'Driftwood by Starlight' Online Launch

Tin-mining country, Minions Moor, Cornwall

 

My first full length poetry collection, Driftwood by Starlight (The Seventh Quarry Press, June 2021), is being launched via Zoom this evening, Tuesday 3 August 2021. 

Driftwood by Starlight can be purchased for £6.99 (UK price) from the online shop at The Seventh Quarry Press website - here.

 

Peter Thabit Jones, my publisher, will introduce The Seventh Quarry Press. I have invited Peter to read one of his 'Edward Thomas' poems in the first half. 

I will read a selection of poems (East Anglia, Wales, Cornwall ...) from the book. Guest readers, Susan Richarson and Jean Salkilld, will each read one of their poems. David (Gill) will also read one of his poems.

Jean's collection, The Familiar Road, was published by The Seventh Quarry Press in 2016. (The Suffolk poem Jean is due to read is not actually in this collection.)

Susan Richardson's poem comes from Words the Turtle Taught Me (Cinnamon Press, 2018), shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award. 

My thanks to photographer, Laurence Hartwell, for his night-time photograph of Cadgwith on the front cover.

Thank you also to Maria Lloyd whose questions about the collection will appear in a future post on my blog ... with my answers! 

Update, 4 Aug 2021: my sincere thanks to Juliet Wilson who has posted a review on her Crafty Green Poet blog here.

 

 

My poems included in the online launch:

• The Serpentine Stile, p.9
  
• Zennor Voices, p.19
• Preseli Blue, p.37
• Monte Testaccio, Mound of Potsherds, p.35
• Treasure Hulk p.36 (For interest: the Scallop can be seen here.)
  
• The Ocean's Tears, p.24
• Isabella Tiger Moth Greets the Woolly Bear Caterpillar, p.34
• Two Penguins and a Pebble, p.44
• The Ceilidh House, p.16
• Rhossili: Writing The Worm (extracts), p.38
• Moonshine, p.27
  

 I refer to my two 'Edward Thomas' tribute poems. These are:

• Lost, p.12
• Dunwich in Winter, p.14

My poem, 'Rhossili: Writing The Worm', was first published in Hidden Dragons/Gwir a Grymus (Parthian Books, 2004) after I had taken part in The Write Stuff, a Disability Arts Cymru initiative. I attended launches at the Hay Festival, Ty Llyn/The Dyan Thomas Centre and the National Botanic garden of Wales. 

 

'Hidden Dragons/Gwir a Grymus' (Parthian Books) launch at the Hay Festival, 2004

  I have invited ...

Peter Thabit Jones to read his poem, 'The Edward Thomas Stone in Steep' from Peter's new book, GARDEN OF CLOUDS New and Selected Poems. You can read about it and buy a copy here. There are some sample poems here and here.

Jean Salkilld to read her poem, 'At Saint Edmundsbury Cathedral'.

David Gill to read his 'Adlestrop'-inspired poem, 'Gloucestershire in the Negev', first published in The Seventh Quarry poetry magazine (2008). See also here.

I refer to the poem, 'Words' by Edward Thomas. 

 

Launch day, Tuesday 3 August 2021

 

Caroline in Cadgwith, June 2021

My website: Caroline Gill: Poetry

Find me on Twitter: @coastcard

My chapbook: The Holy Place (2012), shared with John Dotson,  and published by The Seventh Quarry Press in conjunction with Cross-Cultural Communications, New York. John was the first poet-in-residence at the Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation in Carmel, California.

Poet Profile: The Seventh Quarry Poetry magazine

Leaving Ellis Island and Liberty Island, New York, 2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Holy Place

Anthology Alert: Micro Fiction and Poetry

The publications in the photo above have all come out in time for Christmas.

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Four Word Stories, edited by Mai Black, is for sale on Amazon at £4. The volume contains a selection of micro-fiction produced by members of Ipswich Writing Group. The stories were written in five minutes during a workshop, with a little time thereafter for editing. Each writer was given four random words from a pile created by participants.
My story is called 'Jupiter  |  basket   | today  | creature' 

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Flight, edited by Jean Salkilld, is the latest anthology of poems from the Tuesday Poetry group. I was a member of the group when I lived in Swansea. It contains airborne poems about birds (wild geese), heroes (Superman), bats, fairies and aircraft (air ambulance).

The volume includes two of my poems, 'The Bumblebee Bat' and 'Glossy Ibis near Welney'. 

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Slants of Light, named after a poem by Emily Dickinson, contains the winning, shortlisted and longlisted poems from the 2013 Paragram Poetry Competition. It also contains full adjudication notes from Adrienne Dines, the competition judge. 

The volume includes my shortlisted poem, 'Meteor Shower'. 

Anthology Alert: Tuesday Poetry ~ People and Places

Cover design: Richard Salkilld

I am delighted to receive copies of this volume from the Tuesday Poets in Swansea. The anthology has been produced by Jean Salkilld, and features work by Ann Cooke, Gillian Drake, Margaret Duguid, Caroline Gill, Brett Hayes, Ruth Jenkins, Ll. Hugh Nicholas, Carole Pearson, Carolina Rosati-Jones and Jean Salkilld.

Tuesday Poets arose out of creative writing courses under the auspices of the Department of Adult and Continuing Education at Swansea University. This is the third anthology in the series. The first had a seasonal focus, the second (2011) was based on the theme of 'colour'. The 2012 theme is 'people and places'.

My poems in the volume are ekphrastic ones, namely 'Harmony in Fragmentation' ('Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte' by Seurat) and 'Turner's Loch Coruisk, Skye'.

Magazine Moment (31): The Seventh Quarry

The Seventh Quarry (against a blue background for contrast)

Issue 15 of The Seventh Quarry poetry magazine contains submissions from most corners of the British Isles in addition to contributions from Italy, Germany, Korea, USA and Guatemala. The magazine is edited by Peter Thabit Jones from Swansea. Wales is represented by eight writers in this issue.

My eye was immediately drawn to 'Gales at Rhossili' by Jean Salkilld, who runs the Swansea Tuesday Poetry group. I can visualise those Gower gales as

White horses break the misted greyness of

the sea circus ...

This issue contains a fascinating interview with Chicano poet and Boston University professor, Tino Villanueva, who came to Swansea in 2010 to read in the Dylan Thomas Birthplace. Tino, author of six books, defines the term Chicano as 'an American of Mexican descent, whether native-born or naturalized citizen.' Villanueva describes Dylan Thomas as the poet whose 'language most seduced' him. However, there are other powerful influences, too. Tino explains that he has spent the last ten years working on a poem sequence revolving around Penelope, the faithful Homeric wife of Odysseus. I sense the significance of  'ten years' as a unit of time since not only did the Trojan War drag on for a decade, but it then took Odysseus a further ten years to return to his island home of Ithaca.

Sultan Catto is the poet in profile in this edition. He is professor of Theoretical Physics at the CUNY Graduate Center and at the Rockefeller University in New York. He writes poetry in Turkish and English. I was intrigued by Sultan's poem, 'Sunday Afternoon' (the more so having just viewed a study for Seurat's Pointillist work, 'Sunday Afternoon at the island of La Grande Jatte' in the New York Met). The poem contains compelling juxtapositions of images - we find 'starfish on sands' alongside 'flights of songs'.

'The Seventh Quarry' is not only international in flavour, representing an ever-expanding global community of poets and artists, but is also refreshingly eclectic in terms of style and form. There are short pithy poems like 'Lost Song in Swansea' by John Edwin Cohen and long ones that flow across the page, such as 'Remembering Fengdu' by Nancy E. Wright. 'Visiting the Lady Chapel at Llandaff in April' by Penelope Duckworth is a modern sonnet and '45 Grave on the Nostalgia Circuit' by Simon Hunt is a rhyming sonnet.

John Brantingham holds the stage for the Grand Finale with his masterful '30 Poets, 1 Violinist, 1 Cameraman in Wales', a tribute poem to Swansea's First International Poetry Festival, which took place last summer. The poem is set in Laugharne, at the Dylan Thomas Boat House, and I am left with the lingering image of a violinist playing his music in Wales under a white umbrella in the rain.

• Details of The Seventh Quarry (subscriptions, submissions ...) can be found here.

Magazine Moment (30): Poems in Bengali / American Magazine, Shabdaguchha

Not exactly a [Keatsian] fading rose - as in my poem, 'Swansong' - but more picturesque

I discovered this morning that the latest issue of Shabdaguchha, a Bengali-American publication, is now online and features three of my poems. Hard copies are also available.

Shabdaguchha is under the editorship of Bangladesh-born, New York-based poet, novelist, critic and translator, HassanAl Abdullah. You can reads a feature about him here. 

Issue 53/54 includes a section prepared by Peter Thabit Jones (editor of The Seventh Quarry magazine) and dedicated to the work in English of 'Welsh Poets'. It is always a pleasure (though a rare one) to find that David (Gill) and I have poetry in the same volume! Our first joint appearance in the poetry press was, I believe, in the Pairs Issue of Purple Patch, edited by Geoff Stevens, whose recent death brought shockwaves of sadness to the poetry fraternity. Our paired poems on that occasion were - not surprisingly - on the archaeology and topography of Greece. Our Shabdaguchha pieces have been published alongside poems by Peter Thabit Jones, Aeronwy Thomas (d.2009), Jean Salkilld (leader of Swansea's Tuesday Poetry group) and Lynn Hopkins.

In addition to the Welsh poetry, the current magazine includes sections in Bengali and English. A poem called 'No Cats on the Yangtze' by Stanley H. Barkan, editor of Cross-Cultural Communications in New York, particularly caught my eye. My thanks to HassanAl Abdullah - and many congratulations on the 14th anniversary of the magazine. 

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Details of how to purchase a hard copy of the magazine can be found by clicking here. Issue 53/54 Vol. 14, no.1-2, July-Dec 2011 of Shabdaguchha contains the following poems by the Gills ...

Caroline

• Elegy for Idris Davies
• Preseli Blue
• Swansong

David

• Standing Alone
• From Syracuse to Manhattan
• Gloucestershire in the Negev

Calendar Corner (2): National Poetry Week 2011

We have enjoyed a variety of literary events this last fortnight. We celebrated National Poetry Day (or 'Week' in South Wales) at Number 5 Cwmdonkin Drive, birthplace of Dylan Thomas. Thanks are due to Annie and Geoff for laying on a number of events, and to Peter Thabit Jones of The Seventh Quarry for organising a programme of readings for last Saturday night.

It was good to meet Ian Griffiths of the Suffolk Poetry Society and Geraldine Green from Cumbria. Singer-songwriter, Maria Lindström from Sweden, was on tour, and read some of her work bilingually. We were sorry not to coincide with Susan Richardson, who was performing on a different evening. Peter Thabit Jones directed - and acted in - a performance of his verse drama, 'The Boy and the Lion's Head'. David and I read alongside fellow Quarry Poets, Jean Salkilld (Tuesday Poets) and Lynn Hopkins (author of 'Creatures of a Dead Community', Seventh Quarry Press). Jill Goodwin-Croke read poems by Dylan and Caitlin's daughter, Aeronwy Thomas, including one about walking in her father's shadow in a literary kind of way.   

'Games' was the assigned theme for this year's National Poetry Day, so I chose my poems with this in mind, reading 'The Ocean's Tears' (a Tercet Ghazal about a children's tide fight) and 'Lament of a Lewis Chessman' - about chess (just in case you were in any doubt!). 

Exchanging news and views at Number 5

A lot seems to have happened since then!

We spent this afternoon in UCS at a lecture by Faber novelist, Louise Doughty, sponsored by the Suffolk Book League. Louise's latest novel, 'Whatever You Love' was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Prize and longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Louise, however, is also well known for her how-to book, 'A Novel in a Year' - and I was pleased to buy a signed copy from her before she left Ipswich.

University Campus Suffolk, Waterfront, Ipswich - venue for Talk by Louise Doughty

Magazine Moment (24) : Orizont Literar Contemporan, Romania

Orizont Literar Contemporan

'All the world in a journal' 

Thanks to the stalwart efforts of editor-in-chief, Daniel Dragomirescu, and the editorial team, the latest issue, An. IV, number 2 (22), of Orizont Literar Contemporan has been published - and has now reached me from Bucharest. In keeping with the magazine strapline above, this number contains a literary feast of poetry and prose from many corners of the globe. We find Gonzalo Salesky bringing us his poems from Argentina (p.14), and Professor Donald Riggs sharing the second instalment of his article on the teaching of Creative Writing in universities in Philadelphia (p.52). Catherine Mimano offers the lively perspective of a nineteen year old in terms of the cultural identity of her country, Kenya, a land of the wildebeest migration and hip-hop music.  

My knowledge of modern languages is limited, but I always enjoy seeing the translation of a piece of work alongside the original. Adolf P. Shvedchikov writes his poetry in Russian with alternative English versions. Petronela Corobleanu of the translation unit, MTTLC, at the University of Bucharest has provided a Romanian translation, too, and it is fascinating to see the three languages laid out together on the page.

Wales is well represented in this issue. I was particularly delighted to find an appreciation by Byron Beynon of the poet, Raymond Garlick, who died on 19 March 2011. Byron is brilliantly placed to write such a piece, for, as we discover in his tribute, he was the recipient of over 100 letters and cards from this formative Anglo-Welsh poet. You will also find my latest interview, number seven in the 'Dialoguri Galeze' series, with poet and Tuesday Poetry Group leader, Jean Salkilld. Jean's poem, 'Legend's Source' (p.4), takes us 'through lights of autumn leaves' into the northern woods of America, where the tears of Hiawatha's mother supposedly welled up in the form of the mighty Missisippi river. Our thanks to Petronela Corobleanu for her translation into Romanian.

The magazine covers every shade of style and emotion. I will end by alluding to Victor P. Gendrano's piece, 'My Grocery Adventure', on p.34. He demonstrates in three short paragraphs just how he was able to fulfil his daily motto of making 'at least one person smile'. It would be giving the game away if I spilled the beans (no pun intended!) and explained just how he came to do this, for perhaps you would prefer to order a copy of the magazine and find out for yourself ... 

• Orizont Literar Contemporan
• OLC: please enquire about PayPal and/or subscription options here.