International Exiles

Of course they're not

Simulating terror

Crossing the border

From one country to the next

Vibrating in fear

through rain

and gunfire

criss-crossing into brutal rhythms

across a gutted reflection

choking on echoes

screaming walkways

Choosing to sleep in the freezing air

looking at the camera

stone eyed

Pursuing hope

before their lives ebb into pieces.

(For those at Calais) 

Write Out Loud - Stockport @ Enchantment Exhibition, Stockport Art Gallery 26 and 27 September 2015

 Dear all;

A poem of mine 'Lighthouses in the Mist' and others including
a piece by my good friend Gray Nicholls among others from
Stockport's Write Out Loud group which meets monthly at
Stockport Art Gallery have appeared at a new exhibition
called Enchantment on 26 September and 27 September 2015.

I popped down yesterday and with permission took the following
pictures.

Jazz record Cut off Half Note

Looking back in hindsight
I wonder how some
Of my ex girlfriends
Would have handled me
Getting diabetes

Sian who lived with her wealthy parents
And who kissed me with a desire 
Beyond her tender years
Would have resented my inability 
To keep running down to London.

Helen would have sat in front 
Of her ever increasing cocktail bar
And have said what the hell
Can you drink now
(which in reality was very little). 

Dani would have been sympathetic 
But secretly missed our film and pizza weekends
When it then became apparent
My whole diet and sleeping pattern
Would have to totally change. 

Sam no doubt would have cheated on me
Even quicker than what she did 
When she saw the list of appointments
I would have constantly live with
For the rest of my life. 

Each relationship
Twisting different emotions
In particular now
Entwined in imaginary
Last embraces 

Coyly enamoured
Consuming memories

Creating different backdrops
To each element of my life
Like a jazz record cut off
Half note

Passing through each door
With no chance
Of sliding backwards
Even if I wanted 

Exploding emotions
Cast aside from changes in health

A history lesson
Tied together in a cluster of dots
Ripped apart
Into a totally different jigsaw.




(Another poem from my up
and coming third solo poetry book
‘From the Diabetic Ward’)

Autobiography (New Poem)

Coming apart like stitches
Memories break off
As you grow older
Dissolving into skeletons
Drained of fact.

Stripping emotions
Into stark instrumentals
Confusing Sian
The first girl you kissed
With Helen, the second.

Diminishing the 8 years
Working at Great Universal
Your first job
When then you wondered
If it would ever end.

Padlocked in broken gasps
All the way out
Carrying you constantly
Through your 3 years
At Bolton University.

Woven in amazement
Even now after that
Advising people at the Job Centre
Who recognise you
Ten years after you left.

Replacing the years
And all of the jobs
(never forgetting all of your partners)
that followed like footprints,

fragmented following Diabetes
which crashed into your life
like a train crash

tracing tears caked around your heart

constantly creating new
dramas slightly off key

dislocated across
half built promenades
in your imagination

blown apart every morning
in broken storms
looking at tablets lined up
in a row 
refusing to give up.





(From my upcoming next solo collection 'From the Diabetic Ward' which is a bit off before you ask)

A Means to an End @ Live at Cadence Cafe, June 2015

A few of us may know that my band 'A means to an End' (above)
recently played by the look of things what was likely our last gig live
at Cadence Cafe in Tydlesley.

We are currently pencilling in dates for recording an EP / album
as a finale, and whether this will involve some dates to promote
the EP / album, I don't know yet.

As a prelude to the album been recorded and released, here
is a live recording for you all to enjoy of that live gig.

Tissues at the ready (:

https://oceaninabottle.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-cadence-cafe-20-june-2015

Ocean in a Bottle - ‘Warped kind of ambient silence’ (Homage to the Aphex Twin)

The track listing for the next EP by Ocean in a Bottle ‘Warped kind of ambient silence’ out around the 1^st of July will be:

1.    Introducing the biosphere

2.    Stepping across footsteps

3.    Breaking into a pause

4.    Tracking movements in the snow

5.    Imaginary journeys into the heart of silence (Final Mix)

6.    Treasuring that moment

7.    Three layered jam at the heart of midnight

8.    Ambience with a dose of Aphex (Final Mix)

Two of these tracks undecided which will be if I can manage to work it out within the download option on the page only which still will be pay what you want).

For people who choose to pay me either a few pennies or if I am really honoured hundreds of pounds, they will also be some further exclusive tracks

Which I am still working on.

Demos of Imaginary journeys into the heart of silence are here and ambient with a dose of Aphex are here

Demos have already been done for my next ambient EP ‘Conversations with the Dead’ which will follow on 1^st August 2015.

News and Views - June 2015

Other writers operate in different ways, but as a poet more and more nowadays I tend to write my poems (apart from little poems which pop out with no place) designed to go into folders.

Some of these folders will likely never get finished into books / sequences etc and some have been going on as far back as my first book ‘Return to Kemptown’ or even longer, but thought some of you may find it interesting how my head works with my poems at the moment.

1)      Mystery Stories…. Last year, Orgiami Press published six short poems of mine into a tiny little chapbook, all stories in the framework of six little poems. Plan now is to write another six to send over to them later on this year (Currently have three done).

Completion date – Maybe end of Summer.

2)      Europa II. Just over a year, Nick Armbrister a fellow anti war poet like me approached me to do a split book with him on Anti War Poetry called Europa. After a long break, I am now ready to write a second book with him called Europa II. My plans this year are to write around 20 to 25 short poems, all based from research on stories in the prisoner of war camps in the Second World War.

Completion date - Currently I am on my 7^th poem for this but I reckon another year or so this should be done and maybe out for next Autumn (2016).

3)      From the Diabetic Ward. This originally was going to be my second full length book instead of the end of summer inspired by Hugo Williams topic on his own health, but this book at the time proved very hard to write as it involved writing in more detail than I was really ready to write about it (It took some time to accept the changes Diabetes enforced on me). However, it is now ongoing and I would like to write say 40 or so poems on it.

Completion date - Currently am on my 8^th, so some distance to go but would like to get this finished some day.

4)      Nightmare on the tracks. The plan for this to write an epic poem told in Chapters of what happens what a man stumbles into something he shouldn’t have done on a walk through some meadows.

Completion date - I think at the moment, it is around 25 pages or so so it’s certainly over half way (Aiming for around 40 pages or so) or at the end of Chapter three (Aiming for 5 Chapters), so we’ll see if and when this gets done but it’s looking good.

5)      The Beast within. If I complete Nightmare on the tracks, I do have an idea brewing for the above which will be a sequel set on a camping trip.

Completion date – watch this space.

6)      A Means to an End II (Or Songbook). Now my band ‘A Means to an End’ is almost finished, it is looking likely an album will follow before the end of Summer. If this goes to plan, I will release a little book (Only Short) containing the lyrics to a lot of the more well known lyrics the band has done including ‘Return to Kemptown’, ‘Leaving Belfast’ and ‘Tandle Hill’ been just three that I wrote either the lyrics for or the bulk off it and offer it free as a download from where you can download the album from. Watch this space for this baby.

Completion date – Autumn maybe.

On-top of this, I will carry on with my podcasting on http://andyn.bandcamp.com/. Plans include currently to do podcasts monthly for my split book with Jeff Dawson (aka Jeff Dawson) from 2011, A Means to an End, a selection of pieces from my love songs for Cathy (done with permission) and Europa (with Nick Armbrister). Once I have got these completed, I will then move onto some of the above and would like to do eventually do podcasts of new and older revisited poems on a monthly basis.

I am also carrying on with my Ocean in a Bottle eps on a monthly basis too, (https://oceaninabottle.bandcamp.com/) although it is looking less likely they will be less Piano for the next few months as I want to do some ambience based material for a bit now as the next two will be called ‘Homage to Aphex’ and ‘Conversations with the Dead’ (Demos have already been done for both).

Audio Poesis (https://audiopoeisis.bandcamp.com/) has been quiet but it’ll pick up again. We both have been busy.

Sadly my band ‘A Means to an End’ has finished but not before doing a nice gig as a goodbye the other week which I do have a nice recording off (Will upload soon) and also will record an album over the summer.

And I will want to keep submitting to magazines / journals etc.