My diary posts are the place for a bit of my news and poetry community news, plus my adventures in creativity.
Some suggestions of publications out soon, events coming up and opportunities to nurture your practice follow. Here is some self reflection on last term as I go back to school. If you wanna skip this scroll down to OUT NOW.
I reflect on my time keeping and process and conclude that there is a part of my brain that can make plans, schedule activities and record deadlines in the diary and yet a part of me that seems uber reluctant to follow the plans and schedules.
Whilst it does adhere to deadlines on the whole it’s often a last minute scramble. Not so much with the last assessment which was conducted like a military regime though in the last 30 minutes there was a scramble to acquire free pdf software as the one installed took this opportunity to not cooperate.
At the weekend I create a document called, “REQUIREMENTS” a week by week detailed record of tasks I need to undertake for the course on a weekly basis for this second term. I did this last term and didn’t even look back at the document until week eight. This was despite printing it out storing it at the back of my diary. Realise I could write a note each Monday saying, “CONSULT REQUIREMENTS.” That might do it.
I wonder where this reluctance lies. The reluctance to follow the plan? Is it a bipolar/ADHD symptom or some wayward part? A child part perhaps that just wants to run through the meadows, pick daisies, make a daisy chain and find shapes in the clouds. Or throw my head back and catch rain drops in my mouth, get naked in the rain and roll down the hill, probably not, but dance in the rain, yes.
Or as Baudelaire says here, “It is time to be drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be continually drunk! On wine, on poetry or on virtue as you wish.” https://poets.org/poem/be-drunk Perhaps it’s a part as Baudelaire puts it, that wants to be permanently drunk. That might have worked for him but I figure I’m drunk enough already.
We are expected on the course to carry out self reflection on our learning. This feeds into the assessments. This morning I revisited the assessment submitted. This is new, usually when I submit work, which is rare, there’s an impulse to immediately go back to the document and with cringing agony notice further edits required or the worst typos!
Observing the essay, think, not bad, that paragraph is in the wrong place, ooops a closed bracket fell out. And reflect on the poems. The poems took leaps under the pressure of the deadline and though that meant an order > chaos > greater order process. Alarming, with the deadline swooping towards me I found myself in the “chaos” phase, yet it suggests to me a certain pressure is what made the leaps possible, maybe a few commas were misplaced.
So I’m thinking “Be drunk” when you write, be sober when you edit. The other day it came to me like this, “Write fast, edit slowly, deliberately.” I wonder if this has application for living in general. I figure if you’re gonna be drunk on anything be drunk on love. If you’re gonna self reflect be gentle with yourself. If you gonna plan and schedule be flexible because you are only human not a machine. Know sometimes less is more.
When I studied for my A levels I created a nine hour a day plan, three hours per subject, six days a week. Occasionally mother would ask if I was “getting on with it,” I didn’t show her the schedule, guess she didn’t ask. We were learning to trust each other. Perhaps she might have urged me to be more realistic.
I remember lying in the back garden wondering if there was ANY POINT AT ALL given our government was suggesting we take measures to “Protect and Survive” a nuclear war. Yet still I plowed on I can only assume the thought of parental wrath out bid the threat of nuclear destruction. Suffice it to say I didn’t do well in those exams.
Writing at this time of a climate emergency and multiple crises rather that making me think, ‘is there any point’ actually spurs me on though I get frustrated sometimes how long it takes to resolve a poem, though that’s nothing new. What is new perhaps is a renewed commitment, made during the pandemic, is to go gently.
Like walking the Camino de Santiago, used as a metaphor in my essay, there is so much beauty on the path and sometimes it make sense to linger longer at certain places. And a reminder it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey, always, in all endeavours.
OUT NOW
From Seren Books, Cormorant by Elizabeth Parker publication date, February 26, 2024 info: https://www.serenbooks.com/book/cormorant/
“Elizabeth Parker’s second collection explores its titular bird from all angles: from diving cormorants to cormorants in flight, cormorants in motion and also in stillness. The bird itself is always untameable and irreducible to human impressions, but is bound through poetry with a family history, legacy, and losses.
Family is a key focus of this collection. Parker traces the journeys of her ancestors from Ireland to Liverpool docks and from The Midlands, the bloodlines meeting in London, the family then moving to The Forest of Dean and, finally, the poet starting her own family in Bristol. Parker plays close attention to the city and its inhabitants, human or more-than-human. There is a powerful depth to place here, which is full of carefully observed details about an independent natural world and how humans interact with it.
Through examinations of nature and the human, of shared losses and histories, Parker shows us how to regard the world compassionately. As she considers the miracle of the cormorant, she reminds us of the importance of wonder, offering an uplifting antidote to difficult times.”
This Is the Honey : An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets edited by Kwame Alexander Publication date, 24th February 2024 info:
“In this comprehensive and vibrant poetry anthology, bestselling author and poet Kwame Alexander curates a collection of anthems for our time, at turns tender and piercing, and deeply inspiring throughout. Featuring work from well-loved poets such as Claudia Rankine, Ross Gay, Jericho Brown, Warsan Shire, Amanda Gorman, Terrance Hayes, and Nikki Giovanni, This is the Honey is a rich and abundant offering of language from the poets giving voice to generations of resilient joy. This essential collection, in the tradition of Dudley Randall’s The Black Poets and E.
Ethelbert Miller’s In Search of Color Everywhere, contains poems exploring joy, love, origin, resistance, and praise. Jacqueline A.Trimble likens “Black woman joy” with indigo, tassels, foxes, and peacock plumes. Tyree Day, Nate Marshall, and Elizabeth Acevedo reflect on the meaning of “home” through food, from Cuban rice and beans to fried chicken gizzards.
Clint Smith, Rachel Long, and Cameron Awkward-Rich enfold us in their intimate musings on love and devotion. From “jewels in the hand” (Patricia Spears Jones) to “butter melting in small pools in the hearts” (Elizabeth Alexander), This is the Honey drips with poignant and delightful imagery, music and raised fists. Marilyn Nelson puts it this way in “How I Discovered Poetry:” “It was like soul-kissing, the way the words / filled my mouth.” This is the Honey is definitive, fresh, and deeply moving, a must-have for any lover of language and a gift for our time.”
COMING UP
Wednesday 7th Feb, 8.00pm National Poetry Library, Level 5, Blue Side, Royal Festival Hall Lierature & poetry £7.00
Spoken Word London at the National Poetry Library, in this special appearance SWL will be looking back at its Anti-Hate Anthology with readings and more.
Hosted by Patrick Cash, Hannah Gordon and Jamal Hassan, the event features performances from poets featured in the anthology and some regulars from the SWL community.
Spoken Word London was a popular open mic night held at Dalston’s legendary queer venue VFD, has given a platform to more than 4,000 artists over a ten-year period. More info here
Thursday 22nd February 7.30pm, Omnibus Theatre, Clapham North Side London SW4 OLH, £6.00
Off the Chest: Poetry Open Mic Night
“Hosted by poets Ella Dorman-Gajic and Iftikhar Latif, Off The Chest is an inclusive poetry night celebrating original voices and poetry that makes a statement.
Their open mic segment offers the opportunity to poets of all backgrounds, stages and ages to take to the stage. You will be able to sign up for the open mic on the night, with a limited number of spots up for grabs. Names will be pulled out of a hat.
This night will also feature sets from two acclaimed poets, including Elle Dillon-Reams (as featured on the Guardian and BBC Radio 6, alongside Arlo Parks and Tim Key). The second feature act will be announced very soon.
Funded by Arts Council England, Off The Chest was founded in 2019, and has since produced multiple poetry nights to sell-out audiences, across London and further afield. Don’t miss their third return to Omnibus Theatre.” More info here
NURTURING YOUR PRACTICE
Poetry as “Creative Reception” 6-Week Zoom Workshop, Starts Wednesday, February 21st, 2024 Enrolling now
The tutor
“Born to a Mexican mother and Jewish father, Rosebud Ben-Oni is the author of several collections of poetry, including If This Is the Age We End Discovery (March 2021), which won the Alice James Award and was a Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. In 2023, she received a Café Royal Cultural Foundation grant to write The Atomic Sonnets, a full-length poetry collection based on her chapbook 20 Atomic Sonnets (Black Warrior Review, 2020). Her work appears in POETRY, The American Poetry Review, Academy of American Poets, Tin House, Guernica, Electric Literature, among others. Her poem Dancing with Kiko on the Moon was recently featured in Tracy K. Smith’s The Slowdown. Learn more about Rosebud in the Meet the Teaching Artist series.
How can science and technology shape poetry and unfold the poetic self? In this workshop, we will examine the possibilities of poetry as a science of “creative reception”— that is, how we are (re)defining our connections to reality, each other, artificial intelligence and life outside our planet— and how this kind of imaginative openness can generate new languages that translates our experiences in the 21st century.”
So happy writing to all! If you find your mood low or creativity sluggish at this cold time of low light try taking a walk in nature even if it’s just your back garden or a local park. Note to self: do the same!
A blog post by Anne Enith Cooper
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