Favourites and Links to writers' websites
Lynn's favourite poem
Lynn Trebill has requested her favourite medwaymaria poem, A sofa in the eighties. I wrote this whilst Lynn and I were doing the Certificate in Practical and Imaginative Writing together. Lynn is about to graduate from the University of Kent with a 2:1 degree in English. Well done, Lynn, and thanks for remembering this poem. It was written in repsonse to Seamus Heaney's A sofa in the forties. The phrase 'death gondola' is a direct quote from Heaney's poem. My family will recognise the green striped sofa that travelled round the south of England. Hope you enjoy it.
Maria
A Sofa in the Eighties
I was born in Bourne and Hollingsworth,
conceived by credit, (an interest-free birth),
and taken home to Wimbledon
by Fiona and John
for their bijou maisonette.
Only a two-seater would fit.
They raced up the property
ladder to prosperous Surrey;
a grand town house, three floors,
built for young executives with more
money than sense. It didn’t sit well.
Dreams of modern living turned to marital hell.
Fiona fought for custody of the furniture
in the settlement, and we settled for
lodgings in Leatherhead, until she grew weary,
and fostered me out to her brother in Hackney.
My springs sang to the risky rhythms of a gay bachelor,
but I had no aspirations to the role of death gondola.
My plush velour was thinning and my arms were looking tired.
He bought a futon from Ikea. I thought I’d be retired
to a home for old sofas with others like me.
Then I moved down to the Medway Towns with Anna’s family,
where the children played trains on me and spilt Ribena,
and tortured my back against a radiator.
Their cats clawed my cushions.
I was going out of fashion.
They upgraded to a sofa bed,
so they could put up Uncle Fred.
And now the end is near. I fear the final curtain
draped over to cover each scar and stain.
My final journey is in a Ford Transit hearse.
With no eulogy, no funeral verse,
I am shouldered ceremoniously
to be laid to rest in Streatham with Aunt Jenny.
Comforted with Plumbs Stretch Covers, free from strife,
I end my days with Auntie: a cushioned life.
Heidi Colthup
http://farmyardtales-chickenlady.blogspot.com/
Tina Lawlor Mottram
Poet, artist, environmentalist, workshop leader, allotment gardener... the list goes on. Here is a favourite poem from Tina, wriitten after being searched by a policeman at the Climate Camp.
Climate camp; Kingsnorth August 2008
I am not angry at you, Mr Policeman
Asking for my name, address, my home
No Sir. I have nothing lurking in my bag
That will harm you. I act with peace and love
For the world.
I have nothing to hurt you but what
You cannot see
Hidden in my deepest heart, my love for
Earth and wind and sea.
I hide no weapons in my underwear
My bike is simply that. My way of getting here.
No pollution, no carbon, no 4 X 4
My legs and I cycled here to protest, and I will do more
Pity me Mr Policeman. Your job has rules and overtime
My work goes on and on through a lifetime
of protests against what
We all know is wrong. It is not the easy way.
I work with grace where I can
I try to teach not preach, as my compost piles sky high
Visiting children learn to add their stuff to the pile
Yes Sir and Yes No…I will obey the law Sir
We are not to be feared. Unless
Maybe Mr Policeman, my work is, by example,
to persuade you to change sides?
My work may not seem like much. We are the change we want.
We are the change we need
My work is to show you what we have become
My work is to nurture, to start the un-begun
This is real work.
www.serpentinacreations.co.uk
Katherine May
Katherine May is an author of both prose and poetry, including Ghosts & their Uses (2006) and A Diary of Slow Progress (2007). She is currently working on a novel set in 1930s Gravesend. Glamorous locations are not her speciality.
In order to subsidise the writing, she works as an arts project manager and workshop leader, and is currently developing a major new festival of stories, destined for the Medway Towns in 2009. If she gets any time to spare, she knits, paddles in the sea, and over-feeds her husband.
Rachel Taylor
Rachel Taylor is primarily an opera singer, but enjoys writing the occasional song, poem and piece of prose along with the odd foray into painting.
www.rachelhtaylor.co.uk
Urban Fox Press
The Home of Medway Art, Literature and Music
Weekly Poem
Poems in your inbox are available from:
http://ah.brookes.ac.uk/poetry/weeklypoem
Friday Poems
And by sending an email to Tom Poston of Friday Poems fame
The Poetry Kit
Produces a monthly newsletter with news of books, courses, events and competitions
Cinnamon Press
Also has updates of competitions and writing opportunities
Medway Mermaids
Women’s writing group
http://www.medwaymermaids.btik.com
Conversation Quarterly
An online journal featuring the work of Canterbury and Medway poets www.conversationpoetry.co.uk
Susan Wicks
Susan Wicks is the author of two novels, one of which, The Key (Faber, 1997), was serialised on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. She has also published a short memoir, Driving My Father (Faber, 1995 and Basic Books, 1996), as well as five collections of poetry, the most recent of which is De-iced (Bloodaxe, 2007). She has read her work on national radio and television and in the National Theatre, as well as in many other contexts. She is currently Director of the Centre for Creative Writing at the University of Kent, where short fiction occupies a special place. Roll Up for the Arabian Derby (bluechrome, 2008) is her first book of short stories.
Moniza Alvi
I was at a poetry workshop run by Moniza Alvi in 2006. It was for poets shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize at the University of Kent. She is such a gentle teacher, and so self-effacing. I particularly like her work on the theme of the dual personality that comes from being raised by immigrant parents in England. This influenced the Mitchelstown sequence in my collection Nothing But.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moniza_Alvi
Kate Clanchy
I heard Kate Clanchy read at Chatham library a few years ago, on International Women’s Day. It’s good to hear a poet perform their own work; you get so much more from their poems. I was also in awe of her as she’d had twins about a month previously and was still managing to find time to write. During the time they slept in the afternoon, apparently.
http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/profile/?p=auth125
Patience Agbabi
Another Chatham library event! Everything performed from memory The best performance poet I have seen.
http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth163
John Hegley
Who else could write a poem about an amoeba, turn it into a song and get a Chatham crowd singing it? He is also proud to wear glasses.
http://www.johnhegley.co.uk/
Stephen Morris
Music reviews, prose and poetry by Medway-based writer - originally from Gloucester.
http://www.stephe.co.uk/
Katherine Sturtevant-Stuart
Katherine found me on Facebook, through a book review that I had written. An author of young adult historical fiction, Katherine lives in Berkeley, California
The Poetry Library
Based at the South Bank Centre in London, the Saison Poetry Library houses the Arts Council Poetry Collection, and hosts an online archive of poetry magazines. I visited the library recently and met an American poet, Jack Anderson. 'Us poets, we're shameless,' he said, as we both searched for our own poems in the library (his in book form, mine in various poetry magazines). How true... but the joy of finding your work in a library!
Calliope writers' website
Calliope features fiction, poetry, non-fiction and reviews. Submissions welcome, particularly from younger 'Budding writers.'
Lynne Rees
Formerly Kent -based poet and fiction writer, now based in France, Lynne runs an online poetry workshop. For inspiration, energy and originality, visit...