Monday, December 27, 2010

poetry snapshots: mavis gulliver


Breaking Dormancy



Time passed and I forgot

the envelope labelled in your precise hand,

‘Welsh Poppy seeds from my garden…for yours.’

Forgot the fine dust filtering through my fingers,

settling on stubborn soil.



Three years on, the ache of your death

has dulled…a little.

I have learned to speak of you without weeping.



Now you are back, you…and your poppies.

Pendulous buds expanding, shaking out their creases,

opening bright as suns,

spilling yellow petals

seeds

memories.



published in Envoi, Issue 146, 2007




Mavis says: I came to poetry relatively late in life and have Joanna to thank for her excellent constructive criticism on the OCA Course in 2006. I write mainly about nature, landscape, islands, family and memories - linking the different aspects together wherever possible.

Monday, December 13, 2010

poetry snapshots: anne stewart


Winter Loving



“Let us have winter loving that the heart

May be in peace and ready to partake

Of the slow pleasure spring would wish to hurry

… ” Elizabeth Jennings Winter Love





She lies awake listening to the storm.

It breaks in through open transom lights;

runs riot through the house, a vandal gouging

pristine walls. Bringing the outside in.



She hears the garden’s talk, thin as thorns

scratching glass, alpines clinging for dear life,

plastic chairs sitting themselves down hard.

And you lie close. Boats in safe harbour.



She tries to listen better, strains to hear

the scrape of firs digging in their heels

against the gale, but you snore too loudly,

content with life just lapping at your sides.



Thugs of rain shout and batter at the window

as though they’d come to sort you out. Listen!

Listen to the whale-song of the trees as they

wallow in it. See how they shake their fists.



Anne Stewart

shortlisted in the Frogmore Poetry Competition, 2007 and published in The Frogmore Papers, No. 70, Autumn 2007;


published in Flarestack Poetry anthology, Mr Barton Isn’t Paying, 2009;

included in collection, The Janus Hour, Oversteps Books, 2010 (http://www.overstepsbooks.com/, ISBN 978-1-906856-16-8)


Founder of the poet-showcase site, www.poetrypf.co.uk, Anne Stewart is administrator for Second Light Network and co-edited several issues of ARTEMISpoetry. She was awarded MA(Dist) in Creative Writing from Sheffield Hallam University in 2003 and won the Bridport Prize in 2008. The Janus Hour (Oversteps Books, 2010) is her first collection.
http://www.secondlightlive.co.uk/artemis.shtml http://www.overstepsbooks.com/

Saturday, December 11, 2010

review of centuries of skin in artemis poetry magazine

I admire Maggie Sawkins' poetry, and I'm proud that she has favourably reviewed 'Centuries of Skin' in ARTEMISpoetry magazine. She says:

'These are tales from the border told by an outsider, intent on recording...These thought provoking poems bring the past and present refreshingly to life.'

ARTEMISpoetry magazine

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

poetry: form and experience and tennyson too



What with all the moving house and novel redrafting and tutoring and assessing and visiting London, I haven't had a chance to post about the module that I've been revising and updating for the Open College of the Arts. http://www.oca-uk.com/
'Poetry: Form and Experience' is a Level Two poetry module (60 credits towards a degree). The workbook is illustrated with some wonderful paintings on the theme of writing, including the front cover painting 'Portrait of the poet Velimir Khlebnikov' by Mikhail Larionov.
I've included many interesting internet links, including this one to the Poetry Archive, where Tennyson reads 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' in an 1890 recording so crackly that he could have been reading in the battlefield itself:
Shivers down my spine.


York Literature Festival HUB 2018 event, Tuesday, 20th March

I'm looking forward to my first event for absolutely ages - at the York Literature Festival HUB. Many thanks to YLF and Valley...