Cheshire Poet Laureate 2006

Looking Back

2007-03-24T18:35:00.000Z

Being Cheshire Poet Laureate 2006 – a brief reflection

One of the last events of my year as Cheshire Poet Laureate was to read a poem at the Youth Parliament Elections in County Hall. As well as about a hundred young people and various senior members of the Council, six Westminster MPs were there to answer questions on youth issues. Two minutes before the results were announced came my poem. A year ago, I could not have even envisaged this scene.

The Cheshire Poet Laureate scheme sets out to introduce poetry to new audiences, and also to give one poet a high degree of support in their development. I have experienced these two aspects in all kinds of surprising ways. Poetry on Holmes Chapel Library windows, on thousands of bookmarks, read to MPs and worm-charmers, shared on the radio, and above all to thousands of visitors to the ‘Lines on the Map’ web site, has certainly reached a new audience.

I took on the post with the inevitable apprehension. It’s not just about writing poems, but also involves a lot of high-risk engagements with groups of people who are unknown quantities. It is very definitely a venture into the open, away from the private page and into all kinds of social arenas. One immediate worry: would I be able to ‘write to order’? – something I had rarely done before. In the event, I was delighted to find that the commissions and deadlines brought out some of my best work – possibly because it forced me into an occasional discipline of writing which is often crowded out by the day job.

I have begun to understand a much wider role for poetry, in catalysing social interaction, and providing public words for important moments. This was clearest in the Manley ‘Commonplace’ project – where I got a sense that poetry could gather and make articulate the corporate memory of a community. I think my work – what I write and what I take on – will be subtly different as a result.

During the year I have also experienced an increase in ambition for my work – not just in acceptance or publication, but in a desire to try out larger forms, sequences, to do something different from my previous work. The Poetry Masterclass at Tŷ Newydd was excellent – not in offering new skills so much as providing a creative space and an inspiring peer group. Many of the poems in my book originated in that week.

Producing the book has been a real culmination. Not having published before, I hadn’t realised the confidence-boost and ‘solidity’ of reading from a published and substantial volume. The process – although I could have done with another six months – was very helpful in getting a sense of what my work is, what are its strengths and weaknesses, and what are the requirements of reaching a wider audience.

I want to thank all those involved in this scheme – previous incumbents, who are beginning to form an influential network as a group; Anne Sherman for continual support; and Cheshire County Council for maintaining such an innovative and enriching scheme, whose effects, though subtle, will be long-lasting and deep in the literary life of our County.

Showcase Event - October 10th

2006-10-21T12:58:00.000Z

In many ways, this evening was the culmination of my year as Cheshire Poet Laureate (even though there were nearly three months to go. It was a chance to invite an extraordinary variety of friends – artists, poets, members of various groups, people who don’t read poetry at all – and present some poems in the context of the story of this year. In the event, about 80 people turned up to the Beswick building in the University of Chester.

Here’s a set list with comments. I used a data-projector to show pictures of the different events and some pictures to go with particular poems.

1. Give me your hand. David Hart wrote to me that the Laureateship would be really good if I could ‘find ways of meeting by means of it.’ This simple poem is about that – the way poetry can help to create community.

2. Retina. Quote ‘My / planet on which everything / touches down.’ Poetry as a way of looking at the world.

3. This is a Fair Trade Poem. (in this Blog) My first commission was for Macclesfield Fair Trade fortnight, and led to a series of workshops with children, writing on bananas!

4. Footnotes 4 (Foxhill). These ‘Footnotes’ poems are observational walks with close looks at natural objects.

5. This is how it will be was commissioned for a Cheshire Schools’ Celebration. I introduced it with the words written for Radio Merseyside’s ‘Thought for the Day.’

Poetry and children
Children seem to have a hotline to poetry. Sometimes they just come out with words and phrases that take your breath away, that an adult would have to sweat over for weeks.

I think this may be something to do with the newness of what they see, the way they look at the world for the first time and notice what we take for granted. To a child, ‘Morning has broken, like the first morning…’

Every spiritual tradition starts with awareness, opening your eyes to what is real. The famous words of Jesus - unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven – are a constant challenge to us world-weary adults.

I wrote this poem, which is a sort of blessing, for a Cheshire Schools Celebration. I think it’s possible for this to be true for every child, I hope and pray that it can be.

6. A million teachers was commissioned for the opening of the large new extension at Holmes Chapel Library. It appears in vinyls on the library windows, and on thousands of bookmarks issued with books.

7. It is written is a new poem from the Isle of Arran. The ‘writing’ on each part of the landscape that is a kind of prayer.

The first part finished with the Willaston Worm-Charming, two poems and a song:
8. A Long Thin Charm for the Worms
9. Sonnet of the Worm-charmers
10. A Worm’s Life

Part 2
11. The greenest frog and the smallest bird
12. Footnotes 1 (Fron Isaf) Another ‘Footnotes’ poem, this time from Wales.
13. Commonplace. I ran a village workshop in Manley where residents collected memories around Manley Common. Barbara Foxwell and Chris Mowap, residents of the village, joined me to read the memories that intersperse the poem. This poem was presented at the Local Government Association conference in Chester.

On the theme of stories:
14. Descent
15. Pablo Neruda, my father and me

And a poem about the artist, Samuel Palmer:
16. Palmer’s Moon

The final part of the evening focused on ‘Lines on the map.’ This poem probably started it all:
17. Twemlow Green
18. Footnotes 6 (Llanystumdwy)

And, lastly, my ‘signature tune’ poem:
19. Here

Lines on the Map - 20,000 Readers!

2006-10-21T12:47:00.000Z

I have just received some statistics showing how ‘Lines on the Map’ has been used since it was launched in March. After a lot of initial publicity – in newspapers and on local radio – about 9000 people visited the site in the first month. This reduced steadily in April May and June – perhaps the novelty had worn off – but the number of visits almost doubled in July, then again in August. September reached a peak of over 13000! Poems have trickled in by email – about half a dozen each month. The Summer popularity of the site may be accounted for by:

1) the Holmes Chapel Library bookmarks. Every borrower got a poem bookmark with details of the web site on the back.
2) Listing on the Poetry Society ‘Poetry Landmarks’ web site.
3) ‘Word-of-mouth’ publicity after children’s workshops and school visits.
4) A second press release about ‘Lines on the Map’ on local papers.

On average, visitors to the site look at 3 pages – making a total so far of nearly 60,000 page views by nearly 20,000 visitors. This is a very large audience for poetry, where most poetry books and magazines only have runs of several hundred, and shows a successful outreach of poetry to new audiences. The table below shows the most visited towns and villages. Unsurprisingly, Chester – with a large population and a number of poems – attracted the most visitors, but every dot on the map has attracted a respectable number of readers.

Autumn Events

2006-08-24T14:38:00.000Z

12 September - Local Government Association reception at Chester Town Hall - Village project
18 September - Favourite Books Group - Congleton Library
10 October - Showcase Event as part of the Chester Literature Festival (University of Chester)
23 November - Macclesfield Lit and Phil, 'Poetry and Science.'

Manley Common -17 July

2006-08-24T14:21:00.000Z

Manley is a small Cheshire village, very scattered and rural. At one end of it there is an enclosed section of Manley Common with a few houses at one side - a triangle of field which is surrounded by a drystone wall. Talking with Mike Wellman, of the Cheshire Sandstone Ridge Econet Project, the idea came up of a writing workshop to capture some of the village stories and memories.

So, on a warm evening, we gathered by Manley Common. I had prepared some sheets with some background information on the 'stories' that converge at Manley Common - the stone walling, quarrying, animal farming, Roman remains, the use of marl, the wells... About thirty people came from the village and immediately began to talk and share experiences. This conversation continued in the Village Hall all evening with wine and cheese. Older people were telling their stories and younger ones writing them down. This material will provide the basis for my commissioned poem for a meeting in Chester in September. At this, representatives from Local Government around the country will be discussing the future of villages. So, watch this space for the poem and further village material!

Knutsford SciBAr - Poetry and Science

2006-07-04T09:06:00.000Z

A fascinating session at SciBAr last night. On a sweltering July night, about fifty people crammed into a back room of a bar in Knutsford to hear an account of relativity – a talk followed by a question time which was challenging and wide-ranging. Professor Jeff Forshaw (from Manchester University and CERN) gave a jaw-dropping account of the implications of Einstein’s theories in plain English.

It’s really exciting that so many people care enough about ideas to form groups like this. More info about SciBAr: ( www.knutsford-scibar.co.uk ) In Macclesfield they have started a ‘Literary and Philosophical Society’ which will have meetings in the Library in the Autumn. This will have a similar agenda of encouraging discussion of ideas, although its brief will be much wider than SciBAr. I hope to present a talk for them on Science and Poetry.

I was at SciBAr to bring a poem I’d written after an earlier session on ‘All about Memory’ – so this was a fairly rare conjunction between poetry and science. Here are a few first thoughts on the issue – and the poem:

Poetry and Science are two ways of looking at the world. Like science, poetry investigates experience, presents the data.

A poem is not just the observation, the results of the experiment – a poem is itself a repeatable experiment in the field of language. When you read a poem – if it works – the experience of the writer happens all over again. There’s ‘a shock of recognition’ I get it!

Science strives for accuracy. A poem makes room for, even encourages, ambiguity. The poet is trying to hit a moving target, directing the flow of a river which is always bursting its banks. Poetry has a sense that experience is bigger than the words we try to shoehorn it into, but that, if we get the words right, then that experience can be communicated.

The poet may be closely observing a particular experience, but the poem takes the data out of context. In the poem it can ‘fit’ all kinds of other experiences. The experience may be local, particular – the poem can be universal.

Wordsworth’s ‘Daffodils’ is not, first of all, about daffodils: it’s about the recovery of sensory data.

All About Memory

A lost memory
is ringing, ringing, somewhere
behind the bar. Will someone answer it
please.

What were you doing?
What was the weather like?
What were you thinking about on that day?

A candle was burning, your wine
lay red in the glass. Pigeons were
bobbing into the gap, under the eaves
of the opposite windows. A pint
clunked on the table. I remember
how good you were at digits.

How does it all link together
the space, and the smell, and the word?
A herdsman’s skill, a kitten blind
in the blinding dark.

Do you know that you don’t know?
Can your brain be hard-wired to remember?
Can you be trained to forget? I knocked
on a door, a door that wouldn’t open.

How does it all link together
the space, and the smell, and the word?
A herdsman’s skill, a kitten blind
in the blinding dark.

Her research is in memory
for faces. She scans the crowd.
She takes a sip, nods, looks intently
at the questioner, hands crossed in her lap.
Actually knowing that you’ve seen
a face before. It’s stored
as a configuration, something resilient
that doesn’t change with age.

How does it all link together
the space, and the smell, and the word?
A herdsman’s skill, a kitten blind
in the blinding dark.

Worm-Charming at Willaston

2006-07-03T16:15:00.000Z

A hot afternoon at the end of June. I am sitting in the shade of a tree in front of a school playing field marked out into 144 squares, ready for the annual Worm-charming championships at Willaston near Nantwich. This is a quintessentially English event – in equal measures silly and serious. The contest is hedged about with rules and etiquette – no digging, no drugs (including water!) to be poured into the ground. The object is to encourage as many worms as possible to leave the safety of their dark burrows and venture out into the light. Blackbirds do this by scurrying around, making a sound like rain. Up come the worms, down comes the beak.

Today’s competitors approach this problem in different ways. Some hammer the ground with plastic tubes, or, indeed, plastic hammers. Others push a garden fork into the turf and strike it. Others play deep notes on a double bass, or tempt the worms with the music of a mouth organ. One person, in an inflatable fat suit, circles around on stilts. I hope the worms can see him, but I doubt it. In half an hour, the friendly worm containers are heaving with the results of this non-banned form of hunting. The winner has gathered about a hundred and fifty – hugely impressive on such a dry day, but a long way from T. Shufflebotham’s ground-breaking (but not if he kept to the rules) five hundred and eleven, back in 1980!

I thought such an event needed a charm, so produced this long thin poem in the form of an Anglo-Saxon kenning, where the worm is named extensively – in the hope that if you hit the true name, the worm will come to you.

come
come to me
blind-lurker
burrower
mulch-eater
twist-curler
soft survivor
stone-wriggler
rot-cleaner
self-splitter
flexible friend
cranny-squeezer
shade-lover
moist-drinker
dew-sipper
leaf-hauler
root-loosener
tube-dweller
snakelet
siphon
death-sign
life-sign
fish bait
skin-breather
humbleworm
mortalworm
beak-tugger
bird-resister
ground-clinger
earth-stitch
living string
elastic stretch
compost-blender
world-chewer
tiny miner
soil-sapper
spaghetti loop
micro-gut
only an eater
consumer
devourer
squiggle-writer
lawn-scribbler
icing-tube
cast-piper
screw-threader
ground-gripper
slinky-striped
muscle-ringed
knot-twister
cold-sleeper
spring-waker
rain-unraveller
clammy
self-knitter
cord-winder
neglected
ignored
come to my
charm

Lines on the Map - Update

2006-05-18T14:22:00.000Z

This project keeps steadily growing. New poems include John Williams' amazing account of what washes up on Runcorn Beach (did you know Runcorn had a beach?) as well as a few really interesting location-pieces by Joy Winkler, Cheshire's poet laureate in 2005, and some exciting song-texts from Graham Bellinger. Don't miss the fascinating collection from the children at Wimboldsley Primary school.

There are now about 30 places featured with more than 60 poems. Keep sending them in!

More about Fair Trade

2006-05-18T12:32:00.000Z

Yesterday we had a writing workshop for children at Frodsham Arts Centre.
Vale Royal (a district of Cheshire) is setting up a Fair Trade garden at the Royal Horticultural Society show at Tatton Park. They invited me to come and do a reading in this location, and we came up with the idea of a banana writing workshop. The children from St Luke's RC Primary School wrote some amazing poems - vivid and alive - on the theme of Fair Trade. Then they wrote out a key line on a banana, and we took some pictures - a process which we will repeat at the RHS Show.

Recent Events
- SciBar, Knutsford. 3 April
- Judging Ottakar's Poetry Competition (Crewe) - Prize giving 20 April
- Vale Royal Children's competition for the Queen's 80th birthday. Tea party - 3 May
- Poem of the month. First Thursday, Heswall 4 May (I picked 'Poem' by Elizabeth Bishop)
- Thought for the Day on Radio Merseyside - 8-12 May
- Shavington High School Lunch Club. A 'Lines on the Map' workshop. 10 May
- Congleton Poems and Pints - 11 May
- Meeting with Manley Parish Council about forthcoming Manley Common writing event

Fair Trade in Macclesfield

2006-03-15T14:07:00.000Z

This was an unofficial commission - to write something for Macclesfield Fair Trade fortnight. Local schools were asked to write and display poems to put up in Macclesfield Library, and an event was set up with the Mayor. As a bonus, Macclesfield acquired Fair Trade status as a town the week before, so there was plenty to celebrate.

I got to thinking about the processes involved in this. When a child is asked to write a poem about an issue - when I'm asked to write about an issue - there is a certain amount of extra engagement involved. I looked up some web sites, became concerned. And then when the poems are displayed or read out, there is a kind of celebration and valuing of these expressions.

The children were great - lively vigorous poems - sometimes carried away by rhyme, sometimes serious and factual. I tried to write something that I felt but which was true to the issues. Here's what I came up with - I'd value comments and responses!

This is a Fair Trade Poem.

This poem is made from
one hundred per cent recycled
words. It has not been tested
on animals. It has no additives
no artificial colouring.

Juanita’s poem is a sweet banana
fragrant, glowing. But the price
has fallen. ‘Dear teacher’ she says,
‘My children can no longer come
to school.’ This poem is made
from recycled words, but who
is listening?

Maria’s poem is a handful
of glinting coffee beans. She lets them
slide through her fingers. The price
has fallen. No clothes, no shoes
no medicine for the children.
This poem is made from recycled
words, but who is listening?

The supermarket poem is all noise
and colour. A price goes up
so we cross the aisle and choose
another brand, another packet.

Our lives are linked to their lives.
Their lives are linked to our lives.
This poem is made from recycled words.
Listen.

Lines on the Map

2006-03-06T18:14:00.000Z

Launched on March 2nd with a first batch of poems…

The idea of this project is a simple map of Cheshire, with dots to represent places. As the mouse moves over these dots, the place name appears. When clicked, the name brings up a poem – normally with some kind of introduction. I would like to see this build up into a comprehensive ‘poetry map’ of the County. I can imagine all kinds of conversations when a resident of Twemlow Green, for example, has a look at the poem connected with their place. It may give unique insights into the way people perceive places, and encourage local poetry.

Diane at County Hall has very kindly put the map together as part of the Cheshire Readers and Writers web site. You can find it at this address:
www.cheshire.gov.uk/ReadersAndWriters/Writers/linesonthemap/home.htm

I’ve set up some simple ground rules:

1. The copyright in your poem remains with the author, but you allow Cheshire County Council permission to publish it on the ‘Lines on the Map’ website.

2. Cheshire County Council reserves the right not to publish a particular poem, or to remove any material from the site without notice, but published poems will normally remain on the site for a minimum period of one month.

This is not a competition, or an edited publication. There will be pieces which are really good, and others which are quite un-crafted. That’s like a walk through the village or town, with points of interest and points which are less exciting. I think poetry is a big enough space for a whole variety of responses to co-exist quite happily.

A couple from North Manchester went on a day trip to Chester, and when they got home Bill wrote a charming poem about it. Now it’s on the map. I think that this whole process expresses something really important – a meaningful role for poetry in people’s lives, capturing experience, sharing it with others.

If you have a poem about a Cheshire place, or a response to someone else’s poem – email it to me at cheshirepoetlaureate@googlemail.com

Commissions - are they possible?

2006-02-12T17:07:00.000Z

This week I called in at Holmes Chapel Library to talk to the chief librarian. One of my core commissions is to write something for the opening of the new extension – words that may appear on bookmarks, on window vinyls, and possibly in stone! The small and busy library seemed dwarfed by the building rising behind it. The floorspace is to be doubled in a time when many libraries seem to be contracting. Some of the older customers are up in arms that the library will be shut for eleven weeks, depriving them of reading and talking books – but they are allowed, even encouraged, to take away stacks of books for the duration.

I think libraries are so important, even though the Internet is now first port of call for reference for most people. A library is a meeting place, a network, a constant celebration of the relationships between people and words. While I was there a customer discussed the word ‘carboys’ with the librarian – it was a crossword clue that didn’t seem to be right.

I came away with a few reference books about Holmes Chapel, and a lot of pictures of the building site. How will I start to write about this? No idea, frankly, but I know that I have to move away from the commission before coming back to it. I have to find a point of contact that means something to me – not just a dull reworking of conventional ideas. I only hope I can do it…

The new Library extension will be a great place for local writing workshops, and poetry readings, as well as all kinds of community events. So I hope some of these will happen in the summer.

Andrew Motion gets some stick from Roy Hattersley in the Guardian, for writing about uninspiring subjects: ‘I have more respect for Andrew Motion’ he says ‘than to believe he could possibly be moved by the thought of Prince Charles reaching civil-service retirement age.’
http://books.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1703302,00.html

He’s got a point, but I think it’s worth taking some risks to try and get poetry in front of a wider audience. Will that happen at Holmes Chapel? Watch this space…

Poetry and Workshops

2006-02-03T21:13:00.000Z

Last night at First Thursday, Heswall… A highly recommended venue and reading – First Thursday takes place in the back of an excellent bookshop, and provides a very entertaining evening. It includes a ‘Painting of the month’, a favourite poem, a guest poetry reading, some virtuoso live music and a brief open mic slot. Listening to poetry is so intense, I think a ‘mixed media’ evening like this is a great idea which opens it up to a wider audience.

Paul writes about workshops and feedback:

'It was actually exhilarating and really exposed the bits of poems that needed work, as well as surprising insights that even the author hadn't seen. I miss this experience greatly. As a consequence of not having such a group - I write much less than I did then!'

I think this ‘workshop’ experience is so important. It affirms new directions which you might be really unsure about, and sometimes demolishes things which need demolishing. In my experience this is the scary part. In a good workshop trust builds up and people are not destructively critical about others’ work: but sometimes just reading a line or poem in this context you realise that it doesn’t work – it kind of self-destructs. This is much harder to experience on your own. If you can’t find a good workshop it’s well worth starting a correspondence with a couple of kindred spirits. I’ve sustained an exchange of letters like this for the past six years, and it has enriched my writing hugely. I say letters, not email. For me the leisurely pace of sending off some poems then getting feedback and new poems in a couple of months is sustainable – an email whizzing back the same day is not.

Workshops and correspondence are as much about giving as receiving – what builds up trust is the close reading and feedback you give to the others – only then will they be realistic, appreciative and honest enough to help you.

First Events

2006-01-25T01:34:00.000Z

On Monday afternoon (16 January) I went to County Hall for the formal handover and photo-call. We negotiated the curious maze of corridors, met up with Joy Winkler (the 2005 poet) and we spent a long time smiling on the lower steps, handing over the silver scroll. The press release and pictures have gone out to all the papers. I began to realise how big this thing is when I started to get phonecalls and emails.

So far, the Chester Evening Leader has been first past the post (Jan 20) followed by The Wilmslow Express, the Sentinel (which covers some of Staffordshire and South Cheshire), Radio Stoke and the Manchester Evening News. The Sentinel sent a photographer and should have a lot of cold-looking images of me sitting on steps on MMU Crewe Campus. Today, Tuesday, the Manchester Evening News photographer took pictures of me in Frodsham Park and on the hill, a misty view of Liverpool and the motorway stretched out behind my book. And I just recorded an interview about the web project – Lines on the Map – for Silk Radio in Macclesfield – to go out on the news bulletins next Sunday.

I’m beginning to realise the possibilities of this laureateship, the way it opens doors for poetry in lots of places which would be closed to me as a private individual. Watch this space!

Unofficial Commission: A Fair Trade poem for Macclesfield Fair Trade Fortnight in March, and the town has just received Fair Trade Status.

Coming Events:

February 2. Reading at ‘First Thursday’ – Lingham’s Bookshop, Heswall. 7.30

March 8. Fair Trade Event, Macclesfield.

March 24-26. A Lent Retreat at Foxhill Centre based around the poetry of George Herbert, including an open event on Saturday Evening with poetry, pictures and music. Details http://www.foxhillconferences.co.uk/page.php?domain_name=foxhillconferences.co.uk&viewpage=2006%20Retreats

Cheshire Poet Laureate 2006

2006-01-10T15:08:00.000Z

Cheshire Poet Laureate 2006
A few starting thoughts about poetry...

There are moments – as a teenager, feeling the rush of unexpected emotions, or in grief – where people instinctively turn to poetry. ‘I just had to write’ they say ‘trying to put it into words.’ The results - although very therapeutic - can often be embarrassing in the cold light of day. The poet, I think, is the person who doesn’t stop feeling this necessity to write. For whatever reason, they need to respond to their life with written words.

As soon as you write something down, it’s as if you split yourself – instead of one person feeling something intensely, you now have become two people – a writer and a reader. The very act of putting the words down and then re-reading them distances you from the raw experience, but also begins a certain shaping of that experience. Pinned down into words it all makes a bit more sense.

Even if you are the only reader of your work, it has already moved out from your head to a more public place. When you show it to somebody else, a few more things start to happen. Will it be accepted or rejected? Does it make sense? Does it say to the other person what it says to me? How could I make it clearer? How could I make it more memorable? These are the big questions of poetry, and to answer them is the work of a lifetime.

At this point there is a huge resource available to help you – the cumulative experience of poets throughout the ages, and especially those who are writing now. So read. And when you find a poem that moves you, look for more from the same author. Get inside a poem, find out what it is that speaks to you, what moves the poet makes. Listen to feedback from other people, particularly those who are writers. Go back to your writing and read it as if you have never seen it before. Rewrite it, change it, experiment.