poetry
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Rob A Mackenzie is well known in the literary blogosphere as the man behind the popular poetry blog Surroundings. His pamphlet, The Clown of Natural Sorrow, was published by HappenStance in 2005. Light Storms from a Dark Country You bend sleetward down grey alleyways,xxin search of finesse to straighten outthe tangle of the last spat.…
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How readings can creep up on you! It’s only a few days until this month’s Shore Poets, where I’ll be reading alongside Colin Will and Julie Sheridan, with music provided by blues/folk/fingerpicking guitarist Callum More. I’m stepping down from the group after June, so this will be my last appearance as a Shore poet. It…
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I’m delighted to begin this series of poems with the following nocturne from Michael Mackmin, who is best known as the editor of that beautifully produced magazine, The Rialto. HappenStance published his modestly titled pamphlet Twenty-Three Poems in 2006. Midnight Garden As the light moves from deepest blue to blackamong the last outlines of vines…
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Over the weeks runing up to the HappenStance reading at the Troubadour, I’ll be posting a poem by each of the poets appearing. The full line-up is listed alphabetically by surname below. Poems will appear in a different order and the list will link to the poems as they are posted. Martin CookTom DuddyEleanor LivingstoneGreg…
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Last night, though tired out after a busy day that included helping our neighbour to rebuild the fence along our boundary, I headed into Edinburgh for the third Poetry at the Great Grog event. Elizabeth Gold kicked off. The work she read jumped off from anecdotes, snatches of overheard conversation and tabloid headlines, but took…
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Elmar Kuiper, one of this year’s StAnza readers, videoed various other festival participants reading around St Andrews. There’s a selection on the StAnza Facebook pages and the whole lot is on Kuiper’s YouTube pages. I particularly like the intense focus of this one, Brian Turner reading the title poem from his collection Here, Bullet:
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StAnza reports are, naturally, now popping up in the Scottish literary blogomarble. Colin Will offers a StAnza insider’s point of view in his brief sketch. Rob A Mackenzie has two reports: one for the Friday* and one for the Sunday. Rachel Fox muses on her mixed feelings here; while Sorlil gives a StAnza first-timer’s view…
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Will leave this up for a few days for comment. The title is Scots; here is a link to the DSL definition of the word. [poem deleted 21/03/08]
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I jumped into the car first thing yesterday morning and zipped up the road to St Andrew’s for my fix of StAnza 2008, listening to The Guardian CD of great 20th century poets on the way to get me in the mood. My first event was the masterclass in translation with Helmut Haberkamm and Fitzgerald…
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“Things often move slowly in the poetry world!” said I. Do you think if we rechristened poetry “slow books” it might become as vaguely trendy as the slow food and cittaslow movements? But then even vague trendiness is probably not what poetry needs. Remember, it was once the new rock ‘n’ roll. Now, it’s The…
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Mark Ogle’s family and several Shore Poets past and present. Alison playing. The Mark Ogle Memorial Poem trophy. Hamish Whyte, Jacob Polley and Diana Hendry relax. Angus Peter Campbell receives the trophy from Lizzie and Deborah. Angus Peter with Mark Ogle’s family. (These photos, with full tags, are also on the Shore Poets Facebook pages.)
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News just in: there’ll be a HappenStance Press reading at Coffee House Poetry at the Troubadour in London on 26th May. Several HappenStance poets will read, including Rob A Mackenzie, Eleanor Livingstone, Michael Mackmin (editor of The Rialto), Gregory Leadbetter, me and Helena Nelson (Mme HappenStance herself). I’ve been thinking about trying to read in…
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On the train into Edinburgh for Polly Clark‘s reading the other night, I finally started to read Sean O’Brien‘s Forward and TS Eliot prize-winning collection The Drowned Book. Now, I might be missing something–I must be missing something, if the judges of both prizes aren’t–but I simply couldn’t get into it. It’s not that it’s…
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Out last night to Polly Clark‘s reading at Edinburgh Uni’s Office of Lifelong Learning, where she’s the Royal Literary Funding writer in residence. Polly was reading along with three OLL students. Debbie Cannon, who read at last month’s Shore Poets, was the only poet of the three. She kicked off with a reduced version of…
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One of the questions that one always faces with an anthology is what is its rationale, its purpose and aim? Like its team mates 100 Favourite Scottish Poems and 100 Favourite Scottish Poems to Read Aloud, 100 Favourite Scottish Football Poems, edited by Alistair Findlay, hints at a kind of democratising of the canon in…
Amy Jo Philip 