Over the past few months I have been experimenting with music and sounds to see if I can make backing tracks over which I can then record a poem. The poems I am using are from a sequence I am still writing about a character called Blue. I have been writing about this character for … Read more
Time for another Guest post. This time a new Guest Collaboration, a collaboration between two colleagues who have experience of working in the public sector. The collaboration arose from workshops with a Writer in Residence with whom they worked last year. The writers appear as The Renegade Poets – feedback welcome: The Minister for Re-invention stepped … Read more
My latest creative project is morphing into something quite different. It began as a poetry sequence. Since 1985 I have been returning to the character called Blue every few years and writing about him. He is a kind of anti-hero crossed with a detective from a Raymond Chandler novel and a blues singer. I have … Read more
It begins like this, yes, a small kiss then everything comes into gentle focus each twist of the lens just a speck of dust, then we must remember why we are here, set out in previous lives Sometimes the external structures which we place on things can really help us to be more creative. … Read more
What’s the point? Where’s the essence of all that we held Just as we stood on the balcony watching the kestrel, wings going body stopping eye sharp watching and then drop… Blue in black, clothes as a backdrop Stop what you can drop whilst you can …and that’s the point taking the essence of 28 … Read more
After two days of posts about beauty, that made me curious to see if I could find a poem which would keep the theme going. The poem I chose is from “the alice conversations” which I wrote back in 2004. It is a collection of poems about the archetype of the anima (the inner feminine … Read more
As promised then, without pause or hesitation. Here is a poem from the third sequence of poems about Blue. In fact, going even further than that, here are two poems. These are the final two poems in the collection. So, it is from this point that I spring forward to the new collection. The indulgence … Read more
As promised in the previous post, here is a poem from the second sequence of poems about Blue. This time it was a sequence of sonnets which were developed using fragments taken from magazines, books and newspapers. I called it ‘foundlings’. The fragments used generated storyline and diverse ideas to push the writing forwards into … Read more
I wrote about plans for a new sequence of poems here. Over the next three posts I will be sharing a poem from each of the first three sequences about Blue. This one is from the first sequence ‘sharp blue / breath’. The title, ‘calling card’, is an oblique reference to a line from … Read more
I can point to a specific time at which my poetry writing shifted from early nonsense to something that I was proud of. I was working as a Community Artist at the time and the workshops we were delivering were inspiring my work into new areas. I was also experimenting with making small hand-made booklets. … Read more