St Govan's Chapel Poem published in 'Seeing Beyond The Surface'

 

St Govan's Chapel © D&C Gill

I have just had a poem, 'Above St Govan's Chapel', published in a rather unusual book.

Seeing beyond the Surface is 'a lighthearted and uplifting compilation of short stories and poems by and about people with disabilities'. Joanna Swank, the editor, writes in the context of assessing our fellow human beings, that 'it is a great thing to see what is beneath the surface.'

This volume has just been published and proceeds will benefit Abilities Solutions in Westville, New Jersey, USA.

Most of the contributors are based in the USA, but there are a couple of us from the UK. Another volume is in the pipeline, and if you might be interested in making a submission to Joanna, please visit the Seeing beyond the Surface website here.

My poem arose out of a visit to the chapel in a cleft in the cliff at St Govan's in Pembrokeshire, Wales. I was both elated (by the scene, and also by the Choughs that clipped the turf) and frustrated (by the access to the chapel itself). 'Above St Govan's Chapel' was written as part of a Disability Arts Cymru project, which resulted in the publication of Hidden Dragons/Gwir a Grymus, an anthology published by Parthian and launched at the Hay Festival in 2004.  

Reading my Stonehenge Poem at Walpole Old Chapel

David and I joined other East Anglian poets for the annual Poetry Evening at Walpole Old Chapel. We were wondering whether Hurricane Bertha would prevent us from reaching this lovely and remote corner of Suffolk, but all was well and we were treated to some wonderful poetry, glasses of elderflower cordial and slices of Queen Mother's cake. Our thanks to Mike Bannister and all those who helped to make the evening such a delightful occasion.

In the light of a recent visit to the re-vamped Visitors' Centre at Stonehenge, I read my bluestone poem, 'Preseli Blue', which features in my recent chapbook, The Holy Place. The poem was first published in The Lie of the Land (ed. Jan Fortune, Cinnamon Press).

'Preseli Blue' was read on BBC Poetry Please as part of the programme from the Hay Festival in 2008. It was written in response to the rope-bound Millennium Bluestone on display in the National Botanic Garden of Wales. You can read the text here by scrolling down on the Shabdaguchha site. 

On our recent visit we arrived at Stonehenge too late in the day to contemplate a ride up to the stones themselves, though we much look forward to doing this. There was plenty to see at the Visitors' Centre, including a few 'retro' des-res huts ...

With David Gill

... and this rope-bound (model) stone that you could try to pull!

Needless to say all efforts proved useless!

We enjoyed watching the land-train, but I can't help reminiscing about my early visits to the site in the 1960s when we used to take the dogs and wander at will.

Storm clouds were brewing. It was time to beat a hasty retreat.

Prizes and Commendations (2): The T.S. Eliot prize

My thanks to Matt Merritt at Polyolbion for alerting me to the coverage of the prize ceremony on Jane Holland's blog, here. Derek Walcott won the prize with his Faber collection, White Egrets.

In case you have not caught up with the news reports, you can read The Guardian's feature here. 

Little Egret, Penclawdd, Gower, Wales, UK

 I recall a happy evening at Hay some years ago, when Derek Walcott answered questions and delivered his poetry to a packed auditorium. I was particularly pleased to have bought a copy of his 'Omeros' in the Poetry Bookshop that afternoon.

Above and below: Little Egret, Divari Lagoon, Pylos, Greece

N.B. My photos are not linked to locations or symbolic representations in the book, but it seemed a good opportunity to appreciate these fine birds! The Egretta alba, the Great White Egret, has black feet and a yellow bill, unlike the Little Egret on one leg in the Divari Lagoon photo. 

Fiesta Time (2): International Poetry Festival in Swansea, June 2011

Blue Plaque: Dylan Thomas House, Number 5, Cwmdonkin Drive, Swansea

 ~ ~ ~

SWANSEA, WALES: JUNE 2011

The Seventh Quarry 
and
Cross-Cultural Communications, New York 

A three-day festival of poetry, drama, workshops, and music 

will take place from 16th to 18th June, 

featuring writers and performers 

from the U.K., America, Canada, Argentina, Israel, Europe, Eastern Europe, and India.

Hosted by Peter Thabit Jones and Stanley H. Barkan 

at the Dylan Thomas Theatre, Swansea. 

Extra festival events at The Boathouse, Laugharne; 

Dylan Thomas House, Swansea; 

and the Nick Holly Art Studio, Swansea.

A commemorative chapbook will be produced 

and several awards will be announced. 

Further details and a brochure forthcoming.

~ ~ ~ 

Carnival Time (8): Guardian Hay Festival

More Images
from the Guardian Hay Festival 2010

N.B. Wordle to right...

Above
The Wiggly Worm Garden
'Relax Explore Learn Enjoy'
Wiggly Wigglers is an award-winning natural garden company

Above and below

Magnetic Butterflies
winging messages from individuals
in the SkyArts Tent

We had fun decorating our butterflies...
... and even more fun trying to get them to stick to the mesh on the roof!

Below

The 'Second Poetry Jamboree' Banner

Below

The Swimming Reindeer

Late Magdalenian, approx. 12,500 years old.
Provenance: rock shelter of Montastruc, Tarn et Garonne, France
British Museum

We so enjoyed the inspirational event by Neil MacGregor,
Director of the British Museum,
on his Radio 4 series,
'A History of the World in 100 Objects'

After the talk we were able to handle a few objects, like this remarkable piece.

All in all, it was a great day out...
and even the weather was glorious!

• BBC on the programme
• Times Online about the series
• The book is coming...
• Add your object... (as Andrew Motion does)
  

Carnival Time (7): Guardian Hay Festival

We had a terrific day at Hay yesterday, despite overcast skies. We arrived and I enjoyed a Fair Trade coffee and an enormous Danish pastry to set me up for the morning. We had tickets for the CADW talk by John Davies (A History of Wales), and for Richard Perceval Graves at the Housman Society event. Sadly for the organisers, there were not as many festival-goers as usual. Perhaps it was the rain or perhaps the recession.

While I was browsing in the Poetry Bookshop, I heard that it had featured in a Telegraph article (20 April 2010) on the best independent bookshops in Britain - which you can read here. I hope the Guardian podcast will be posted soon...

It is always fun to wander round the site. We took a box of books to the the Oxfam stall, and were given a couple of festival event tickets as a 'thank you'. The festival bookshop has book signings and an amazing range of books on subjects ranging from the nature of clouds to the objects in the British Museum.


We had a picnic lunch between events, and then set off on the shuttle bus to visit the bookshops in town. The Poetry Bookshop is always my first port of call. On this occasion there was great excitement as Guardian reporters were in the process of making a podcast. We have just watched Bright Star (a compelling and unusual film with amazing photography), and was delighted to buy a book on Keats and his circle.


So why would I recommend a visit to the Hay Festival? Well, for a start, it would be good to see people sitting in these empty chairs (photo below)!

Seriously, it makes a great day out for everyone and is a good place to meet up with friends. There is no admission to the site, though there is a charge for the car parks. Our car park fee gave us shuttle bus tickets, so once we had parked, we could leave the car all day and explore the festival and the shops in town with ease. The festival organisers take fair trade, recycling and green issues pretty seriously.

• Best Festival Tweet
• Polyolbion: Birdwatching poets may be celebrating... (I have posted this here simply because Dr John Davies alluded to the view from the Blorenge in his CADW talk at Hay... Thank you, Matt).
  

Nature Notes (1): Painted Ladies in Profusion

The first thing we buy on arrival at the Guardian Hay Festival site is a copy of The Guardian, complete with cotton shoulder bag for any book purchases we may make later in the day. I was delighted to open the g2 supplement of the paper for 25th May and find a feature by Patrick Barkham on the (welcome) invasion of the Painted Lady. 18000 butterflies (give or take a few) were recorded in the Scolt Head region alone. These creatures had flown in from the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. The next generation will leave their thistles and their caterpillar bodies behind when they spread their painterly wings as adults in August.

• This Week in wildlife photos (The Guardian)
• RSPB blog
  

Culture Corner (3): Guardian Hay Festival

Scenes from the Guardian Hay Festival 2009

(a) Caroline with fellow poet and blogger, Susan Richardson
(waiting for Lavinia Greenlaw's Housman Society Lecture to begin)
(b) A day for Wellies of all shapes and sizes
(c) A quiet corner
(d) David 'flying the flag'
(e) It never rains...

It was a good day at Hay, though you could have been mistaken for thinking that it was October rather than May. We met up with friends for tea, did a spot of book-shopping in the Poetry Bookshop (a favourite haunt) and visited the CADW and academi stands.

We had tickets for John Toman on Kilvert's Diary - a very appropriate subject for Hay - and for the Housman Society Lecture. Lavinia Greenlaw (author of 'Minsk') gave a sparkling and erudite paper on the effect of poetry upon poet and reader, of which more soon.

The President reads Walcott

'... sinuous swans ...'
Derek Walcott, Omeros XXXVIII, III

I had the privilege of hearing St Lucian and Nobel poet Derek Walcott at the Guardian Hay Festival the summer before last; and was captivated by his outlook on the world, and particularly by his book, Omeros which I bought in The [excellent!] Poetry Bookshop in Hay.

Here in the UK rumours currently abound in the press regarding the identity of the Poet Laureate Designate. Poetry, it seems, is equally alive and well on the opposite side of the Atlantic. I am grateful to the Poets who Blog site for pointing me in the direction of an article on CityFile about US President Obama reading Walcott's Collected Poems - thereby presumably encouraging others in the support of poetry.

I have already mentioned my early love of the tales and travels of the Greek hero, Odysseus. Omeros as the name implies, is another epic poem about the web of human existence exemplified in sea travel and culture: indeed it is - in my humble opinion - a singularly fascinating 'take' on Homer's Odyssey. It is more than that: it is a new and unique work in its own right (though I use the word 'new' advisedly as the book was first published in 1990!). The poem makes use of the engaging Terza Rima form of chiming verse, a form used effectively by Dante.

Postscript
My copy from Hay came for good measure with a news cutting inside the cover: 'Hustling Homer' by Oliver Taplin, who was reviewing a production of 'The Odyssey' (Walcott style) at The Other Place in Stratford. The production was, apparently and appropriately, 'a cyclopean feat of poetry'!

Further information

• Omeros Study Guide (enotes.com)
• Derek Walcott’s Omeros, and the Significance of the River of Ancestry

'Preseli Blue' on BBC Poetry Please

My poem, 'Preseli Blue', is due to feature on BBC Radio 4's 'Poetry Please' on Saturday 6 June 2008 at 11.30pm. The programme was recorded at the Guardian Hay Festival on Sunday 25 May 2008.

'Preseli Blue' can be found in 'The Lie of the Land' ed. Jan Fortune-Wood, Cinnamon Press, launched at the Guardian Hay Festival 2006. [WorldCat]

This photo was taken at Hay in 2006.

The Lie of the Land

'The Lie of the Land' is available from the Cinnamon Press website (www.cinnamonpress.com/), and profits go to the Meningitis Trust. 'The Lie of the Land' contains a Foreword by Peter Finch and work by 65 established and new poets in Wales. The cover design is by Mike Fortune-Wood.

Hay Fever

We have just returned from a visit to the Hay Festival. We thoroughly enjoyed Michael Wood on India, but have rarely waded through so much mud!