Workshop on Columba by Alex Aldred, Poet in Residence, Historic Environment Scotland

 

Approaching Iona by CalMac ferry from Mull

The photo above brings back many happy memories of days on Iona, the small and very beautiful island where Columba is said to have landed with twelve followers in 563 AD.

David, who is a member of Historic Environment Scotland, mentioned that a series of creative writing workshops were being run on Zoom by HES to mark the birth of Columba 1500 years ago. I was keen to find out more and signed up for the first, which took place this evening on the topic of Columba, the Exile.   

Alex Aldred, Poet in Residence for Historic Environment Scotland, led the workshop, giving participants information on Columba, along with prompts for creative writing and time for the sharing of our ideas. It was a very enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes, and I have come away (so to speak) with a raft of enthusiasm, pages of notes and a couple of poems in draft.  

The workshop inspired me to revisit my Iona photos, taken on several occasions ...

The Abbey on Iona (2014)

Exquisite cloister carving by Chris Hall

Fabulous beaches on Iona

Crystal-clear water

The view from the ferry

Setting sail for Fionnphort, Mull

One of my abiding memories is of the colossal wave of wingbeats as the wild geese hurtled up the Sound. 

Of all the Inner Hebridean islands, Skye is the one I know best. It contains a small inland island named after Columba. It is a tranquil (if usually damp) spot, and a beautifully tucked-away corner of the Misty Isle.   

St Columba's Isle, Skye

Thank you, Alex, for an inspiring evening.

Winter Update, 2018

This picture seemed to me to have a wintry feel despite the fact the photograph was taken in summer! It depicts the Skye Bridge and the small island of Eilean Bàn. I have posted it to accompany a link (here) to my Skye poem, The Ceilidh House, about winter in the Inner Hebrides in times gone by. My thanks to Sharmagne and her editorial assistants for publishing my poem in the December issue of Quill and Parchment.

Special thanks, too, to Matthew Stewart for including this blog in his Rogue Strands 2018 list of poetry blogs. I feel very honoured to receive another mention. Thank you, Matthew.

A summary of my 2018 poetry activities can be found here. 

Poetry Round-up

Staffin ... Isle of Skye

Time for a quick poetry round-up ...

Due to time away and other commitments I have got behind with my postings, so here is a summary.

• I have been awarded Third-Equal in the Fixed Form Poet of the Year (2014) Challenge for the Metverse Muse (#38, ed. Dr. H. Tulsi, Visakhapatnam, India) competition in Category A. My poems in the international contest were 'Nightmare' and 'Feline Fancy'. My poems, 'Cattle Crossing, Staffin Bay' and 'Winter's Knife' have been published in this issue of Metverse Muse. 

• My poem, 'In the Wake of Prince Madoc', was Highly Commended in the inaugural Disability Arts Cymru Poetry Competition, judged by Menna Elfyn. The poem will appear in an eBook, alongside the artwork I selected as my inspiration. 

• I will be reading my poem, 'Dear Loris', at the Emma Press Launch of the anthology, Slow Things, in London on Tuesday 21 July. 

• My review of Mike Bannister's poetry book, The Green Man (translated into Romanian as Omul Verde) has appeared in Orizont Literar Contemporan, in the May-June 2015 issue. 

• My interview with Professor Don Riggs of Drexel University in Philadelphia has appeared in Made of Words (translated into Romanian as Făurit din cuvinte). Published in Romania under the aegis of Orizont Literar Contemporan.

'The With Words Haiku Book of Summer'

Ragged Robin on Skye

My 'Haiku: Skye summer' has been Highly Commended in the 2015 With Words Summer Haiku Competition. It will appear in the competition anthology, The With Words Haiku Book of Summer.  

Alan Summers of With Words is also planning to publish The With Words Book of Summer.

Recent Round-up

I am totally behind with poetry news!

So here are are a few things that have happened recently  ...

[1]

The Suffolk Poetry Society (SPS) Desert Island Discs: this was a remarkable evening. Lord Phillips of Sudbury interviewed Terry Waite CBE about his life, Christian faith, captivity, humanitarian work and writing. The evening concluded with SPS member, Tim Gardiner, reading a poem entitled 'The Homeless' written by Terry.

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[2]

The blue painting in the centre is by USA poet and artist Kay Weeks. Kay used my poem and photograph of Loch Scavaig on the Isle of Skye as her inspiration. You can read more about the event here.

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[3]

 

Cadgwith Cove

I was delighted to have a poem about an early Cadgwith lifeboat accepted for The Sea, a poetry anthology published by Rebel Poetry in Ireland, with all profits going to the RNLI. 

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[4]

David and I both had our Corinium poems shortlisted in the first poetry competition organised by the Corinium Museum. You can read about David's poem here.

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[5]

We had a terrific night of poetry last Friday at our first Local Stanza Bonanza, in which a team from Suffolk Poetry Society were joined by a team from the Mosaic poetry group in Essex. The event, sparked by our recent Stanza Bonanza with Paul McGrane of The Poetry Society and Poetry Swindon, took place on the Ipswich Waterfront at University Campus Suffolk. Here are the teams gathering by the Langlands and Bell 'Question?' sculpture. As Ian Griffiths, Chairman of Suffolk Poetry Society and one of the readers, remarked, 'Who better than poets to lay a question on its side?'

Poetry Evening at poetrywivenhoe with Martin Malone

Wivenhoe, late afternoon yesterday

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

Martin Malone at the microphone

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

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

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

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

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

Peter Kennedy, Pam Job, Caroline Gill, Martin Malone

ditto

Conversation with MW Bewick (left)

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

The Ceilidh House, Skye

 Thank you, poetrywivenhoe! 

Wivenhoe at sunset

Poetry Events ~ RhymeWeld at our Poetry Cafe

'Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie ...' 1785, Robert Burns

We tried something a little different at our monthly Poetry Cafe in Arlington's last night, namely a RhymeWeld (some felt it should be a RhymeMeld).

A reader began by reading the title of a short poem followed by the poem and a moment's pause. The next person in the circle followed suit and so on, allowing the poems to form part of a much larger poem cycle.

The experiment made us realise that it was quite hard to restrain ourselves from jumping in with our usual comments and questions the moment a poem was over. It also made us think that when we try this again, we will go a little more with the flow, inviting any poet in the room to follow on if he or she feels the piece has a connection to what has gone immediately before. Will this make for more or less spontaneity and will this method enhance that feeling of creating something new in a unified way?

The exercise reminded me of starry winter nights in days gone by when our ancestors told tales around the fire. I read my poem The Ceilidh House in the RhymeWeld.

We returned to our normal procedure for the second half, and since Burns' Night will have come and gone by our February gathering, I read my poem called 'The Mouse Replies' in which I imagine what the wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie might have said to the poet.

Poem in Joanna Ezekiel's 'poetry snapshots' series on 'my delayed reactions'

Stormy sunset on Skye

I am delighted to have a poem, 'The Ceilidh House', up on Joanna Ezekiel's site, my delayed reactions, in her poetry snapshots series (update: it seems this is no longer online - March 2015). Many readers of my blog will know by now that Skye holds a special place in my heart. The Clearances, however, were often brutal and devastating.

The Skye Bridge, with the Cuillin silhouetted in the distance

Fiesta Time (13): Book Lovers' Day

St Ives in Cornwall - home of Hepworth and childhood holiday destination of Woolf

Having read my 'Barbara Hepworth in St Ives' poem, Shaft of Light, Circle of Stone, at Arlington's Poetry Cafe last night, I was delighted to find a tribute to Virginia Woolf on the Oxford Dictionaries site in celebration of Book Lovers' Day.

Godrevy Lighthouse, St Ives

For many Cornwall aficionados, the lighthouse at Godrevy, near St Ives, will always resonate with Woolf's iconic book, To the Lighthouse, despite the fact that the novel (complete with lighthouse) is actually set on the Isle of Skye. However, the author spent childhood holidays at Talland House in St Ives, and one can't help feeling that some of her Cornish experiences were translated into the novel. On one occasion, Virginia's brother, Adrian, was denied a trip to Godrevy - and in the novel, James is confronted with the fact that his forthcoming visit to the lighthouse has been called off.

Don't forget to look up the other Oxford Dictionary Book Lover entries ...

• George Eliot

• Aldous Huxley

• Sir Thomas Browne (and his avian descriptions)

I wonder what you are reading this summer. I am just coming to the end of Mehalah, an adventure set on the salt marshes around Mersea Island by Sabine Baring-Gould, and have just started Silver, Sir Andrew Motion's eagerly-awaited sequel to Treasure Island, which was written, of course, by Robert Louis, a descendant of the Lighthouse Stevensons.

And for those who are wondering, I suspect Book Lovers' Day is actually tomorrow! And for those who are also wondering, yes, Sabine Baring-Gould penned the words to 'Onward Christian Soldiers' ...

Magazine Moment (31): Poem in The Dawntreader

Looking across to Skye, the Misty Isle

My poem, 'Cuckoo Song', has been published in The Dawntreader #019 (ed. Dawn Bauling and Ronnie Goodyer, Indigo Dreams Publishing). The poem is a rondeau redoubled, and is a tribute poem to William Ross, a Scottish poet who was born at Broadford on Skye in 1762. You can see where he died here.

Competition Corner (5): Metverse Muse ~ Best Fixed Form Poet, 2011, Category A

KIlt Rock, Isle of Skye. Can you see the tartan plaid (well, almost)?

I received a copy of the international poetry journal, Metverse Muse (ed. Dr. H. Tulsi), through the post today from Visakhapatnam in India. I had entered the annual competition a year ago, and was delighted to hear that the combined scores for my two fixed-form poems had won me the title of Metverse Muse 'Best Fixed Form Poet of the Year' in Category A for 2011.

My thanks to the panel of judges. One of my poems, a Terzanelle (a form devised by Professor Lewis Turco, author of The Book of Forms) is about Kilt Rock, a favourite haunt on the Isle of Skye.  

Poetic Places (5): Out in the Wild

Gannet flying inland from the Achiltibuie area,
north of Ullapool
[please click to enlarge]

I have just mounted a post on my new Wild and Wonderful blog about a Buzzard we saw in the Quiraing region of Skye. I have been thinking a lot about wild places and wilderness since we returned from Scotland, so it was a pleasant surprise to read Professor Morley's post about walking and writing. You can find it here: 'Rebounding Flowerheads'. His piece makes special reference to Scotland and the West Country.

• My Loch Coruisk post, with book suggestion etc.
• A 'wild' book I really enjoy is Britain and Ireland's Best Wild Places by Christopher Somerville
• Turnstone blog about walking and writing
  

Poetic Places (4): Loch Coruisk, Skye

The view from Elgol,
looking across Loch Scavaig towards Loch Coruisk

It gave me a real boost to return from Skye (nursing what seems to be a fractured ulna... final diagnosis still pending) to find that my poem, 'Turner's Loch Coruisk, Skye' [24/2009] had been awarded 2nd Prize as a result of Readers' Votes in issue 141 of Reach Poetry (Indigo Dreams Publishing, editors Ronnie Goodyer and Dawn Bauling). Thank you to all who voted and to Ronnie and Dawn for the cheque!

Incidentally, Wendy Webb's poem about (David and me at) Loch Coruisk appears in her volume, A Mermaid's Tale (Wendy Webb Books 2010). You can read more here on my Land&Lit blog.

Sadly, my injuries meant that we were unable to take the boat over Loch Scavaig to Loch Coruisk on this occasion, but we had a couple of memorable visits to Elgol. If you would like to see what we enjoyed watching on the sea loch, you might care to click on this link, which will take you to my new blog, 'Wild and Wonderful', about the natural world.

P.S. On the recommendation of the Quaerentia blog [and here], I took a copy of Robert MacFarlane's book, The Wild Places with me as holiday reading. I injured my dominant arm on our first full day on the island, so my reading plans have been delayed due to difficulty in holding the volume or turning the pages. Watch this space! I know the book contains a small section on Loch Coruisk.

Magazine Moment (10): Reach Poetry: Loch Coruisk

The brooding waters of Loch Coruisk

My poem, 'Turner's Loch Coruisk, Skye' has been published in Reach Poetry, issue 141, June 2010 (Indigo Dreams Publishing, editors Ronnie Goodyer and Dawn Bauling).

You may be amused to hear that Wendy Webb's poem about my last visit to Loch Coruisk appears in her volume, A Mermaid's Tale (Wendy Webb Books 2010). You can read more here on my Land&Lit blog.

Festive Matters (1): Reading Material

The Misty Cuillin, Skye*

Are you after some holiday reading material?

You might like to visit my Scottish selection of books here on my Land&Lit blog.

Do let me know if you have any favourite wildlife/natural world/poetry/heritage books to recommend to fellow bloggers.


*My poem about a Ceilidh on Skye has been published in 'By the Winter Fires', a 2009 anthology edited by Ronnie Goodyer and Dawn Bauling of Indigo Dreams Press. The first print run has sold out, but orders are being taken for a second run, I believe.

Poetic People (24): Donald McAulay, Hebridean poet

It is always interesting on holiday to learn about the local poetry scene. We came back from the misty Hebridean isle of Skye a couple of weeks ago.

The photograph above shows a sculpture by Liondsaidh Mairi Chaimbeul of the 'Seobhrach as a' Chlaich' or 'Primrose from the Stone', which is itself the Gaelic title of Donald McAulay's poetry collection of 1967. McAulay has been described as a 'Gaelic modernist par excellence'. McAulay spent his childhood on the island of Lewis, which we saw several times in the distance as waves of light mist came and passed over. The marble on the sculpture comes from Skye and the poem in question is about the possibilities of the rebirth of beauty in - or out of - unfavourable circumstances.

The sculpture graces the path up to Armadale Castle in Sleat.

Literary Landmarks (2): Samuel Johnson Anniversary

Jetty at Dunvegan on Skye
(seal trips run from here)

Dunvegan Castle, Skye

18 September marks the anniversary (well, one of them - follow the link to have this explained!) of the birth of the famous lexicographer, Samuel Johnson.

We have just returned from the magical isle of Skye, following in the footsteps of Johnson and Boswell. We took a copy of Boswell's account with us: it made fascinating reading.

'We arrived at Dunvegan late in the afternoon. The great size of the castle, which is partly old and partly new, and is built upon a rock close to the sea, while the land around it presents nothing but wild, moorish, hilly, and craggy appearances, gave a rude magnificence to the scene.' Boswell, Monday 13 September 1773.

• Johnson's Literary Club
  

Seals ...

The February seal card sale has begun!
Visit my Coastcard online store

'Seas barking like seals, 
Blue seas and green ...'
Captain Cat in Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas

There is something very mysterious about seals. I remember keeping an eye open for these fine creatures for many years off the Cornish coast, and failing to see one in the wild. It was always a joy to witness the work of the Gweek Seal Sanctuary. I refer to these holidays in an interview in the February 2009 edition of Wendy Webb's poetry zine, eTips.

As time went by, we began to spot seals around the cliffs in the vicinity of Porthgwarra (link: painting by Richard Tuff), a fascinating cove with rock tunnels. When I worked in Cambridge, we were within striking distance of the wonderful seal colony at Blakeney Point.

We moved to Wales some 17 years ago, and were delighted to find Atlantic grey seals along the coast and especially around Cardigan Island. On one occasion I watched a mother seal teaching her white fluffy pup to swim in one of the Pembrokeshire coves. A disgruntled bull seal appeared from nowhere, and we held our breath while the mother managed magnificently to protect her offspring from the wiles of its would-be attacker.

The ways of the natural world are rarely as 'comfortable' as we would sometimes have them be in our imagination. The seal in the photograph above (spotted north of the Scottish border) exuded a certain sense of benevolent power and idle curiosity. I was particularly taken with the juxtaposition of creature and rock. The seal fitted perfectly into its natural environment; and we felt privileged to join it, albeit for the duration of a brief encounter.

• The Irish Seal Sanctuary
• Winterton Seal Hospital, Norfolk, UK
• Gweek Seal Sanctuary
• Save Scotland's Seals
  
• Seals in Scotland
• Seals on Skye
  
• Wendy Webb Books (and see Facebook link on lower right)
• Helford Voluntary Marine Conservation Association
• Sea Horse Song (my poem)

... and finally ...

• Coastcard Online Shop ... February seal card sale!
  

Poetry: the art and craft of writing

Right: the Lighthouse Keeper's Cottage on the tiny island of Eilean Bàn, under the Skye Bridge, where Gavin Maxwell lived and wrote.

Like Sylvia Bardell, I enjoy poems about poetry, but I also recognize that with such masterpieces in mind as In my craft or sullen art by Dylan Thomas, it can be hard to write on this subject with an original and authoritative voice.

It would be interesting to know whether most of us love these 'poetry poems' or whether we would pass over them for others. Is it, perhaps, all down to which individual poems happen to speak to us, regardless of subject? I know Mary Biddinger, for one, is not keen on poems about poems.

I love to visit places associated with writers, and to see their desks and pens. Many modern writers scribble notes on till receipts; but how many of us still prefer to write our drafts in long-hand, thereby allowing our thoughts to flow from brain to arm to hand to paper - without interruption? I use notebooks (and till receipts) and a tiny dictaphone; but when it comes to writing a first draft, I love to sit at my computer. I may not watch for mermaids (which is what the Reverend R.S. Hawker of Morwenstow reputedly did on occasions when there were no shipwrecks); but I love to peer over my screen and to know that the sea is 'out there', with rhythms of its own.

Incidentally and in connection with Eilean Bàn, we remember Maxwell as a prose writer; but his title, Ring of Bright Water originated as a string of words in a poem, The Marriage of Psyche, by Kathleen Raine.


P.S. On the subject of writers' rooms (see comment by Susan Richardson below), how about a poem about a writer's drawer?

The Lighthouse

I like to write with one eye on the lighthouse outside my window. I can't see it today as there is too much cloud, so I have posted up a Coastcard picture that I am working on.

Virginia Woolf's groundbreaking book, To the Lighthouse, hit the literary scene in a big way; but what are our favourite lighthouse poems?

One of the most well-loved ones has to be Flannan Isle by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson. There is a good BBC site on the mystery surrounding the lighthouse men. The lighthouse is situated about 15 miles to the west of the Hebridean island of Lewis.





When I was on Skye, I caught glimpses of Lewis, and the quality of the northern light (between heavy showers) was very evocative.

Treasure Island was one of my top children's adventure stories (and probably still ranks high among my favourite works of fiction). I had not realised until I visited the lighthouse on the tiny conservation island of Eilean Bàn, halfway between Skye and the Kyle of Lochalsh, that Robert Louis Stevenson came from such a dynasty of Scottish lighthouse builders.

Left: the lighthouse on Eilean Bàn, under the Skye Bridge.

Postscript: follow the link to The McLellan Poetry Award. The judge for 2008 is W.N. Herbert.