We talk to Martin Parker and Joe Banks at the Gap in the Air festival of sonic art at the Talbot Rice Gallery. Head down to see the various works that are on there at the moment until 14 February – more info on their website. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle @rvwable and produced by Colin Fraser @kailworm of Culture Laser Productions @culturelaser We acknowledge the financial support of Creative Scotland.
Ryan Van Winkle caught up with poet Donna Stonecipher in Berlin. They discuss her fascination with Model Cities and how the changing nature of Berlin has affected her poetry. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle @rvwable and produced by Colin Fraser @kailworm of Culture Laser Productions @culturelaser
Very pleased to be part of the reading team for the Poetry School’s Spring Term Launch. I’ll be performing alongside Róisín Tierney and students from the Poetry School. The event is free, so do come early. It’d be lovely to see you there.
Launch the new term with us!
The Tea House Theatre is a cosy venue ten minutes down the road from the Poetry School’s London classrooms, and right on the doorstep of Vauxhall station. Perfect for poetry, the stage is a large magic carpet spread out in front of a fireplace, and the audience ranges cabaret style round chairs and tables and battered leather sofas.
Their cakes are very good.
We’ll be launching the new courses and workshops of our term which starts in January, and celebrating the work of our students.
* Readings from Spring Term tutors Rosin Tierney (teaching a course on the poetry of place) and Ryan Van Winkle (running an online course on writing what you don’t know), and students from Simon Barraclough’s recent poetry and Samuel Beckett course
(The cat image is from http://
Readings start from 7.30pm, doors are open for drinking and chatting from 6.30pm.
The Tea House Theatre, 139 Vauxhall Walk, London SE11 5HL
Get there early to reserve a seat – entrance is free
Ryan talks with Chloe Dewe Mathews about her moving photography project Shot at Dawn which focuses on the sites at which British, French and Belgian troops were executed for cowardice and desertion between 1914 and 1918. You can see it at Stills Gallery in Edinburgh and Tate Modern in London. More info at: shotatdawn.photography Presented by Ryan Van Winkle @rvwable and produced by Colin Fraser @kailworm of Culture Laser Productions @culturelaser www.culturelaser.com We acknowledge the financial support of Creative Scotland for our 2014 season.
Be The First To Like This is an anthology of the new generation of Scottish poets edited by Colin Waters. We talk to him about his thinking behind the book and then to a selection of the poets in the anthology – Claire Askew, Jenny Lindsay, Samuel Tongue, Theresa Munoz, Patricia Ace and Krystelle Bamford. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle @rvwable and produced by Colin Fraser @kailworm of Culture Laser Productions @culturelaser www.culturelaser.com We acknowledge the financial support of Creative Scotland.
Irving Finkel loves to decode ancient tablets. He talks to Ryan Van Winkle about the joy of travelling back in time and the small drops of imagination he adds to ancient clay tablets that allow us to have a glimpse of the lives our ancestors led. Recorded in his office at the British Museum. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle @rvwable and produced by Colin Fraser @kailworm of Culture Laser Productions www.culturelaser.com @culturelaser With thanks to Creative Scotland for their financial support.
Delighted to announce that Viewmaster will be live and reading to you in person at the Big Burns Supper in Dumfries! Myself and the super talented Dan Gorman will be reading and playing on Friday 30 (9-11am; 1-3.30pm) and Saturday 31 (7-9.15pm). It’s a 15 minute show, tickets are £5/£4 (conc), and you can book to avoid disappointment here.
Please Note: due to concerns about the suitability of Greyfriars Church, the performances will now be taking place in the Electric Theatre Workshop space. If you’re in town for the Big Supper, do come and join us.
ViewMaster is – a personal slideshow for your eyes and ears only. Poet Ryan Van Winkle and musician Dan Gorman lead you on a playful, sometimes surreal jounrey to a distant land and bring you back in under 15 minutes.
Ryan Van Winkle is a Poet in Residence at Edinburgh City Libraries. In 2012 his show Red, Like Our Room Used to Feel was one of the top ten best-rated shows at Edinburgh Fringe.
Dan Gorman is a musician who has done field recordings in Afghanistan, Syria and an abandoned military base in Germany.
It is a pleasure to be back this month with our first ever three-way collaboration between myself and two Australian poet friends – Matt Hetherington & David Stavanger. So below you will find four poems all based on source material we wrote together in the sweaty Brisbane summer. Taps off, y’all.
Matt Hetherington by Nicholas Walton-Healey
The process: we sat around a table and in round-robin style created a very large poem. Each of us took the source material and re-worked it. Below are the results from the three of us.
Matt says: the best bit was the start…sitting around drinking beer, throwing lines out like sighs…the editing was more like real sighs…or sights of sides…i like mine best! You can quote me on that!
—-
Fill Your Stump
by Matt Hetherington
w/ Ryan Van Winkle & David Stavanger
baby says something
she says the word ‘bovine’
she says you’re like a duck, you’ve got no tread
but winter is when you need the fur
skin is where we find get off
stumbling into the wild man
those men who file tax returns sleep with animals
and keep their umbrellas by the door
size determines technique
or the future
well, everybody has one
if they keep their teeth straight
it’s elegant
when you need to say sorry, feel lucky
you can scratch a way through your head
when your toe is sore you need to remember
keep an axe in the sound
when the song goes wrong
or short or ironed out or shirty
it’s a shit, innit?
grandma’s throat gave birth to a tree
so growl about it, make tea and read
don’t flatter yourself
don’t take their cake
don’t ask white to turn off-white
earth keeps you talking about the girls
and girls love girth more than neil loves you
my father is a festival
he knows how to hurt her
take him out to the dire lands where the popcorn is cheap
close all the windows, you can’t squeeze through
my sister asks if I am a truck
(no, I am not a truck)
why is this happening?
not really
David Stavanger
slip inside, jackets by the door
by David Stavanger
w/ Matt Hetherington & Ryan Van Winkle
when the weather is yellow, tops
off when the weather is white, fill your
stump
with sure white stains, turn
the power off. when the pants fit, e
lephants talk birds talk, watch the p
lanes
float innocent and flam e
like dreams your teeeeeeeeeeth fell
the school bracelet donated twice
and you yelled like broken night
breakthewrist, breakthethumb
touching how you never ran till you raced
three of us horses, one for every type
of home. we sent grandma
when
she said she’d kidnap itches
her cats had no claws, pussies
bloom
in spring but winter is when you need the fur
slip inside, jackets by the door
fluff the sound, play the take
needle fills the song
clouds heard the honey sky out
when heavy goes wrong the song
baby, axe the needle
keep me in you
the word bovine
slow and wet
to ease
she says you’re like a duck
you’ve got no tread the season gone brown
the colour of dad’s wallet
which only opens for sharks
those men who file tax returns sleep with animals
Size determines technique
Animals who sleep with women can never go home
Bark for forgiveness. Grandma’s throat gave birth to a tree
growl about it and keep your umbrella
by the door and put rain in the can every time she says
sugar. dung. mother trucker.
piss taker who knows when to pull out the fruit.
the groceries in Paris always seem brighter she says
the trains always like me, fruit lasts longer on the tree
close all the windows, you can’t squeeze through
when your toe is sore you need to remember
there’s only so much rice you can put in a bowl
Grandma Goes Three Ways
by Ryan Van Winkle
w/ Matt Hetherington & David Stavanger
when the weather is yellow, tops off
when the weather is white, fill your stump
with sure white stains, turn the power off
when the pants fit, make elephants talk
when the birds talk, watch the planes
float innocent and flame
like a bracelet of teeth donated
to the school of dreams
you chased till they fell
and yelled like a broken night – break
the wrist, break the thumb touching
how you never ran till you raced,
three of us horses, one for every type
of home. we sent grandma
when she said she’d kidnap itches
her cats had no claws, pussies
bloom in spring but winter is when you need
the fur. slip inside, jackets by the door
close all the windows, you can’t squeeze through.
when your toe is sore you need to remember
there’s only so much rice you can put in a bowl
fluff fills the clouds, the honey, the needle
till the needle gets heavy
keep an axe in the sound
play the song you heard in the song
when the song goes wrong
take me to the sky, take me out baby says
the word bovine
slow and wet to ease
she says you’re like a duck
you’ve got no tread because
the season has gone brown,
the colour of dad’s wallet
which only opened for the sharks,
those men who file tax returns,
sleep with animals. Size determines
technique. Animals who sleep with women
can never go home. Bark for forgiveness.
Grandma’s throat gave birth to a tree –
growl about it and keep your umbrella
by the door and put rain in the can every time
she says fuck. oh, sugar. dung. mother trucker.
piss taker who knows when to pull out the stops.
the groceries in paris always seem brighter, she says,
the trains always like me, fruit lasts longer on the tree
Three of Us Horses
by Matt Hetherington
w/ Ryan Van Winkle & David Stavanger
take me to the sky
because the season has gone
brown like a wallet
when the weather is yellow
turn the power off
when the birds talk, watch the planes
slip inside, jackets by the door
so soon so late so go
one for every type of home
too many farmers not enough grass
and the way to the well is worn thin
then play the song you heard in the song
couldn’t break it even like a bracelet of death
like thumbs touching
like how you never ran ’till you raced
you know you’ll leave it
hanging in the currents
there’s only so much rice you can put in a bowl
—-
Matt Hetherington has performed and published his poems for over 20 years throughout Australia, Europe, and America, including in the anthologies The Best Australian Poetry [2007, UQP], and The Best Australian Poems [2004, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, Black Inc.] His fourth collection of poetry [and first collection of haiku] For Instance, will be published in January 2015 by Mulla Mulla Press, and he is also on the board of the Australian Haiku Society. Some current inspirations are: Miles Davis’ ‘electric period, his 7 year-old daughter Jess, and plain old sunshine.
David Stavanger won the 2013 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Award. He is also Green Room nominated spoken weird cabaret artist Ghostboy, known for his live shows with Richard Grantham (Deep Blue) and the band Golden Virtues, as well as having established the thriving QLD poetry slam scene. The Special (UQP) – his first full-length collection of poetry – has recently been released and is now in reprint.
—-
Commiserate is a monthly experiment in poetic collaboration.
Inspired by SJ Fowler‘s ‘Camarade’ project which pairs poets to create new work, I’ve stolen the notion and begun to collaborate with friends and writers of interest. You can read about the project and see 2013’s poems here and 2014’s poems here.
Delighted to have four poems (‘Dress’, ‘Flag’, ‘Move Things Around’ and ‘Something Almost to Outlast’) published in the new edition of the Edinburgh Review, alongside work from Paul Bachelor, Rachael Boast, Russell Jones, David Wheatley and a whole bunch of great folk. Available at respectable outlets where you are.
My poem ‘Translation for Weather’ has been published in Colony Literary Magazine.
