A chorus of poetry loveres tweeted this poem

As my regular readers will know I was the Tweeter in residence for the latest TraVerses evening at the Traverse Theater, which took place on Monday.  Yet again TraVerses proved itself to be a vibrant night with an eclectic mixture of acts, and there is a real feeling of the vitality that is created when people collaborate across art forms, and the audience of perhaps 50 or 60 proves that there is an interest and that poetry is very much alive in Edinburgh.

I was tweeting what was happening on stage live all night, and also creating a Twitter poem.  For the Twitter poem the audience on the night were given paper and pens, so they could add their own tweets to the poem, while others, who were not able to make it tweeted in lines.  I am afraid that I didn’t get everyone’s name, so can’t thank you all personally here, but you do have my thanks for taking part.  The first line, was taken from the first line of the first poem by  Trio Verso‘s who were the first performers.

TraVerses Twitter Poem

The wind holds you up

only as long as you can stand it.

 

Iorn.  Gold.  Felt.  Fat.  Breeze.  Frost.  Chill.  Ice

 

Running against the standing force,

but the wall will hold you so long as it stands.

 

Emily melting those things again,

useless lumps that bubble blue

and red, eventually becoming not very useful,

but a full poet is pretty validity.

 

Storm Chaser,

perusing air whipped like ice cream,

thinking wind will keep you warm

while my arms hang cold,

my kiss to vanilla.

 

Even the wind gets a better offer

and secretly withdraws

its sexual grip and loving attention

to your bones, everything ends.  Ever.

Poetry in Unusual Places: Part 9

It has been a while since I have been able to post any poetry in unusual places, but I think this will more than make up for it.

For a while in my home the work of Slavoj Zizek, has been held in high regard, while at the same time acknowledging that he is a man who is quite possibly slightly mad.

Zizek is a charismatic philosopher and cultural commentator, having also contributed to the fields of psychoanalysis as well as political and film theory.  One of the things that makes Zizek so remarkable as a thinker is his ability to link things that would appear to others unrelated.  His political thinking although complicated and dense is made easier to understand by the fact that he continually references western culture.  In one memorable film he uses a scene from Batman, in the Christian Bale era, to explain the flaws at the heart of liberalism.

Zizek disliked the culture in his native Slovenia as he felt it was far to influenced by the Communist Government.  He consequently rejected it’s literature and read only work written in English.  As a consequence Zizek’s writings are littered not only with reference to film, crime fiction and other culture, but also poetry.

It may not appear strange to many that a cultural commentator would quote poetry, however, in the four years at University when I was reading Media and Cultural Studies there was not one mention of poetry.  We watched a lot of The Simpson’s (which is almost compulsory when discussing postmodernism), a few good spaghetti westerns (gender studies), documentary films from the 1930′s (something to do with studying documentary films)  and read a lot of Raymond Chandler when studying Crime Fiction.  But never, ever as part of the reading of Cultural Studies, did we look at poetries part in our culture.

Thank you Slavoj.

If any other readers have found poetry in unusual places feel free to let me know mairisharratt@yahoo.co.uk.

Poetry in unsual places: The Whych Elm Project 2

Last year in the regular Poetry in Unusual Places post I reported on the beautiful calligraphy of Susie Leiper at the Whych Elm Project in the Royal Botanical Garndens Edinburgh.  Susie has used lines from several contemporary poems and combined them with the sensuous wood of the whych elm.  I hope you’ll agree that the result is very beautiful.  Below Susie speaks a little about the process.

When the woodcarver Roger Hall suggested I use the offcuts of the wych elm tree to paint poetry on, I wasn’t sure. How could I fully integrate words and wood? Carving does that, but could painting?

My solution was to treat the lines of the wood grain as my writing guidelines, to let those haphazardly spaced sweeps and whorls determine the size and shape of my letterforms. And I wanted very plain letterforms, that would sing with the sheen of the bronze paint.

Also, the words themselves needed to speak to the particular piece of wood – each piece was different, some were in pairs. I read a lot of nature poetry and gather lines in a folder. Sometimes I just have to wait for the right place for those lines. For example, one of the most beautiful pieces of wych elm, with a rough untreated bole, lay waiting for some months until I came across these lines from Kathleen Raine’s Northumbrian Sequence:

For pressing at the tree’s deep root,

Still underground, unformed, is world.

The subterranean, primeval allusions of these lines seemed just right for that piece of elm.

There could be no preplanning other than a quick pencil sketch – I just had to trust my hand that the words would fit when painted. I had to think all the time as I painted: Is this line going to fit? Do I need to reduce some letters to squeeze up. This is thrilling, but meant I had to concentrate all the time on the words. And as the process is so slow, I relished the words as I go along. Writing like this becomes a kind of meditation.

If any readers have examples of poetry in unusual places you would like me to cover then please drop a comment in the comments box or to mairisharratt@yahoo.co.uk.

Poetry in unusual places: Part 7

Over the festive period the Sharratt family usually decant to Norfolk, where much drinking and eating is to be had with other members of the extended clan.  We stay with my brother-in-law who is a house master at Greshams School, near Holt.  I was delighted to find out the WH Auden had been educated there.

All our meals were eaten in a diningroom surrounded by relics from old boys, Auden’s school photograph, a piece of music written by Benjamin Britten.  Strange though, there was nothing from Maclean and Philby, two of the Cambridge Five who were also educated there.

Poetry in unusual places: Part 6

Bill Wilson is fast becoming the most pro-poetry MSP in The Scottish Parliament, this week he quoted Burns and Voltaire during this weeks debate on climate change.

From Burns

“The billows on the ocean

The breezes idly roaming.”

from Deluded swain, the pleasure.  And from Voltaire…

“We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation”.

And the debate on climate change you ask?  Well, they all agreed it is a jolly bad thing.

Date for your diary

On the 17th December the new quote for The Scottish Parliament outside wall will be announced.   For those of you who have not seen the outside wall it is populated with quotes, some from poems and novels, and even one or two from the Bible. 

The quotes have a wide range, my two personal favorites are the now well known quote from Alasdair Gray “Work as if you lived in the early days of a better nation” and from the book of Proverbs “Say but little and say it well” perhapse a reminder to those debating inside.

It is a delightful example of how poetry and words can be incorporated into architecture and life.  And with great wisdom many of the stones were left blank so that quotes could be added over time, reflecting that the parliament, our creative life and Scotland itself is a story yet to be completed.

I awaite the announcement with anticipation.

Poetry in unusual places: Part 5

I’ve been listening to Marc Riley on the radio on and off since I was about eleven.  I first started listening when he was paired with Mark Radcliffe (now of the Culture Show) when they were known as Mark and Lard.  Even back in the early nighties Mark and Lard were championing contemporary poetry, various small preses and would sometimes even have poets on to read.  What may come as more of a suprise is that they were on Radio 1, and I imagine it was only becuase they were on very late at night that they got away with it

Marc (aka Lard) now has a show on BBC 6 Music , the radio station for “cool” people over 25.  While listening last night I was delighted to hear that this week he is interspersing his show with recordings of Ivor Cutler reading.  It is great to hear that Marc is still championing poetry, and expanding it’s audinces by placing in a truely contemporary setting.  Well done that man.

Poetry in unusal places: Part Four

So with out darkest days behind

our ship of hope will steer

and when in doubt just keep in mind

our motto PERSEVERE

It disna matter where she gangs

she’s always happy and gay

now she’s kippin it up with a navvy

at the fit o the sherry brae

The above two slabs of concrete are part of a set of five which can be found along the Water of Leith walkway, just as the walk meets Coburgh Street in Edinburgh.  I have walked past them for years, and I particular like the first slab, which includes the Leith motto, Persevere.  The motto reflects Leith’s past, as a docks for all kinds of international vessles.  However I am afraid to sayI know nothing about where the verses are from, who chose them and why.  I would be grateful if anyone could tell me.

Another reason why I like these slabs is because it’s great to see poetry being incorporated into public works like the Water of Leith walkway.  I wish we could see poetry used in this ay more, as it certainly becomes a talking point and can liven up a walk, as well as stimulating the mind.

Poetry in Unusual Places: Part 3

Today I spent a beautiful autumn morning in the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh.  At the newly opened West Gate.  Among the many exhibitions is the Wych Elm Project.  The project takes a Wych Elm that used to grown in the gardens, and on display are some of the many beautiful pieces of furniture, musical instruments and even a yurt, which have all been made out of the one tree.

One of the exhibits are several off-cuts of the Elm, on with Susie Leiper, a calligrapher, has decorated the wood with excerpts from poems. The poems are

Twilight by Wang Bo

Shadows from the Greater Hill by Tessa Ransford

Spell of Creation, Northumbrian Sequence and The Moment by Kathleen Raine

Wych Elm by Valerie Gillies

The poems are complimented by a video shown in the yurt detailing the project and including Valarie Gillies reading from her own poem.  Well worth checking out.

Poetry in unusual places

The Outer Wall of The Scottish Parliament

Oh those politicians, they do like to liven up their speeches with a little quote from a poem or a song.  Heard this week in The Scottish Parliament was Bill Wilson an SNP MSP for the West of Scotland, quoting from not one, but two poems.  Firstly Walter Wingate

Sirs, row in; ye may as weel
Fish till a’ the licht is lost
Fish till day begins to speel
Ye’ll get naething but a hoast.

And secondly, that old favorite William Topaz MaGonagle.

A pathetic tale of the sea I will unfold
Enough to make one’s blood run cold.

The debate in which Mr Wilson was speaking was on the Marine (Scotland) Bill, which I am sure you will all be pleased to hear passed at Stage One.  If you are interested enough to read Mr Wilsons speech it can be found at The Scottish Parliament Official Report.  A Lump in the Throat will keep you informed of any further poetic outpourings in the devolved body.