tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11083049876132455402024-03-05T20:05:32.742-08:00terry quinn poetry ukterry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-65166605322434491212019-10-29T06:26:00.000-07:002019-10-29T06:26:01.805-07:00Hello,<br />
<br />
this blog is now part of my new website, please follow this link,<br />
<br />
thank you,<br />
<br />
Terry.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://terryquinnpoetryuk.wordpress.com/">https://terryquinnpoetryuk.wordpress.com/</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-57995959620087459792019-10-27T12:09:00.004-07:002019-10-27T12:09:56.648-07:00<br />
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<span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Damson Poets </span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">is
on this coming Wednesday, 30<sup>th</sup> October, and will be held in the Snug
at the Continental. This month I am really pleased that Jane Routh is our Guest Reader</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Jane Routh</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> has published four
collections (most recently Listening to the Night 2018). She won the Poetry
Business Book and Pamphlet Competition with her first collection, and has been
shortlisted for a Forward Prize and had a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Jane
contributes articles and reviews to several journals and has also published a
prose book, Falling into Place, on wildlife, weather and work in the rural area
where she lives in north Lancashire, managing an area of ASNW and new woodlands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">She
was asked by the BBC to write a poem for this year’s National Poetry Day. Here
is the result:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://youtu.be/s-955-_rtD8" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc;">https://youtu.be/s-955-_rtD8</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-67007544706999892922019-10-18T03:00:00.001-07:002019-10-18T03:00:32.967-07:00<br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">One
of the pleasures of being in a local Poetry Society such as Preston Poets is
that there are always people who know stuff about poets I should have heard of.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Last
night David Wilkinson gave a fascinating talk on:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #201f1e;">Norman
Nicholson - The underappreciated Lake Poet<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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Norman
Nicholson <span style="letter-spacing: .2pt;">was born in Millom, Cumbria, in
1914 and lived there for the rest of his life. He was award the Queen's Gold
Medal for Poetry in 1977, and the OBE in 1981.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: .2pt;">Nicholson also wrote what David thought of as the
best Guide to the Lakes ever written.</span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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David
is an antiquarian bookseller and member of our Society and brought along 12
copies of Nicholson’s selected poems which he handed out to keep.</div>
terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-49078552329321469382019-10-14T01:35:00.002-07:002019-10-14T01:35:38.970-07:00Going on courses<br />
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A few months ago I
went to a poetry reading that was followed by a Q&A session. <span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white;">Whether Q&A is a
good thing may be dealt with another time.</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Anyway, during this session someone asked</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast;"> the
panel of the </span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">poets </span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast;">who
had been reading </span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">whether going to Poetry
Courses, Exhibitions, Festivals etc increased one’s chances of getting
published. The question was related to the ability to pay for these quite
expensive events if one was unemployed or </span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast;">on a
low wage. This, obviously, </span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">means that one is not making
contacts or friends in the poetry scene.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The answer was that this made no difference at all and
that if one’s work was good enough then it would be published.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">What a load of rubbish.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I could name half a dozen books off the top of my head
that would not have seen the light of day without the poet knowing the
publisher. And I’m not just talking about going to the same University.</span></span></div>
terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-73596874347150177972019-10-09T00:46:00.002-07:002019-10-09T00:46:33.596-07:00<br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">I wrote the following for Lancashire Dead Good Poets a few months ago:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">‘In 2012 I tuned into the BBC for a reading of </span><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">The Wasteland</span></i><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";"> by
Jeremy Irons and Eileen Atkins. I seem to remember recoiling in a mixture of
horror and laughter. I'm not sure about Atkins, but Jeremy wasn't reading but
performing.That was when I started to notice that there is a difference between
poets reading poetry and actors reading poetry. I came across a phrase that
sums up that difference. This person (and I can't find their name, damn it)
said "Actors read vowels and poets read consonants." Another way of
looking at it is that vowels are the emotion and consonants are the intellect.
Consonants can only be spoken in one way and so make speech hard and crisp but
vowels can be pronounced in many ways. Thus with consonants there is a
concentration on the words being spoken but with vowels their open-ended nature
gives rise to you listening to the pronunciation, the rise and fall of the
voice, and away from the meaning of the poem.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">Later
I came across this in an article I had saved in 2013. I’m pretty sure it was by
Al Alverez:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">Given the chance, I'd expel
actors from my poetic republic, on pain of hearing an endlessley repeated
reading of Tennyson's 'Break, Break, Break', given by Donald Sinden. Because,
for the most part, they just don't get it. Their oratorical training lends them
power, charisma, grandiosity and flashes of the craftily sincere, but also a
tendency towards what Basil Fawlty described as the bleeding obvious. Those
silken or trumpeting tones belong in the auditorium or on the screen: they are
so rarely equipped to touch on the idiosyncratic mysteries of the poem.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Some years ago, there was a Radio 4 reading of Keats's 'The Eve of St
Agnes' by Michael Maloney. It should have been a rare treat to hear the whole
of a great poem. It wasn't. Maloney's enunciation, his intonation, his abrupt,
non-metrical pauses, his obtrusive sense of himself were all so acute that the
effect was emetic rather than scary, sensual, forbidden and delicious. No inner
life: all display.<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">On another occasion I witnessed Fiona Shaw reading Eliot's 'Waste Land',
a show that won golden acclaim. She can be a fine actress, certainly but what
she inflicted on 'The Waste Land' failed to capture its fragmentation, its
repressed torment, its distinctly conservative apocalypse. Pound knew what he
was about with his editing and what he didn't aim for was melodrama. Listen to
Eliot's own reading and you will overhear the true timbre of desperation.
Especially on Margate beach.<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The flaws in a poet's reading are very often an aspect of the poem's
dark corners and infuriating ambiguities. Take Simon Armitage on the West
Yorkshire attack; Jackie Kay a burst of sunshine, a growl of rage. Seamus
Heaney, that gentle, tough, tentative bear of a man. Or the deceptively offhand
Don Patterson, the quirky, stubborn, slightly bonkers Selima Hill, the
much-more-acerbic-than-she-seems Wendy Cope.</span></i>terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-70539093539128868352019-10-09T00:44:00.000-07:002019-10-09T00:45:00.012-07:00<br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">I went to a seminar on the subject of blogs and websites at the Wolverhampton
Literature Festival recently and it completely changed my mind as to the use of such things. So, let’s start again.</span></div>
terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-49465503660872618432015-05-04T09:37:00.000-07:002015-05-04T09:37:18.940-07:00standing<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the minor delights of working as a Medical Engineer
in the NHS was the opportunity to slip off if I’d been sitting down too much at
the bench. Save up a few jobs and say I’m just going to Ward such and such and
I could have a stroll, a chat to people and get back a bit later refreshed.</div>
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<br /></div>
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One of the problems of writing now is the sitting down
without an excuse to move. I always fancied getting a lectern. In fact, I still
do. But I did find a sort of solution towards the end of last year when, of all
things, I’d put a small table on top of my dining ( and writing ) table to get
it out of the way when I vacuumed. The combined height is just about right
although the surface area could be improved. Vacuumed.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I use it for two tasks. In the morning I can lean on it,
hold it and lean back, stretch my legs and most usefully it can be used to lay
down my A4 sheets, pencil and rubber. In the evening it does duty as a place to
put my laptop.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I was feeling rather pleased with myself until I discovered that
loads of other writers have written standing up. Rather confusingly not many
seem to be writers that I like.</div>
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<br /></div>
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However, I then found that there are other ways of solving
my problem. There are actually companies that make stand up desks with or
without drawers. I presume an online search would find something to suit and
joy of joys I’ve heard of some that come with a foot rail.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I have seen an adjustable computer desk although I can’t remember
where it was. And I don’t really like designed computer desks as most that I’ve
seen are useless.</div>
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<br /></div>
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It’s possible also to make a desk that fits to the wall. I
have thought about this but I don’t really have the space unless it folded up
and I think I’d find that irritating.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I just had a peep on the internet to check on any articles
on standing and writing and blow me there’s dozens. In the second one I read
the writer actually said ‘that having a stand up desk is now hip’. Hip.</div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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Oh, well.</div>
terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-56122177218711182292014-10-19T09:59:00.000-07:002014-10-19T09:59:14.568-07:00judy brown at Conti<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVc5bnIEBP8xSCcDqNoun-tdU-EmQdewyyhgqNh-Pt-ELng174JUqAgumpP85MKcjhUM8bzk_J5s4bq_lflVM8Fxe2osdqExuvTr5dh2xFLDlkKePLFycoGT1nTqT5mYOlyDMHJ6sfgZY/s1600/Copy+of+judy+brownconti.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVc5bnIEBP8xSCcDqNoun-tdU-EmQdewyyhgqNh-Pt-ELng174JUqAgumpP85MKcjhUM8bzk_J5s4bq_lflVM8Fxe2osdqExuvTr5dh2xFLDlkKePLFycoGT1nTqT5mYOlyDMHJ6sfgZY/s1600/Copy+of+judy+brownconti.jpg" height="640" width="467" /></a></div>
<br />terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-69500810225039914652014-10-19T09:46:00.001-07:002014-10-19T09:47:49.398-07:00reponse to david perman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRlyMv-mY1WZ68dlzpm5i60DyOIdQHAodIBkJt_FG5vkzous6Ge5-H6gw4N8d6lspmub9SNokRWQLEMx2Tel14kwgA097kR5cAkiaqf-oiGAN076Hk-bKyBQiYrlWIlaRXdFegzT0bV9Q/s1600/letter+from+tq1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRlyMv-mY1WZ68dlzpm5i60DyOIdQHAodIBkJt_FG5vkzous6Ge5-H6gw4N8d6lspmub9SNokRWQLEMx2Tel14kwgA097kR5cAkiaqf-oiGAN076Hk-bKyBQiYrlWIlaRXdFegzT0bV9Q/s1600/letter+from+tq1.jpg" height="640" width="464" /></a></div>
<br />terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-19418547435405346552014-10-19T09:33:00.002-07:002014-10-19T09:47:27.399-07:00letter to acumen from david perman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixkognvOt8uSyaOsBsq3nFvzD2xVyUGCEE4J47r4CZ7qnVmQTZfAYfAKBIhxVsXO3BmwzBJ3pBw45ttYZqr5Y3iQxBIGrTqfneHtScyJZIhl7inXUyi1A1Voo81MFP55D5Kead3SiGaCE/s1600/acumenperman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixkognvOt8uSyaOsBsq3nFvzD2xVyUGCEE4J47r4CZ7qnVmQTZfAYfAKBIhxVsXO3BmwzBJ3pBw45ttYZqr5Y3iQxBIGrTqfneHtScyJZIhl7inXUyi1A1Voo81MFP55D5Kead3SiGaCE/s1600/acumenperman.jpg" height="457" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-47673572778260524892014-10-19T09:17:00.002-07:002014-10-19T09:17:39.208-07:00Buy this<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Buy this – it’s terrific:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Julie Maclean’s latest
collection, inspired by a research intensive to Scandinavia with Deakin
University, was published in October and is available from Poetry
Salzburg as part of its pamphlet series with samples of poems from the
collection here: <span class="skimlinks-unlinked"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; outline: 0px;">http://www.poetrysalzburg.com/viking.htm</span></span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Reviwed here: <span class="skimlinks-unlinked"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><span style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; outline: 0px;">http://sabotagereviews.com/2014/10/17/kiss-of-the-viking-by-julie-maclean</span></span></span>/<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 20.4pt; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The launch in Oz will be at;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="background: white; line-height: 17.85pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="font-style: inherit; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #333333; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; padding: 0cm;">Sun Nov 9 at 3pm </span></strong><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<strong style="font-style: inherit; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; padding: 0cm;">Paton Books </span></strong><br />
<strong style="font-style: inherit; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; padding: 0cm;">3/329 Pakington Street</span></strong><br />
<strong style="font-style: inherit; outline: 0px;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; padding: 0cm;">Geelong</span></strong><o:p></o:p></span></div>
terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-33555790571210193012014-05-22T05:57:00.003-07:002014-05-22T05:57:44.902-07:00Guernsey Int Lit Fest<div class="MsoNormal">
Guernsey International Literary Festival must have some of
the best prizes in the country. The first three get cash but they and another
three plus winners of certain categories such as school, Channel Islands
residency also get their poems on pop up posters at the airport which will be
moved to places round the island during the year plus all those then get their
poems on the buses for the year.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And that’s not all. The winning three poems also get a
painting based on their work by professional artists and this year the art
teachers involved in schools on the island decided that art students would also
interpret their poems so in a gallery they had around 10 paintings based on a
poet’s work.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The four days of the Festival are packed with lectures,
workshops, music and film. Well worth a visit next year.</div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
It also has Herm Island aka Paradise three miles of its
coast.</div>
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<br /></div>
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terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-12321820289415595092014-05-06T03:49:00.001-07:002014-05-06T03:50:27.205-07:00robins<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>from Preston Poets' Newsletter</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Editorial</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A tentative glimpse of Spring so welcome to this quarter’s
Newsletter with the hope that there will be sufficient poetry and poetry events
to keep everyone happy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Linda France will certainly be happy. She is the winner of
the 2013 National Poetry Competition with her poem entitled Bernard and
Corinthe. It is the account of an erotic encounter between a repressed man and
a flower. The first two verses:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
if a curtain is always a velvet curtain</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
onto some peepshow he never opens,</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
it’s a shock to find himself, sheltering</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
from the storm in a greenhouse.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The reason for mentioning this is not the actual poem. Some
people have criticized it, others like it, mostly ( as far as I can find )
people don’t seem to care one way or the other.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What I am concerned about is the subject matter. For the
last few years the National Poetry Prize has been won with poems about Clothes
from the Great War, Virginia Woolf, a Robin, something about time past, a
father, something about looking through a window.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the National Poetry Prize. Presumably this means
that this is how the state of British poetry is seen as viewed from the rest of
the world and somewhere there’s a quote suggesting that poetry reflects the
underlying state of a nation. I just can’t find that quote, if anyone knows it
could they let me know.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, on an earth that has Climate Change, Peak Oil, water
shortage, food shortage, wars, the list goes on, the concerns of British poetry
revolve around flowers and Robins.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Perhaps I should put some parameters on that paragraph.
There are poets who write about such global matters but they are not those
being taken up by what can be termed the Poetry Establishment. I’m not talking
about the really top poets like Carol Anne Duffy or Simon Armitage but the ones
below that level who have been to the same Universities and share the same
beliefs in terms of poetical values and also control the purse strings and
access to the publishing houses.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Did I enter the National Poetry Competition? Yes. Is this
sour grapes? Maybe. Is there any truth in these thoughts? I think so, how about
you.</div>
terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-67691468180457971492014-04-07T09:56:00.001-07:002014-04-07T09:57:55.114-07:00<div class="MsoNormal">
Never mind the controversy ( if there is one ) over the
winning poem in the National Poetry Prize there is an even greater one in the
realms of our local poetry scene.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It involves the question of whether applause should be
encouraged, or not, after each poem in a reading by a poet.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My feeling is that it depends on the length of the poems and
the nature of the poems. It can be a bit distracting if every 8 line poem is
clapped by the audience, it can disrupt the flow of the delivery of the poet.
But, conversely, if a poet has delivered a rather wonderful poem which touches
people then they have every right to let their feelings show in a response to
the poet.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the worst experiences in reading and listening is
where there is a cold stillness in the air after each poem. No one dares cough
or talk or fidget between poems. The poet can’t tell whether they should alter
their tone or change the poems as they are getting no feedback. Everyone is
stuck in this 10 minutes of sterility waiting for it to end.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Applaud away as far as I’m concerned, make a point to a
friend, have a drink, adjust your seat. Just be quiet when the poet is actually
reading.</div>
terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-30379629025162325282014-03-20T10:07:00.001-07:002014-03-20T10:07:52.675-07:00<div class="MsoNormal">
When I was away in Lincolnshire on family matters for a
month I thought it might be an idea to have a look into the history of the
local boy who made good. And I mean good. In the radio show on Preston fm I played a recording of him as he read ‘The
Charge of the Light Brigade’ recorded in the 1890s. If you get the chance have
a listen to the podcast. It’s fascinating. The following notes are from the
script for the programme.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Which is the give away to the fact it is Alfred, Lord
Tennyson I was looking into. Now I bet when I wrote Alfred Tennyson the image
that sprang to mind was of a man in his 40s or 50s with a massive beard, lined
face, cloak and a wide brimmed hat – someone at the very pinnacle of Victorian
Society. And when that recording was made he was.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But that eminent man was once a boy and he was a boy in a
very remote part of Lincolnshire. In fact the village of Somersby is very
remote even now. So, let’s get rid of the hat and beard and view a face that
was, when he was in his 20s, according to the sketches that exist a very
handsome and dashing sort of face. He was also immensely strong. One of the
local sports was throwing a crowbar and he could beat all comers. His party
piece, when there was a gathering on the Rectory lawn, was to pick up a
Shetland pony and carry it round.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And on the subject of animals it should be mentioned that he
cared passionately about them and delighted in springing the traps that
gamekeepers had set. He was so good at animal and bird calls that an owl became
his constant companion.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But it wasn’t all nature and sport. He was often found
tramping the lanes and reading in the sort of snow that was around when I was
there. On one occasion he was so immersed in his book that he failed to hear
the Louth coach coming up behind him. He was eventually roused from his reverie
by a shout from the coachman and looking up saw a horse’s muzzle protruding
over his shoulder as if it too was immersed in the book.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
At this point I went out and recorded some observations in
Somersby itself. If you get the chance to listen I hope you enjoy the show.</div>
terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-79218807301312931142014-02-17T10:10:00.000-08:002014-02-17T10:10:45.990-08:00some events<div class="MsoNormal">
from Preston Poets' Newsletter:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
..... but March is
more promising with the Huddersfield Literature Festival taking place between
the 6<sup>th</sup> and 16<sup>th</sup> with Lemn Sissay alongside authors like
Joanne Harris.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Between the 7<sup>th</sup> and 16<sup>th</sup> at the Theatre
by the Lake in Keswick guests include Blake Morrison, Don Paterson and Melvyn
Bragg. The full programme for this event is amazing with a diverse selection of
talks and guests. Here’s one that took my fancy. It’s by Katie Waldgrave and is
entitled The Poets’ Daughters and is about the lifelong friendship between Dora
Wordsworth and Sara Coleridge.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
From the 20 to the 31<sup>st</sup> is the York Literature
Festival and includes Roger McGough. Just down the road from the 28<sup>th</sup>
to the 30<sup>th</sup> is the Otley Word Feast which has the delightfully
sounding Sonnets and Scones on the 29<sup>th</sup> and A Terribly Sedate and
Right Proper Poetry Reading on the same day.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Those are the most local events I could find that one can
dip in and out of. But what if one wants something more structured to help
oneself on a one to one or group basis. I’ve been on an Arvon Residential
course back in 2007 not for poetry but for script writing. However Simon
Armitage was the course tutor with his partner Sue Roberts, a drama producer at
the BBC and editor of the Verb. Apart from some useful technical advice the
main thing I got from the week was some writerly friends who I still keep in
contact with. For £500 ( then ) that’s a lot of money. So you need to know what
you want.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are all sorts of courses - for instance local weekends
such as at Weetwood Hall, Leeds where Alison Chisholm is explaining ‘All you
need to know about Writing Competitions’ from the 14-16<sup>th</sup> March, no
price for this as yet. There is a 4 day writing retreat in Mungrisdale, Cumbria
with Grevel Lindop for £199 from the 9th to the 12<sup>th</sup> May.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you want to combine a summer holiday with a writing
course there are loads of choices. This seems to be the business to be in. How
about a week in Alicante for a week long poetry course from the 24<sup>th</sup>
to the 31<sup>st</sup> of May run by ( the very influential ) Ann Sansom. That
will knock you back 750 Euros. Which, if you’ve got the money, isn’t a bad
deal.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To sum up: there’s probably some course out there that will
suit you. It depends on the cost and what you want out of it. And don’t forget
that some of these places, especially the Arvon ones, give grants to those on a
small income.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-67174675992950296842014-01-12T11:34:00.000-08:002014-01-12T11:34:21.801-08:00In Praise of Bureaucracy <div class="MsoNormal">
Just recently one of the members of our local Poetry Society
said that they were not going to bother coming to the meetings any more as they
were fed up with the half hour spent prior to the main part of the meeting.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This half hour is taken up with what might be called
Business where stuff like notifications of poetry comps, guest speakers, finance
( occasionally ), information about various internal or external tasks that
need to be done is shared with members.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It goes almost without saying that some of this is a bit
boring and most societies have two or three people who like the sound of their
own voice or want to push their own agenda.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the crucial point here is that the Society has now been
active for over 60 years. This didn’t happen by accident.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There have been countless other attempts to start other poetry
groups in this area. Some have been quite successful in what they achieved but
all have fallen by the wayside because they relied on one or two people to do everything.
There seems to have been an expectation by the majority of poets that things
would happen – a sort of 60’s counter culture where it’s a bit heavy to be
involved with Organisation, Man.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Very wrong. A good committee makes things easy. We’ve had a
good committee for decades and the experience of this shows that the quality and
quantity of the poetry actually increases.</div>
terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-64268094422156040602013-12-14T10:23:00.002-08:002013-12-14T10:23:46.280-08:00<div class="MsoNormal">
Like most people who have ever listened to Desert Island
Discs I have collected and changed my selection many times over. A few
constants have been Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street,<span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> <span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pie_Jesu" title="Pie Jesu"><span style="color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Pie Jesu</span></a>
from</span></span> Faure’s Requiem and the <span style="line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aria" title="Aria"><span style="background: white; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">aria</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"> </span></span><span lang="IT" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 115%;">Ebben? Ne andrò lontana</span></span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 115%;"> from
Catalini’s La Wally.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 115%;">I, also, always have a spoken word track which
got me to thinking today what would be my Desert Island Poems. Today they are:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 115%;">1. Dart by Alice Oswald<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 115%;">2. The Four Quartets by TS Eliot<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 115%;">3. The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 115%;">4. The Wasteland by TS Eliot<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 115%;">5. A Treatise of Civil Power by Geoffrey Hill<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 115%;">6. Teach Yourself Mapmaking by Jane Routh<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 115%;">7. A Sea Chantey by Derek Walcott<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 115%;">8. Turning into Whitby by Sarah Hymas<o:p></o:p></span></div>
terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-57244243452783427222013-11-12T11:49:00.001-08:002013-11-12T11:49:19.004-08:00<div class="MsoNormal">
Last week I organised an alternative to Guy Fawkes Bonfire
Night. I had asked ( on posters, email and facebook ) for a poem that would
celebrate the night/stars/dark or even fireworks. That was my big mistake.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I started the evening at 7-45pm, introduced the first poet
and sat down to doodle and make a few notes on the next poet up. I was somewhat
surprised when the first person finished their poem and sat down.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I introduced the next poet and sat down to doodle and make
notes. She read her poem and left the stage.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
You can see where this is going.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
By 8pm 5 poets had got up and sat down. So, the lesson is –
you sometimes get what you ask for. I should have asked that people include in
their 6 or 7 minute slot one ( or more ) poem to do with the theme.</div>
terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-71796547601507437412013-10-14T06:53:00.000-07:002013-10-14T06:53:02.345-07:00<div class="MsoNormal">
In the next few weeks I’m hosting an event at a local Arts’
Space. I’ve started the Facebook and email notifications and am now considering
the flyers and posters.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the last two events that I’ve organised I’ve spent upwards of £50
on the things and as far as I can tell there has only been one person who has
looked at them and as a result come to the evening.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, is there a point in not only spending the money but also
the time going round to libraries, galleries and shops and spending, sometimes,
frustrating hours persuading people to take them or take them for consideration
by them upstairs.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On top of that - the event is supposed to be Free Entry but
that means I finish up well out of pocket. So, I have to embarrass myself by
asking for donations from people on the way out.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
The answer, for me, is that it is not worth it but I’m still
going to have to do it on the off chance that this time the effort will pay
off. People expect a poster. It’s just one of those things.</div>
terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-36873994159751133202013-09-16T01:37:00.002-07:002013-09-16T01:37:57.569-07:00music at poetry events<div class="MsoNormal">
There’s been about an hour of readings at the poetry event
and just when you’re thinking of a break and a drink the mc announces that they’ll
finish off the first half with some music. On comes someone with a guitar and
proceeds to rearrange the microphone, adjust the seat, explains what the song
is about, tunes the guitar, has a drink of something, tunes the guitar again
and then sings some song that is unintelligible. Then does this again after
that first song and the next.</div>
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The average length of time for each poet has been seven minutes.
The musician is on for fifteen. And they’ll do it at the close of the second
half as well.</div>
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If I want to listen to music I’ll go to a concert, folk club,
jazz club or whatever. I go to a poetry event to listen to poetry. If the event
needs something else to liven it up then there’s something wrong with it in the
first place. I can’t ever remember going to a concert of any sort and them
stopping so that a poet can come on and read a few poems.</div>
terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-66101868198816659762013-08-22T04:30:00.003-07:002013-08-22T04:30:41.881-07:00notebooks<div class="MsoNormal">
The passing of a pocket notebook and the beginning of
another is a ceremonial occasion. The old book is laid gently in the bottom
drawer with its predecessors. A slight tear is allowable before turning to its
successor.</div>
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But what successor? Choosing a notebook is not a simple
matter. It has to be slim, small enough for the pocket but not so small that it
can’t be used to write complete lines. Or lost. It needs to be hard backed,
there’s nothing worse in a notebook than creases on a page. It needs another
requirement which will be touched upon later.</div>
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I have a basket full of notebooks untouched. Bought in a
surge of excitement in a bookshop or stationers and which on return home prove
to be totally, or frustratingly almost, unusable for any variety of reasons.</div>
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Over the years I have come to treat with disdain some of
those offered in even well known stores. What, on earth, is the point of those
pocket notebooks with spiral metal hoops that are guaranteed to get tangled
with normal stuff found in your pocket and dragged out to fall over the floor just
as you need to jot something down.</div>
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The colour of the notebook is totally irrelevant to whether
they are fit for purpose. I’ve had blue, green, black. If it glowed in the
dark, I wouldn’t care.</div>
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The best notebook I’ve ever had was from a shop in
Windermere. A small second hand bookshop whose owner’s mother made them as a
sideline. Just that one notebook. I’ve ordered another since but it wasn’t the
same.</div>
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Obviously, I have Moleskin that goes in the rucksack. The
one with the blank pages, elastic band and opens front ways not side. But,
surprisingly, it is just too big to fit in a pocket. And for all its virtues
that too has one major design fault, one that it shares with every other
notebook I have bought or considered buying.</div>
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And this is the other requirement mentioned above. Consider
what you need a notebook for. It’s not for looking at or for tearing its pages
out for bookmarks. You need it for making notes. But no notebook has a slot for
a pencil or pen. It’s absurd. The one from Windermere had a space between the
spine and the pages into which I could slip a small pen, but that was by
accident.</div>
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As an aside – the best small pen I’ve found is by Zebra. It’s
telescopic and slim. When the case is pushed into itself it is perfect for
positioning into the makeshift holder I’ve made on the spine of a notebook. I
got it from the bookshop in Carnforth.</div>
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The makeshift spine looks awful but it works. Glue a
suitable material across the spine of your notebook and it becomes part of the
book rather than sticking out.</div>
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Joy of joys. I’ve just found a Moleskin that’s small enough.
No place for pen. Yet.</div>
terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-30573495050814230322013-07-26T11:13:00.002-07:002013-07-26T11:13:52.825-07:00Covers<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
When I’m in a bookshop trawling through the poetry section trying to decide what to buy and I don’t know the poet’s name there are a number of factors which will persuade me to purchase this book rather than that one.</div>
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Partly it’s the front cover, partly it’s the size – will it fit into my pocket, partly it’s the title and mostly it’s the bit on the back.</div>
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The bit that supposed to attract me. Which is why I can’t understand why so many of these back covers are so poor. I’m not interested in endorsements from well known poets – they could be their best mates for all I know, a picture of the poet is irrelevant and the descriptions of the type of poetry inside usually make my eyes glaze over within the first sentence.</div>
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How many ‘he sees things as they should be seen’, ‘an appreciation of the physical world’, ‘unusual personal shadows’. ‘new spaces through language’ need to be written. They are interchangeable.</div>
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And worst of all are the ones that make me actually put the book back on the shelf without further thought as in ‘This book is groundbreaking’. As if.</div>
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Ironically the type of publisher that makes me open a book in the bookshop ( which is surely the point ) is Faber and Faber who put nothing on the back and only the author’s name and the title on the front.</div>
terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-12730790058081244202013-07-12T12:59:00.002-07:002013-07-12T12:59:26.439-07:00Korova launch flyer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhblE1x4Dl63BthmqIEDQv_IDp_9AANzF6K0HXUyEIQfQfyeHRwlhvjCt0kipM7fmzoNOzGmuFkl7462U0PVJHP2pjVC6I0GYhhtlYrpc8cGNrOPKNac1MXUehtqSqTooxNwfRJbFILRE/s1600/Korovascan2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" nya="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhblE1x4Dl63BthmqIEDQv_IDp_9AANzF6K0HXUyEIQfQfyeHRwlhvjCt0kipM7fmzoNOzGmuFkl7462U0PVJHP2pjVC6I0GYhhtlYrpc8cGNrOPKNac1MXUehtqSqTooxNwfRJbFILRE/s320/Korovascan2.jpg" width="204" /></a></div>
terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1108304987613245540.post-85970632389482056302013-07-04T12:07:00.002-07:002013-07-04T12:07:34.524-07:00Hats<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
Every month or so I meet up with poets Ron Scowcroft and Martin Domleo for chat about poetry. Last week was one of those occasions and the talk drifted, as it does, about recent readings we’ve been to and what’s coming up.</div>
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And we discovered that we’d all recently been to events where some poets had been wearing hats. With feathers in them. Which brought the unanimous verdict that this trend was not to be encouraged.</div>
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Indeed, I’d take it further and suggest that any form of poetic dress code involving capes, scarves, greatcoats, frills, headbands, waistcoats, cowboy boots or Doc Martens should be reported to the Poetry Society who will be obliged to issue a first formal warning to those wearing such apparel. On further transgressions the poet would be forced to attend the Glastonbury Festival.</div>
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Apart from anything else wasn’t the wearing of hats indoors supposed to be rude.</div>
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It just so happened that this week I came across a poem by Tony Curtis entitled ‘Hat’ which include the lines: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I wanted a hat with gold, purple/saffron, the yellow of a buttercup,/the red of a butterfly:/so that even a stranger,/passing at a distance,/could see the poet in me.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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It’s in his book ‘The Well in the Rain’ from Arc Publications.</div>
terry quinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09745839386793029097noreply@blogger.com2