Card Story (Christmas Poem)

Stuck in the middle of another drift
The sledge looks lost without reindeer
As Father Christmas stands there
Looking over the roof
At firstly the smoke
Blowing off the next house
Choked out by the wind

Taxis turning into snowploughs
On the next road
Almost by magic
Out of total nowhere
And dogs morphing into wolves
Howling over and over
In the moonlight

Children in the nearby field
On the other side
Of the boarded up old station
Pleating each other
With firstly sticks
Pounding into flesh
Then snowballs,

Crunching through
Everybody’s coats
Like fists through
Broken conkers
Until they are left battered
Almost black and white
In the fading sunlight,

Vibrant in a featureless moment
Sharped with each move
From the frozen breeze
Over the top of the roof
Surfing each memory
Making him wishing
He’d had the time
To go and join in.




(Happy Christmas everybody!)

More Poetry Published

Hi Guys;

More poems to follow soon as i will start blogging a new sequence soon but in the meantime, two poems of mine 'Magic II' and 'Kissing my every Scent' have appeared on Page & Spine' and can be read here

Also in addition, two more poems 'Priscilla' and 'Prisoners of War III' (both of which also appeared in my split book 'Europa' (co wrote with Nick Armbrister) have appeared in Poetic Trenches, the latest book by Brine Publishing and is available here

Both places are well worth submitting to for different reasons.

Enjoy

A!

Selected Films

Partly through re-organisation of old films, I have started uncovering old films I have started in over the years.

More to come, but here are the first three:

https://vimeo.com/111256564

Come and Go (Samuel Beckett), 2000. 

The Oldest out of the footage, this was done I think at the end of the second year at University by the look of things and was a somewhat ghost like, experimental attempt at a very short Samuel Beckett play reflecting the difference between Childhood and Adulthood and hope things change backwards and forwards in a circle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVvifOm_wjw

My night with the Vampire, 2001.

A short film done in 2001 by Chi Fai Lo and rewrote partly by myself with musical score on it (incorrectly listed as Andrew Noichas). This was a hard shoot, as the Director didn't make life easy but I love the edits and improvements on it, and love the first and last scenes in particular.

https://vimeo.com/109068678

Poets and Pasties Documentary, 2008

Fast forward some years, and after leaving university, and I go onto the poetry circuit in Manchester and eventually end up co setting up and running 'Poets and..' an poetry and music open mike night in Bolton which ran until 2010. This footage was shot by three MMU students who wanted to come down and shoot the first night for a MMU project. In a lot of ways, it kinda summed up the way all of those nights went.

Frankenstein in Rio (New Poem)

Abandoned like an unloved pet
just outside the outskirts of Rio
underneath some of the white
washed slums
you told me to wait there
while you went for help,

But of course you never returned
discarding all responsibility
glistening in the moonlight
returning to your car
and driving off like a panic led sprinter
before I realised,

Flying through the night
across Copacabana beach
pressing your hands
on the wheels like Excalibur
rising from the ground
before freezing halfway,

Cut and pasting your fear
with each mile
unsure which way next
across the sea front
towards the edge of the
Sugarloaf Mountain,

Then hiding in the shadows
of the Art Museum
in Sao Paulo,
before then running  
to the booths of
the Se Church in Sao Luis,

Among the Market sellers of
the Porto Allegra Public Market
in Rio Grande do Sol
trading monies for
blankets and hats,
in a vein attempt to disguise yourself

To smaller, less known places
Like all the way down
To Boa Vista
Where your car finally died,
And the Wreck of the Santa Maria
Where you was tempted to hide in

Or hide in the now
dis-used lighthouse
on Morro Negro,
and watch the sunrise go up and down
each morning
until you went stir crazy,

Full well knowing
I would caught up with you
sooner or later
no matter
which way you ran

Eventually.






(An Writing Exercise at my writing workshop 'Writers of the third kind' designed to play a famous literature character in a total different location)

News and Views (19/10/2014)

(Andy N and P.R.Mcdowell introducing Last Dance Saloon at 3MT, 18 Oct 2014)

Didn’t realise until before I haven’t done my latest news and views in over 3 months so anyhow: 

Work with Amanda Silberangel:

Although the more eagle aged of you would have noticed we did talk about doing an EP in July / August and it hasn’t yet appeared, this is in part down to the artwork and not the music and the tracks are finalised and it’s now a simple case of waiting for the artwork. As a stop gap, I likely will be uploading a few tracks onto soundcloud soon.

Ocean in a Bottle:

Since the last entry, Ocean in a Bottle has released two EPs – ‘Approaching Stretford’ and ‘EP for Alex Humphrey’ and ‘The End of Summer’ – all of which are mentioned elsewhere in this blog.

My current EP The End of Summer Part II s was released on 03 October 2014, which I will provide a separate note on tomorrow. Two tracks from it can be sampled at in the meantime here https://soundcloud.com/andynpoet/sets/the-end-of-summer-part-ii-sample-tracks

But the EP can be sampled in free (for free as always) https://oceaninabottle.bandcamp.com/album/the-end-of-summer-ii

I also did a separate track (in two versions) as a tribute to Jung ‘A Matter of the heart’ which can be heard https://soundcloud.com/andynpoet/ocean-in-a-bottle-a-matter-of-the-heart-after-jung-instrumental-version-for-sarah and https://soundcloud.com/andynpoet/ocean-in-a-bottle-a-matter-of-the-heart-after-jung-for-sarah

After that, the next EP shall be a 6 or 7 track EP called ‘Hurricane in a bottle’ which will display a much more fierce sound than either of the End of Summer EP’s or the Alex EP, which again maybe be two EP’s again and I also am playing with a different form again which may end up as a EP called ‘Movement in C’ which I will discuss further in future months maybe in December or January of next year.

Distance / DIH:

After a gap of several years in both cases, the full line of DIH recently got back together to record three tracks for the final Digit Vomit on memories due out later on in the year.

Distance’s current line up has also recorded two tracks after been asked for two other comps, and enjoyed them that much has also recorded an album which end up been a collb with Ocean in a Bottle (Drones over Piano).

And after discussion with my old partners in HICC, we are considering re-launching HICC on bandcamp re-releasing old releases with additional tracks.

A Means to an End:

After doing two really good gigs in June, July was quiet for the band although we carried on meeting up.

In August, we played two gigs, one at the Inspire Festival which probably was one of my favourite gigs (Have a storming version of Leaving Belfast on youtube which can be heard at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCHagH4M5oE).

We then struggled two days later through another gig at Bolton Food and Drink Festival where I wasn’t well, but we did okay.

We also did a short set at the Conscious Club in Manchester which was a difficult gig I know some of the band felt but very enioyable and played to around 500 people as a headline act on one of the stages at Wigans Diggers Festival 2014 which was great fun.

After that, we should have done three gigs for Blackpool Music Festival, but that alas turned into one owning to circumstances beyond our control where I performed a new one piece with the band called ‘North Pier Runaways’ and Petrova debuted a new song too.

Poetry:

Lot been published since I last wrote which can be seen on my website, http://www.andyn.org.uk/index.php?p=1_5_Publishing-History but some highlights from the past few months have been:

Red Bicyles (For Hebden Bridge Arts Festival) where I was approached to write a bit on a poem which would have lines among it from lots of other poets.

This can be read here - http://hebdenbridgeartsfestival.co.uk/pm-poems-red-bicycles/

Orgami Press also published a chapbook of mine ‘Mystery Story’ which can be downloaded for free here - http://www.origamipoems.com/poets/211-andy-n

Healthywaterwaystrust published three of my boat / water poems here http://www.healthywaterwaystrust.org.uk/index.php/about/36-poems

Twisted Promise Productions:

Some developments here as the play now have a new working title of ‘Last Dance Saloon’ and keeping with the original title, now we are called Twisted Promise Productions.

We have been meeting up monthly on this and most of the main parts of the play have now been completed. We performed part of it at Manchester Poetry Festival last night which although didn’t quite go to plan was enjoyable and more will follow from this in the new year. 

My night with the Vampire (Short Horror Film)

found this among some old dvd's at my mum and dad's last night of a old horror / gothic film more years ago that i will admit, i actually starred in and did the soundtrack for.

How things change! lol

Enjoy guys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVvifOm_wjw&feature=youtu.be

Boat Story (New Poem)

Extended like a playing card
Leaves cover the tip of your boat
Dropped in the absence
Of a captain stood on top
Shouting out orders,

Coloured candy
In dripping water

Echoing your sneezing
In each passing moment

Unfolded across
Each town

Tuning into the silence
Of your stuttering engine.



(Wrote for National Poetry Day on the theme of remember.
This is about memories of a boat trip from many years ago)

Return to Tandle Hill

Yesterday, me, my brother and my friends Kevin, Dave and Steve went up Tandle Hill which is on the outskirts of Rochdale and Oldham.

Some of you who know my band 'A Means to an End' know there is a song in our set called 'Tandle Hill' which is about when me and a girl (both 16) went missing up there (fell asleep on a bench) and had a lot of policemen searching for us.

These pictures were taken from the walk on the way up there and down, helping me relive my memories.

Thanks guys. I really enjoyed it.

Ocean in a Bottle - The End of Summer Part 1

The latest Piano EP by my Piano project Ocean in a Bottle is now available called 'The End of Summer'.

Available as a free download from here

Part 2 shall follow at the beginning of October

Clive James - last poem

Never been a huge fan of the TV legend growing up (I remember him most for Clive James on television growing up and hated it) but I have just found out he has terminal emphysema and this piece published in the New Yorker, it's being called James's last work. It's heartbreaking.... Have a read.. 



“Your death, near now, is of an easy sort.
So slow a fading out brings no real pain.
Breath growing short
Is just uncomfortable. You feel the drain
Of energy, but thought and sight remain:

Enhanced, in fact. When did you ever see
So much sweet beauty as when fine rain falls
On that small tree
And saturates your brick back garden walls,
So many Amber Rooms and mirror halls?

Ever more lavish as the dusk descends
This glistening illuminates the air.
It never ends.
Whenever the rain comes it will be there,
Beyond my time, but now I take my share.

My daughter’s choice, the maple tree is new.
Come autumn and its leaves will turn to flame.
What I must do
Is live to see that. That will end the game
For me, though life continues all the same:

Filling the double doors to bathe my eyes,
A final flood of colours will live on
As my mind dies,
Burned by my vision of a world that shone
So brightly at the last, and then was gone.”

Poetry Book giveaway

Yes. A poetry book giveaway.

As I am a in generous mood today and walked into Cathy's living room before
and saw the opportunity to take this picture of two cats which previously were
not on the best of terms shall we say, I thought I would share it and offer a copy
of one of my books (I will doublecheck with the winner what they have) to the
person who offers the best caption to go with this.

Email your answer to me on aen1mpo@yahoo.co.uk (Make sure you make it
caption for book competition in the subject to ensure I don't miss it).

Closing date - one week tomorrow 28 September 2014. 

Good luck.

Stephen James - A series of poems about, inspired by and written in Manchester and London (Review)

Kind summed up the black humour in this all too short collection by new Manchester writer, Stephen James when autographing this collection instead of signing it in his name, he autographed it ‘all the best, Charles Bukowski’ as reading a lot of his stuff when I was younger, I definitely read somewhere Bukowski up to me when he would sign other names into his book sometimes just to confuse people.

This doesn’t mean of course that Stephen wrote this in a fit of drunken stupdour like Bukowski, although the wit is still the same where on for the first page he starts off with             ‘I’m a poet from Manchester

            ‘I’m sure youcan tell

            These rhymes and this rhythm’

Before then doing a P.S. to the piece on the same page

            ‘I lied, I’m  poet form Wilmslow

             I hope you cn’t tell

            My dad a drives a Jaguar

            And I’m going to hell’

Although the Bukowski influence is there certainly in pieces like All the things I didn’t do yesterday where on the first stanza where he talks about a baby crying through the doors of the lift, it has a realism which perhaps not as stark as Bukowski has a subtle charm or humour if you will, where considering rolling a joint he considers waiting to watch a duckling call for her duckling before eventually giving totally up and moving on.

What is also impressive is the lack of generic titles in pieces like ‘The Perks’of having a relationship that you genuinely want to work and having your life descend into cliché’ where in the first three lines alone, the detail could easily descend into a novel where he starts off with

‘My life is a bad coming of age novel

the post not quite a break up and now we’ve not quite

made up scene in the trendy coffee shop’

What I particularly like about Stephen’s work within this booklet is apart from the ideas which make him stand out as a writer to watch is the way he mixes the mudane into his work with extreme technical cleverly almost turning reality upside down in some places, requiring re-reading in-between chuckles, making me realise like Bukowsi at his best that rewrites are needed frequently just so you can pick up further elements with re-reading.

Excellent.

Samples of Stephen’s work can be read at his blog http://folknwords.tumblr.com/

Copies can be bought for £5 plus P & P from folknwords@yahoo.com

For Stefan Kiszko (New Poem)

And always the silent smell
Of music follows
Each time his name is mentioned
Never justice,

Covered in ignored pleadings
With pinpointed accuracy
Constantly kicking
The ladder away
From his freedom

Evidence suppressed and misplaced
For 16 years
In cross currents
Of ignored medical reports

Miscarrying justice
And innocence
Constantly brushed
Under the carpets

Drawn back on curtains
Across hospitals
And your bedroom upon release
Which eventually killed you

A terrible crime
With two victims.

(This poem is in memory off Stefan Ivan Kiszko (24 March 1952 – 23 December 1993), who served 16 years in prison after he was wrongly convicted of assault and murder of Lesley Molseed. His ordeal was described by one MP as "the worst miscarriage of justice of all time” Kiszko was released in 1992 after forensic evidence showed that he could not have committed the murder. He tragically died in December 1993 shortly afterwards)

The End of Summer

Summer is ending guys.

These pictures beneath prove it. These two young ladies don't normally get on this well.

Quite a surprise at 6.30am on Friday morning.