| Now available for a bargainous £2 is the second issue from Volume 2 of Forest Publications’ Chapbook Series: a collection of poems entitled, Parallax (For Justin) by Helen Mort.
A sample: I heard the glass Product details
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I was happy to see my father’s retirement making the New Haven Register back home in Connecticut. Dad’s been working with kids in West Haven for over 35 years and has given me loads of encouragement and advice as I’ve been going to visit schools as Reader in Residence for the SPL. The fact that he’s worked in education for 36 years, to me, is an achievement in itself. That my father has been able to bring positivity and compassion to lives without much of either is exemplary. As part of my father’s final days as principal at Washington Elementary, he’s bringing a bus-load of kids to see Billy Elliot on Broadway. As he told me, a lot of these children have never left the city they were born in or gone to anything but a movie theatre.
I’ve enjoyed watching my dad at work over the years, have seen first-hand his care and concern for the students, teachers and staff he sees everyday. I hope his replacement loves his work as much as my father does. Which is all to say, I’m pretty proud of my dad and wish him the best in retirement.
If you are interested — the article can be found here.
Hello dear friend and listener, thanks for downloading our podcasts, we’ve been working really hard to make them as good as can be and we appreciate your support. We’ve been getting feedback from all over the world, and I’m pretty proud of what we’ve been doing, especially our recent Southbank Podcast which was an experiment of sorts. Anyway, we’d love more people to know about what we’re doing so what we need from our friends — if you haven’t already — please subscribe by clicking the I-Tunes link below or using the RSS. The more subscribers and ratings we get, the more we’ll move up the rankings and the more we’ll entice a broader listener-ship. So, please, subscribe. It is totally free. Also, if you want to really help us out — give us a rating. This will give us a little bump too and we’ll be able to spread the poetry word worldwide! Thank you. And now on to today’s podcast:
In an eclectic episode, we talk to exciting new poet William Letford, recent winner of the Edwin Morgan Travel Bursary, about memorising your work and the art of roofing. We also catch up with SPL podcast favourite Jim Carruth, who tells us about his 1959 jazz project. And we speak to My Kappa Roots and discuss poetry and music, as well as get the chance to listen to his track “Fleeting Like Etain”. Presented by Ryan van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser. Music by Ewen Maclean. Twitter: @byleaveswelive & @anonpoetry. Mail: splpodcast@gmail.com
Listen now…
Roll Up Roll Up — the literary cavalcade known as The Golden Hour is storming the South. We’re going to Sheffield, Newcastle, Bristol, Brighton and London! Dates are below — It is physical and mental. It is a reading. It is a gig. It is a party.
Featuring:
Readers / Writers:
Ryan Van Winkle – poems & stories from the Reader in Residence at the Scottish Poetry Library.
Ericka Duffy – Southern (Ontario) Gothic fiction & Poetry.
Jason Morton – Shouts from the barroom floor.
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Jane Flett – winner of the Scottish Book Trust New Writer’s Award and seamstress of many fetching stories.
Music / Song Writers:
Hailey Beavis – an angelic voice, but devilish on six strings.
Jed Milroy – bouncin’ bluegrass from the banjo balladeer.
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Taperecorder – weaves a shoegaze-crunk house hybrid as suited to cocooned winter days as to sweaty late-night adventuring.
PLUS a variety of SPECIAL GUESTS each night – no two shows alike!
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20 May – The Rude Shipyard, 89 Abbeydale Rd, Sheffield 8 – 11pm, £3 [Facebook event link] SPECIAL GUESTS: |
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21 May – The Cube Cinema, 4 Princess Row, Bristol 8 – 11, £3 [Facebook event link] SPECIAL GUESTS: |
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22 May – Redroaster Coffee House, 1d St James Street, Brighton BN2 1RE 8 – 11pm, £3 [Facebook event link] SPECIAL GUESTS: |
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23 May – SECRET VENUE, London – Free —- Shhhh, Secret Special BBQ gig… 4pm – midnight, FREE! SPECIAL GUESTS: |
Contact us for the magic venue!!! |
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24 May – Green Note, 106 Parkway, Camden, London 7 – 11pm, £5 [Facebook event link] SPECIAL GUESTS: |
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25 May — Star and Shadow Cinema, Stepney Bank, Newcastle Upon Tyne 7.30 – 11pm, £3 [Facebook event link] SPECIAL GUESTS: |
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We can’t wait to see you at the GOLDEN HOUR!
Forest Publications, bringing it to your backyard (or garden).
Back we are from our almighty Golden Hour Highlands Tour 2010. It was great fun all around and here’s a little I wanted to share with those who couldn’t make it. ESPECIALLY as we are gearing up for our England Tour in less than a week, so if you like what you see/hear/read, check us out down south (in England, I mean). 
A tour podcast is forthcoming from Anon magazine’s Colin Fraser, but until then, here’s me reading ‘Darkness on the Edge of Toast‘, from our massive Findhorn gig.
Also, while we were up in Ullapool, a reviewer from HIARTS came to see us. You can read what she said about us here. I particularly liked this line:
And last but not least, an excerpt from Jason Morton’s day-by-day review of the tour, via The Skinny:
“ABERDEEN
The morning of our drive to the Granite City, I couldn’t sleep. Restless and fitful, I woke up and wrote. Recapturing the essence of this experience I found quite difficult, and I hope to have conveyed it effectively, though I would have no gauge to measure it. Either way, it was a bittersweet experience, realizing this night would represent our final performance of the journey, and that soon I would be referring to it, as well, in hindsight, where triumphs and tragedies would both be glaringly apparent. I left writing for a while, and instead talked to our host, Jamie, over a cup of coffee, as the rest of the crew woke in time.
The Aberdeen gig would, again, differentiate itself greatly from our other stops. We had performed at the Blue Lamp the previous year, also as a final show, so it felt familiar, even though we’d only been there once before. During the afternoon, our merry band splintered across the city, each pairing striking out on its own.
Jed and Ryan, always our keepers – the ones who put in 1000 per cent to make sure things come off without a hitch – stayed at the venue to set up sound and speak with staff. Toby and Hailey worked on each others’ songs, hoping for an eventual collaboration. Ericka and Jane disappeared for lunch at a high street pub, and Billy and I went shopping for sunglasses, though the grey overcast made them unnecessary.
We arrived at the venue, slightly late, greeted by a crowd already assembled, already attentive, waiting for what we had to offer.
A recurring theme throughout the night was the sense of liberty we felt regarding the content of our readings and performances, which I feel was shared at least between myself and Jane. After scoring out large passages of my texts for each preceding gig, as well as each and every curse word, I read, at long last, an unedited excerpt from by chapbook, “Old & New.” Miss Flett finally had an opportunity to delve into seedier territory as well, reading a powerful piece about a woman trapped in a bizarre, and seemingly inescapable sexual relationship.
Also benefiting from the change in format was Billy Liar, who made full use of the amped up sound system. Blazing through his set, I was impressed by his rendition of “It Starts Here”, a song I must have heard over a hundred times before. However, whether it was the tuned-up volume or the emotions over ending our short sojourn, there seemed to be an additional vigour there, though when I complimented him on it he responded in the vein of “What are you talking about?”
This provided, as well, the first collaboration between Toby – who also guested with Billy and Hailey – and Ryan, where he laid down some smoky, Southwestern rock-style whittling under a poem about finding a murder victim in the depths of a river.
As an emcee and solo reader, Ryan excelled in Aberdeen, as he must have had an extra boost of energy – or glass of wine – pulling down the wool curtains over his own creative process. “This one’s called Falling No. 71,” he said at one point. “Now, no, I didn’t write 70 other poems about falling – but if I did, imagine how rubbish those other ones would be.”
Jed closed down the show, and though we all knew it was coming, the end felt sudden: Tomorrow, we would all wake up in separate places, for many our own beds, and not feel the pressure or joy of the night’s upcoming gig. It’s a blessing and a curse, both touring and home, but – if you’ll excuse a bit of sappiness – friendships were made, sights were seen, good times were had… and, if there’s a little sadness on the drive home, there’s always next time.”
Definitely click over to the full article for more lovely nuggets from the journey, plus gorgeous pictures c/o Ericka Duffy.
Thanks for all your support, friends! See you again soon!
Scotland’s Poet Laureate, Edwin Morgan, turned 90 on Tuesday 27 April and we headed over to Glasgow’s Mitchell Library to celebrate his birthday with friends in the poetry world, as well as launch [email protected], a book of tributes from friends and poets and his latest collection of poems Dreams and Other Nightmares: New and Uncollected Poems 1954 – 2009 (Mariscat).
We include a few poems from this collection and chat to Alasdair Gray, Gerry Cambridge, Hamish Whyte, James McGonigal, Valerie Thornton, Gerda Stevenson, Aonghas MacNeacail, Donny O’Rourke, JL Williams, David Kinloch and Robyn Marsack.
Presented by Ryan van Winkle. Produced by Colin Fraser. Music by Ewen Maclean. Twitter: @byleaveswelive & @anonpoetry. Mail: splpodcast@gmail.com
Listen now…
First published 30 April, 2010
Born in 1920, and first published in the 1950s, Edwin Morgan has produced an extensive body of work. Endlessly curious and open-minded, he has experimented with the language of machines as well as translating from a variety of European languages. He is a poet who is willing to give a voice to everything around him, whether it is an apple, the Loch Ness Monster, a cancer cell or the source of the Big Bang.
The Edwin Morgan Archive was collected over a period of thirty years by Hamish Whyte, Edwin Morgan’s friend, publisher and biographer.
The Archive represents the most significant and accessible collection of his work in print and other media, vividly illustrating the breadth and variety of his writing, his publishing career, and its context, decade by decade.
Handwritten corrections and notes made by Morgan in the published texts, give an illuminating insight into the mind of the poet.
8pm
Forest Cafe, 3 Bristo Pl
Free! Free! Free! (byob)
Act I:
Chloe Morrish — releasing her new chapbook!
My Kappa Roots — tender and touching, but you are not allowed to touch him.
Act II:
TRIO VERSO: poetry & jazz-inflected soundscapes from Brian Johnstone, Richard Ingham & Louise Major
Act III:
Rapunzel Wizard – long haired poems ready to tangle!
Pockets – the uke bastard lights it up.
GREAT STUFF!!!
| Are you ready for this?! VOLUME TWO is here!
Now available for a bargainous £2 is the first issue of Volume 2 in Forest Publications’ Chapbook Series: Lawrie Clapton leads the way with a short story entitled, The Ones You’ve Had, The Ones You Get & The Ones You Want. An excerpt: “There are plenty of great ways to introduce a story; you can start with a death, like Albert Camus, or you can start with rainfall, like Edgar Allen Poe, or a wedding, or an introduction, or an elaborate pratfall, drunk, down a set of stairs. Being original and being clever were never my strong suits – besides it should probably be with what you remember best that you start off a story. I remember the songs the best. This song is My Generation, by The Who, and the year is nineteen-sixty- something – probably sixty-five – and it’s December. I think it was, at least – it was cold. I remember sitting on the pavement in Piccadilly Circus watching Dez (Derrick to his mum) ride his scooter up and down the street, screeching to a halt in front of prams and bicycles and parents with their five-year-olds. There was a tape player down at my feet…” Read more! |
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Product details
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This Friday, as part of the Museams by Night weekend extravaganza, the Scottish Poetry Library is staying open past dark for some late night fun.
Where: SPL By Night
When: Friday, 14 May — 8pm – 10.30pm. Drop in any time!
Featuring:
* Jed Milroy with poems songs, banjo and guitar
* Chandra getting the folk out.
* Frieght Tray electro accoustic riffs with soaring beautiful vocals. Singing the poems!
* Readings of Rude Poems — bring your own favorite! If it has a “naughty” word in it, we wanna hear it!
* Poetic Tours of the Library. (There May Be Ghosts!)
I admit, I found this hard to watch, Carruth seems frail and has to pause a lot. The last time I saw Hayden Carruth, he was able to stand by himself and we were both younger. But that goes without saying, I suppose, everything that has happened, happened when we were younger. Anyway, it was great to find this poem from one of my favourite writers about one of my favourite writers. I went looking for this because the American Poetry Review had a great Carruth supplement recently and I realized I hadn’t heard his voice since I was a teenager. So, it was a pleasure to find this and, you know, to learn that Carver was clumsy. Thanks youtubes! If you are looking for a great book of poems — I suggest “Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey” it remains on for my all-time favourites and I am sure most will fall into it with similar affection.
<httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMYywOioemA>
