Poetry Matters (10): Nature Poetry Group

I have just joined the new Nature Poetry group on ReadWritePoem. Thank you to Crafty Green Poet for setting this up. If you enjoy nature and eco-poetry, why not come and join in?

Media Mix (3): Poetry in the news...

Preserving memories / Andy Croft / Regulars / Culture

Shared via AddThis

Please read the article for an update on Maureen Almond and Horace.

Window on Wildlife (6): (Not a) Lizard...

Kilchurn Castle on Loch Awe, Scotland

• Lizard?
• Castle (with David)
• Orchid

We drove past this wonderful loch-side castle en route for the isle of Skye last year. It was one of our regrets that we did not have time to stop, so this year we made a point of including Kilchurn on our Scottish itinerary. The castle was built by Sir Colin Campbell in the middle years of the 15th century. Recent research into masons' marks indicates that some of the masons who worked on Rosslyn Chapel may have moved on to exercise their skills at Kilchurn.

It was rather dull weather when we there, but I found some colourful views on Google Images.

The orchids were truly amazing in their beauty and abundance. I recall my school days in Kent when it was considered a red-letter day if we spotted an orchid in the wild. However, my excitement at seeing these flowers was surpassed on this occasion by the delight at finding and photographing the small lizard. I have occasionally seen lizards in the wild (we once found one in our back garden before we moved to our present house), but this lizard was so colourful. I have looked on the internet, and it may just be a Common Lizard; but its markings seem a little unusual. I kept coming across the Red Eft on the web, but I have a hunch that this was a lizard and not a young newt.

• Reptiles and amphibians of the UK

STOP PRESS: My thanks to Chris, the Co-ordinator of the Sand Lizard Captive Breeding Programme and Administrator of RAUK (www.herpetofauna.co.uk) for telling me that my

'first assumption of a Red Eft is closest. It is, in fact, a juvenile newt.'

The fact that the pale stripe down the back continues to the tail apparently suggests that the creature is a juvenile Palmate Newt.

Language & Linguistics (1): Word a day in Welsh

Sign up for a new Welsh word every day, brought to you via Twitter. (Thank you to fellow poet and blogger, Susan Richardson for alerting me to the BlogCymru site).

Poetic Forms (1): Ghazal

The summer edition of The Ghazal Page is now online, along with a blog, Don't Muzzle the Ghazal, run by editor Gino Peregrini (aka Gene Doty, Associate Professor Emeritus of English at the Missouri University of Science and Technology).

I have a poem coming out in the forthcoming Tercet Challenge issue. You might also like to visit the innovative site, Ghazalville, created by Nicola Masciandaro.

• Ghazal on Wikipedia
• The word Ghazal
• Write a Ghazal (some pointers)
  

Poetic People (20): Daniel Dragomirescu and C&LH, Romania

The July issue of Contemporary and Literary Horizon (C&LH) magazine from Romania is now out. You can read about it here. The editor-in-chief is Danuiel Dragomirescu, and you can read part of my interview with Swansea poet, Peter Thabit Jones here.

Creative Corner (5): Revelation of Seth Apter's DisCo Project

(1)
Pizza-&-Pistachio Art
The composition.

Part of The Altered Page
DisCo Project
under Seth Apter

(2)
Detail of the cat

(3)
Detail of the owl's head

'PIZZA-&-PISTACHIO'

(4)
The guitar...


(5)
Detail of the sheep (or hedgehogs?)


(6)
Treasures!


(7)
Blue owl
(courtesy of a Photoshop filter)

This piece of digital art can be interpreted in a way that suits the viewer. This viewer (who is also the maker) likes to think that she has created a couple of virtual pizzas. They are perhaps two-season pizzas rather than quattro staggione, for the bundle of components was only allowed to 'cook' in the open air for the duration of six months. This viewer hope that her picture may cause a smile. If it makes you think about the possibilities of re-using cast-off materials, well, so much the better. These pizzas are purely decorative. Enjoy!

Items re-used from the bundle:

1. lavender sprigs (for glints in the sea and grey flecks in the owl).
2. newspaper words (see 'treasures' in the sea).
3. snail shell (which I tinted with glitter-glue to make it show up).
4. buddleia flowers (for brown flecks in the owl)
5. pistachios (for just about everything - the owl's guitar, the boat, sheep faces...)
6. twigs (for the boat's mast and the neck and headstock of the guitar)
7. kitchen towel (for flecks in the sea)
8. moulted pet fur (for the owl's soft feathers and for the cat)
   

Items that vanished:

1. stone
2. piece of fence post
3. kitchen towel roll
4. palm leaves

Items added in to final picture:

1. acrylic paint
2. glitter-glue
3. cardstock
4. typed captions
5. discarded sheep's wool
6. a white polystyrene take-away box (which had contained my 'one weakness', chocolate cake!).
7. two polystyrene pizza bases
   

'My collaborator is nature'

Seth Apter

Seth of The Altered Page has been hosting the DisCo Project (aka the 'Disintegration Collaboration' Project) over a period of months, and many of us worldwide have enjoyed taking part. This is the culmination of months of work and weathering. This is the day when we reveal not only what the weather has done to our bundles but also how we have recreated something new from the remains of the items that we abandoned earlier on.

• 16 February 2009: By this time I was (almost) one of 50 artists preparing a bundle of bits and pieces to expose to the elements. I only heard about the project rather late in the day, but I soon caught up with my fellow DisCo goers. It was my hope that the Welsh wind and rain would work wonders on my discarded treasure. Paul Valéry said that 'a poem is never finished, only abandoned', and I found this thought quite reassuring as I hung my bundle on our hydrangea bush, leaving it at the mercy of the elements. You can read about my original bundle here. Suffice to say it contained an assortment of bits and pieces from my garden that I felt would be fun to recycle - including a stone (which vanished), some sprigs of lavender, an empty snail shell and a piece of rotting fence post. I also included some moulted pet fur and some newspaper clippings of words that annoyed me or appealed e.g. 'risk', 'diet' (no prizes for guessing which camp this one fell into!) and - of course - 'treasures'.

• 1 May 2009 (and here and here): we were invited to take a look at our bundles on May Day. You can read about my altered bundle here. My bundle had fallen apart and turned into two smaller ones. It was probably at this stage that the wood and the stone fell out. We were encouraged to decide for ourselves whether we left our remaining bundles outside a bit longer or whether we chose to bring them indoors. I left mine for a while, but decided fairly soon that if I was to have some items left with which to make the final piece of art, it would be best to do my salvage work while there was still time.
  

• 1st August 2009: this is the day when all is revealed! The project has come full circle and our chosen items have been suitably weathered by the atmosphere, gathered in by human Wombles (us!) and turned into something new.

So what I have I gained from taking part? It has been fascinating to see how others have approached this exercise, and to visit blogs from the other side of the Atlantic (not forgetting the blog of the Weaver of Grass, closer to home). It has challenged my thinking about the value of detritus and has made me test out a theory that discarded pistachio shells can have a use after all! I went through a phase of throwing them on the garden as compost (like cocoa shells), but began to feel that they might entice rats. Seth's project has made me think again about the age-old question, 'what is art?'. Is it about beauty or worth or self expression? Do we paint - or write or sing or act or take photographs - to please others or to please ourselves? What compels us to exercise our creative instincts? How can these benefit society - and should they (or is it art for art's sake?). One of the good things about this DisCo project was that although we were collaborating with one another, we were not in competition because our real collaborator was nature itself.

Thank you, Seth, for inviting us to join the dance; and for opening our eyes to new possibilities, techniques and means of expression. Diolch yn fawr!