<br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I was delighted when <a href="https://suewallaceshaddad.wordpress.com/">Sue Wallace-Shaddad</a> asked me if she could include a few stanzas from</span></span><b><span data-contrast="auto"> </span></b><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span data-contrast="auto">'Penwith Fingerstone'</span><span data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":0,"335559740":276}">, </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">one of my Cornish poems, in her November post for <i>The Maker</i>, which you can find on</span></span><span class="cc-blog-title"> <span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://causleytrust.org/blog/">The Charles Causley Literary Blog</a>. The poem, which features in <a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill"><i>Driftwood by Starlight</i></a> (The Seventh Quarry Press, 2021), was awarded Third Prize by Brian Patten in the <a href="https://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=69794">2017 Milestones Poetry Competition</a>, administered by Write Out Loud. As it happens, I posted a photo (<a href="https://twitter.com/coastcard/status/1583454704545112064">here</a>) of the fingerpost on Twitter a few days ago for </span></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="r-18u37iz"><a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1cvl2hr r-1loqt21 r-poiln3 r-b88u0q r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FingerpostFriday?src=hashtag_click" role="link">#FingerpostFriday</a></span></span></span><span class="cc-blog-title"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">.</span></span><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><br /></p>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-38161117460167523322022-11-03T23:34:00.006+00:002022-11-03T23:34:50.601+00:00Beavers<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzeMeWuU2GlP8sTDaGAibYbzU0W0GOhAsXtywB6taxy4cEIKegflASFueCoCKxkwPkLrs69TSND4GVSXVhe0kUFLqFiGeXQGJ30DAABLjOx3tKi_nFSgeq34oBzYau1oLGd24KznfnDOmUF61XqhcpOTadzEIhpft4mEIe8k8YRoZl3WbiPFijQtc-/s4896/P1010520-Knapdale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3672" data-original-width="4896" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzeMeWuU2GlP8sTDaGAibYbzU0W0GOhAsXtywB6taxy4cEIKegflASFueCoCKxkwPkLrs69TSND4GVSXVhe0kUFLqFiGeXQGJ30DAABLjOx3tKi_nFSgeq34oBzYau1oLGd24KznfnDOmUF61XqhcpOTadzEIhpft4mEIe8k8YRoZl3WbiPFijQtc-/w400-h300/P1010520-Knapdale.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I have subscribed to <a href="https://www.indigodreamspublishing.com/magazines"><i>Reach Poetry</i></a> magazine for over twenty years. The magazine is edited by Ronnie Goodyer of Indigo Dreams Publishing. From time to time Ronnie has issued a particular challenge. The most recent was for a Terza Rima Sonnet, one of my favourite forms. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I decided to have a go, and submitted my poem, 'Navigating Knapdale', which was published in the September 2022 issue. The focus of the narrative was a trip to Knapdale Forest in search of beavers. We failed to spot any; it is rare to do so in the daylight, but sometimes the quest is the thing that counts. Or so Cavafy implied in his well-loved poem, '<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51296/ithaka-56d22eef917ec">Ithaka</a>'.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-18a3LA_pXXNGjaEpVrtpedkoZ4G_F58b2VHLOMBWfyWVgR-6OLoHGW-6_I-54MqVIVO5fmLEf2IRPyn3Zm2l25x85xBHuKyYvA8VXHU2Jpt84HNZpTmiNWWWVszGPwQSQNoNo9xlJaRp11Sw4Yg0aZKn6GbYGEI8Yat7xD1rCdG5LCUldnsFEFRu/s1012/Knapdale.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="681" data-original-width="1012" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-18a3LA_pXXNGjaEpVrtpedkoZ4G_F58b2VHLOMBWfyWVgR-6OLoHGW-6_I-54MqVIVO5fmLEf2IRPyn3Zm2l25x85xBHuKyYvA8VXHU2Jpt84HNZpTmiNWWWVszGPwQSQNoNo9xlJaRp11Sw4Yg0aZKn6GbYGEI8Yat7xD1rCdG5LCUldnsFEFRu/w640-h430/Knapdale.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beaver landscape, Knapdale ... in the rain<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> </span></span></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> My post <a href="https://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2013/09/magazine-moment-reach-poetry-at-15.html">here</a>, written over 100 issues ago, explains some of the reasons I enjoy this monthly magazine so much. </span></span><br /></li></ul>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-83405738192231150152022-10-25T07:00:00.001+01:002022-10-25T07:00:00.191+01:00TURIN: LUCI PER LA CITTÀ / LIGHTS FOR THE CITY<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibIBuD3kUQckhYfQE7yktlZCnaz_D9k9WMcq5J5Tup_ti5ycToYNrfiqaVC_fmfnl8vXhVc9MDGa2TuEIWZ6lJCCmCkjBiG3XXxKge--zQf1-vTdCQhckgg4B89z5_D7rcDlBzdsDfTdIVInTO5GDGMppL1l4wgGMf3tLQdfuvgBS34rwAzSd-SOMH/s1644/P1050695-Mallaig%20light.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1644" data-original-width="1405" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibIBuD3kUQckhYfQE7yktlZCnaz_D9k9WMcq5J5Tup_ti5ycToYNrfiqaVC_fmfnl8vXhVc9MDGa2TuEIWZ6lJCCmCkjBiG3XXxKge--zQf1-vTdCQhckgg4B89z5_D7rcDlBzdsDfTdIVInTO5GDGMppL1l4wgGMf3tLQdfuvgBS34rwAzSd-SOMH/w341-h400/P1050695-Mallaig%20light.jpg" width="341" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A lamp post at Mallaig, Scotland<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs xlh3980 xvmahel x1n0sxbx x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h"></span></p><div dir="auto" style="text-align: start;"> </div><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs xlh3980 xvmahel x1n0sxbx x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h"><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://lightsforthecity.jimdofree.com/"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="EN-IE">LUCI PER LA CITT</span><span lang="EN-IE">À</span> / <span lang="EN-IE"></span></span></a></span><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs xlh3980 xvmahel x1n0sxbx x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://lightsforthecity.jimdofree.com/">LIGHTS FOR THE CITY</a></span>, hailed as a great Festival of Lights, opens today in Turin, Italy, thanks to the vision of Lidia Chiarelli, poet, creative and Charter Member (with <a href="https://lightsforthecity.jimdofree.com/aeronwy-thomas-street-lamp/">Aeronwy Thomas</a>, Gianpiero Actis, Silvana Gatti, Sandrina Piras) of the international poetic and artistic movement, <a href="https://immaginepoesia.jimdofree.com/">Immagine e Poesia</a>. </span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;">The organisers from Immagine e Poesia are joined by <a href="http://www.artecittaamica.it/"><span lang="EN-IE">Arte Città Amica</span></a> in this enterprise.</span> <span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs xlh3980 xvmahel x1n0sxbx x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs xlh3980 xvmahel x1n0sxbx x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></div></span><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs xlh3980 xvmahel x1n0sxbx x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h"></span><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs xlh3980 xvmahel x1n0sxbx x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs xlh3980 xvmahel x1n0sxbx x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span lang="EN-IE">LUCI PER LA CITT</span><span lang="EN-IE">À</span></span> / </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">LIGHTS FOR THE CITY</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs xlh3980 xvmahel x1n0sxbx x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">comprises </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs xlh3980 xvmahel x1n0sxbx x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">'two projects at the same time':<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></span></div></span><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs xlh3980 xvmahel x1n0sxbx x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div></span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs xlh3980 xvmahel x1n0sxbx x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h"><div dir="auto" style="text-align: center;">-An Art Exhibition at the Villa Amoretti in Turin, </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: center;">which opens on 25 October2022.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: center;"> </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: center;">-An International Website with Poetry, Aphorisms, </div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: center;">Short Stories, Art, Music and Photography.</div><div dir="auto" style="text-align: center;"> </div></span></span></span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: verdana; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs xlh3980 xvmahel x1n0sxbx x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h"></span></span></span>
<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">These two projects, the Luci per
la Citt</span><span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-IE; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">à</span><span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Exhibition and the International Website, have been created as a
tribute to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_Chiarelli">Guido Chiarelli</a> (1902-1982), </span><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">on the 120th anniversary of his birth. Chiarelli is </span><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">hailed as the man who transformed Torino into a </span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span lang="EN-IE">"Ville
Lumière"</span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> by illuminating the city streets with his futuristic designs in the 1950s and 1960s. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">* * *</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I wish to thank Lidia very much for inviting me to supply a written contribution for the international </span><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Luci per
la Citt</span><span lang="EN-IE" style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-IE; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">à </span><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">website. You can read my poem, <b>'Stars in Suburbia'</b>, <a href="https://lightsforthecity.jimdofree.com/haiga-picture-poems/">here</a>. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I was born in London and spent the first couple of years of my life in the capital, before moving out with my family to Kent's 'commuter-land'. Our road began at the foot of a slope near the railway station. The public library was situated near the top, where our road joined the High Street at right angles. We lived at the halfway point, neither up nor down. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">My bedroom window looked out onto the road where a lamp post (like the one in my picture <a href="https://lightsforthecity.jimdofree.com/haiga-picture-poems/">here</a>) sent its beams into the night sky. Looking back, it seems hard to believe that we still had a gas lamp, requiring the occasional services of a lamplighter; but I have looked into this, and am assured by those who know these things that my memory is indeed correct. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Unlike <a href="https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/lamplighter/">Leerie</a> in the Robert Louis Stevenson poem, which I came to love, our lamplighter would not have had to make daily visits as the lamps had become partially mechanised by my the time of my 1960s childhood. But they would have required winding at regular intervals. The image of the lamp post also reminds me of the one in <i>The Chronicles of Narnia</i> by C.S. Lewis where Lucy Pevensie first caught sight of <a href="https://twitter.com/tygertale/status/1203258891808714760/photo/1">Mr Tumnus the faun</a>. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I have not had the opportunity of visiting Torino, but David and I lived in Rome from 1985 to 1986. How well I remember the beautiful lights around Spagna and Piazza Navona in the run-up to Christmas. I can still smell the scent of hot chestnuts and pizza rustica. I even remember the sparkle of snow! </span><i><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> <br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">P.S. I couldn't resist including images of two of my favourite UK lamp posts, the top one in Mallaig on the Scottish mainland, where one can catch a ferry to Skye, and the one below from Lyme Regis, designed in the shape of an <a href="https://www.lymeregismuseum.co.uk/museum-at-home/fossils-ammonite/">ammonite</a>. </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO-VyOHviLiFnWy5ve6BSYhiP5IJNNKM-4NHqaCozXVOCZQuEHNAiFBai8WHcsXii52cZVMgomMH7_czVaqX2EScv89uX-pxrWZVUsg2Qw6sJqo19_swXzKNvEFE6pRFjXmRLwsnrFmn_3ySP_1JTT_Vwu1lOWjdyqg8L4yhLWTOMn0pFwsZBGJHMf/s1235/P4150137-lyme%20light.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1235" data-original-width="952" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO-VyOHviLiFnWy5ve6BSYhiP5IJNNKM-4NHqaCozXVOCZQuEHNAiFBai8WHcsXii52cZVMgomMH7_czVaqX2EScv89uX-pxrWZVUsg2Qw6sJqo19_swXzKNvEFE6pRFjXmRLwsnrFmn_3ySP_1JTT_Vwu1lOWjdyqg8L4yhLWTOMn0pFwsZBGJHMf/w494-h640/P4150137-lyme%20light.jpg" width="494" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ammonite-style lamp post, Lyme Regis, UK<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></p>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-7140999482828966802022-10-17T12:41:00.005+01:002022-10-18T14:15:20.094+01:00Parts One to Five of my Mini Poetry Interview conducted by Thomas Whyte<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPkW1i-GRkHxq68ZXDtkJGZQIsdtUDRPUWmKcZv8_c43OD4CTUq1Kukn1VpcOYRdpAZwsMQr0z3-Yx4hedM0bYEeApBvLTdZulNVaInRWHu2-2HUxE_bxqwV3xjDckNwT4DDqgN-Gq6rumBpxd4IbXn5Br3__V3-kH1jbwVwa0UPBmeE7aduiEUmBAHw/s2231/P1170413%20copy%20caroline%20Homer%20Pylos%20copy.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1937" data-original-width="2231" height="557" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPkW1i-GRkHxq68ZXDtkJGZQIsdtUDRPUWmKcZv8_c43OD4CTUq1Kukn1VpcOYRdpAZwsMQr0z3-Yx4hedM0bYEeApBvLTdZulNVaInRWHu2-2HUxE_bxqwV3xjDckNwT4DDqgN-Gq6rumBpxd4IbXn5Br3__V3-kH1jbwVwa0UPBmeE7aduiEUmBAHw/w640-h557/P1170413%20copy%20caroline%20Homer%20Pylos%20copy.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the <a href="https://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2015/10/happy-national-poetry-day.html">Homeric trail</a> at Nestor's Palace, 'sandy Pylos' (2010)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My
complete Poetry Q&A, conducted by Thomas Whyte in five sections, has now been posted on his Poetry Mini Interviews blog. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">You can find the five sections (in reverse order) <a href="http://poetryminiinterviews.blogspot.com/search/label/Caroline%20Gill">here</a>. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Alternatively the individual sections can be accessed via the following links:</span></span></p><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://poetryminiinterviews.blogspot.com/2022/09/caroline-gill-part-one.html">Part One</a> - bio and how I first engaged with poetry<br /></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://poetryminiinterviews.blogspot.com/2022/09/caroline-gill-part-two.html">Part Two</a> - poets who influenced the way in which I thought about writing<br /></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://poetryminiinterviews.blogspot.com/2022/10/caroline-gill-part-three.html">Part Three</a> - poetry books I have been reading recently<br /></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://poetryminiinterviews.blogspot.com/2022/10/caroline-gill-part-four.html">Part Four</a> - current writing<br /></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://poetryminiinterviews.blogspot.com/2022/10/caroline-gill-part-five.html">Part Five</a> - particular poems, books or poets that I read again when I need a lift </span></span></li></ul><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Do take a look at the other interviews which can be found by <a href="https://poetryminiinterviews.blogspot.com/">clicking here</a> and looking at the livelink list of names on the lefthand side. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Thank you so much, Thomas, for inviting me to take part. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"> </p><p> </p>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-83044149421459004192022-10-06T22:20:00.001+01:002022-10-06T22:20:21.597+01:00National Poetry Day 2022 on Aldeburgh Beach<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzhxvZF2cH9n4Z9hQgyJPbNOAsmbIX-WuwT0ORLe-IQ5jvHtvgqQIl7Tt31-Nx8IaHENNP3798HoRZwoYXntjNKsGuyeyrb2haUq1t-_UwvSoik8A1eSvsa0JBbv0BgpYfn71pJ7pBL60Z9cpMmcA8FE6xOopbj7NFXLZBZF9w0BzhUcMZBupuJeIl/s3474/P1030585-Aldeburgh%20Lookout.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3474" data-original-width="1811" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzhxvZF2cH9n4Z9hQgyJPbNOAsmbIX-WuwT0ORLe-IQ5jvHtvgqQIl7Tt31-Nx8IaHENNP3798HoRZwoYXntjNKsGuyeyrb2haUq1t-_UwvSoik8A1eSvsa0JBbv0BgpYfn71pJ7pBL60Z9cpMmcA8FE6xOopbj7NFXLZBZF9w0BzhUcMZBupuJeIl/w334-h640/P1030585-Aldeburgh%20Lookout.jpg" width="334" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://www.davidgill.co.uk/index.html">David</a> and I have just returned from a wonderfully sunny day on the beach at Aldeburgh,
where we joined other members of <a href="https://suffolkpoetrysociety.org/">Suffolk Poetry Society</a> (SPS) for the
traditional <a href="https://nationalpoetryday.co.uk/celebrate-national-poetry-day/">National Poetry Day</a> reading at the South Lookout,
thanks to our Patron and host, Caroline Wiseman, and to members of the SPS committee who had organised the event.<br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0FqUt0gTPM40eTZ270pTI30f6v-y4bsLScMAdH413qt2I0Gfoh1lsrUk4IPLsOrTiVY6MTKtFkBUJSZ9Fn-OGko3fF0VY_5JUh5Z7pnuB7VpemdLQII3tVYZhU1j9kVVbIsmpFtwy9Bj7DQ0DCZ3W1-pjcOgdcnfdiSnweqU0jzMS5JWHUt4xJq38/s895/aldeburgh%20south%20lookout.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="704" data-original-width="895" height="504" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0FqUt0gTPM40eTZ270pTI30f6v-y4bsLScMAdH413qt2I0Gfoh1lsrUk4IPLsOrTiVY6MTKtFkBUJSZ9Fn-OGko3fF0VY_5JUh5Z7pnuB7VpemdLQII3tVYZhU1j9kVVbIsmpFtwy9Bj7DQ0DCZ3W1-pjcOgdcnfdiSnweqU0jzMS5JWHUt4xJq38/w640-h504/aldeburgh%20south%20lookout.png" width="640" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We took the </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="http://twitter.com/hashtag/nationalpoetryday">#NationalPoetryDay</a></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> theme of the
environment, which gave rise to a variety of largely serious poems on subjects
as diverse as the ocean (and the devastation caused by plastic, oil
slicks and pollution), a field where there had once been hedges with birds, and a beach with fossils. While acknowledging the gravitas of the Climate Crisis, we appreciated the occasional moments of wry humour which added to the sense of light and shade. <br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I read 'Puffin's Assembly'* from my poetry collection, <i>Driftwood by Starlight</i>, published last year by The Seventh Quarry Press (and available <a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill">here</a> for £6.99/$10).</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2zWJdAFFHcIpvsxW2fjrZuz1rUDYThgP3TH7qsfF1Tf6BSxk6D1LQsAiwlunAGKhiRjbAllZGc3-YHKV3fFrJtKF4enjliYC0JWTQIWY9F9hAOdDvbE7HNEBT8_-pXtT0ffMoUOtIFrTihApnX39hKkoySDjK-MEfg8kd8T_AXVstyE83xdZKX_Ti/s1909/CGill_DriftwoodCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1909" data-original-width="1417" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2zWJdAFFHcIpvsxW2fjrZuz1rUDYThgP3TH7qsfF1Tf6BSxk6D1LQsAiwlunAGKhiRjbAllZGc3-YHKV3fFrJtKF4enjliYC0JWTQIWY9F9hAOdDvbE7HNEBT8_-pXtT0ffMoUOtIFrTihApnX39hKkoySDjK-MEfg8kd8T_AXVstyE83xdZKX_Ti/w298-h400/CGill_DriftwoodCover.jpg" width="298" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The chip shop was still open at the end
of the readings, and proved more than some of us could resist! </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrkUvZTspkvbuhEwJGui8iMa_yHl79USHbGQ2ug624f7gPuS5LB_d0IiFRS1SmD7CnZlZgF-CGs_bxLvW5NzlKZOIvATdaFvMrQuDe1Ygct-fuRPUvn05TUPawhJfzWXV-LxSO1efalcz-GkxP6LLaA_JyWfQMPyQRZedKf6oxH5qYrsNAhVmaXWRN/s830/david%20aldeburgh.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="647" data-original-width="830" height="498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrkUvZTspkvbuhEwJGui8iMa_yHl79USHbGQ2ug624f7gPuS5LB_d0IiFRS1SmD7CnZlZgF-CGs_bxLvW5NzlKZOIvATdaFvMrQuDe1Ygct-fuRPUvn05TUPawhJfzWXV-LxSO1efalcz-GkxP6LLaA_JyWfQMPyQRZedKf6oxH5qYrsNAhVmaXWRN/w640-h498/david%20aldeburgh.png" width="640" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">* * * </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">*'Puffin's Assembly' was first published in <i>Orbis</i>. It was inspired by Robert Macfarlane's nature-word campaign, which resulted in <i>The Lost Words.</i></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i> </i></span></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj14SBbr9LHGUi9bsEz-x2rz8qhf1FNLcxVyVga-XrHLUNu5FyzlmrMj51ezkJyW-j2ZBkwmCbA4EBw-s_QflsgyoSTPndHg2DNzjoDdGJk0aQF9D5PkN3rnV9wbzMaFGaz3cypmvA6yfa3zNRu5zgw_uSDknXjCXDuYL_q_0xFLtO7Bi0iogv6_ZXS/s408/cv_sv_puffin_162_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj14SBbr9LHGUi9bsEz-x2rz8qhf1FNLcxVyVga-XrHLUNu5FyzlmrMj51ezkJyW-j2ZBkwmCbA4EBw-s_QflsgyoSTPndHg2DNzjoDdGJk0aQF9D5PkN3rnV9wbzMaFGaz3cypmvA6yfa3zNRu5zgw_uSDknXjCXDuYL_q_0xFLtO7Bi0iogv6_ZXS/s16000/cv_sv_puffin_162_1.jpg" /></a></div><br /> <p></p>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-8170126349677241542022-08-26T22:53:00.001+01:002022-08-26T22:55:46.084+01:00'Where the Seals Sing' by Susan Richardson<p> </p>
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<p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZH2pt_JsRbPjd17ywIklydcn4-GBWayEDg_zFJcx0tDt56dsJxx8a6qtYA6veI5lywakMzuEbGgZoASIAhIcIK4ToTlxxA3tB8R65EUVQF0EV5k5PArIkAjEFOnHh6wp4Su8feb9x55nNF7TGnJcj_7J_4JCHPK3pc2fPI6ZjhLFG9qkizJaT6wC3bg/s301/cover%20seal.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="301" data-original-width="196" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZH2pt_JsRbPjd17ywIklydcn4-GBWayEDg_zFJcx0tDt56dsJxx8a6qtYA6veI5lywakMzuEbGgZoASIAhIcIK4ToTlxxA3tB8R65EUVQF0EV5k5PArIkAjEFOnHh6wp4Su8feb9x55nNF7TGnJcj_7J_4JCHPK3pc2fPI6ZjhLFG9qkizJaT6wC3bg/s1600/cover%20seal.png" width="196" /></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is an astonishing and beautiful book. It exudes </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.susanrichardsonwriter.co.uk/about/">Susan Richardson</a></span></span>’s
passion for our fellow creatures, and particularly for the pinnipeds
who frequent the waters around the UK. The seal narrative is intertwined
with, and enhanced by, the parallel story of Susan’s family, a story
that deals openly with the challenges faced by the author as she strives
to balance her seal research alongside her father’s health-related
needs. This seamless interweaving of the parallel narratives is perhaps
one of the many features that makes this book unusual, authentic and
compelling.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The
seal revelations and theories shared by Susan must surely be of huge
practical and educational value in the complex but vital sea of
conservation. These discoveries, gleaned from the author’s travels
around the shores of Wales, England, Scotland and the Isle of Man, are
presented in a way that enables the reader not only to appreciate the
magnificence of the seals themselves, but also to encounter afresh the
many human-induced dangers faced by these threatened mammals. The
author’s quest to find out more about the mysterious seal, not least its
extraordinary ‘singing’, is inextricably linked to her animal-activist
mission to bring about positive change. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As
someone who has been entranced not only by the otherworldly song of the
seals, but also by the author’s skilful dexterity as a poet, <i>Where the Seals Sing</i>
fascinated me from the outset. I delighted in the Pembrokeshire
seal-watching cameos and the small but memorable details of the natural
world, such as the fragrance of the Elderflowers encountered along the
coast. The sections on music and mythology were intriguing. Sadly, but
not surprisingly, the reports of cruelty, pollution and plastic were
often devastating. I was totally captivated by Susan’s engaging
affection for, and whole-hearted dedication to, her Grey Seal subjects. I
would love to think that some of her zeal and practical actions might
inspire us all to play our part in these uncertain ecological times.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> * * *<br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/where-the-seals-sing-susan-richardson?variant=39619399843918"><b><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Where the Seals Sing: Exploring the Hidden Lives of Britain's Grey Seals</span></span></i></b></a></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Author: Susan Richardson</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Publisher: </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="a-list-item"><span>HarperCollins (imprint: William Collins, 7 July 2022)</span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>ISBN</b>: 9780008404543<br /></span> <span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>ISBN 10</b>: 0008404542</span></p><p style="text-align: center;">* * *</p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">You can find my previous post <a href="https://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2021/09/early-reviews-of-driftwood-by-starlight.html">here</a>. </span></span><br /></p>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-9808834943366276172022-08-25T18:02:00.000+01:002022-08-26T22:53:45.650+01:00Reviews of 'Driftwood by Starlight' (updated for 2022)<p> <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhywpEwCfAFnN-ovRMEWrpE5inBZ0-k9nH1SbPy5ySxnHIJcjVXdHjshp1UljdZ6uYGPmv5gvKdjj9qw-AOokfS-f9XMmjL9KT31tgWSQR5gaqWR3M9ONsfu2w3j2x8AY8KpbPRD4QLCpavwb9gHHg-dq_6QiB5prV-EyGt3gcefXrxOxRM9wiP6t39=s4032" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="2488" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhywpEwCfAFnN-ovRMEWrpE5inBZ0-k9nH1SbPy5ySxnHIJcjVXdHjshp1UljdZ6uYGPmv5gvKdjj9qw-AOokfS-f9XMmjL9KT31tgWSQR5gaqWR3M9ONsfu2w3j2x8AY8KpbPRD4QLCpavwb9gHHg-dq_6QiB5prV-EyGt3gcefXrxOxRM9wiP6t39=w395-h640" width="395" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>The photo above shows me with my first full poetry collection, <a href="http://www.carolinegillpoetry.com/driftwood-by-starlight.html"><i>Driftwood by Starlight</i></a> (The Seventh Quarry Press, 2021 - see <a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill">here</a>). </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Reviews of the book and short features have been appearing at intervals, so it seemed an idea to update this page, with links where appropriate. </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>I am extremely grateful to those who have taken the trouble to read my poems and to write about them. <a href="https://www.susanrichardsonwriter.co.uk/">Susan Richardson</a>, who wrote the back cover blurb, was among the first to do this. </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: #ffe599; font-size: medium;"><span>Reviews</span><span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span></span></span></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: #ffe599; font-size: medium;"><span><span style="background-color: white;">Juliet Wilson, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: #ffe599; font-size: medium;"><span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: #ffe599; font-size: medium;"><span><span style="background-color: white;">August 2021, review </span></span></span></span>on <b><i>The Crafty Green Poet</i></b> site - <a href="https://craftygreenpoet.blogspot.com/2021/08/driftwood-by-starlight-by-caroline-gill.html?fbclid=IwAR12saD14wTMjZ-MyiVAH6Xzm0g6ujmlj0h5i68qD73eYL5rVoNcLT-rUDA">here</a>. </span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Tracey
Foster, whose review on <b><i>Everybody's Reviewing</i></b> was arranged by Dr
Jonathan Taylor, Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of
Leicester - <a href="http://everybodysreviewing.blogspot.com/2021/09/review-by-tracey-foster-of-driftwood-by.html"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a>. </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Neil Leadbeater on the <b><i>Write Out Loud</i></b> site - <a href="https://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=118172"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a>. </span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Neil Leadbeater in </span><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b><i>Littoral</i></b> magazine #8 (ed. Mervyn Linford) </span></span></span><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">- <a href="https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/65947915/issue-eight-littoral-magazine-31st-october-2021-2">here</a>. </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">James Knox Whittet in <a href="https://suffolkpoetrysociety.org/2020/11/14/twelve-rivers/?sfw=pass1637763129"><b><i>Twelve Rivers</i></b></a> (Vol.12, issue 2, Autumn/Winter2021). <i>Twelve Rivers</i> is the magazine of Suffolk Poetry Society. </span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">D.A. Prince in </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><b><i>Orbis</i></b> #198, Winter 2021 (Review title, 'Stones, Sea and Sky', </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">p.57</span></span></span></span>)</span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Richenda </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span>Milton-Daws</span> in the <a href="https://www.artserve.org.uk/index.php"><i><b>ArtServe</b></i></a> magazine, Winter 2021. </span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Jessica Newport in #35 of <a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/current-issue-of-the-seventh-quarry-poetry-magazine"><b><i>The Seventh Quarry</i></b></a> magazine, 2021.</span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><span style="color: #351c75;"><span><span style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><span style="color: #351c75;">Dilys Wood</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span><span style="color: #20124d;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><span style="color: #351c75;"> in <b><i>Artemis</i></b> #28 (<b><i>Second Light</i></b> journal). </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></li></ol><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: #ffe599; font-size: medium;"><span><span style="background-color: white;">
</span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: #ffe599; font-size: medium;"><span>Q and A Interviews<span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span></span></span></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Questions from <b>Maria Lloyd</b> (<span style="color: blue;">@<a href="https://twitter.com/mariatlloyd">mariatlloyd</a></span>) at the University of Reading
about the collection. Links to the
Q&As can be found <a href="http://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2021/09/driftwood-by-starlight-posts-relating.html"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a>.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: #ffe599; font-size: medium;"><span><span style="background-color: white;"><b>Sue Wallace-Shaddad</b>, Secretary of Suffolk Poetry Society, <i>In Conversation</i>, </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://suffolkpoetrysociety.org/2020/11/14/twelve-rivers/?sfw=pass1637763129"><b><i>Twelve Rivers</i></b></a> (Vol.12, issue 2, Autumn/Winter2021). <i>Twelve Rivers</i> is the magazine of Suffolk Poetry Society. </span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Questions from <b>Janet Emson</b> on <a href="https://fromfirstpagetolast.com/2022/02/11/caroline-gill-qa/"><b><i>From First Page to Last</i></b></a>. </span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Questions from <b>Annmarie Miles</b> on <i><b>The Writers' Trail, UCB Radio, Ireland</b></i>, 28 April 2022. I read out <b>'Et in Terra Pax'</b>. <br /></span></span></li></ol><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: #ffe599; font-size: medium;"><span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><br /></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: #ffe599; font-size: medium;"><span>Online Features</span></span></span></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">July 2021<i> - <b>Writers' Online</b></i> Showcase section, <a href="https://www.writers-online.co.uk/reviews/subscribers-showcase/driftwood-by-starlight-by-caroline-gill/">here</a>. </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></i></b></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Creative
Writing at Leicester</span></i></b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> blog, arranged by Dr
Jonathan Taylor, Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University
of Leicester - <a href="http://creativewritingatleicester.blogspot.com/2021/09/caroline-gill-driftwood-by-starlight.html"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a>. </span></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></i></b></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Poetry
Blog Digest</span></i></b><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> on <b><i>Via Negativa</i></b> (Dave Bonta) - <a href="https://www.vianegativa.us/2021/08/poetry-blog-digest-2021-week-33/"><span style="color: blue;">here</span></a>.</span></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">23 November 2021 - <b>Newcastle University News</b> - <a href="https://www.ncl.ac.uk/alumni/news/item/alumna-poetry-published/">here</a>. 'Alumna Publishes First Poetry Collection, <i>Driftwood by Starlight</i>.' </span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">May 2022 - <b><i>Walthamstow Hall</i></b> magazine.<br /></span></span></li></ol><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: #ffe599;">Others Mentions and Listings</span> </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">31 July 2021 - <b>The Poetry Society</b>, Members' e-bulletin.</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">27 July 2021 - <b>The Poetry School</b>, e-newsletter.</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">12 July 2021 - <b>ACW eNews</b>, bulletin #27</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">September 2021<i> - <b>In Touch</b></i> (Suffolk community magazine).</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Autumn 2021 -<i> <b>Star Tips</b></i> #143 (with sample poem) </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Autumn 2021</span> - <b><i>ARTEMISpoetry</i></b> #27</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">December 2021 - <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/alumnisupporters/news/articles/celebratingouralumniautho.html?fbclid=IwAR3tPxjxq0IosIkyAhpXB5hz0i8eJIWVnYkwXtPrrWmfiXCsOYXm5GbUQXU"><b>Exeter University: </b><i><b>Celebrating our Alumni Authors</b></i></a></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">May 2022 - <b>GDST magazine</b><br /></span></li></ol><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: #ffe599;">Readings </span><br /></span></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">3 August 2021 - <b>Online launch and reading</b>,
with Peter Thabit Jones of The Seventh Quarry Press and guest readers,
Susan Richardson, Jean Salkilld and David Gill reading their own work.</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">7 October 2021 - <b>Suffolk Poetry Society National Poetry Day</b>
event in Ipswich Library, Suffolk, UK. Three poems from the collection
were included in, and read out on my behalf, as part of an event on the
theme of 'Choice'</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">.<span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;">19 February - <b>ACW Online Poetry Day</b>. I read 'Dunwich in Winter'. <br /></span></span></li></ol><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: #ffe599;"></span></span></span></span></span><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: #ffe599;">Matthew Stewart's 'Best Poetry Blogs of the Year' 2021 List</span></span></span></span> <br /></span></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> 14 December 2021 - I was included in <a href="https://roguestrands.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-best-uk-poetry-blogs-of-2021.html?fbclid=IwAR0dKgDVZ5reCEU0Wt0QJoj_inSg0z_a1MW1vAxBqRuGd6a0dCYFK9mpF-o">the list</a> on account of my posts about <i>Driftwood by Starlight</i>. <br /></span></li></ol><div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></span></p></div>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-28994394063605401252022-05-26T18:19:00.005+01:002022-05-31T12:53:44.354+01:00'The Leaping Hare and the Moon Daisy', a Poetry Collection by Jill Stanton-Huxton<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwdbPt0osrlfiaa3bbXlHdyq_tKGx-AIqvbhMJrVnin1co2uIhtOXnCLH1N4sfh3sr4BtJuUj9JFxdAmD6_utuFzCfmdwdp6mi0t9XSjjEkP8ZXAUZNHxpySyFcpAWCFf6jJbYlKnTtKYFssbhaO1DqHJOIQGQnG1LARdeqCwMViUWTFiygA7k0zev/s567/leaping%20hare%20cover.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="567" data-original-width="370" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwdbPt0osrlfiaa3bbXlHdyq_tKGx-AIqvbhMJrVnin1co2uIhtOXnCLH1N4sfh3sr4BtJuUj9JFxdAmD6_utuFzCfmdwdp6mi0t9XSjjEkP8ZXAUZNHxpySyFcpAWCFf6jJbYlKnTtKYFssbhaO1DqHJOIQGQnG1LARdeqCwMViUWTFiygA7k0zev/w418-h640/leaping%20hare%20cover.png" width="418" /></a></div><p></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I have recently had the privilege of
bounding along in the company of Jill Stanton-Huxton’s <i>Leaping Hare</i>.
What a truly unique and exquisite collection of poems, as I imagined it would
be from so evocative a title. It is wonderful to 'feel the love', the author's passion
for our threatened creatures and woodlands, as it blows through the poems to
the reader. I was spellbound as I turned each page, and Emily Brady's
illustrations are exquisite and indeed the perfect complement. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There is a fascinating
Introduction (p.ix to xii), which sets the collection in context and explains
the debt the author owes to her parents, who knew the importance of enabling
their children to spend time in the natural world – with a pair of family
binoculars. As I moved from the introductory prose to the poems, I found Jill’s
magical memories were triggering a host of half-forgotten ones of my own. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It was the intriguing title that
made me want to read this beautiful collection in the first place. I love the
way in which the Moon Daisy weaves her way through the pages. I admire the
sense of balance between joy and wonder on the one hand, and concern and pain
on the other. This judicious inclusion of this ‘light and shade’ seems fitting
for a dappled woodland backdrop. There are, however, other habitats to explore
and enjoy; the opening poem offers a coastal setting, while the kingfisher
prefers the willows by the river and the fox prepares ‘to curl up tight nose to
tail’ in an urban garden. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Like Jill, the author, I found myself
very worried when I first heard that a significant number of ‘nature’ words
(‘acorn’, ‘buttercup’ and ‘catkin’, to name but three) had been removed from
the <i>Oxford Junior Dictionary</i> back in 2007. Many will be familiar with Robert
Macfarlane’s book, <i>The Lost Words</i> (illustrated by Jackie Morris); the
poignant reference to 'last words' in Jill’s final poem, ‘The Nightjar’, did
not pass me by.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>The
Leaping Hare and the Moon Daisy</i> will surely
appeal to adults and children alike. The author’s subjects are most engaging;
we marvel at the Moorhen in her ‘green stockinged feet’ and are introduced to
the Dandelion with its ‘mustardy roar’. The collection can be enjoyed for these
wonderful descriptions alone, but I sense most readers will allow themselves to
be transported downstream on the metaphorical undercurrent of something a
little deeper, something linked to the joys, sorrows and responsibilities that
reflect our humanity. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">* </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>The
Leaping Hare and the Moon Daisy</i>: you can read the backstory on Jill's website <a href="https://www.jillstantonhuxton.com/the-leaping-hare-and-the-moon-daisy/">here</a>. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span style="font-size: medium;">Copies are available from Jill </span></span></span><span><span style="font-family: verdana;">at £6.95 plus p&p. For each book sold, a £2 donation will go to UK wildlife charities. If you would like a copy, please email Jill by clicking <span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><a href="mailto:jill.stanton64@btinternet.com">here</a></span>.</span><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>The
Leaping Hare and the Moon Daisy </i>(45 pages, Troubadour Publishing Ltd., 2021)<i><br /></i></span></span></p><ul class="a-unordered-list a-nostyle a-vertical a-spacing-none detail-bullet-list"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span class="a-list-item"> <span class="a-text-bold">ISBN-10
:
</span> <span>1800463340</span> </span></span></span></li><li><span class="a-list-item"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> <span class="a-text-bold">ISBN-13
:
</span> <span>978-1800463349</span></span></span> </span></li></ul><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br /></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-41613990974872224742022-05-16T15:52:00.007+01:002022-05-16T17:34:39.297+01:00'The Gloucester Fragments', a Poetry Collection by Neil Leadbeater<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyQVpXeVHZGgo7VOfTnoG6WBs-rzYTl9TH3Dmi2fRWBCoMefD5F-kaO7NJh1nKJVJaSW4vGOszCPN8HJZoPdpAaj9fR_v2ShyEEE2zu4f_eUEj6TY__Wl_9IGWU4LzMokLUQXzgLPuaHxkBn7uDmFG0qL00TQHrhOwKcdDCsb7j4GGhoxSz8Dfhhdm/s618/Neil.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="618" data-original-width="436" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyQVpXeVHZGgo7VOfTnoG6WBs-rzYTl9TH3Dmi2fRWBCoMefD5F-kaO7NJh1nKJVJaSW4vGOszCPN8HJZoPdpAaj9fR_v2ShyEEE2zu4f_eUEj6TY__Wl_9IGWU4LzMokLUQXzgLPuaHxkBn7uDmFG0qL00TQHrhOwKcdDCsb7j4GGhoxSz8Dfhhdm/w452-h640/Neil.jpg" width="452" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I was delighted when Neil Leadbeater asked if he could use my Redwing photograph for the cover of his latest poetry collection, <i>The Gloucester Fragments</i>, recently published by Mervyn Linford of <a href="https://littoralpressuk.jimdofree.com/">Littoral Press</a>. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I first met Neil at Swansea's <a href="https://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2011/06/">First International Poetry Festival</a>, organised by Peter Thabit Jones (The Seventh Quarry Press, Wales) and Stanley H. Barkan (Cross-Cultural Communications, New York). </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Polly Stretton in her back-cover blurb<i> </i>decribes </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>The Gloucester Fragments</i></span></span> as 'a real treat'<i> </i>and helpfully informs the reader that the new collection includes poems on the themes of 'nature', 'language' and 'myth'. And indeed, I am greatly enjoying poems 'inhabited' by the Shoveler ('Frampton Pools'), poems that 'play' with the building blocks of language to singular effect ('Errata for an English Pangram'), and a clever shape-shifting poem that re-casts the Homeric tale of Odysseus and Circe. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">There is so much more: take, for instance, Neil's clever allusion to nursery rhymes or the way in which he moves deftly from serious subject matter, such as detritus in the Severn, to the magical botanical names of wildflowers like 'periwinkle', 'fumitory' and 'hemp agrimony', which we find sprinkled, or scattered, throughout this vivid and compelling collection. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Gloucester, and perhaps particularly Gloucestershire, will doubtless evoke different images among Neil's readers. I think especially of Edward Thomas, and am immediately taken in my mind to <a href="https://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2012/10/poets-on-poet-matthew-hollis-on-edward.html">Adlestrop</a>, which I visited some years ago on a frosty morning when there were certainly no 'haycocks dry' in evidence. Neil's delightful and inventive response to this well-loved poem by Thomas took me by surprise and put a wide smile on my face. <br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> * <br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>The Gloucester Fragments</i> costs £8.50. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Neil's previous collection, <i>Reading Between the Lines</i> (2020), with my puffin photo on the cover, is also available from Littoral Press. I mentioned it <a href="https://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2021/05/my-puffin-photograph-on-cover-of.html">here</a> shortly after its publication. <br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The publisher, Mervyn Linford, suggests that those wishing to purchase a Littoral Press collection should <a href="https://littoralpressuk.jimdofree.com/contact-details/">email him</a> in the first instance. <br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Previous post: #DylanDay 2022 ... <a href="https://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2022/05/14-may-2022-dylanday.html">here</a></i> </span></span><br /></p>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-41479739409469591482022-05-14T06:00:00.041+01:002022-05-14T18:23:20.401+01:0014 May 2022 ... #dylanday <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj3SZ4izo7Pr6ZP5ebawnkZaWgCmNP6LrySVZWV_yTJET4xlXA2xXLZYxtBdYo9N3yvu2m64Yo5fYWgeX77zu2YUgcVf1IGOh0Mkybg6GcyJZ1qGcoU-Wk9S67S3WuVnMfAv9d98a8XnTdn6Ho6rxY8oXW7dAboTDTQDb7NrhwhdJdw5wdGevmdlBG/s2048/P1200048-dylan.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj3SZ4izo7Pr6ZP5ebawnkZaWgCmNP6LrySVZWV_yTJET4xlXA2xXLZYxtBdYo9N3yvu2m64Yo5fYWgeX77zu2YUgcVf1IGOh0Mkybg6GcyJZ1qGcoU-Wk9S67S3WuVnMfAv9d98a8XnTdn6Ho6rxY8oXW7dAboTDTQDb7NrhwhdJdw5wdGevmdlBG/w480-h640/P1200048-dylan.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Greetings to all on #dylanday 14 May 2022.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I thought I would post a rather different 'first' picture for Dylan Day this time. It was taken fifteen years ago, and shows me trying to photograph the Writing Shed that perches somewhat precariously on the cliff above the Dylan Thomas Boathouse in Laugharne. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is what the Writing Shed looked like from the outside in 2001:</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-USkYjYohxbW0mFOOMJU8RvMdNGOiTDFnntrKAvYdb_I43yNUffTVfG43G4_knpY-gzaj5S1tNeveIl4eiIEfQol5fwKLSVKJD9ytnvEWStAWjS9BNGKTwkSkoGmK06_LrN_hK_3Hm7cpZoKl_Wt1bP5FyRfTYUXyQUQssEUe-6yQwadha-l3DiNc/s734/scav-dylan's-shed-1280-Edit-2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="506" data-original-width="734" height="442" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-USkYjYohxbW0mFOOMJU8RvMdNGOiTDFnntrKAvYdb_I43yNUffTVfG43G4_knpY-gzaj5S1tNeveIl4eiIEfQol5fwKLSVKJD9ytnvEWStAWjS9BNGKTwkSkoGmK06_LrN_hK_3Hm7cpZoKl_Wt1bP5FyRfTYUXyQUQssEUe-6yQwadha-l3DiNc/w640-h442/scav-dylan's-shed-1280-Edit-2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">... and in 2007:</span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7x45DCHPl-Gl_pY0Fzf9EoWGRNLg-PD9ZfkJxslTodZt-fr8RCYHYQxT27T9Ld0sQQI641Z6iPQRvAuFvD29cZTZSu2TIV6sqqxAcjqCcJ1Hq0gMI8Bb1JD-6UF0H2c1qo_blFOezsdGBLk86ZUDCAYtzJh3H9vV_cYBCtgPO4XHCDAS8WfYROrBJ/s1638/P1200050-writing%20shed%20dylan.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1358" data-original-width="1638" height="530" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7x45DCHPl-Gl_pY0Fzf9EoWGRNLg-PD9ZfkJxslTodZt-fr8RCYHYQxT27T9Ld0sQQI641Z6iPQRvAuFvD29cZTZSu2TIV6sqqxAcjqCcJ1Hq0gMI8Bb1JD-6UF0H2c1qo_blFOezsdGBLk86ZUDCAYtzJh3H9vV_cYBCtgPO4XHCDAS8WfYROrBJ/w640-h530/P1200050-writing%20shed%20dylan.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Dylan Thomas aficionado, <a href="https://lidiachiarelli.jimdofree.com/">Lidia Chiarelli</a>, a Charter Member of the international movement Immagine e Poesia, has prepared a Dylan Day presentation for 2022, featuring art and poetry from many different corners of the globe. You can find my Picture-Poem contribution, <i>Tide Notes</i>, in the section entitled ...</span></span><br /></div><div><p></p><h1 id="cc-m-header-11746992294" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://dylanday2022.jimdofree.com/haiku-haiga-picture-poems-for-dylan-thomas/">Haiku - Haiga - Picture-Poems for Dylan Thomas</a> </span></span></h1><h1 id="cc-m-header-11746992294"></h1><h1 id="cc-m-header-11746992294"></h1><h1 id="cc-m-header-11746992294"></h1><h1 id="cc-m-header-11746992294"></h1><h1 id="cc-m-header-11746992294"></h1><h1 id="cc-m-header-11746992294"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></h1><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">... which you can find by (clicking the link immediately above and) scrolling down until you reach what I believe is the seventh tribute. </span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">* * * </span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.discoverdylanthomas.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Love-The-Words-Anthology-for-Dylan-Day-2022-FINAL.pdf"><i><b>Love The Words</b></i></a> </span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">eBook Anthology<br /></span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I have just heard that my poem, <b>'Blubber, Fin and Tails'</b>, has been selected for inclusion in the 2022 #dylanday international eBook prepared by Infinity Books, after a judging process by Hannah Ellis and Mab Jones. There were about 400 entries from which about 50 have been chosen. <br /></span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">* * * <br /></span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My 2021 first full collection, <b><a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill"><i>Driftwood by Starlight</i></a></b> (The Seventh Quarry Press, £6.99/$10 - see <a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill">here</a>), contains poems set in various places around the UK and beyond. I lived in Swansea, home town of Dylan Thomas for almost twenty years, a fact reflected in my poem, 'Rhossili: Writing The Worm' (p.38). </span></span><br /></span></span></p></div>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-73227915014551664072022-03-02T12:30:00.012+00:002022-05-12T18:11:55.067+01:00UCB Radio Interview with Annmarie Miles, host of The Writers' Trail, 28 April 2022<p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My poetry collection mentioned in my radio interview is shown below:</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiL-KzLcqPGqLCtn9XqVMkjTikWnTI-C0MuLnt4LT96V9vvH2FvgMRNCMHyj-4M90z1T_EkmXXPL91mSqmK7w9wuKkz_r3IlN7QSgfS2qzsWNxbHNrhhol5C3SAykvKe8QH-GzamH-XHnuqbdAU-Dpz8Yo_kuaiUwkGc1ebybi94NldnnDogBdbXL_W=s3182" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3182" data-original-width="2362" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiL-KzLcqPGqLCtn9XqVMkjTikWnTI-C0MuLnt4LT96V9vvH2FvgMRNCMHyj-4M90z1T_EkmXXPL91mSqmK7w9wuKkz_r3IlN7QSgfS2qzsWNxbHNrhhol5C3SAykvKe8QH-GzamH-XHnuqbdAU-Dpz8Yo_kuaiUwkGc1ebybi94NldnnDogBdbXL_W=w298-h400" width="298" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The poem I read on air is <b>'Et in terra pax'</b> from p.13.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The book costs £6.99/$10, and may be purchased <span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill">here</a></span>.<br /></span></span></p><br />Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-40364101120530300812022-02-22T23:37:00.008+00:002022-02-22T23:37:40.997+00:00First Prize (Publication)<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhvGRQWsfny0-gpo9JrnYb2Rr4lGLn2_-Qex2xzpnsJ2oB_iAYk4nsB-BQSjNP-kxPWXi9hBRe-FScrVHtgoQ8-WLXR_Wl2VOmWb2PpY0ApvNi32jeplSMNwW9W6DXg_Agfr35iFOK-S-35QQBn5iMu-v2PN9TRuEIRGpJ3xgdNEbjozO6TGGTwA5nO=s906" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="339" data-original-width="906" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhvGRQWsfny0-gpo9JrnYb2Rr4lGLn2_-Qex2xzpnsJ2oB_iAYk4nsB-BQSjNP-kxPWXi9hBRe-FScrVHtgoQ8-WLXR_Wl2VOmWb2PpY0ApvNi32jeplSMNwW9W6DXg_Agfr35iFOK-S-35QQBn5iMu-v2PN9TRuEIRGpJ3xgdNEbjozO6TGGTwA5nO=w640-h240" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sign on the Scottish island of Gigha<br /></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">After a tricky ten days, it was a real boost to hear that I had won <a href="https://www.hedgehogpress.co.uk/the-cult-of-the-spiny-hog/november2021-2/">First Prize</a> in the 'Wee Collection' Challenge, set last November by Mark Davidson of the <b>Hedgehog Poetry Press</b>. This means that my sequence of seven interlinked sonnets will be published as a slim pamphlet. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Watch this space! </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In other news, I very much enjoyed taking part in the ACW-Trellis online poetry day last Saturday. Participating poets came from England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Albania. I read 'Dunwich in Winter' from my 2021 collection, <a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill"><i>Driftwood by Starlight</i></a> (<b>The Seventh Quarry Press</b>). </span></span><br /></p><p><br /></p>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-10911306288341434422021-11-13T22:58:00.007+00:002021-11-13T23:19:32.899+00:00Thoughts on conferences, COP26 ... and birds<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8OZfY2BylmM3hY3A2TAgjXLKY_h-zfc7ixl3227Vim1fYPeilfjA4-ri4fL-vc2Vy07Fatrs1cj5cG6z3Z_QRQQ_hvVxsfT8LtQG0q2hDHlO1Yam-6k2lqswSM5lQYi2bP4nc_yYAud0/s703/puffin-wing.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="511" data-original-width="703" height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8OZfY2BylmM3hY3A2TAgjXLKY_h-zfc7ixl3227Vim1fYPeilfjA4-ri4fL-vc2Vy07Fatrs1cj5cG6z3Z_QRQQ_hvVxsfT8LtQG0q2hDHlO1Yam-6k2lqswSM5lQYi2bP4nc_yYAud0/w640-h466/puffin-wing.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Puffins, <span style="background-color: #f4cccc;">Red</span> on the <a href="https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/puffin/">RSPB</a> UK Conservation List<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Those who are already acquainted with my blogs may recognise this puffin photograph, taken some years ago at RSPB Bempton Cliffs. The flutter of these wings inspired 'Puffin's Assembly', one of the poems in my poetry collection, <a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill"><i>Driftwood by Starlight</i></a> (The Seventh Quarry Press, 2021). </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3SoNPOvNv4_bXJYmEA3U6nBQO8S9R8hSOSkw3dyleVX-ecL0kUItR8-QBx_9NHsZrhZl5BkNkVDEeDH06LXKC8_VLcTxDScPMA82osS8r9jl09MuSgnjTcQdvmmbAve-mosS7Uvy7EU4/s2048/CGill_+DriftwoodCover_WH%25282%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1520" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3SoNPOvNv4_bXJYmEA3U6nBQO8S9R8hSOSkw3dyleVX-ecL0kUItR8-QBx_9NHsZrhZl5BkNkVDEeDH06LXKC8_VLcTxDScPMA82osS8r9jl09MuSgnjTcQdvmmbAve-mosS7Uvy7EU4/w298-h400/CGill_+DriftwoodCover_WH%25282%2529.jpg" width="298" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The poem, about an imaginary convocation of threatened seabirds, was partially inspired by the avian parliament in <a href="https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/9780941051873?gC=5a105e8b&gclid=CjwKCAiAvriMBhAuEiwA8Cs5lQRp4FOOeakAnZ6lz961xyMb7X2Wpqm_EKGmb9KGNiRsZ_h8ZBMl0xoCb88QAvD_BwE"><i>The Birds</i></a>, a comedy by Aristophanes, the play from which we get the term, 'Cloud-cuckoo-land'. In my brief text the birds confront the Climate Crisis, extinction, habitat loss and coastal erosion. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I suspect Chaucer may have been influenced by Aristophanes when he came to write <a href="https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-parliament-of-fowls"><i>The Parliament of Fowls</i></a>. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">With <a href="https://ukcop26.org/">COP26</a> running into extra time as I drafted this post, it seemed appropriate to be thinking about what I might call actual, imaginary or motivational assemblies. <br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The avian crew in <i>The Birds</i> under the direction of the Hoopoe were motivated (rightly or wrongly in this particular case) by the idea of building their own kingdom in the sky. Chaucer's birds gathered for the important business of finding a mate. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As a child, I was captivated by the tale of <a href="https://www.nyrb.com/products/the-little-grey-men?variant=14356940488756"><i>The Little Grey Men</i></a> by BB. Melissa Harrison has recently brought out a story in two volumes for children (and adults) which continues the tale in a 21st century setting, taking into account our current environmental concerns. Harrison's books, <a href="https://www.chickenhousebooks.com/books/by-ash-oak-and-thorn/"><i>By Oak, Ash and Thorn</i></a> and <a href="https://www.chickenhousebooks.com/books/by-rowan-and-yew/"><i>By Rowan and Yew</i></a>, have been beautifully written - and have been exquisitely produced by <a href="https://www.chickenhousebooks.com/authors/melissa-harrison/">Chicken House</a>. I have no wish to spoil the narrative for you, but just wanted to mention the fact that the story includes a convocation of sorts, 'a grand conference', not only for the protagonists who are on a mission, but for </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">'all the animals' as well</span></span>. I will refrain from saying more in the hope that you may decide to read the books. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqbFC8SyEdrkLDD0bIJ_9IsZQoWUsib8Jy08okKDciOTnH-YQCIkg0h02yxwgNyYR_FL8OVr4SOHV6L5qJZMRjiOTytBemP1ipfMYe4sD0zTYSDPS_IziLBGPmkb9REEGv54Ygkcid6oo/s2048/P1013692-yew.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1796" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqbFC8SyEdrkLDD0bIJ_9IsZQoWUsib8Jy08okKDciOTnH-YQCIkg0h02yxwgNyYR_FL8OVr4SOHV6L5qJZMRjiOTytBemP1ipfMYe4sD0zTYSDPS_IziLBGPmkb9REEGv54Ygkcid6oo/s320/P1013692-yew.jpg" width="281" /></a></div> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">As we consider Climate Crisis and other world issues, such as Covid-19, we become acutely aware that it is in many senses <i>only now</i> that we have the opportunity to make things change. The past has happened. Tomorrow is uncharted territory. </span></span></div>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-58247873381114789872021-10-07T21:48:00.001+01:002021-10-07T21:48:18.087+01:00National Poetry Day 2021, Theme of 'Choice'<p> <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVwGh1kU55yS3XiuZRXB2h7AQL_dBph1j5eRQOJJS02TzFDoKS8kpsGa8NGV1rfbURZGIMYvxMcP2nkmqc0ioAQ2P6RhkTC0tCQ_Vbsb-hhpkm-nNdiM2KzJrFBPKHqyTbplwMFUBTMBg/s719/npd+2021.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="719" data-original-width="718" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVwGh1kU55yS3XiuZRXB2h7AQL_dBph1j5eRQOJJS02TzFDoKS8kpsGa8NGV1rfbURZGIMYvxMcP2nkmqc0ioAQ2P6RhkTC0tCQ_Vbsb-hhpkm-nNdiM2KzJrFBPKHqyTbplwMFUBTMBg/w640-h640/npd+2021.png" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Upper left: <i><span style="color: black;">Basil Brown's (reconstructed) shepherd's hut at NT Sutton Hoo, Suffolk</span></i><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Upper right: <span style="color: black;"><i>drystone beehive cell (for a monk) in the grounds of Kilmartin Museum, Scotland</i></span><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Lower left: <span style="color: black;"><i>reconstruction of a </i></span></span></span></span><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Provençal </span></span></i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: black;"><i>'borrie' for oxen (and shepherds, apparently), The Eden Project, Cornwall </i></span><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Lower right: <span style="color: black;"><i>beach huts on the shore at Southwold, Suffolk</i></span></span></span></span><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"> *</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I have often envied writers who have or have had a 'shed' at their disposal for writing, reading and contemplation, whether the structure has been a driftwood hut, a remote bothy or a garden gazebo. Dylan Thomas and the Reverend R.S. Hawker both had writing huts with coastal views. I would definitely opt for one of these. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Of course, it isn't only writers who have huts. The photograph below shows a hut on Romney Marsh in Kent, provided for the 'lookers', folk who were asked to care for huge flocks of sheep on behalf of the land owners, who considered the marsh an unhealthy place in which to live. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Unlike the shepherds, who only minded a single flock, lookers were responsible for sheep belonging to more than one owner. The workers were based at their huts by day, and at lambing times found themselves camping out in them overnight. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It seems ironic to me that the hut in the photo below, designed for these lookers, seems so devoid of windows. I see there is a stable-style door; I do not remember if there was a window at the back. Perhaps this hut was mainly used for the storage of tools and other equipment. The chimney suggests an internal fire place. </span></span> <br /></p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdNAISF7wdsAnjkr-8d6xF_eD3SEIHfqJDNfdVOUhUP7tOv_RdleCVGn-GnFPR3vIe3ES3hdRU8Cw_fu2_LMqi4DmK5K_UzikGrG6SiJIX-6tIyAk_Rc5RN7tCbULH2BfPfCOPPY9njoM/s2048/CG20140905440-lookers+hut.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1675" data-original-width="2048" height="524" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdNAISF7wdsAnjkr-8d6xF_eD3SEIHfqJDNfdVOUhUP7tOv_RdleCVGn-GnFPR3vIe3ES3hdRU8Cw_fu2_LMqi4DmK5K_UzikGrG6SiJIX-6tIyAk_Rc5RN7tCbULH2BfPfCOPPY9njoM/w640-h524/CG20140905440-lookers+hut.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Driftwood by Starlight</i> (The Seventh Quarry Press, June 2021), my poetry collection, includes my poem 'Hawker's Hut' (p.29); Parson Hawker's driftwood structure nestles in the cliff above the sea at Morwenstow in Cornwall. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">'Hawker's Hut' was read out at Ipswich Library today as part of Suffolk Poetry Society's National Poetry Day reading on the theme of 'choice'. <br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Lookers' huts on Romney Marsh in Kent, like the one in the photograph above, are mentioned in my poem, 'Lost' (p.12). This poem also has an allusion to the poet, Edward Thomas. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2D4bt6t_qH1ZVCBSuq963gghxQ3seCnVNKCKXmu5_gNZZHLLq1sbzkn4Dd3WjXuLQGq46IyybyvwuHECm1wRcFKCMvskJQDFR2xbXB4kPMDKMfLR9GjT6s60toFIv-N20eH8cOinRkhI/s2048/CGill_+DriftwoodCover_WH%25282%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1520" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2D4bt6t_qH1ZVCBSuq963gghxQ3seCnVNKCKXmu5_gNZZHLLq1sbzkn4Dd3WjXuLQGq46IyybyvwuHECm1wRcFKCMvskJQDFR2xbXB4kPMDKMfLR9GjT6s60toFIv-N20eH8cOinRkhI/w477-h640/CGill_+DriftwoodCover_WH%25282%2529.jpg" width="477" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><i> </i></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill"><i>Driftwood by Starlight</i></a> (The Seventh Quarry Press, June 2021) can be purchased online, <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill">here</a></span>. The cost is £6.99/$10. <br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span><br /></p>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-90943691160554287342021-09-15T17:52:00.008+01:002021-09-15T17:59:19.404+01:00'Driftwood by Starlight' ... Posts Relating To My Poetry Collection<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitmsMRkKW7TlbcZT34PHclh6Z4oIThCM3Zgb9O7zjiYokiMCdm3K6P-0AP8fiQJNmqT6Yr8iZnEJGICy_au129yiBHQGQpbOv0MuLcaZEWx5QCRoPo1ALMnBOmMV-z8MbAbSAhC8FjsKI/s2048/IMG_1829Rachel+flowers+launch12copy.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitmsMRkKW7TlbcZT34PHclh6Z4oIThCM3Zgb9O7zjiYokiMCdm3K6P-0AP8fiQJNmqT6Yr8iZnEJGICy_au129yiBHQGQpbOv0MuLcaZEWx5QCRoPo1ALMnBOmMV-z8MbAbSAhC8FjsKI/w480-h640/IMG_1829Rachel+flowers+launch12copy.png" width="480" /></a></span></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">When <b><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill"><i>Driftwood by Starlight</i></a></span></b>, my first full poetry collection, was published by The Seventh Quarry Press in June 2021, Maria Lloyd (@<a href="https://twitter.com/mariatlloyd">mariatlloyd</a>), a research student at the University of Reading, set me some questions about a number of the poems, and particularly about those that relate to the Ancient World in one way or another. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">You can find my responses in blog posts (1) to (3) below. I hope you will find something of interest if you click on the links. <br /></span></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(1)</span><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> Questions from Maria Lloyd <a href="http://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2021/08/driftwood-by-starlight-questions-from.html">here</a>. A post on 'Monte Testaccio, Mound of Potsherds', p.35. <br /></span></i></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(2)</span><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Questions from Maria Lloyd <a href="http://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2021/08/driftwood-by-starlight-questions-from_17.html">here</a>. A post on 'Wildfire', p.31. <br /></span></span></i></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(3)</span><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Questions from Maria Lloyd <a href="http://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2021/08/driftwood-by-starlight-questions-from_31.html">here</a>. A post on 'The Ocean's Tears', p.24 and 'Ice-Blue Blood', p.25. </span></span></i></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> • • •<br /></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">While I was in Cornwall earlier in the summer, I took the opportunity to re-visit some of the settings in the book. Posts (a)<i> </i>to (c) below refer to these. </span></span></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(a)</span></span><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> Cadgwith on The Lizard peninsula, setting for 'The Serpentine Stile', p.9. See <a href="https://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2021/07/driftwood-by-starlight-in-cornwall-3.html">here</a>. <br /></span></span></i></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">(b)</span></span><i><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> The Penwith Moors and </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span>Mên-an-Tol, setting for '(W)hole Thoughts from </span></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>Mên-an-Tol', p.28. See <a href="https://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2021/07/driftwood-by-starlight-in-cornwall-2.html">here</a>.<br /></span></span></span></span></i></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">(c)<i> Zennor, setting for 'Zennor Voices', p.19. See <a href="https://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2021/07/driftwood-by-starlight-in-cornwall-3.html">here</a>. </i></span><br /></span></span></span></span></p>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-84710793258538696012021-08-31T22:45:00.018+01:002021-09-01T15:33:39.599+01:00DRIFTWOOD BY STARLIGHT: Questions from Maria Lloyd (3) <div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigzcuT3B5G0hC4X7Vvi6UH2_hwljZRL23zHEFv9uZFF5pOnePHjCeI5D68dH84EOegLGdJbVSYiAs2CS8a3EHHKIWWvZf8fAyMGvLv0KWw6PC-i4uZ-rx8jUCGfP6Jh3IsMhlX7P08dn4/s2048/pylos+octopus-7441.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigzcuT3B5G0hC4X7Vvi6UH2_hwljZRL23zHEFv9uZFF5pOnePHjCeI5D68dH84EOegLGdJbVSYiAs2CS8a3EHHKIWWvZf8fAyMGvLv0KWw6PC-i4uZ-rx8jUCGfP6Jh3IsMhlX7P08dn4/w480-h640/pylos+octopus-7441.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Reconstruction (Piet de Jong) of floor motifs, Throne Room, Nestor's Palace, Pylos</span></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i></i></div><i> <br /></i><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill"><i>Driftwood by Starlight</i></a>, my first full poetry collection, was <a href="https://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2021/08/driftwood-by-starlight-online-launch.html">launched online</a>
on Tuesday 3 August. The book was published in June 2021 by Peter
Thabit Jones of The Seventh Quarry Press. It can be purchased for £6.99/$10 from the
publisher's online shop <span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill">here</a></span>. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRhzRtYDFGa8aD_LRnF1N8ZylB6zCrWpU8mywaUANyBcgYCGN3dssw2pN6PNllY4F1DTx4AUR9utzokHEPRhPU7-OVhCGod67mEroEUW2pVwCVltM_FfXB_tJuFjPgv02P3KJZkwA-tX0/s1181/cover+driftwood+card.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1181" data-original-width="839" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRhzRtYDFGa8aD_LRnF1N8ZylB6zCrWpU8mywaUANyBcgYCGN3dssw2pN6PNllY4F1DTx4AUR9utzokHEPRhPU7-OVhCGod67mEroEUW2pVwCVltM_FfXB_tJuFjPgv02P3KJZkwA-tX0/w284-h400/cover+driftwood+card.jpg" width="284" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.mariateresalloyd.com/my-story/">Maria Lloyd</a>, who holds a Masters degree on The City of Rome from the <a href="https://www.reading.ac.uk/about.aspx">University of Reading</a>,
read the collection and decided to set me some questions. </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I am attempting to </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">provide a few answers in this mini-series (without giving too much away ...). </span></span></span></span>Thank you, Maria. </span></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><b>Post One</b> </span></span>(click <a href="http://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2021/08/driftwood-by-starlight-questions-from.html">here</a>) concerned my poem '<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Monte Testaccio, Mound of Potsherds</span>' on p.35 of </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill">Driftwood by Starlight</a></span></span></span></span>.</span></span></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span><b>Post Two</b> </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span>(click <a href="http://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2021/08/driftwood-by-starlight-questions-from_17.html">here</a>) </span></span>has as its focus the poem, '<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Wildfire</span>', on p.31. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is <b>Post Three</b>, and</span></span> we stay with an archaeological theme as we switch our focus from the Roman World to Ancient Greece. <br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Let's turn to Maria's question. It relates, of course, to all the poems in the collection; but for the purposes of this post I shall apply it to '<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">The Ocean's Tears</span>' on p.24 and '<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Ice-Blue Blood</span>' on p.25:</span></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span face="Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 16px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">'You appear to write on a wide range of topics but what were the triggers that made you want to write about these topics in particular?' </span></i> <br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Many
of us have a sense of adventure lurking somewhere inside us, even if in some cases we turn out to be largely armchair travellers. </span></span>The classical world has fascinated me for decades so it is not surprising that aspects of ancient Greece and Rome surface in my poems from time to time. The <i>Odyssey</i> is a favourite ancient text. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> <br /></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSNmkm57CCw258reUE5j2aNJkuzRxVMiTWmLUMBEkM4Bb_CpsnDtTIi5C7LEkgLZFGfxjZybP4IG6EuXWz0kFyR1r40JcKPqZgsYz2XFx9YgvJi1phngJKjenB1Nl8uF_Cm6vBXinlAkI/s945/odyssey+caroline+pylos.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="945" height="458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSNmkm57CCw258reUE5j2aNJkuzRxVMiTWmLUMBEkM4Bb_CpsnDtTIi5C7LEkgLZFGfxjZybP4IG6EuXWz0kFyR1r40JcKPqZgsYz2XFx9YgvJi1phngJKjenB1Nl8uF_Cm6vBXinlAkI/w640-h458/odyssey+caroline+pylos.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small;"><span>Homer in hand at Nestor's Palace, 'sandy Pylos', Peloponnese, 2010. </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small;"><span>Photo: </span><span><span>© David Gill</span></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The two poems I mention above were the result of my engagement with </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">'<a href="https://blog.britishmuseum.org/who-was-homer/">Homer</a>', the blind bard. How much of the <i>Iliad</i> and <i>Odyssey</i>
can actually be attributed to him is debatable since the tales of Troy
are part of the oral tradition in which songs were passed on from singer to singer. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL3kKOI-OoDkg4gEHG9O0hNECWBvGmZfHRI2yYQD_-Img8hOcfndoe1uTS3wBE7gV9U5Jxf2s30cLohlxUevN0wlsLLGjY5AvRetZGZS_LnTryk_WpNfwqo4KbKz6XqI9vpOfk8EQ6OIg/s2701/pbx+homer+P1000626-Edit-Edit.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2701" data-original-width="1164" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL3kKOI-OoDkg4gEHG9O0hNECWBvGmZfHRI2yYQD_-Img8hOcfndoe1uTS3wBE7gV9U5Jxf2s30cLohlxUevN0wlsLLGjY5AvRetZGZS_LnTryk_WpNfwqo4KbKz6XqI9vpOfk8EQ6OIg/w276-h640/pbx+homer+P1000626-Edit-Edit.jpg" width="276" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span>Bust of Homer, <a href="https://www.cornwalls.co.uk/photos/mount-edgcumbe-italian-garden-2353.htm">Mount Egcumbe</a></span></span></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The bust above, photographed in June 2021 during our Cornish holiday, is similar (though not, in fact, identical) to a sculpture of Homer found near Baiae on the Bay of Naples and purchased by Townley (BM <i>Cat. Sculpture </i>25). </span></span><br /></div><div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The two poems I consider in this post exhibit similarities and differences. They are not 'a pair', though it was a deliberate choice to place them opposite one another in the collection. Both concern the tale of Troy to some degree. They each have (in my mind at least) a 20th century UK beach setting. <br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">'The Oceans Tears' is a Tercet Ghazal, a form developed by <a href="https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/My-Sentence-Was-a-Thousand-Years-of-Joy-by-Robert-Bly/9780060757199">Robert Bly</a> from the traditional (Arabic) Ghazal of Persian origin. I first encountered Ghazals with a three-lined stanza or 'sher' on The Ghazal Page, a web resource run by Gene Doty, which, sadly, is no longer available. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">'Ice-Blue Blood' is also written in three-line stanzas, but (to give words from this poem a new context) <i>there the similarity ends</i>, at least as far as form is concerned.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">'The Ocean's Tears' includes a number of items that point to the Homeric world (gold, bronze, arrows and horse). Troy was never far from my thoughts during the drafting of this poem. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu7ZOHVeaZZD1t6xlDJjSdAdYR-l4nQnKs1J8F5mabNJwfT8qjxUHqiaEiO3UQK2ZjUFWVK0eli0QHAOOee4KGalXiwHq8w1HDNmsbrvVfA6EzSrFnFFGAFFZA20q6Xv18mRc5VO8dbxY/s2048/troy-1330029-2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu7ZOHVeaZZD1t6xlDJjSdAdYR-l4nQnKs1J8F5mabNJwfT8qjxUHqiaEiO3UQK2ZjUFWVK0eli0QHAOOee4KGalXiwHq8w1HDNmsbrvVfA6EzSrFnFFGAFFZA20q6Xv18mRc5VO8dbxY/w640-h480/troy-1330029-2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Entrance to the '<a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/troy-myth-and-reality">Troy: Myth and Reality</a>' exhibition, British Museum, 2019-2000</span></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Those who have visited King Agamemnon's citadel at Mycenae will be familiar with the <a href="https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/courses/greekpast/4761.html">cyclopean walls</a> to which I allude in the third verse. <br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBqQxtt-X1eO2PllsBfTtCGIHwsN0idurcksHRz5S9lT4H69Q2p2GQQgSFS30c3qwTDqjJaYD0KQX3JpL4ZousNPMOwfsyo-NvwvtJxeVNYD8CKun_7oMIbofHNrsf0tVOTgP-w2TriSs/s1760/DCP_3964+Mycenae.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1168" data-original-width="1760" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBqQxtt-X1eO2PllsBfTtCGIHwsN0idurcksHRz5S9lT4H69Q2p2GQQgSFS30c3qwTDqjJaYD0KQX3JpL4ZousNPMOwfsyo-NvwvtJxeVNYD8CKun_7oMIbofHNrsf0tVOTgP-w2TriSs/w640-h424/DCP_3964+Mycenae.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mycenae, linked to King Agamemnon. </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span>Photo: </span><span><span>© David Gill</span></span></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAFsQwMsqGtJLwBFPY7fJ-m4A980rFtNJuS2cgtAZ1bPlVsFuicaM42r1c0ewH32CrnnfylJN_gBmZNc8LA92xknrhk8dnZmSYSqQHKHlWE2fP7ZsZVnTa8oG3KUrMFhBt9OiOGSMNv4U/s1760/DCP_3878+mycenae.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1168" data-original-width="1760" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAFsQwMsqGtJLwBFPY7fJ-m4A980rFtNJuS2cgtAZ1bPlVsFuicaM42r1c0ewH32CrnnfylJN_gBmZNc8LA92xknrhk8dnZmSYSqQHKHlWE2fP7ZsZVnTa8oG3KUrMFhBt9OiOGSMNv4U/w640-h424/DCP_3878+mycenae.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Lion Gate entrance to the citadel at Mycenae. </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: small;"><span>Photo: </span><span><span>© David Gill</span></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfHdDRa_Oaceagd5qFZ37jzeeQwolL4K2Ze87LeYahEFvPwXCOAlD7K6ZBAkMpMQByuE8lZkQbaSujl-43Of0VpLSQ54UcTqPnnI5Xvq3PbPRcCWGFBowtsvccbp9GaMzCLEDDlMVCoIA/s1760/mycenae+DCP_3877.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1168" data-original-width="1760" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfHdDRa_Oaceagd5qFZ37jzeeQwolL4K2Ze87LeYahEFvPwXCOAlD7K6ZBAkMpMQByuE8lZkQbaSujl-43Of0VpLSQ54UcTqPnnI5Xvq3PbPRcCWGFBowtsvccbp9GaMzCLEDDlMVCoIA/w640-h424/mycenae+DCP_3877.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mycenaean walls, with jeep for scale. Photo: </span><span><span style="font-size: small;">© David Gill</span><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">'Ice-Blue Blood', on the other hand, begins with an epigraph from <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/william-cowper">William Cowper</a>'s translation of Homer about a many-legged creature. I have long been intrigued by artistic renderings of octopus and squid in the Ancient World (see assorted examples on Greek pottery below), and have wondered whether these representations have any symbolic meaning beyond the visual. I believe I read that in one part of the ancient Greek world, the octopus motif could have been applied as a kind of early trademark, but I would need to explore this further. <br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2XLBNAZPOZHxS4mpq5LeomBlovyW6FvblmJo5DjAyGTcPIjyvmlZOpLecEZ4cZnP0sG61RPlmgfIc-sRrJyllfC0N3TgB016MLlnuuc1ZgtsOyA-xd5_5kNbFu6QNzTZafU73lccGZTs/s2048/P1260199-octopus+fitz.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1998" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2XLBNAZPOZHxS4mpq5LeomBlovyW6FvblmJo5DjAyGTcPIjyvmlZOpLecEZ4cZnP0sG61RPlmgfIc-sRrJyllfC0N3TgB016MLlnuuc1ZgtsOyA-xd5_5kNbFu6QNzTZafU73lccGZTs/w390-h400/P1260199-octopus+fitz.jpg" width="390" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span>Octopus fragment found at Phylakopi, Melos (Fitzwilliam Museum)</span></span><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRe7c2fREryJFPcM7B2Hw7ngnKgC7AneHpoP2pRQ0FrJhfy13xOcS6-ldMQHlvq0o3014idQKp2ms3eTA6qeAfkpiy2dRrU6bIKVi08L64GvE_dc6ChpZ6PX8ECjzvGozcHMKqU4fL3Xo/s2048/P1280657-metropolitan+octopus.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1487" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRe7c2fREryJFPcM7B2Hw7ngnKgC7AneHpoP2pRQ0FrJhfy13xOcS6-ldMQHlvq0o3014idQKp2ms3eTA6qeAfkpiy2dRrU6bIKVi08L64GvE_dc6ChpZ6PX8ECjzvGozcHMKqU4fL3Xo/w464-h640/P1280657-metropolitan+octopus.jpg" width="464" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Octopus (9), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY (early 20th century reproduction of stirrup jar, Crete)</span><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBP7LC42J2hNz1emonWLaqjd9T5oEaB2Sgci8tek0xVV6qc45sKFVtpfoCMtGqpAk3TphmZA0Go1xyDzqU5wZAglHWcPmSnIPxHnKJkNFln6w11KTAJf0Xuv2FbWYmklqeyvTdqs9DwEQ/s2048/P1330108-octopus+tro+exhib.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2025" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBP7LC42J2hNz1emonWLaqjd9T5oEaB2Sgci8tek0xVV6qc45sKFVtpfoCMtGqpAk3TphmZA0Go1xyDzqU5wZAglHWcPmSnIPxHnKJkNFln6w11KTAJf0Xuv2FbWYmklqeyvTdqs9DwEQ/w632-h640/P1330108-octopus+tro+exhib.jpg" width="632" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Octopus in the 'Troy' exhibition, British Museum</span><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijGB2u3-_ypXxcZ00G29raaMOzk5KiHvoQuSlM82a5BzaPlEyDdXIZYGpQDW0ZzcsoPLe5jicOl4ybv-POGxyjVc9b-bOPq43wuDaXLRPhqOYk6Bqu03ItxdSIRZ8JGoj9Pc3dZGKO3Sk/s2048/pylos+chora+octopus+6701-Edit.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1374" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijGB2u3-_ypXxcZ00G29raaMOzk5KiHvoQuSlM82a5BzaPlEyDdXIZYGpQDW0ZzcsoPLe5jicOl4ybv-POGxyjVc9b-bOPq43wuDaXLRPhqOYk6Bqu03ItxdSIRZ8JGoj9Pc3dZGKO3Sk/w430-h640/pylos+chora+octopus+6701-Edit.jpg" width="430" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Amphora from Tholos tomb II at Routsi, Archaeological Museum of Chora, near Pylos </span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The octopus was a popular part of the so-called 'Marine Style' of pottery, which originated on Crete in the late Bronze Age and was embraced by potters on the mainland.</span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> Monsters, some more cephalopod-like than others, abound in Greek mythology. They are not all creatures of the sea. </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The Hydra, which appears in a number of myths and sources such as Hesiod, had several heads. </span></span>Cerberus, or Kerberos, the hound referred to but not actually mentioned by name in the <i>Iliad</i>, had <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1893-0712-11">two</a>, three, or even 'many' heads. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The first open lecture I attended as an undergraduate at Newcastle University in 1979 was given by Dr John Pinsent of Liverpool University on the unusual theme of ancient art and cephalopods. He had authored a paper called</span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> <span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>The Iconography of Octopuses: a
First Typology</i> (BICS 25, 1978) about the development of octopus
representations in late Mycenaean vase painting. </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">More recently I came under the influence of a large blue graffiti octopus known locally as '<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lwr/13532147803">Digby</a>'. Digby, designed by John D. Edwards, is part of </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">the Never Ending Mural community arts project in Ipswich and a popular local icon (see <a href="https://www.ipswichloveyourstreet.co.uk/">here</a>). There may well be a nod to the spirit of Digby in my poem. And, as I hinted earlier, the impact of squid and octopus representations on ancient artifacts should not be overlooked. There is something very fluid, fascinating and changeable about these marine animals. It is worth remembering that while the <i>wine-dark</i> purple colour from the <a href="http://deborahruscillo.com/royal-purple/">Murex shell</a> (see also <a href="http://www.argonauts-book.com/fleece-as-purple.html">here</a>) was prized as a costly dye in Ancient Greece, humans have been writing and drawing with cuttlefish ink, known to us as 'sepia', since times of antiquity. </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Speaking of early writing, I began with a photograph relating to Nestor's Palace at Pylos in the western Peloponnese. It seems worthy of note that large quantities of <a href="https://itsallgreektoanna.wordpress.com/2018/04/09/visiting-the-palace-of-nestor-at-pylos/">Linear B tablets</a> were found here. Ironically, these clay tablets were baked, and therefore preserved for posterity, in a devastating fire.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNdm4OFqmsQm4cXvW0TK_P5Tgh1ZDDuqy3IAhIss925xlab5A0cVMXwHV4-Do-ULS8OGgi1rMeO7PhbEyOOS1bvrkgRtUSNhXUAb5_GcMcS_PORV8xabhxPly84AwKk-BngNJqIi_ujU8/s2048/linear+b+chora+museum-4501.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1832" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNdm4OFqmsQm4cXvW0TK_P5Tgh1ZDDuqy3IAhIss925xlab5A0cVMXwHV4-Do-ULS8OGgi1rMeO7PhbEyOOS1bvrkgRtUSNhXUAb5_GcMcS_PORV8xabhxPly84AwKk-BngNJqIi_ujU8/w572-h640/linear+b+chora+museum-4501.jpg" width="572" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Linear B tablet (a cast, I think), Archaeological Museum of Chora </span></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In his poem, 'Upon a Foreign Verse', <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/george-seferis">George Seferis</a> reminds his readers that Odysseus is a human hero, and as such a very different 'being' from the otherworldly monsters he encounters. Scylla in <i>Odyssey</i> Book XII has twelve feet and six particularly long necks, each ending in a head and three rows of teeth. She makes the Loch Ness monster seem extremely benign. Were Homer's sea monsters inspired by atmospheric shadows whipped up by storms at sea or by sightings of giant octopuses? I guess we shall never know. <br /></span></span></span></div><div><p></p></div>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-57740334156747616232021-08-17T11:18:00.008+01:002021-08-17T11:36:49.157+01:00DRIFTWOOD BY STARLIGHT: Questions from Maria Lloyd (2)<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAmyUCQEMcSDtnWKqXtDDWKR0JkQINU_SvRyHk6kJvMieRSVnTfdGL5XL25sXhCDhN8xxbMJ3Z0-oxBova2u1X2MX3MlhpKPKi7bRuahYc7C7S3fCaghyphenhyphenZLe10dmc_jsg_l0nSPqdIDRA/s1568/pompeii.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="795" data-original-width="1568" height="324" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAmyUCQEMcSDtnWKqXtDDWKR0JkQINU_SvRyHk6kJvMieRSVnTfdGL5XL25sXhCDhN8xxbMJ3Z0-oxBova2u1X2MX3MlhpKPKi7bRuahYc7C7S3fCaghyphenhyphenZLe10dmc_jsg_l0nSPqdIDRA/w640-h324/pompeii.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Photos from my album, taken (pre-digital!) in Pompeii, February 1986</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill"><i>Driftwood by Starlight</i></a>, my first full poetry collection, was <a href="https://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2021/08/driftwood-by-starlight-online-launch.html">launched online</a>
on Tuesday 3 August. The book was published in June 2021 by Peter
Thabit Jones of The Seventh Quarry Press. It can be purchased for £6.99/$10 from the
publisher's online shop <span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill">here</a></span>. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRhzRtYDFGa8aD_LRnF1N8ZylB6zCrWpU8mywaUANyBcgYCGN3dssw2pN6PNllY4F1DTx4AUR9utzokHEPRhPU7-OVhCGod67mEroEUW2pVwCVltM_FfXB_tJuFjPgv02P3KJZkwA-tX0/s1181/cover+driftwood+card.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1181" data-original-width="839" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRhzRtYDFGa8aD_LRnF1N8ZylB6zCrWpU8mywaUANyBcgYCGN3dssw2pN6PNllY4F1DTx4AUR9utzokHEPRhPU7-OVhCGod67mEroEUW2pVwCVltM_FfXB_tJuFjPgv02P3KJZkwA-tX0/w284-h400/cover+driftwood+card.jpg" width="284" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.mariateresalloyd.com/my-story/">Maria Lloyd</a>, who holds a Masters degree on The City of Rome from the <a href="https://www.reading.ac.uk/about.aspx">University of Reading</a>,
read the collection and decided to set me some questions about it. I am attempting to provide answers (without giving too much away ...). </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Thank you, Maria. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The first post in this mini-series on the blog (click <a href="http://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2021/08/driftwood-by-starlight-questions-from.html"><b>here</b></a>) concerned my poem '<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Monte Testaccio, Mound of Potsherds</span>' on p.35 of the collection.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This second post concerns the poem, '<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Wildfire</span>', on p.31. </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Page numbers in this post refer to <span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill"><i>Driftwood by Starlight</i></a></span>. </span></span>Let's turn to Maria's questions. </span></span><br /></p><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">From Maria Lloyd: p.31<b> 'Wildfire'</b></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: 40px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">[<span style="background-color: #01ffff;">Q1</span>] <i>Is this poem based on a specific individual part, or parts of Pompeii that fascinate you and have been combined? </i></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: 40px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">[<span style="background-color: #01ffff;">Q2</span>] <i>Is your repetitive use of 'I wonder who will live and who has died' something that interests you?</i></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: 40px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">[<span style="background-color: #01ffff;">Q3</span>] <i><span>What is your process in writing poetry? You appear to write many different types of poems. How did you land on the format of each poem?</span></i></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Once again, here is a little background information before I attempt to offer specific answers. </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><a href="https://research.kent.ac.uk/heritage/person/david-gill/">David (Gill</a>), my archaeologist husband, was a <a href="https://www.bsr.ac.uk/awards/humanities-awards">Rome Scholar</a> at the <a href="https://www.bsr.ac.uk/about">British School at Rome</a>
in the mid-1980s. We had recently married and were to spend that year
living in the School, where I washed bones and sherds of pottery in my
spare time. The railways offered what was known as a </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>Biglietto Chilometrico, a pass for 1000 kilometres. </span></span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>We left Rome by train on a snowy morning in February 1986, and arrived in Naples that afternoon. Vesuvius was coated in snow and we were bitterly cold. However, we made the most of our few days in the area, visiting Pompeii, Herculaneum and the <a href="https://mannapoli.it/en/home-english/">Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli</a>. </span></span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkxpCiSQcItHHtyfWiJoIhv3h6SI2HmG6Gc7uTmw5HKyvj5JRT3IEigODJUDYLjsCaKi_bWFbDoSEkN5am9Yq2wE0v_qZCCVf6tV5WfuZP5j10oad2ahcSh2_P2lfLfz3-W8_6iolvC-4/s1205/house+of+faun.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1205" data-original-width="1124" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkxpCiSQcItHHtyfWiJoIhv3h6SI2HmG6Gc7uTmw5HKyvj5JRT3IEigODJUDYLjsCaKi_bWFbDoSEkN5am9Yq2wE0v_qZCCVf6tV5WfuZP5j10oad2ahcSh2_P2lfLfz3-W8_6iolvC-4/w597-h640/house+of+faun.jpg" width="597" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><span style="font-size: small;">Photo: </span><span><span><span style="font-size: small;">© Caroline Gill 1986</span><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table> </span></span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>We moved south to Reggio before crossing the Straits of Messina (<a href="https://community.eurail.com/travelling-by-train-65/taking-the-train-onto-the-ferry-147"><i>in</i> the train, <i>on</i> the ferry</a>). We landed in Sicily only to find Etna bathed in warm sunshine. We cast off our winter coats and feasted on gifts of juicy oranges.</span></span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>Perhaps I should backtrack at this point. I spent my junior school years in Kent, not very far from <a href="https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/lullingstone-roman-villa/history/">Lullingstone Roman villa</a>, which we visited on a school trip. As a dog-lover, I was fascinated by the Roman paw-prints I saw in bits of tile (and if my previous post alluded to cats, this one will give a nod to the dogs of the Roman world). </span></span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj6GLwI1CwaV_sIyEmJhxf_rDxJoFP_4KkBzoqY1crjXYGuQ9kia7bWg7UvqsqFZu2AmeGb3S0zFmK1uPyBxocsSnnJkn1CRZ_4l-SSGekyZlIxqu846ZabS2aA21RN7s-IRF20OytF6E/s2048/2014+lullingstone+pawprint+CG20140905070-Edit.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2031" data-original-width="2048" height="634" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj6GLwI1CwaV_sIyEmJhxf_rDxJoFP_4KkBzoqY1crjXYGuQ9kia7bWg7UvqsqFZu2AmeGb3S0zFmK1uPyBxocsSnnJkn1CRZ_4l-SSGekyZlIxqu846ZabS2aA21RN7s-IRF20OytF6E/w640-h634/2014+lullingstone+pawprint+CG20140905070-Edit.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Pawprints in tile, Lullingstone Roman Villa. Photo: </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span>© Caroline Gill</span><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Almost ten years later I was able to visit the <a href="https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/archive/pompeii-ad79-2"><i>Pompeii AD79</i></a> exhibition at the Royal Academy in London, this time on a secondary school trip. I had not studied any Latin at that point, but I knew about the '<a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/miscellanea/canes/molossian.html">CAVE CANEM</a>'/'Beware of the dog' mosaics, such as the one (with these words) at the entrance to the <a href="http://pompeiisites.org/en/archaeological-site/house-of-the-tragic-poet/">House of the Tragic Poet in Pompeii</a> shown below, or the <a href="http://ashestales.blogspot.com/2012/11/orpheus-and-dog.html">guard dog mosaic</a> (without words) </span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><span class="dcr-1f2y4fi">from the House of Orpheus</span>. </span></span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span> </span></span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-OsBpKWlBwkdxuYtlmUZPJr1-4Qi795lg0ILoXbo02C7m7RkvSCafBtgDyGjc70_2qmpfAEfwQLDsGULxaOBQTk2quB2VQfafsRDs840_1tBjHOggXR2rpYbYRrIthT7G2vrHGnF9yMo/s2048/cave+canem+pompeii.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1376" data-original-width="2048" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-OsBpKWlBwkdxuYtlmUZPJr1-4Qi795lg0ILoXbo02C7m7RkvSCafBtgDyGjc70_2qmpfAEfwQLDsGULxaOBQTk2quB2VQfafsRDs840_1tBjHOggXR2rpYbYRrIthT7G2vrHGnF9yMo/w640-h430/cave+canem+pompeii.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">'CAVE CANEM' mosaic, Pompeii. Photo: </span><span><span style="font-size: small;">© David Gill</span><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table> </span></span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>I went on to study aspects of Pompeii and Herculaneum at university, but it was not until our year (1985-6) in Rome that I was able to see these sites for myself. <br /></span></span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span>Let's turn to the first question. </span></span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">[<span style="background-color: #01ffff;">Q1</span>] <i>Is this poem based on a specific individual part, or on parts of Pompeii that fascinate you and have been combined? </i></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">My 'Roman dog encounters' mentioned above comprise one of several strands that unfurled as I studied (and went on to teach) aspects of classical civilisation, bringing the ancient world to life in my mind's eye. I mention 'life' and yet, of course, when it comes to the devastation caused by the volcanic eruption, we are talking 'death', a fact reflected in the title of the 2013 British Museum exhibition, <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/pompeii-live">Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum</a>. </span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">'Wildfire' was not especially based around memories of particular areas or aspects of the archaeological sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum; although, almost inevitably, some features* struck me, or pulled at a proverbial heart-string, more than others. Who would not be affected by the small details (a <a href="https://blog.britishmuseum.org/making-2000-year-old-roman-bread/">loaf of bread</a>, for instance, left to smoulder in an oven in Herculaneum) that make the tragedy seem real to those of us who were not there as eye witnesses? </span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguYszCUlmnn4utK931tQnuGSKu7ZJThpRHfjigmRDCyT69HY52_dLEzrRxNdUjePEMrdbhyphenhyphen7l9OqsfuW16giOKUsziMucoMhGmfe60ozwpkYw8N4uoxKRcvXj4bBMdyGkxX5pHoM-igFk/s884/david+herculaneum.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="884" data-original-width="882" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguYszCUlmnn4utK931tQnuGSKu7ZJThpRHfjigmRDCyT69HY52_dLEzrRxNdUjePEMrdbhyphenhyphen7l9OqsfuW16giOKUsziMucoMhGmfe60ozwpkYw8N4uoxKRcvXj4bBMdyGkxX5pHoM-igFk/w399-h400/david+herculaneum.jpg" width="399" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">David (Gill) in Herculaneum. <span><span><span><span><span>Photo: </span><span><span>© Caroline Gill</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I have visited <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-51904810">Eyam</a> in Derbyshire where plague victims cut themselves off from surrounding villages in order to contain the disease. </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I have explored the remains of Scottish villages that were <a href="https://www.isleofskye.com/skye-guide/top-ten-skye-walks/boreraig">abandoned</a> during the Clearances (my poem, 'The Ceilidh House' on p.16 alludes to this). </span>Stones, graves and broken walls can tell a powerful tale, and sometimes these features are all we have to go on. </span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">But Pompeii and Herculaneum are different. We are, for example, confronted with the reality of normal aspects of life, including shopping (the Market of Macellum, a <a href="http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/pompeii-thermopolium-09193.html">fast-food counter</a> ...), art in the form of <a href="http://www.electrummagazine.com/2015/12/the-gardens-of-pompeii-as-a-roman-legacy/">wall paintings</a> and mosaics, garden features and so much more. It is as if the inhabitants have just gone out for a short while, leaving their stone guard dogs at the ready. </span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">And yet it is not <i>at all</i> like that. I find I only have only to stare at the <a href="http://pompeiisites.org/en/pompeii-map/analysis/the-casts/">plaster casts</a> made from the remains of the people (see <a href="https://pompeiiinpictures.com/pompeiiinpictures/Casts/victims%20bracciale.htm">here</a>; and also top right on this blog page for a photo of a figure, head in hands) and their animals (<a href="https://bomv.commons.gc.cuny.edu/pompeii-dog/">dog</a>, boar or <a href="https://imperiumromanum.pl/en/curiosities/body-cast-of-pig-in-pompeii/">pig</a>, and <a href="http://pompeiisites.org/en/press-kit-en/intact-cast-of-a-horse-created-for-the-first-time-at-pompeii/">horse</a>) to begin to sense something of the horror. </span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">[<span style="background-color: #01ffff;">Q2</span>] <i>Is your repetitive use of 'I wonder who will live and who has died' something that interests you?</i></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">[<span style="background-color: #01ffff;">Q3</span>] <i><span>What
is your process in writing poetry? You appear to write many different
types of poems. How did you land on the format of each poem?</span></i></span></div></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I am taking these two questions together, and will attempt to answer </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">[<span style="background-color: #01ffff;">Q3</span>], at least in part, in relation to </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">[<span style="background-color: #01ffff;">Q2</span>]. </span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">One of the exciting aspects of my poetry journey to date has been exploring the different ways in which 'form' and 'craft' can shape a poem, whether by 'form' I mean something named and specific like the Sestina, and my collection includes one of these ('The Figure at the Phoenix Mine', p.22); or something less precise, perhaps like an unrhymed couplet. </span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The craft of poetry can be applied in numerous ways, some more tangible (the acrostic in an acrostic poem perhaps, like 'Et in terra pax', p.14), and some more subtle (for example, the deployment of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sound_symbolism">sound-symbolism</a> or <a href="https://www.dailywritingtips.com/75-contronyms-words-with-contradictory-meanings/">contronyms</a>). I was delighted <a href="https://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2012/01/publication-pointer-2-book-of-forms-4th.html">back in 2012</a> to have three sample 'form poems' (a <i>folding-mirror</i>, a <i>clang</i> and a <i>bref double with echo</i>) included in <i>T<a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/B/bo44893228.html">he Book of Forms including Odd and Invented Forms</a></i> by Lewis Putnam Turco (UPNE 2012). <br /></span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Let's turn more specifically to 'Wildfire'. This poem was written during the pandemic; it was not intended to be a 'happy' poem. Poets use the currency of metaphor and sustained metaphor. How much of my poem was actually about the eruption of Vesuvius in AD79? This is a question I continue to ask myself. </span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">What I knew from the outset was that I wanted the reinforcement that repetition would afford. 'Wildfire' is a villanelle (think: 'Do not go gentle into that good night' by Dylan Thomas). The form, allowing for only two rhyme sounds throughout, and the 'pared-back' nature of my theme seemed complementary. </span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Maria, you highlight my line, <i>'</i></span></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>I wonder who will live and who has died</i></span>'. Images of those 103 heart-wrenching <a href="https://www.archaeology.org/slideshow/3928-casts-of-pompeii-slideshow">plaster casts</a> (the child, the man crawling along the ground ...) were rarely far away, but I was also trying to understand what was behind the words written to Tacitus by Pliny the Younger, whose account of the eruption was discovered, or recovered, in the 16th century. Hence the epigraph at the top of my poem. </span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I tried to absorb the text of the letter in translation and attempted <i>to imagine what it might have been like</i> not only for the Younger Pliny, but also for other <a href="https://www.pompeiitours.it/blog/did-anyone-survive-in-pompeii/">survivors</a> such as </span></span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2019/02/19/archaeologist-finds-new-evidence-of-the-romans-who-escaped-mt-vesuvius/?sh=1bab16264d81"><span class="ILfuVd"><span class="hgKElc">Cornelius Fuscus</span></span></a>. Some of those who escaped asphyxiation from the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mount-vesuvius-boiled-its-victims-blood-and-caused-their-skulls-explode-180970504/">pyroclastic flow</a> at Herculaneum probably left by ship almost as soon as they became aware of the danger. </span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">At the time of writing (my records state I began to draft 'Wildfire' on 20 April 2020), I had been in lockdown for some weeks. My outlook was changing, and perhaps that was partly why the subject for this villanelle came to me at that particular moment of flux. People we knew were beginning to catch Covid. There was fear in the air and the virus seemed close at hand. </span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I was delighted when Susan Jane Sims of <a href="https://www.poetryspace.co.uk/">Poetry Space</a> accepted the poem for her anthology,<i> </i></span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.poetryspace.co.uk/2020/11/locked-down/">Locked Down: poems, diaries and art from the 2020 pandemic</a></span></i><span style="font-weight: normal;">, and I was able to read it at one of her online launches. </span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">So much of our knowledge concerning Pompeii and Herculaneum has arisen, phoenix-fashion, from the ashes of civilisation. Thank you, Maria, for your questions; I am left wondering what the current pandemic will teach future generations about the society in which we find ourselves. </span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #800180;">* * * </span><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">* <span style="font-size: small;">A few favourites ...</span></span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Pompeii (<a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sands-of-time-reveal-treasures-left-behind-from-fury-of-vesuvius-c03z5lxkl">discovery and research continue</a>):</span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the spacious House of the Faun, with its mosaic of a <a href="https://mannapoli.it/en/mosaici-2/">Nilotic scene</a>, displaying a crocodile, a hippo, a snake and various ducks. The mosaic is housed in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli.</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21897925">fresco</a> of Terentius Neo, a baker, and his wife, who holds a writing stylus to her lips and a wax writing tablet in her right hand. I would love to know what she had written or was about to write ... </span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Fresco of garden scenes from the the north wall of the <a href="http://pompeiisites.org/en/archaeological-site/house-of-marcus-fabius-rufus-and-the-golden-bracelet/">House of the Golden Bracelet</a>. I am reminded of William Morris and his 'Strawberry Thief' design ...</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">a street with raised stepping stones to allow pedestrians to cross in safety, while allowing access for carts (see my photo below). <br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></li></ul><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPC256mh_P7D0hObCWU4jVbJ0hG43JMsIngKhEN18hg5cOaF8OjaQIedOZ_nsleJbHBHOLV3GPHm0eul7NjiitMuAbe_pu5rClISrknse1Mh3fD3Xqb6dPnsALoRz0iguUa_OkR-UKQdE/s1197/pompeii+carriage+block.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1197" data-original-width="1127" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPC256mh_P7D0hObCWU4jVbJ0hG43JMsIngKhEN18hg5cOaF8OjaQIedOZ_nsleJbHBHOLV3GPHm0eul7NjiitMuAbe_pu5rClISrknse1Mh3fD3Xqb6dPnsALoRz0iguUa_OkR-UKQdE/w603-h640/pompeii+carriage+block.jpg" width="603" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">February 1986. <span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><span>Photo: </span><span><span>© Caroline Gill</span></span></span></span></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></span></span></div></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Herculaneum:</span></span></span><ul><li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the artistic depictions of <a href="http://clairecox.org/italy2006_4/20060303-120316.htm">octopus and dolphins</a> at one end of the black and white mosaic of the Triton (who bears what seems to be an oar) from the women's section of the Central Baths on Cardo IV.</span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">the Villa of Papyri, with its <a href="https://www.herculaneum.ox.ac.uk/about-us/piglet">bronze piglet</a>. I gather this villa was owned by </span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095543637">Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus</a>, the father in law of Julius Caesar. </span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">the streets, which seem so real. Some of the adjacent buildings have a second storey. </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></li></ul></div><div style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVbNeZw4lknWxUT_veBmQAk0cLFmbt9i1YQsA1GStYb6HPD9-xRDwpsl1C426TSQi1THd4gKkFU1gfz70YQMV_yvzlJFbV0Q-5_WhKbjnO5vp49Nv6Dj1eBcQ5ebIg5tK4kWJCeYYnjQw/s1174/street+scene+herculaneum.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1174" data-original-width="1125" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVbNeZw4lknWxUT_veBmQAk0cLFmbt9i1YQsA1GStYb6HPD9-xRDwpsl1C426TSQi1THd4gKkFU1gfz70YQMV_yvzlJFbV0Q-5_WhKbjnO5vp49Nv6Dj1eBcQ5ebIg5tK4kWJCeYYnjQw/w613-h640/street+scene+herculaneum.jpg" width="613" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span><span>Photo: </span><span><span>© Caroline Gill</span></span></span></span></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span> <br /></span></div></div>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-40312159350440445562021-08-09T15:12:00.004+01:002021-08-09T15:22:49.737+01:00DRIFTWOOD BY STARLIGHT: Questions from Maria Lloyd (1)<p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnZ-QepEr-y1jpQBURrhZCw_O3s2LWH8lxHGbxNEArPl8bIPKBSTUmJWHSLW29J4KYze_Oj2nkjwjJkdgQi_MonrGie0YO8FMcmkArJ9rI6kejk7CrJPNZ9G1tUcgPsaJpLscjpifXJ3k/s876/cover+driftwood+publicity+copy%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="876" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnZ-QepEr-y1jpQBURrhZCw_O3s2LWH8lxHGbxNEArPl8bIPKBSTUmJWHSLW29J4KYze_Oj2nkjwjJkdgQi_MonrGie0YO8FMcmkArJ9rI6kejk7CrJPNZ9G1tUcgPsaJpLscjpifXJ3k/w640-h448/cover+driftwood+publicity+copy%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill"><i>Driftwood by Starlight</i></a>, my first full poetry collection, was <a href="https://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2021/08/driftwood-by-starlight-online-launch.html">launched online</a> on Tuesday 3 August. The book was published in June 2021 by Peter Thabit Jones of The Seventh Quarry Press. It can be purchased from the publisher's online shop <b><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill">here</a></span></b>. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.mariateresalloyd.com/my-story/">Maria Lloyd</a>, who holds a Masters degree on The City of Rome from the <a href="https://www.reading.ac.uk/about.aspx">University of Reading</a>, read the collection and decided to set me some questions about it. I shall attempt to provide some answers (without giving too much away ...) over the course of the next few posts. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Thank you, Maria. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This first post concerns my poem '<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Monte Testaccio, Mound of Potsherds</span>' on p.35. As I mentioned at the launch, this particular poem is intended to be something of a flight of fancy. <br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Let's hear from Maria on the subject of </span><span style="font-size: medium;">Monte Testaccio ...<br /></span></span></p><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"><ul style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span>I love your use of words associated with cats; 'prowl' 'flick' 'flit', the idea that cats prefer the rich.</span></i></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><span>Your use of ancient figures and terms is interesting: Antony, Cleopatra, bread and circuses.</span></i></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>[<span style="background-color: #01ffff;">Q1</span>] Can you explain paragraph 3 'fur shivering through you'?</i></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>[<span style="background-color: #01ffff;">Q2</span>] Can you explain: 'Testaccio reeks of centuries which nothing went to waste'?</i></span></span></li></ul></div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Thank you, Maria, and before I attempt to answer the questions you pose, I would like to offer a little background information. </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><a href="https://research.kent.ac.uk/heritage/person/david-gill/">David (Gill</a>), my archaeologist husband, was a <a href="https://www.bsr.ac.uk/awards/humanities-awards">Rome Scholar</a> at the <a href="https://www.bsr.ac.uk/about">British School at Rome</a> in the mid-1980s. We had recently married and were to spend that year living in the School, where I washed bones and sherds of pottery in my spare time. By then I had taught Classical Civilisation A Level in two different school settings in the UK and had gained a qualification in the teaching of English as a Foreign Language (RSA TEFL). I believe this qualification is now known as a </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span>Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults or CELTA. </span> </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>I was fascinated by the Ostiense area around the <a href="https://mapcarta.com/28375942">Piramide</a> Metro station in Rome. My eyes were immediately drawn to the imposing pyramid tomb of <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Italy/Lazio/Roma/Rome/_Texts/PLATOP*/Sepulcrum_C.Cestii.html">Caius Cestius</a>. You can read more about the tomb <a href="http://omeka.wellesley.edu/piranesi-rome/exhibits/show/pyramidgc/gaius-cestius">here</a>. </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5_jKajFAx0A1nPVPJXofYcKtCx8oa-y5mVH-u3SahBvgnn7m_6797t18lJiJYHex5eU1p_d_X9LJUokg8X0IbscyobeK8m-g9HPtgpCAhkB1XRH30dskFULfeyI1lSt-yyz_DDfOHTkM/s2048/Cestius+pyramid.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5_jKajFAx0A1nPVPJXofYcKtCx8oa-y5mVH-u3SahBvgnn7m_6797t18lJiJYHex5eU1p_d_X9LJUokg8X0IbscyobeK8m-g9HPtgpCAhkB1XRH30dskFULfeyI1lSt-yyz_DDfOHTkM/w640-h426/Cestius+pyramid.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Pyramid tomb of Gaius Cestius, Rome. Photo credit: </span><span><span style="font-family: verdana;">© David Gill</span><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>The </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>'<a href="https://www.cemeteryrome.it/graves/notable.html">Non-Catholic Cemetery for Foreigners in Testaccio, Rome</a>' was nearby. It contains a memorial stone to Keats, who died from TB at the young age of 25. </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQokOH0dmFfyVSRUBiWfqmx59DKMfcboDuRgDaGlWKH5hgUIpD_XmbKbHvpGEfIdDojD5RuGHQoen5A_BehE5ZBanftdhQIfOV6Y4wKvXlzQfLUCha1sSxYM8sVgShfNVeMr3jmCzQLNo/s2048/keats+grave+lyre.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1365" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQokOH0dmFfyVSRUBiWfqmx59DKMfcboDuRgDaGlWKH5hgUIpD_XmbKbHvpGEfIdDojD5RuGHQoen5A_BehE5ZBanftdhQIfOV6Y4wKvXlzQfLUCha1sSxYM8sVgShfNVeMr3jmCzQLNo/w426-h640/keats+grave+lyre.jpg" width="426" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Memorial to Keats, Rome. Photo credit: <span>© </span>David Gill</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>It has been documented that the poet wanted the words you see above as his epitaph: '<i>Here lies one whose name was writ in water</i>'.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtxdFzex2ir_j1Cashd0KSP2pDq6ndj-N1QzlNnmuPV3L9KsnMMEcdjSUGinPnsy-Mca6wrdhYoOqWYQyOdurhFMljNjaa92yqj-opDVhzQyn6xbswygVeWQor83qKka7PRWFOxooZId0/s2048/Keats+writ+in+water.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtxdFzex2ir_j1Cashd0KSP2pDq6ndj-N1QzlNnmuPV3L9KsnMMEcdjSUGinPnsy-Mca6wrdhYoOqWYQyOdurhFMljNjaa92yqj-opDVhzQyn6xbswygVeWQor83qKka7PRWFOxooZId0/w640-h426/Keats+writ+in+water.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Memorial stones to Keats (left) and his friend, Severn (right). Photo credit: <span>© </span>David Gill</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1HJtN23jgucaJ4bPaxnryZuFbhDgsd3xpGzfb7dj6dJFqLTHXq1SrULtgOw8G4RpAA4SBjoraxJdSA2YbBLTndwP7EnbwoIhD4yc9jqH0OmvDwF_QcMBMlhgUaykP0xC8YglmCF5IY1g/s2048/keats+shelley+grave+cemetery.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1368" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1HJtN23jgucaJ4bPaxnryZuFbhDgsd3xpGzfb7dj6dJFqLTHXq1SrULtgOw8G4RpAA4SBjoraxJdSA2YbBLTndwP7EnbwoIhD4yc9jqH0OmvDwF_QcMBMlhgUaykP0xC8YglmCF5IY1g/w428-h640/keats+shelley+grave+cemetery.jpg" width="428" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">John Keats memorial plaque, Rome. </span></span><span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><span style="font-size: small;">Photo credit:</span> <span>© </span>David Gill</span></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpTGZYtwryk5ufLe1GlrA6bXLLBd5VkJfQA2S0QMlgKc1-ZQY2bvTQCnaWCNLkHUoe7U0wvqkP4Rsrx9NtHBy_i1ALZZVbVymayNBpYm4ApSoHQv87GlxOS4KWMWzaROKHGec9JAsG7gc/s2048/wording+keats+plaque.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1256" data-original-width="2048" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpTGZYtwryk5ufLe1GlrA6bXLLBd5VkJfQA2S0QMlgKc1-ZQY2bvTQCnaWCNLkHUoe7U0wvqkP4Rsrx9NtHBy_i1ALZZVbVymayNBpYm4ApSoHQv87GlxOS4KWMWzaROKHGec9JAsG7gc/w640-h392/wording+keats+plaque.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Acrostic verse on the Keats memorial plaque, Rome. <span><span><span><span><span>Photo credit: <span>© </span>David Gill</span></span></span></span></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>There is also a memorial tablet to Shelley, who drowned in a shipwreck off the Italian coast at the age of 29.<span itemprop="description"></span> The tablet bears the famous 'sea-change' line from <i>The Tempest</i>.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8oAtt2_CcntylrT-24Rua_yBsrKrB8dlzbX71jP0Gdrx6W6ZfSONmIbCQvAhJr1yvBYz1cCr30hu3BCBqyYNn-tYPQWw3OeCw7F58JVBms6bX9EKv4SFlgg9VsPcb6u4gFtq8VInWx1s/s2048/shelley+grave+rome.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1867" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8oAtt2_CcntylrT-24Rua_yBsrKrB8dlzbX71jP0Gdrx6W6ZfSONmIbCQvAhJr1yvBYz1cCr30hu3BCBqyYNn-tYPQWw3OeCw7F58JVBms6bX9EKv4SFlgg9VsPcb6u4gFtq8VInWx1s/w584-h640/shelley+grave+rome.jpg" width="584" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Memorial stone to Shelley, Rome. Photo credit: <span>© </span>David Gill</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>It is a well-known fact that Shelley's heart failed to burn when his body was washed ashore and 'cremated'; Mary Shelley kept his heart, which was found among her possessions after her death. Edward John Trelawny, who also gets a mention in my poem, was an author friend of Shelley's. Trelawny was able to identify the body of his friend on the beach.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span> </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span></span></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTlmVi2CHnR8lMsV5Gbh4uDvEHzczpECnQwXkvvzfrcc4ONorlP148XJ9RMdB16XxmFOqgN_Ff6mByj9jcJUCLtkjNBCJHLAIQ-Eu1OgJ-W6gFGL5VSWCwHw7OfHTceGLeEEWMfpbuJ8g/s2048/Trelawny.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1725" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTlmVi2CHnR8lMsV5Gbh4uDvEHzczpECnQwXkvvzfrcc4ONorlP148XJ9RMdB16XxmFOqgN_Ff6mByj9jcJUCLtkjNBCJHLAIQ-Eu1OgJ-W6gFGL5VSWCwHw7OfHTceGLeEEWMfpbuJ8g/w540-h640/Trelawny.jpg" width="540" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Tombstone of Edward J. Telawny, Rome. <span>Photo credit: </span><span><span>© David Gill</span></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span></span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>There were often a lot of colourful cats in the area around Piramide Metro Station. </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span><span>It was some time before we realised that there was <a href="https://theculturetrip.com/europe/italy/articles/this-roman-cemetery-is-home-to-literary-icons-and-groups-of-cats/">special provision for stray cats</a> nearby. My reference to 'bread and circuses' was perhaps in part due to the <i>free hand-outs</i> the cats were receiving. It was, of course, also a nod to the satirist and poet Juvenal, who evoked Roman life so vividly (Juvenal, <i>Satires</i>, X. 70-81. <a href="https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Sixteen-Satires-by-Juvenal-Peter-Green/9780140447040">Penguin</a> translation here). <br /></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>As a cat-lover, I have often observed how felines have a way of whiskering their way into unexpected places. A couple of the Testaccio ones sneaked into my poem. <br /></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Let's turn to </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><i>[<span style="background-color: #01ffff;">Q1</span>]</i> which concerns the lines in my poem that run as follows;</span></span></span></p><p style="margin-left: 200px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #800180;"><i><span><span>Can you feel the fur </span></span></i></span></span></span></p><p style="margin-left: 200px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #800180;"><i><span><span>that shivers through you silently ... </span></span></i></span></span></span></p><p style="margin-left: 200px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><i><span style="color: #800180;">along those Tiber tales?</span> </i></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Those who live alongside cats will doubtless have noticed not only the occasional twitching, but also the rippling of fur, perhaps while the feline appears to be dreaming. When this rippling occurred in one of our cats, I sometimes wondered what was actually going on in her head. </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Science (see <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2001/dreaming">here</a> for example) may offer its own answers to the question of animals and their ability to dream, but those who care for feral cats in Tel Aviv (see <a href="https://telavivsferalcats.home.blog/2020/01/11/what-do-cats-dream-about/">here</a>) are of the opinion that cats do indeed dream, at least in certain phases of their sleep. I included the word 'Tiber' here since nearby Ponte Testaccio arches over the river. I also sensed a certain alliterative resonance between the river's name and the word 'tabby', which does not appear in the poem in an overt way. Curiously, some websites suggest that one of Queen Cleopatra's favourite cats was named 'Tivali', which would resonate pleasingly with 'Tevere', the Italian word for the Tiber (please let me know if you can verify this with a more reliable source). <br /></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhveZN35yaYpieArE8Gn8oCNGV_GB4qfe3Qky7OGUWAl9bUDuS-edIC06FYluG0aWTp_1-VUBKKjF1ncBCmzO0sq__2209NWkpOD97G6a1CEE-fpc1KlIcs2ziq1bMUtcbJ6tzaQAprU8/s720/cats+piramide.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="611" data-original-width="720" height="542" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhveZN35yaYpieArE8Gn8oCNGV_GB4qfe3Qky7OGUWAl9bUDuS-edIC06FYluG0aWTp_1-VUBKKjF1ncBCmzO0sq__2209NWkpOD97G6a1CEE-fpc1KlIcs2ziq1bMUtcbJ6tzaQAprU8/w640-h542/cats+piramide.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">Members of the feral cat colony. Photo: </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span><span>© </span></span>Caroline Gill (1985)</span></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>The cemetery lies in the lee of a strange mound, known as Monte Testaccio. This mound is approximately 46 metres tall and is composed of amphora sherds. This fact is reflected in the name since 'testo' (Latin) and 'cocci' (Italian) both mean 'potsherd'. I check myself here on the grounds that 'sherd' and its alternative, '<a href="https://magmapoetry.com/old-words/comment-page-1/">shard</a>', are considered words to avoid in modern poetry. However, and in my own defence, I only use the word 'Potsherds' in my translation of a proper noun in Italian! </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>I will now attempt to answer </span></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><i>[<span style="background-color: #01ffff;">Q2</span>] (see above)</i>. </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiELv31TUVrxlCgDpTK7obaHv_ibFIe31h2afi59eEXzwn6mnhHnjrkXWQiQ0bStoFLbxXSSz_9XTdIt0SHq0r9gf7mjDGbQJDYUf9IIGmvZafikGX72RT0ZByvzN-RzR4-PvtPuHRVQjg/s2048/testaccio.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiELv31TUVrxlCgDpTK7obaHv_ibFIe31h2afi59eEXzwn6mnhHnjrkXWQiQ0bStoFLbxXSSz_9XTdIt0SHq0r9gf7mjDGbQJDYUf9IIGmvZafikGX72RT0ZByvzN-RzR4-PvtPuHRVQjg/w640-h426/testaccio.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Monte Testaccio (in the background), Rome. <span><span><span>Photo credit: <span>© </span>David Gill</span></span></span></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span><span>Why I included the word 'reeks' ... </span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span><span>We think immediately of synonyms such as 'smells' or 'stinks'. The word we know as '<a href="http://www.word-detective.com/2012/10/reeks/">reek</a>' has an interesting etymology, linked to the Old Irish word, 'cruach', which leads on to the more familiar 'rick' (think: hayrick), implying a pile, mound, stack or stook. <br /></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Monte Testaccio, as I have mentioned, is composed of stack on stack of cast-aside amphorae. Most if not all of these clay vessels would have contained olive oil, surely one of the purest kinds of food imaginable. 'Purest', that is, until it turns rancid. Olive oil was not only a significant part of the Roman diet; it was also a useful commodity in terms, for example, of lighting and medicine. </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>I was perhaps influenced at the time of writing (and this poem was first published way back in 2003) by an increased awareness of the growing practice of 'taking things to the tip' or civic amenity site, with its mountains of landfill waste and accompanying odours. By this time I would have encountered the <a href="http://web.stanford.edu/group/archaeolog/GarbologyOnline/files/63674.pdf">Tucson Garbage Project</a> through conversations at the British School in Rome and through reports. My pot-washing activity in the 'Camerone' (a spacious archaeology room) at the School may not have been particularly challenging in terms of smell, but the water could look pretty grimy with washed-off sediment! </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>
</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Perhaps at
this point I should mention ‘garum’, the famous fish sauce, a popular and
pungent part of Roman cuisine. There is a link </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">here</span></a><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> to an
article attributed to Jason Daley on the Smithsonian website about it (and its presence
in Israel). </span></span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">It seems unlikely, at least from my reading on the subject,
that amphorae containing garum were placed on the Testaccio mound. However, I
find it interesting that </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Dr Elizabeth Bartman</span></a><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> (of the archaeo-culinary Elifant
Tours) specifically mentions potsherds found on Testaccio from Baetica, in what
we would know as the south of Spain, 'most with olive-oil residues but </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">some with traces of fish</span></a><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">'.</span></span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Professor
Amanda Claridge, who was Deputy Director of the British School at Rome during
our year as residents, seems less convinced, however, that there is evidence for amphorae containing garum on the Testaccio site. In her book, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/rome-9780199546831?lang=en&cc=gb"><i>Rome</i></a>
[1998] in the Oxford Archaeological Guides series, she asserts on p.367 that
the <a href="https://talesoftimesforgotten.com/2021/04/10/monte-testaccio-a-literal-mountain-of-ancient-roman-trash/">surface of the mound</a> ‘consists almost entirely of olive oil amphoras’,
dating from 144 AD (with the exception of a slightly earlier sherd) to the
middle of the third century. Professor Claridge points out that 'a core of
older material must lie deeper in the hill'. Who knows what may yet come to light. <br /></span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">An article, <i>'</i></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="color: blue; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Trash Talk</span></i></a><i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">'</span></i><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> (Jarrett A. Lobell), in <i>Archaeology</i>,<i> </i>seems
to suggest that there is currently no evidence for a (separate) mound anywhere
in Rome comprising amphorae filled with garum. Professor Claridge indicates
that there is scope for further study since commodities other than 'oil
amphoras' must have 'passed through the port' of Rome. </span></span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span face=""Verdana",sans-serif" style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">And finally we come to the last line of my poem. I
decided to stick with the traditional form of the word 'perfect' in relation to
feline taste (culinary and otherwise); but I can't say I wasn't tempted to
insert an 'urr' in place of the more conventional 'er' spelling!</span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
</span></span><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;</style> </span></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>*<br /></span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Also consulted: David Peacock and D. F. Williams <i>Amphorae and the Roman Economy: An Introductory Guide</i> (Longman 1986). </span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My thanks to </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.mariateresalloyd.com/my-story/">Maria Lloyd</a> </span></span>for setting me this task. <br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The next post in this mini-series concerns my poem, </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="-moz-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">'Wildfire</span>', on p.31 of <a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill"><i>Driftwood by Starlight</i></a>. </span><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><br /></p>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3004618104437304826.post-75062299995000443262021-08-03T13:06:00.104+01:002021-08-04T18:53:36.946+01:00'Driftwood by Starlight' Online Launch<div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiM7ToBXvonCextC1ed5TeD3VAVGqO-6Wt2F_U4IlHkl69hm2PmQVTrRsjXB8_0EeQhmHA04H8XVUUWEDxcZmxdkkLP3ZolC099uxusrlQCBXWBTjrywcgpHl2kInvnATmMRvhXp-y_zg/s2048/driftwood+IMG_6951-Edit.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1780" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiM7ToBXvonCextC1ed5TeD3VAVGqO-6Wt2F_U4IlHkl69hm2PmQVTrRsjXB8_0EeQhmHA04H8XVUUWEDxcZmxdkkLP3ZolC099uxusrlQCBXWBTjrywcgpHl2kInvnATmMRvhXp-y_zg/w556-h640/driftwood+IMG_6951-Edit.jpg" width="556" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Tin-mining country, Minions Moor, Cornwall </span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">My first full length poetry collection, <a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill"><b><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3;"><i>Driftwood by Starlight</i></span></b></a> (The Seventh Quarry Press, June 2021), is being launched via Zoom this evening, Tuesday 3 August 2021. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i>Driftwood by Starlight</i> can be purchased for £6.99 (UK price) from the online shop at The Seventh Quarry Press website - <a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/driftwood-by-starlight-by-english-poet-caroline-gill">here</a>. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqCSjbSjDwgDx14wb9Nrs2pQaALc95_9mhFe7UmbV48lItg8iA1s_5bdpltOsXd-kJPCsXgLYPkJxxa3YiPEu3zVrInyi1giAALE8S0L2v7HI2Mg12MAxBUn__HTqBHfXwWI-GaLBhVRQ/s920/Image+launch.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="920" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqCSjbSjDwgDx14wb9Nrs2pQaALc95_9mhFe7UmbV48lItg8iA1s_5bdpltOsXd-kJPCsXgLYPkJxxa3YiPEu3zVrInyi1giAALE8S0L2v7HI2Mg12MAxBUn__HTqBHfXwWI-GaLBhVRQ/w640-h476/Image+launch.png" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><a href="https://www.peterthabitjones.com/en/">Peter Thabit Jones</a>, my publisher, will introduce <a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/pages/welcome">The Seventh Quarry Press</a>. I have invited Peter to read one of his 'Edward Thomas' poems in the first half. </span><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span>I will read a selection of poems (East Anglia, Wales, Cornwall ...) from the book. Guest readers, <a href="https://www.susanrichardsonwriter.co.uk/">Susan Richarson</a> and <a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/the-familiar-road-by-jean-salkilld-2016">Jean Salkilld</a>, will each read one of their poems. <a href="https://heritagefutures.wordpress.com/">David (Gill</a>) will also read one of his poems. <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span>Jean's collection, <b><a href="https://seventhquarrypress.com/products/the-familiar-road-by-jean-salkilld-2016"><i>The Familiar Road</i></a></b>, was published by The Seventh Quarry Press in 2016. (The Suffolk poem Jean is due to read is not actually in this collection.)</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><a href="https://www.susanrichardsonwriter.co.uk/">Susan Richardson</a>'s poem comes from <a href="https://www.susanrichardsonwriter.co.uk/poet/words-turtle-taught/"><b><i>Words the Turtle Taught Me</i></b></a> (Cinnamon Press, 2018), shortlisted for the <a href="https://poetrysociety.org.uk/competitions/ted-hughes-award/">Ted Hughes Award</a>. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span>My thanks to photographer, <a href="https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/contributors/laurence-hartwell">Laurence Hartwell</a>, for his night-time photograph of Cadgwith on the front cover.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span>Thank you also to <a href="https://reading.academia.edu/MariaLloyd">Maria Lloyd</a> whose questions about the collection will appear in a future post on <a href="http://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/">my blog</a> ... with my answers! </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span>Update, 4 Aug 2021: my sincere thanks to Juliet Wilson who has posted a review on her Crafty Green Poet blog <a href="http://craftygreenpoet.blogspot.com/2021/08/driftwood-by-starlight-by-caroline-gill.html">here</a>. <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPszSPLpLC7QPzU65gcEvfMTfjv5qSEbW3gs0xoPwGEOmdr0Ybv-IUdZO_W4iW4yKTGS48UKosT4_kxPAVqHg2IKgWQNweacmK6tPFPevK4bz16pia17Hr2Weuc0BnxZitlTbVd5HBVdI/s1181/cover+driftwood+card.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1181" data-original-width="839" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPszSPLpLC7QPzU65gcEvfMTfjv5qSEbW3gs0xoPwGEOmdr0Ybv-IUdZO_W4iW4yKTGS48UKosT4_kxPAVqHg2IKgWQNweacmK6tPFPevK4bz16pia17Hr2Weuc0BnxZitlTbVd5HBVdI/w454-h640/cover+driftwood+card.jpg" width="454" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span><br /> </span></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">My poems included in the online launch:</span></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Serpentine Stile, p.9<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Zennor Voices, p.19</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Preseli Blue, p.37</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Monte Testaccio, Mound of Potsherds, p.35</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Treasure Hulk p.36 (For interest: the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/feb/08/the-great-british-art-tour-aldeburgh-scallop">Scallop</a> can be seen here.)<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Ocean's Tears, p.24</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Isabella Tiger Moth Greets the Woolly Bear Caterpillar, p.34</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Two Penguins and a Pebble, p.44</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Ceilidh House, p.16</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Rhossili: Writing The Worm (extracts), p.38</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Moonshine, p.27 <br /></span></li></ul></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span><div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> I refer to my two 'Edward Thomas' tribute poems. These are:</span></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Lost, p.12</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Dunwich in Winter, p.14</span></li></ul><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">My poem, 'Rhossili: Writing The Worm', was first published in <a href="https://www.gwales.com/goto/biblio/en/9781902638393/">Hidden Dragons/Gwir a Grymus</a> (Parthian Books, 2004) after I had taken part in The Write Stuff, a <a href="https://disabilityarts.cymru/">Disability Arts Cymru</a> initiative. I attended launches at the Hay Festival, Ty Llyn/The Dyan Thomas Centre and the National Botanic garden of Wales. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI1wND7mmPjWHV82Y5567vhhZR1PjDOP6AMkz4tu-atjo41Wo7JyZa3WVgvjeCP6O8Wpzqb-4B_IlT7jqlhd4SGJ_WZnuwYbGBeDyRlFH9N46ovwOZTeAS-gGEquKMrkWUlR0u_2ZmADM/s824/hay+festival+DCP_3184-Edit.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="666" data-original-width="824" height="518" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI1wND7mmPjWHV82Y5567vhhZR1PjDOP6AMkz4tu-atjo41Wo7JyZa3WVgvjeCP6O8Wpzqb-4B_IlT7jqlhd4SGJ_WZnuwYbGBeDyRlFH9N46ovwOZTeAS-gGEquKMrkWUlR0u_2ZmADM/w640-h518/hay+festival+DCP_3184-Edit.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">'Hidden Dragons/Gwir a Grymus' (Parthian Books) launch at the Hay Festival, 2004</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> I have invited ...</span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.peterthabitjones.com/en/"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Peter Thabit Jones</span></a> to read his poem, 'The Edward Thomas Stone in Steep' from Peter's new book, <i>GARDEN OF CLOUDS New and Selected Poems</i>. You can read about it and buy a copy <a href="https://www.spdbooks.org/Products/9780893042363/garden-of-clouds.aspx">here</a>. There are some sample poems <a href="https://www.spdbooks.org/Author/Default.aspx?AuthorId=1189">here</a> and <a href="http://creativewritingatleicester.blogspot.com/2020/12/peter-thabit-jones-garden-of-clouds-new.html">here</a>. <br /></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Jean Salkilld</span> to read her poem, 'At Saint Edmundsbury Cathedral'. <br /></span></p><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="http://www.davidgill.co.uk/dg/poetry/default.html"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">David Gill</span></a> to read his 'Adlestrop'-inspired poem, 'Gloucestershire in the Negev', first published in <a href="https://www.peterthabitjones.com/en/the-seventh-quarry">The Seventh Quarry</a> poetry magazine (2008). See also <a href="http://www.davidgill.co.uk/default.html">here</a>. <br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">I refer to the poem, '<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/feb/25/poem-of-the-week-edward-thomas">Words</a>' by Edward Thomas. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixWQZSmzmSNcgHTzgkLbDiBhFKIbdbtUmPWVtItqwHXoq9l5wjDAZYRyPcuJYueg_sK52XsFbvXz4KKMA4gTEBDsdAWoa2mTGVCMMIh8c34-i5LKzpOJK7SXIn1BCHjqAhEeWjkqh5Pa8/s2048/IMG_1828-Editlaunch+flowers.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixWQZSmzmSNcgHTzgkLbDiBhFKIbdbtUmPWVtItqwHXoq9l5wjDAZYRyPcuJYueg_sK52XsFbvXz4KKMA4gTEBDsdAWoa2mTGVCMMIh8c34-i5LKzpOJK7SXIn1BCHjqAhEeWjkqh5Pa8/w480-h640/IMG_1828-Editlaunch+flowers.png" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Launch day, Tuesday 3 August 2021</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><br /><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju_b-ZkFBVPoAqyT1AYR3Ex0ZN8LR8a8lYQfMz1dOrkqVXPyoUpMZ_qIQFhREvykW4i7aUOCTvaQMSKzxnem8sh_kNaTrSlggTAVDjIObvY7nsipjk8aKdB-qQu4OK3uMpHW2xF4bzkFI/s1797/Driftwood_CGill_IMG_7377.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1417" data-original-width="1797" height="504" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju_b-ZkFBVPoAqyT1AYR3Ex0ZN8LR8a8lYQfMz1dOrkqVXPyoUpMZ_qIQFhREvykW4i7aUOCTvaQMSKzxnem8sh_kNaTrSlggTAVDjIObvY7nsipjk8aKdB-qQu4OK3uMpHW2xF4bzkFI/w640-h504/Driftwood_CGill_IMG_7377.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Caroline in Cadgwith, June 2021</span></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My website: <a href="https://www.carolinegillpoetry.com/driftwood-by-starlight.html">Caroline Gill: Poetry</a> <br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Find me on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/coastcard"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0">@coastcard</span></a></span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My chapbook: <a href="https://www.carolinegillpoetry.com/holy-place-2.html"><i><b>The Holy Place</b></i></a> (2012), shared with <a href="http://www.acharantos.com/index.html">John Dotson</a>, and published by The Seventh Quarry Press in conjunction with Cross-Cultural Communications, New York. John </span></span></span><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>was the first poet-in-residence at the <a href="https://www.torhouse.org/">Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation</a> in Carmel, California.</span></span></span></span></p></div>Caroline Gillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05203454486693014969noreply@blogger.com1