Prologue to a final solution (Scenes from a film unfinished)

The piles of garbage were real

All over the top of the ghetto

To the nearby river

Almost as a replacement

For the fresh air

That sneaked in fromThe outskirts of Warsaw. 

The piles of garbage were smudged

All over the truthIn a sea of panic

As the Police fired into the crowd

And two pregnant women

Were trampled to death. 

Piles and piles were stacked up

In the backgroundAs geese were filmed

Being taken to marketWhen in reality children

Were being shot for stealing eggs. 

Piles and piles and piles

Of the strong and the dying

And the lame and the sick

Huddled in alleyways

Waiting for their Messiah

To rescue them. 

Piles and piles of people

Shaking hand to mouth

In the cold of winter

And the sunset of June. 

They were the many

Who were chained in the shadows

And the many

Who were trappedIn a dual imagining

Of forgiveness and despair, 

Trapped in a ghetto

Like Alice trapped halfway

Through the looking glass

As the world stamped

All over them, 

Before then turning its back.

And the whistle in the wind

Went silent in shame

Before a train journey

To Genocide.

(Wrote for National holocaust dayand inspired by ‘A film unfinished’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z7egcyAdbk)

Latest News as of 25th January 2012.

Latest News in bite sized chunks..

‘A Means to an End’

Next gig pencilled in for ‘Light in the Dark’ @ Sand Bar, Oxford Road on Weds 22/02/2012. If all goes to plan – should be a 20 – 30 minute set and we are hoping to debut several new pieces.

Future gigs are lined up for Beaitfixation 16^th April 2012 and Open Mind in May 2012.

Studio recordings have have hit another delay. Hoping to start recording again in February.

‘Poetry’

With me working again full time., not had as much time (aside from a few submissions)

And the ongoing of the writing workshop I co-run with Amanda Speakman every month in Bolton

‘Writers of the third kind’. The first few workshops have gone great guns and I feel are starting

To settle down into a good groove.

I have carried on with regular going to Write Out Loud – Stockport @ Stockport Art Gallery on the second Monday of each month which has proved very helpful in the road testing of brand new material when they develop and have been assisting Jeffarama on Write Out Loud, Bolton on

Most occasions it is running (May not be around for March however the next one).

I have just had a booking in for Write Out Loud – Middleton in July too (More details to follow).

‘Project with Amanda Silbernagel’.

A week or so, Amanda kindly uploaded our most recent track ‘Battery Cage’ which I really,

Really enjoyed doing – probably my favourite of the tracks so far. I have another track to

Finish mastering – when that is done and it should be done shortly, that will be ready for

Uploading and Amanda has kindly sent me over vocals for three more pieces, and there is also in

The pipeline another remix on the way for Good Weather for an airstrike (Maybe two)

With Amanda.

‘Co writing play with Rob Goodier’

Rob at the moment is rewriting the ending of the play, and while I wait for him I am re-working

The part of the play he has kindly emailed over to me. Current plan is to do something with this

Maybe next year for the Not Part off Festival.

‘Co writing poetry with Kealan Coady’

Temporary a bit quiet, but awaiting confirmation from Kealan what is going to happen next.

More to follow folks soon as normal.

Acrostic poem on Libraries

Libraries I used to think offered a very out of date
Insight into life offering nothing but dusty shelves
But as I began to grow a little older I have started to
Realise times have totally moved on and their
Approach has stepped away from the straight academia
Reflecting all the many changes in society but making
You now wish people didn't take them for granted. 

The Best of Bolton (professionally performed and published)

Dear all;

Some good news over my recent poem 'From a midnight train' (Bolton)
it will be performed at the Octagon Theatre by a professional actor
on Friday 10th Feb 2012 @ 7.30pm.

More details can be found here:
http://www.octagonbolton.co.uk/page/3020/News-and-Blog/64

Secondly, the piece itself will be getting published shortly on:
http://ink-sweat-and-tears.blogharbor.com/

Will email this out again when it has been published but it should
be shortly.

Cheers

Andy N x

Hands in my pockets (New Poem)

Don’t sit there

And look at the ground

Before telling me you love me.

Don’t close your eyes

And mutter under your breath

Until your lips start to tremble.

Don’t close your eyes

Or start picking your eyelashes.

Don’t put your hands

In your pockets

Or start fiddling with

Your damp gloves

On the radiator.

Just tell me

You love me

And stop fiddling

With your laces Until they look like a Jigsaw..

Nick Armbrister - A Nation in Flames (iUniverse) Book Review

When I was younger, I used to be one of these kind of people who can read a book in a few times and be able to move onto the next book almost straight afterwards.

When I was younger, I would be able to sit in the same room as my father and younger brother (both of which still do that to different levels) and the three of us would be able to discuss them in almost a business like fashion.

Nowadays, my reading seems to have gone a lot slower and I think i have only read maybe three or four full novels last  year (one by Laurel K Hamilton in her Anita Blake series which are defo a guilty pleasure but great fun and the only other one i can remember is by my favourite novelist, Paul Auster 'Sunset Park' which is great fun) so I have been flicking inbetween poetry and magazines more (which is another article in itself).

Something I have missed out somehow is the art of short stories and Nick Armbister is just one such Author whose work I have missed out on which I should have reviewed on ages back and ages back.

' A Nation in Flames' by the look of things was his third book first published in 2008 and was published when he was living in Essex prior him to moving back to Oldham (where I met him I think in 2009 or 2010) and his first book of short stories which followed on from two collections of poetry and is a prologue is a whole host of work since.

On the back of the book Nick descibes the pieces within the book like his poems but in more depth and certainly in my favourite pieces in the book like Kahila Akashaisfahan nuclear strike  there is detail in this which is perhaps closer to prose than a short story with segments.

Speaking as a person who does goes to go the area where Nick now lives (Oldham), I also enjoyed ‘it doesn’t snow in November’ for it’s diary like movement in his life, although it does sort of stand out considering the book  is advertised on the cover ‘with a gothic, military and a SF Favour’.

The book of course from the last paragraph does contain stories which have a gothic, military and a SF Favour and is perhaps best aimed at people who likes a mixture of stories like that or just some of them.

To quote another review I read while preparing myself for this review described his work as ‘Poetry that is not for pussies.. and he doesn’t give a shit about writing stuff that is commercial’.

Reading this book,that description is very true for his short fiction also as this is a book which even though I personally did go over the top in places for me (loss of the ice queen, lake hoklingen, Norway was the piece that totally over the top for me with it’s sacrifice scene), it is a book that is worth reading for people who like to have books that challenge them.  

More details on Nick can be seen here..

http://www.writeoutloud.net/profiles/nickarmbrister

The book can be bought here..

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0595478891/diadembooks07

Writing Update - 1st January 2012

Dear all;

Happy New Year folks. Hope you all have had a good Christmas and New Year.

Despite the fact, I am still out of work (things are in the process of changing)
I have been keeping busy - perhaps less so over the past few days of course, but
here are some tit bits of what is going on at the moment:

1) I have started work on a play with Rob Goodier (Title T.B.A.) developed
from a idea that has been brewing for a good few years. The play is moving
along slowly but surely and we have a draft of about 18 pages completed so far.
2012 looks promising for this.

2) A few weeks back, I entered into a poetry writing project with a young
Irish poet called Kealan Coady and have started blogging them under a alias
(this way judging the reaction to the pieces) and so far, they have been going
down fairly well. We have blogged three of them, and there is two more to
follow and soon, we will meet up again to start work on some more and then
make a decision on what to do next.

3) As noted elsewhere, after a one year break, my experimental noise band DIH
(who were responsible for 9 releases between 1999 to 2009) returned with their
annual experimental Christmas albums designed for people who really don't like
Christmas or look at it with a sense of humour (The link for those who haven't
come across this can sample it here as it features a number of wonderful tracks).
Since then, after featuring returns by sleeping bands such as DIH and Distance
which has proved very popular it is likely that both acts may well up having new
releases now in 2012 and 2013.

4) My two major projects at the moment, A Means to an End and my project with
American poet Amanda Silbernagel as well as featuring on the DIH album if all
goes to plan should have EPs and albums shortly. For more details on my project
with Amanda please go here OR here. A Means to an End can be experienced here

Amanda has recently recorded a live set online and I hope to get some tracks done
using these as a basis while A Means to an End should have their demo done
in either January / February 2012 and start recording an album in Springtime.

5) for A Means to an End, lots of gigs are planned.. Next few planned are
18th January 2012 @ The Bayhorse in the Northern Quarter, Manchester,
while we are then a headline act at Light in the Dark Entaintment with
other ideas under discussion for March 2011.

Jeff (my main partner in this) is headlining Write Out Loud in Middleton on
Sunday 22th January 2012 and I shall be going down with him as support
with a plan to read a few poems myself. The week before on 15th January 2012
weather permitting, I shall be co-hosting Write Out Loud with Jeff at Bolton 's
The Wellington Pub.

6) I have almost finished off my love songs for Cathy III, my personal love ebooks
for my partner, Cathy (top secret of course). This is nearly ready and will be ready for
Cathy I hope at Valentines day in February 2012. The first two books can be seen
here and here.

7) My next full collection 'The End of Summer' is moving along nicely, I think with
around 18 or 19 poems completed for it (around 28 or 30 pages or so). If this pace
keeps up, am hopeful it'll be done in a year or so's time.

More news to follow shortly folks of course.