My diary posts are the place for a bit of my news, poetry community news, plus my adventures in creativity including features on what’s out now, upcoming and nurturing your practice.
Some news of poetry events and opportunities in January follow. First a personal reflection. When the calendar year comes to a close I guess it’s usual to look forward and to look back. Last year was difficult, a bug from hell in November not unlike the one when I returned from Fuertaventura in January (neither covid at least), six weeks on crutches in that cold spring and the long haul to write my MA personal statement, the mountain ranges of self doubt I had to cross to get that done!
It felt in May things were turning around when I met someone that moved me so deeply I could hardly keep my feet on the ground, started working with the XR Rebel Library and finally, after a delay due to a backlog, got the email from Newcastle University saying I’d been offered a place on the MA in Writing Poetry administered by the Poetry School.
The love thing felt equally heartbreaking and mindbending. My head and heart are presently at war which is an uncomfortable place to be though in truth I think it was triggering deep loss, insecurities, trust issues, so much so I’d have to write an essay and there has been learning and growth (on my part at least, no clue about the other who has not been particularly forthcoming.)
I recognise my part in the misunderstandings that took place, I recognise now how much I am still damaged by the emotional motorway pile up that took place in the 90’s. I’m still working to heal and clear the past though every time I think I’ve got there it seems there’s another hill to climb. A friend sent me this poem the other day I kinda relate
Long Exposure
Even after letting go
Of the last bird
I hesitate
There is something
In this empty cage
That never gets released
Garous Abdolmalekian
Meanwhile the genocide in Gaza grinds on, all the more reason to surround yourself with loving friends, kindness, empathy and compassion. My good friends have been an amazing support these past few weeks when a deep well of hurt and pain overflowed and threatened to drown me. Eventually I imagine I’ll be able to see this for what it is, a healing crisis but right now it’s hard to have that lofty perspective.
Despite all this I guess the high points of the year were getting my MA place, the XR Rebel Library zoom launch, a writing retreat at Ty Newydd Writing Centre in Wales (though I was exhausted the entire time!) and a yoga break in Corfu with kayaking, visits to the capital and small villages, new writing entitled The Absence: As Barthes Once Said the Writer on Holiday is a Myth (because you don’t leave sorrow behind) and a bit of climate research on attitudes to the recent wildfires.
I never really know what’s on the horizon as I don’t plan too far ahead and can never quite imagine what a new year will bring. Even trips away I rarely decide until a week or two ahead. So who knows what this year will bring.
When I was away at Agios Gordios the first time I attempted to walk down — I should say staggered — since by the time I arrived was shattered quite frankly, to the cafe/beach/ yoga studio I was told, “Easy, follow the pink line.” And this is an image of what I found. It seems to sum up my life in general, actually no that’s unfair, guidance is never far away if I remain present. So easy to say. So hard to do.
COMING UP
Looking forward to January there’s a few things coming up most notably the TS Eliots, Sunday 14th 7.00pm GMT at the Royal Festival Hall and later in the month from the Poetry Society an invitation to attend a video discussion between Kabila Kapoor and Kyra Pollitt on the future of sign language poetry Looks like it’s live now.
Also you can book for the launch readings of the Winter Poetry Review (free event) on 25th January at 7.00pm GMT FREE, featuring a great line-up of poets aracelis girmay, Jess Murrain, Oluwaseun Olayiwola and Rachael Allen.
OUT NOW
Something from me. Just posted a new visual poem/collage/montage in my insta @anne_enith see more of these there. 12 images (collage/montage) entitled – Out of The Matrix – All twelve images, found and original, comprise the poem.
Accompanying text reads: We truly live in a world of illusion. The Buddha said it first so I’m not saying anything new. Actually he said, “We live in illusion and the appearance of things. There is a reality. We are that reality. When you understand this, you see that you are nothing, and being nothing, you are everything.”
Though I believe the veils of illusion are falling. We’re told we have democracy, freedom, plenty we can see how lacking is that. We do technically live in a world of plenty but as the seminal near future dystopia author William Gibson astutely noted, “The future is already here – it’s just not very evenly distributed.“ Goes without saying, nor is the present.
The worst kind of illusion or delusion is our lack of seeing clearly. I know this only too well. Our meditation teacher would put it like this, “Who is in the drinking seat when one perceives, speaks, acts?” The person you have become or ego? A wounded inner child? A wounded adult child? Fear? Anxiety? Insecurity? We carry some degree of these inside us.
How do the traumatised, and we’re all traumatised some way; war babies or children of war babies, while the legacy of slavery abides in the blood of so many, etched into last names. How can we make it out of the Matrix and co-create a new world? When war stalks the world? In a #climateemergency?
It’s five years since the IPCC report that suggested we had ten years to avoid breaching the 1.5 limit in global warming. And already it’s breached. There’s no route map, no blueprint, perhaps this visual poem, can suggest a destination, a future with love, light, peace, kindness and return to the awe and wonder of nature.
NURTURING YOUR PROCESS
You might want to check this out from The Literary Consultancy
On January 31, 2024 @ 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
“Welcome to our January member-only events, for members of TLC’s platform, Being A Writer. Being A Writer has been running since 2020 and offers writers a safe space to be creative, and to find support. The aim of Being A Writer is to create a community of happier, healthier writers: our focus is on helping writers to cultivate creativity, and boost wellbeing and resilience. All Being A Writer events are co-created, meaning that we programme in direct response to our members’ feedback and needs. Not yet a member? Sign up for a free 30-day trial today and join the writing community with a difference.”
Wishing you all in this year to come; joy, grace, adventures, kindness and comfort, love and light, courage and wisdom, good mental health and peace of mind. Here’s my new year gift to you
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change
the courage to change the things I can
and wisdom to know the difference.
Reinhold Niebuhr
A blog post by Anne Enith Cooper
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