Write Out Loud, Stockport, March 2016 write up

A few of you will know I have been regular visitor to Stockport’s Write Out Loud, Stockport for some years now and cover for John Keane (the orgainsator) for when needed.

Enclosed below is the report for March’s meet up when I covered for John with the collage poem, which each member of the people there for the night write a line reacting to what they have just heard.

1^st Round

Nigel started things off like a bullet for March’s Write Out Loud, Stockport with a mystery poem which whether meant to or not started off a theme of mystery poems leaving the audience to work out who was the mystery person they were talking about. On Nigel’s poem ‘Verdict Suicide’ the mystery was Marilyn Monroe, one of Hollywood’s great icons from the 1960’s (which was this month’s theme) with snappy lines throughout of Scandals and Tablets scattered throughout, like with the death of Diana many years later which for me still hasn’t been solved to this very day. Excellent.

Martin who came after that, followed with a much softer, reflective beautifully wrote poem ‘Sunday Tea’ with images like white sandwiches cut into squares, with families getting together every few weeks, something which I think has been lost over time.

Chris changed gears for the evening with a great poem next ‘Life in the 60’s’ with her gentle, reflective humour really producing something special here which I reckon will go down a storm at the upcoming ‘It happened 50 years ago’ (more at the end of the report) showing a sign with her memories of the 60’s that could have only been wrote by somebody that was there.

Dorinda caught me out for a minute or so with her first poem next, which is never a bad thing with me with the mention of a Dansette record player (too young lol), which was a deck that was certainly popular back then. Dorinda’s poem which I think was called ‘Me and Danicette’ was read out like a seven inch single with short snappy lines covering a number of acts that were popular then Cliff Richard, Everley Brothers, Elvis but made sense for me with the length of the songs then. Certainly up their with some of their number 1s.

I, Andy N (standing in for John Keane who was at the theatre) followed Nigel’s lead with another mystery poem on another icon from the 1960’s ‘Neil Armstrong’ the astronaught, of which I wanted to be when I was a child in the 1970’s and 1980’s myself, leaving subtle clues throughout so the poem sounded almost like a waltz.

Dave Keyworth caught me out next as he is very good at doing (going back to our old days at Poetica) with a found poem (a type of poem which is well worth remembering) rebuilding a unperformed Richard Nixon speech, wrote by William Stafford designed to be read out if Neil Armstrong and crew didn’t make it back into a very haunting poem indeed. Excellent.

Maggie was next with a poem which kinda reminded me of both Dorinda’s and Chris earlier efforts called ‘In the 1960’s’ touching on topics on Tony Sheridan, mini skirts and mods and rockers fighting, some of which seems like a alien word to me, but the end of this beautiful poem said ‘these days if you remember the 60’s, you couldn’t have been there’ which made a lot of sense to me.

Getting close to the end of the 1^st round, Linda read out next a free love haiku, a major point of the 1960’s which had me thinking for a good few minutes afterwards had me thinking had her and Nigel swapped bodies for a few seconds. Very funny still.

Dave C concluded the first part with a half fragmented, half wrote himself, mixed with a folk singer Ian Campbell which talked about the struggles Harold Wilson had getting re-elected, something that may well mirror the next election in a few years.

2^nd Round

The 2^nd half by Nigel stepped away from the 1960’s for the first time tonight with a very deep piece called ‘Block of disbelief’ which talked about a deep condition where people can need really convincing to over-come difficulties, something if I am honest a friend of mine could do with reading. Very thoughtful.

Martin then followed up with a poem ‘these hands’ which was one of my favourite poems of a truly excellent night, exploring the conflicting feelings in your hands, anger and emotion, loud and soft, in short sharp bursts which almost reduced me to tears.

Chris admitted as it turned out when it got to her turn next, she had forgot her treasured book of poetry, so read out a poem from memory ‘Your smile’ which is a old favourite of most of ours about her old son, read in a very different way indeed from the way she reads out of her book sometimes. Lovely.

Dorinda followed on with another very reflective poem set in the 1960’s ‘Along Cheetham Hill Road’, an area I used to know really well in the 1980’s and 1990’s, in a letter style speaking to her eldest daughter when she was a child, which was really really skilfully wrote and should be published in a book.

The returning Sheridan Kyte, who hadn’t been at Stockport since 2011 I think was next who I had been speaking to facebook on about the group a few weeks before was next, with a startling poem ‘Can’t I be your drug?’ a free flowing poem – personal and strong with lots of great lines ‘twinkle away from the knowing’ been just one line. It was to hard to believe Sheridan hadn’t wrote anything for years, and had everybody saying it won’t be 5 years again before she visits again.

I then carried on with another poem on another hero of mine from the 1960’s, Scott Walker (whose career is worth reading about in great detail on wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Walker_(singer)) called ‘Make it easy on yourself (Scott in the 1960’s) of which I am tempted to write a poem once I get other commitments out of the way writing wise will become a 6 or 7 poem sequence for myself. For this one, I talked about this poem using titles of many of his hits from the 1960’s to circle a warning before things would change in both the world and his own career.

Dave K then delivered our third poem of the night on space missions, which alas I can’t remember what the title of from my notes (sorry Dave) talking about I think in some depth about the landing, my favourite part talking about sand land absorbing their land. Very emotive indeed.

Maggie changed the mood of the night again, talking it back to Dorinda’s previous poem in a way talking about a trip to what I think was Ireland in the 1950’s to her Aunt Dolly’s which was that well detailed, it really mad me feel like I was there.

The Collage Poem was next, read by myself which was great fun to read with a very bit in the middle, of which both me and Sheridan are convinced Mr Nigel wrote, but of cause we can’t prove it (:

Linda read out a very clever technical poem called ‘Boot Camp’ which was about lent from her upcoming Holy Man collection, telling the poem from selected days, like Day 1, Day 4, Day 7 etc in a very diary style which had me recommending to her straight to put that in the book.

End of round 2 was dear Dave C who read out what he said was a made up rhyme of TV programmes from the 1960’s which were all Westerns (kudos to Nigel and Linda for spotting this).

3^rd Round

Nigel dealt out his second mystery poem of the night ‘Assassination guaranteed’ which covered the killing of JFK, which I think made the companion piece to his previous piece about Marilyn, which considering the links that existed between them both and told in only a skilful way that only Nigel could display. Top stuff.

Martin read out a poem next which I think was called Penguins, which he described as a personal history but am prepared to be corrected on that which drew comparisons from at least one person about Mike Harding – Nuns at School, but I personally found particularly interesting with the comparison to Angelic accountants and the Holier than thou. Very very interesting.

Chris read out her second poem from memory again ‘when I feel bad’ which again left me sat thinking wow, even though it was a old poem which most of us would have heard before seeing her do the poems from memory was brilliant. Really enjoyed it, Chris.

Dorinda read out another poem from just up the road, a sequel almost to Cheetham Hill Road, with the setting talking about Moxley Road, Crumpsell (which I seem to recall was also the title) and was also her first family home, bringing back memories of my favourite family home back in the early 1970’s with memories of cold fires etc. Very moving.

My third and final poem of the night was an extract from my napwrimo (National Poetry Writing Month) sequence for April, Ghost Story III, which covers in part the legendary Manchester Rat People, and the hint of a forthcoming war. (More details –

Dave K lightened things with a lovely, beautiful spring poem after that called ‘I miss daffodils’ which was designed to subvert the idea of Spring, which worked wonderfully. Very skilful writing indeed.

Maggie for her last poem of the night talked about a ‘Hot Summer’ (1960s) set in St Anne’s and a secret collaboration in the 1960’s before wistfully honestly with an ending ‘Time moves on’ which brought a lump to my throat again. What an emotional evening indeed.

Linda took us on another trip to the seaside with a very lyrical trip indeed, starting a revolution on the sea with a new way of loving and living before proclaiming she was the only Christian in the world. Stirring again.

Dave C had nothing to share but told us a little bit about football banter back in the 1960’s to conclude a really enjoyable evening.

The theme for next month, April is a quiz poem perhaps on a famous person following from what Andy and Nigel did this month.

P.R. is now underway for the event ‘It Was 50 Years Ago Today’ for Saturday 26 March 2016 and 09 April 2016 at Stockport Art Gallery between 3.30pm and 4.30pm with a additional workshop ran between 10.30 to 12.30 also on 09 April 2016.

More details can be read here:

http://writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=55296

Andy

Collage Poem

These words capture our emotions

Bruising the pain into happiness

Stepping into shadows of unsolved mysteries

Shine our milky moonlight up

All you need are hands

And all mankind is displayed within them

Great memories of yesterday

Terrible things happening today

Causal sex and skinny-dipping

Is worth a trip

Little one small step for you

A big one for mankind

Black and white tellies

Forty fives and seventy eights

Pages fluttering into a hurricane

One great leap by mankind. 

Eleanor Rees - Bloodchild and Riverline (Book Reviews)

When I first started my second full length book ‘The End of Summer’ just after I got Diabetes at the end of 2011, the plan originally wasn’t just to write a variety of end games – end of season kind of poems reflecting changes but also layer it with political poetry. Poetry that besides covering emotions in the change of seasons also reflected the change of emotions or seasons in extreme situations, real emotions mirrored in extreme feelings which was the way my life was feeling at that stage.

However, as the book developed, it ended up by the end of 2013 becoming two different camps with the political poetry mostly becoming focused on the after affects of war and how it affected the common man. Europa which came at the start of 2014, was the first out of the two of them to appear reflecting a similar mood to the End of Summer which came just over a year with a lot of the pieces stripped totally down from work which came before which I know shocked a few people at the time with the way I let the situations tell the stories with no judgment.

The End of Summer which followed just over a year later, told stories but chose to reflect on the scency more for mood and tell their own stories rather than what horrific conditions people were placed in against their choice.

On a similar level, its always interesting when a writer brings out two collections say of poetry often in a short (ish) period and you find yourself looking at both of them and compare them not as much in content or context. Take the example of two recent collections by Liverpool born poet, Eleanor Rees ‘Blood Child’ and ‘Riverine’. It wouldn’t be hard to believe like with my own ‘The End of Summer’ a lot of these poems started off together in the same collection before splitting into two different folders almost by nature.

Blood Child first is laced with all kinds of spiritual and un-usual images for example ‘Dusk Town’ which develops a side view of Runcorn I had never seen before with the tone of the city mirroring in the thrust of a train’s rush which has a indepth mysteries nature that really rang well with me and required a few re-readings to let the words slink into the back of my thoughts.

Arne’s Progress, a six part sequence is even more striking of images of nature with seagulls flapping its wings in the glasshouse mirrors perfectly with a violinist playing Dvorak (who I had to doublecheck exactly I knew who Dvorak) is counterblanaced with under-statement and a sadness that is laced throughout the full book in a magic just tapping out of sight.

Riverine which followed I think around 6 months later towards the end of 2015 is stated on the back of the collection as a compianon piece to Blood Child but possibly because it touched upon areas closer to me (I live in Manchester) ‘In my ears and in my eyes’ brought back a lot of memories of my own upbringing in Stretford with sodden and soapy old men in laundettes luquid held in tension over fears they had no words for. Excellent stuff.

Eleanor’s work over both books is laced with detail, detail and detail which is something a lot of writers (including myself I am honest enough to admit) that requires reading which in two reasonably short collections can leave you spellbound for example my favourite bit of ‘In my ears and in my eyes’

Turf billowing up and over pools of last night’s

Rain. A Woman

Steps up from under the mud

Covered with sludge; she springs towards the gate,

Towards the lights, wet fabric clings to her form

And the puddle erupts.

The poems eurpt for me frequently with silent explosions across nature carrying a timelessness littered with ghosts or mysteries which wander past each other like passing ships in the night.

Recommended.

Blood Child can be bought from http://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/products/59906

Riverline can be bought from http://www.gatehousepress.com/2015/12/riverine-by-eleanor-rees-lighthouse-poetry-pamphlet-iii/

Inbetween Stations with David Bowie (New Poem)

Laced in memories
There was a love hidden here
Trampled under
old newspapers
Buttoned down
In-between Stations.

A beauty laid low
Separated by the past
Drifting across
Winter coloured hills
Freckled in a shellshocked
Fading sunlight.

There was a tenderness
Blowing open mouthed
Crumbling across time
Reflecting how much
They would have
Once been in love.

Colouring in the sky
Unheeded in a scalloped chase
In a expelled breath
In the middle of the night
On a warm nub of vine
Rhyming in half fear.

Twisting emotions
Bleeding in mismatched pulses
And dropped stitches
Lost in the depths
Of hidden memories
Under different pressures.

Woven in broken light
At the end of the line
Standing still
In differing fashions.

Watching the stars
Stand still telling lies
Caught between Nature
and industry.

Listening to the automated voice
Crackling and freezing
Before breaking down
In different images just up the road.

Bristling branches
Shaking like they were
Clapping hands
At the end of a concert.

Matching the words
Blown apart down the line
Into the past
In-between stations.

The Pusher (New Poem)

Crazed with worry

Clothed in a bloodless air

Not one body has been found

In the river

Or the lakes

Moving shadow like

On the land

Nor 2

But 85.

85 bodies pedal soft

Conscripted with cold drew

Over 6 years,

Cloaked in the ship canal

And all over

Manchester’s water works

In deafening silence

Kneeling in deep breath

Crossing canal gates

In the Undercroft

Or past the bars

Near Canal Street

And the Warehouse Project,

Salford Quays

28 cases remain an open verdict

Trembling with stillness

Lying in wait

Chiselled in tragedies

Whether drunk or drugged

Or something more sinister

Whispering shells

Across un-answered questions

85 people in 6 years

Over doubled the rate of deaths

In Birmingham

undiminished

unsolved.

Wishboning towards

a possible truth

none of us want to

possibly face.

(NB. 85 bodies have been found dead

in rivers and canals in Manchester, UK

over the years double the number of

deaths found in Birmingham, UK.

The Police have denied there is a serial

Killer at large. However, the rumour

Persists that a serial killer nicknamed

‘The Pusher’ is responsible) 

Write Out Loud Stockport report, January 2016

For some years now, a few of you I have been going to Write Out Loud, Stockport based at Stockport Art Gallery which meets on the second Monday of each month and where a lovely report is crafted by John who runs in.

For the January report, John alas was running late so I took over…

Hi Guys and girls. John was running a bit late for Write Out Loud Stockport January 2016, so out of the kindness off my heart (don’t say anything – lol) I, Andy N said I would start off the write up for it, only for John to arrive halfway through the first piece, and instead of passing the pad over to him, I started off.

Considering how rubbish the weather was outside that night, the theme on the end of the world kinda made sense and was dealt with brilliantly by our dear Nigel who started with a Science Fiction which amazingly carried no naughtiness whateversoever called Countdown begins which covered all kinds of topics from Bunkers underground, space rockets and the rebirth of mankind hopefully itself under crippling pressure. Excellent stuff.

Maggie’s first poem kinda followed on beautifully with the floaty, almost fluffy in places ‘I wish I believed in the Pearly Gates’ which is what could have gone happened if things had gone wrong in Nigel’s narrative. In her poem, I myself particularly liked the reflective mood throughout the piece which had a great use of reputation in the piece with ‘I wish….’

Dorinda followed after with a very short poem ‘I predict’ which caught me out a little because of it’s shortness and resulted in me asking Dorinda to repeat it afterwards as my notes had only just started to get going on the piece (teach me to be more quicker in future – lol) in which among other predictitives she hoped she hope she would be the next poet laureate ( a great choice in my mind) carried in a lovely dream. Great stuff, Dorinda carried in her usual charm.

Our own, legend that is Dave C sadly had nothing to share next time so it was over to John himself to read out a poem called ‘End of the World’ which confused me a little on first readings but like any good poem, it’s second reading showed a detailed mystery of eying up girls at checkout, memories of Isle of Wight with chocolate and lots of other little details which told a multi layered story that only John could balance out.

Dave K carried on which was untitled at that point but may well end up been called either Lost or Lost / found but was a deeply thought piece as only Dave could do (thinking back to the days years ago at Poetica when I first met Dave) which appeared to be about Refugees at a train station afraid to move forward or indeed backwards with their lives.

I offered myself ‘Heaton Park Tunnel Mystery’ doing the usual shameless self plugging (lol) can be read on the blogs at http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=53740 which without giving too away has come from a true story from a book my brother got me for Christmas which will be used in research for another project that I will reveal more off in due course.

Martin followed that up with a wonderful poem, possibly my favourite of the night (apart from my own of course – lol) called Smoke Room which can be read on WOL itself at http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=53783 which deserves brownie points at least for the detail in this piece which must have took ages to write about how pubs used to be pre smoking ban. Wonderful stuff.

After the break, Nigel started off with a gallop on another Science Fiction piece ‘This is the end of the world we all know’ which despite being a wonderful piece of poetry about the American president facing a terrible choice at the eve of war (I won’t reveal the twist at the end) had several of us saying it felt like it was the beginning of a really special much longer piece. Get writing, Mr Nigel (:

Maggie read two short really interesting piece next ‘nature of the place’ and ‘nature of the walk’ in a total change of gears from the Unpicked, unstitched project where she had to write about a place we all knew off really well – in her case Abney Hall, which I won’t go in great detail as it’s best coming from herself really, where apart from where Agatha Christie stopped at was also the Social Services building for Stockport in the 1970s.

Dorinda’s second piece was another change of gears, something that is always good about Stockport about a schoolboys silent protest of not wanting to go to School which I think she said was something to do with one of her grandchildren (correct me if I am wrong Dorinda please) but made me think of my own little nephew Jack who I do remember playing doing more than a little silent protest on his first day at School. Excellent.

Dave C read out next from memory as he usually does, a amazing piece which talked about the anniversary of the 63^rd year since the Great Storms of our fair country (before my time of course) which was a mixture of a poem called ‘White Princess’ which he learnt from memory at school (amazing as it must have over 50 years ago) and one of his own poems which flowed together so well, at least two of us (maybe more in reflection) were not sure where the original poem finished and he carried on. Skillful writing indeed, Mr C.

John read out carrying on a poem about a very different storm next ‘World’s End’ which had a very subtle rhythm to it indeed (AB CB etc) in a almost a ballad feel that covered simply about wiping away the rubbish in a very different kind of End and had a real anger to it I personally felt which really surprised me and impressed me.

Dave K’s second poem I think had a title of ‘Afterlife at Travel Lodge’ which was a interesting metaphor for a state of mind of what the afterlife could really be like if at a Travel lodge kind of place. Interesting indeed..

Spinning towards the end, but not before John read out the annual collage poem, my second poem, a much older piece indeed which was originally wrote in 2009 which wrote about what would happen to Superheroes after they grew old (thought about in a different way to the Dark Knight returns by Frank Miller) and looked at the end of the world in a very different way I hope. The piece actually is still on Write Out Loud, and be seen (another shameless plug I know lol) http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=4757

Martin brought the night to a moving conclusion with another beautiful poem called ‘Us’ which discussed the mistakes that must fall building trust in a relationship.

The theme for next month is something to do with David Bowie who sadly passed away on that day.

See you all in February.

Gray Nicholls - Waiting for Nancy (Book)

A few of you one of my best friends, Gray Nicholls is also a really, really good poet in his own right.

Somewhat quiet by nature, earlier in the year, he asked me to help him edit what has now become his debut book the together ‘waiting for nancy’ which is a series of 17 poems telling the story between a man and a woman and write the blurb on the back of the book and then publish it on my own page on lulu.com.

It can be bought here - http://www.lulu.com/shop/http://www.lulu.com/shop/gray-nicholls/waiting-for-nancy/paperback/product-22502540.html?ppn=1

The blurb is ‘ An ‘on the road’ for the 21^st Century in verse told on the streets of Manchester (UK) which jumps up and down between pathos, humour and a rich earthiness exploring a relationship between two very different people which begins off as a relationship before going off in a totally different direction.

Gray’s words throughout each piece are tingled with a edginess bordering on the genre of a emotional thriller, constantly spinning backwards and forwards which by the end certainly had made me look at places in some cases I had known for years in totally different ways.’

Definitely a name to watch.

Highly recommended.

Andy N.’

The original versions of the poems are still available on his profile on write out loud (although are quite different from what ended up in the book)

http://www.writeoutloud.net/blogs/graynicholls

Music and Writing news (december 2015)

 Some music updates to start with, first of all, some sad news, but owning to a variety of reasons I won’t go into here but me and my good friend Amanda Silbernagel have had to put our joint project Audio Poesis on hold for at least the foreseeable future.

We do have a EP or two hanging around of unreleased tracks which I need to speak to Amanda about to decide what we are going to do with, but while this is sad news, I am hopeful we will get back together in the future and work on some new material.

 My gigging band for the past four years, A Means to an End is also about to finish off but not before playing our what is likely our final gig tomorrow at the Tyldesley Chapel in Tydlesley at 2pm. We will have some 4 track EP’s ready for distribution on the day too, which contain demo versions of 4 tracks from our up and coming album which is currently been remixed and will be ready shortly.

I’ll upload the demo tracks on Sunday on bandcamp and hopefully some live footage from the gig also of us.

In good news, it can be revealed that me and Jeff will hopefully carrying on with hopefully a new friend or two (whose name I won’t reveal yet) in a new project called Passover which will start rehearsals in January. I’ve wrote a few possible pieces and I’m looking forward to seeing what direction we go, as I suspect it will be a bit different to what we have done as a Means to an End.

There is also a possible chance of a second live band coming in the New Year with a former guitarist from a very old band I fronted Words & Music many years back who has got in touch. I hope to arrange a meeting with him soon over this and see what happens.

Ocean in a Bottle will be carrying on into the New Year too. The last few EP’s have been going down really well ‘Circling Winter’ and ‘The Midst of Winter’ and is signalling in a direction as a project this shall go.

A few titles floating around for future EPs include:

Heart of Winter (January 2015)

Reflecting Winter (February 2015)

The living dead of Manchester Morgue (March 2015)

And so on..

Writing wise, things are looking promising for my next book with Nick Armbrister, following on from 2014’s Europa with Europa II. I’ve currently wrote 14 pieces for this book (Aiming for 20 to 25) and if all goes well, should be out by next Spring or so if I can get a good burst of inspiration over Christmas.

I’ve recently help edit the debut book by my friend, Gray Nicholls ‘Waiting for Nancy’ and wrote the blurb at the back of the book. I really enjoyed reading this and helping him, must admit.

Link to follow soon on that.

I believe he has a second book in mind too but no doubt he’ll tell you about that himself.

More towards 2017, I guess my third full length solo book ‘From the Diabetic Ward’ will follow I guess. Currently that’s going ok too with maybe drafts of I guess 15 or 16 pieces done (Aiming for pushing 40 for that) and without giving away spoilers, the tone should be completely different for this book too.

More soon guys as always.

Andy