Almost from the beginning (New Poem)

The first few times we met

Was under a crossing of invisible bridgesWatching the boats setting outFor distant isles,Plunging our loveInto a monochromeOf steered moonlight.

The first few times
Was buried in half baked clues
Pressed tight in your eyes
And whispered words
Sometimes lost
Under droning boats
But never your intent,

Or the way you said

you loved me almost

from the beginning. 

(Poem from personal ebook of love poetry for my partner

This can be seen here - http://www.lulu.com/shop/andy-n/love-songs-for-cathy-iv/paperback/product-20646811.html)">http://www.lulu.com/shop/andy-n/love-songs-for-cathy-iv/paperback/product-20646811.html)

latest news and views - 7th january 2013

Happy New Year. Hope you all had a good time.

Here is my year in review and some tits and bits of forthcoming news.

1)      A Means to an End had a good 2012 year I feel with the band however

Likely to remind a 3 piece instead of a 4 piece on a more regular basis as Dave I don’t think will remind a regular member (Reasons I won’t go into here in more detail but it’s not bad). We did a few open mikes (Bay Horse to name but one) but generally tried to find bits and pieces to do longer sets at (Open Mind in May 2012, Hulme is where the art is in August 2012, Salford Music Festival in September 2012 and lastly Acoustic Wednesdays in October 2012 to name but four). In the New Year, we already have one pencilled in for Open Mind in March 2013, and Glossop in August 2013. I’ve completed some applications for Didsbury and Chorlton Arts Festival and am researching others, so plenty on the go and more to research.

2)      Next time I see Jeff we will be discussing about an album also for the band in Springtime and we will carry on working for a Means to an End book II (11 poems wrote so far for it) which I reckon’ll be done maybe in 2013 / 2014.

3)      I am still plodding along work with my friend, Amanda Silbernagel also – think we have done maybe 14 or so tracks for our album. Hoping we will be able to release this probably though bandcamp this year. Also thinking about a name for our project instead of just Amanda and Andy. Watch this space of course.

Our last track ‘Glowing in the dark’ (Xmas Mix) can be heard here..

http://www.amandasilbernagel.com/mp3/02-AmandaAndAndy-GlowingInTheDark.mp3

4)      Some work from maybe 2009 or 2010 has appeared with a band called Poortosh which I had almost forgotten about on soundcloud. (Include links). When I check how many more pieces were recorded, I’ll sit down and try to do some more as there was several un-recorded lyrics from that and I hope we’ll also sell that on bandcamp.

These tracks can be heard as follows:

https://soundcloud.com/poostosh/andy-n-with-poostosh-wish

(Wish)

https://soundcloud.com/poostosh/andy-n-with-poostosh-thank-you

(Thank you Ky)

https://soundcloud.com/poostosh/andy-n-with-poostosh-forgotten

(Forgotten Hero)

5)      My poetry has had some nice headline slots, although sadly down to my diabetes nowadays I try to be a more careful what I do – i.e. not do everything going. I am still a regular at W.O.L. Stockport which I use to debut two brand new pieces each month and have done headline slots this year at Write Out Loud – Middleton, Guitar and Verse (Manchester) and several others I have forgot about at the moment. I’m doing a headline slot at Performance! In Wigan in February and maybe some others later in the year.

6)      Bookswise. Poetry, work has been a bit slow this year on my next poetry book ‘the end of summer’ but after 18 months or so on it, I can admit I am around 23 or 24 poems into the book (around 40 or so pages). I think it’s going to need another 8 or 9 more poems to bring it around 52 or 53 pages from which I can then decide to finalise the line-up and then look for a publisher. I think this’ll be around 2014 or so.

7)      I now have Love Songs for Cathy IV almost finished, a year after book III. This of course will be a private press book for Cathy, but I’ll offer it as a free download for anybody who wants to read some good love poetry etc in February 2013 around Valentines Day.

8)      Publishing wise, after a age of quietness, one of my pieces ‘Samantha will be getting published viva turtle press on 20/01/2013. More details to follow but their blog is: http://turtleway.wordpress.com/

Also two of my poems appeared last year on the online magazine ‘Herecomeseveryone’ on the theme of the English riots which I have only just found out about (5 months late!) but it’s two new pieces ‘drums of their flick knives’ – these can be read here..

http://herecomeseveryone.me/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/HCE-Riots-Issue-WEB.pdf

9)      My writing workshop with Manda Lee ‘Writers of the third kind’ is still ongoing in Bolton and I am very pleased with the way it is going too with a nice hardcore bunch of writers coming in each month, In a ideal world, I would like to bring out a phamplet to highlight what the workshop is producing later on, or maybe a full collection. Wait this space for more details there.

10)  There is also a few irons in the fire pending, but I’ll talk about them as and when they develop.

11)  Lastly, just want to wish you all a wonderful New Year in whatever you do and just to tell Cathy I love her as always and looking forward to our engagement do soon (ish) 

happy christmas

happy christmas. 

here is a christmas album free to download freely recorded from my reunited first band dih with an ever increasing number of friends.

http://archive.org/details/DihAndFriendsChristmas2012

Christmas Present thank you letter from Snow White

Dear Dopey and the rest

of my six, lovely little friends

this is just a tiny note

just to let you know

while i was here

and you were gone,

I just wanted to thank you

for your Christmas Present,  

but while I was here

and you were gone

I just wanted

to let you know

you had left the price tag on,

nobody had replaced

the burnt out old fuse

nor the plug which looked like

if it had been left there

much longercould have melted

the wrapping paper.

I am a little stunned

it looked likesomebody had already used it

and worse still

didn't bothered cleaning it

when they had finished

with it

or bothered drying out

the instructions. 

I cannot believe

another name is quite visible

underneath my name

and my address is nothing

like Snow White's Pleasure doTN22 3NJ. 

I am blazingthe wrapping paper

looked like it had being

half ripped open

which made me think

somebody messed

around with it

last christmas

and thought to themselves

there is no f**king way

I am keeping that

and I'll recycle it

to some other sod

the following year. 

So while this is just a note

while I was here

and you were gone,

I would like to say thank you

for your gift

of a hedge trimmer, 

and would just let know

in addition

that the used blow up reindeer doll

you also sent

has being returned

to Santa Claus

and he's coming

round to yours

to kick the Sh*t out of you later 

Love Snow White 

Dockyard Prayer Part II (New Poem)

Dear all;

Here is Part 2 of Dockyard Prayer, the new sequence me and Jeff Dawson (aka Jeffarama!)
have been writing.

It can be read here 

Enjoy!

Andy N

If the art galleries shut (new poem published)

Dear all;

As some of you may know, I have been going to Write Out Loud - Stockport for a bit now and have been concerned about the possible closure to this (or the shortening of hours).

As a member of Stockport, we got together to produce a ebook to send round to a number of the local press to highlight this.

My Poem can for this be can read here

A Dockyard Prayer Part 1 (New Poem)

Me and Jeff Dawson (aka Jeffarama!) have released the first part of a new sequence
of poetry 'A Dockyard Prayer' Part 1.

It can be read here

Hope you enjoy!