My diary posts are the place for a bit of my news, poetry community news, plus my adventures in creativity
At the end of this month I’m off to a writing retreat in Wales organised by The Writing School called Journey to the Centre of the Poem with poet Vanessa Lambert. Very much looking forward to this. I’m hoping it will help with that tricky question of what is the poem doing? Hannah Lowe referred to this as “finding the nub of a poem,” in this interesting article.
I’ve booked the trains, now the dilemma is what to pack? Tee-shirts and shades or umbrella and woolies. A very British problem at all times, the only answer is both, though right now this situation is exacerbated by an inclement weather system produced by, you’ve guessed it, climate change. Some poetry news follows but first a reflection on this phenomenon.
This time three years ago I was sitting outside my flat reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep in balmy Mediterranean temperatures that whole month. I can’t help think of the contrast with this year where temperatures struggle to limp above ten degrees, feeling like six with the wind chill factor.
It’s all down to the Polar Jet Stream I hear, fast moving air currents at high altitude which form at the boundary of two different air masses. To the north cold polar air, to the south warm tropical air. By is very nature it fluctuates, it meanders, but this much? According to this article this is a direct consequence of climate change.
“Even a slight change in the “waviness” of the polar or the subtropical jet stream can lead to dramatic weather changes in mid-latitude regions, from northern California to Moscow… In the past 30 years, scientists have observed an intensification of the waves, coinciding with increased global warming. More waviness in the jet stream means that rain and wind remain in a region longer than if the jet stream simply traveled due east with no detours.”
So there you have it. Thirty years of research yet still the deniers clamour.
The Jet Steam 15th April 2023
COMING UP
Friday 21st April 12.00-2.00pm
Poets for the Planet will be joining Writers Rebel on the first day of XR’s four days of mass non-violent protest organised by XR in partnership with more than 70 other organisations including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.
We will holding a picket outside “the home of fossil fuel dark money”, the home of lobbyists and think tanks linked to climate denial, at 55 Tufton Street with speeches from Rupert Read, Juliet Stevenson, Jay Griffiths, Baroness Rosie Boycott and other leading campaigning writers and poetry readings.
The day itself is part of the People’s Picket happening across London by XR, as part of The Big One. XR are picketing numerous government offices along with Tufton Street that day. Writers Rebel won’t be the only group picketing Tufton Street. We will be joined by a 200 strong samba band XR Rhythms, The Dirty Scrubbers, XR Merseyside, XR Plymouth, XR Buddhists and other groups.
Thursday 27th Apr 7.00- 8.30pm
The Auditorium (Level 6) at Foyles, 107 Charing Cross Road, London WC2 0DT hosts the launch of Neptune’s Projects by Rishi Dastidar.
Rishi will be joined in a conversation through their work by fellow poets Jessica Mookherjee and Tania Hershman for an evening of maritime-themed poetry. More info here.
Neptune’s Projects is published by Nine Arches Press who write, “What do you do when you are a god – but powerless to prevent one of your favourite species from their insatiable, accelerating death wish? Such is the dilemma that underpins Rishi Dastidar’s third poetry collection, Neptune’s Project, a reshaping of mythology for the climate crisis era.”
“There has always been an intersection between poetry and the natural world. Now here comes Rishi Dastidar’s Neptune to add wit, postmodern panache and mythic irony to the tradition of the open sea. A richly rewarding read.”
– Roger Robinson
£14 Book and Ticket, inc. a copy of Neptune’s Projects (RRP £10.99) / £8 General Admission
#amwriting Have discovered the Japanese form Zuihitsu just days after coming across an old draft of of poem which approximates that form so playing with that.
#amreading What Poets Used to Know: Poetics § Mythopoesis § Metaphysics by Charles Upton
A blog post by Anne Enith Cooper
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