Aid to Memory
I do not understand why the cat goes missing for several days and then returns, seeking food and affection.
I am praying for airtime, wishing for air. What I have are this stuffy office and a computer I don’t know how to use.
The fire in the pub hasn’t been lit for months. No-one is talking to anyone they don’t know. Faces have turned hard with age.
The cat is language. This place is too quiet to be home.
Nothing is set in stone.
--
3 of 9
Saturday, 21 March 2009
Friday, 20 March 2009
Rupert Loydell & Nathan Thompson - Memos to Self (2)
Statement to Self
We are not the children of love we are the children of war.
We have other reputations as well.
Your hand can’t get tired, it hasn’t got eyes.
Memory is full of alterations, facts, short-cuts.
This is an attempt to make things clear, a spatial rendition of time.
I am already regretting the whole thing, will pretend it doesn’t exist.
We are different people this morning.
No-one talks to anyone they don’t already know.
--
2 of 9
We are not the children of love we are the children of war.
We have other reputations as well.
Your hand can’t get tired, it hasn’t got eyes.
Memory is full of alterations, facts, short-cuts.
This is an attempt to make things clear, a spatial rendition of time.
I am already regretting the whole thing, will pretend it doesn’t exist.
We are different people this morning.
No-one talks to anyone they don’t already know.
--
2 of 9
Thursday, 19 March 2009
Rupert Loydell & Nathan Thompson - Memos to Self (1)
Once Upon a Time
Ice and morning mist, cold juice for breakfast, long hours to fill. The chronometer is not working and you would be surprised how much we sleep, how much we eat – probably how often meal times come around.
In a funny sort of way happiness is not to do with being happy. It is simply being content and settled in routine. Keeping warm and alive takes all our time up here. What little spare we have we dedicate to mapping out words on the white pages of our journals.
This is a fiction. And also this.
--
This is the first of nine parts extracted from a longer collaborative project titled 'Memos to Self' by Rupert Loydell and Nathan Thompson. We'll be serialising them daily. You can read further sections from the series in Shadowtrain #27.
Ice and morning mist, cold juice for breakfast, long hours to fill. The chronometer is not working and you would be surprised how much we sleep, how much we eat – probably how often meal times come around.
In a funny sort of way happiness is not to do with being happy. It is simply being content and settled in routine. Keeping warm and alive takes all our time up here. What little spare we have we dedicate to mapping out words on the white pages of our journals.
This is a fiction. And also this.
--
This is the first of nine parts extracted from a longer collaborative project titled 'Memos to Self' by Rupert Loydell and Nathan Thompson. We'll be serialising them daily. You can read further sections from the series in Shadowtrain #27.
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Elisabeth Bletsoe: The Separable Soul (audio)
Late November 2008 I organised a reading for students, featuring Tony Frazer of Shearsman and Elisabeth Bletsoe, one of my favourite poets of 2008. It was a real gem of a recording, though I was completely nervous and an incompetent host (and technician, when it came to recording the event).
Elisabeth very kindly gave permission to share some of the poems from the recording of the event. To begin, 'The Separable Soul', which she introduced as wondering "what it would be like to be transformed back into a swan".
Recorded live at the Writers' Room, CAPITAL, University of Warwick. Elisabeth Bletsoe's latest collection, Landscape from a Dream, is published by Shearsman. Full text of this poem is available at Poetry International Web.
Elisabeth very kindly gave permission to share some of the poems from the recording of the event. To begin, 'The Separable Soul', which she introduced as wondering "what it would be like to be transformed back into a swan".
Recorded live at the Writers' Room, CAPITAL, University of Warwick. Elisabeth Bletsoe's latest collection, Landscape from a Dream, is published by Shearsman. Full text of this poem is available at Poetry International Web.
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
Likestarlings
Just discovered a new and very interesting project, pairing up poets for timed, collaborative work: Likestarlings. Editor-in-Chief and co-founder, Caleb Klaces, is a former Foyle Young Poet of the Year (twice), amongst other things.
I like the fact the project pushes the idea of collaboration, emphasising the shared nature of writing. Reading sequences of poems produced by paired poets, I get the sense of the dialogue emphasised above the individual poems. One piece, Caleb writes, reads as if it is a single poem broken into sections. Others respond to each other, as if a strange object - some kind of essence of the poem - is being passed back and forth between the pair.
Mostly the poets are being commissioned at the moment, but do get in touch if you'd like to know more or be considered for a pairing. And have a read of the articles on the blog - 'Palaver' - which express very eloquently ideas relating to collaborative writing and writing collectives.
Link also added to the sidebar.
I like the fact the project pushes the idea of collaboration, emphasising the shared nature of writing. Reading sequences of poems produced by paired poets, I get the sense of the dialogue emphasised above the individual poems. One piece, Caleb writes, reads as if it is a single poem broken into sections. Others respond to each other, as if a strange object - some kind of essence of the poem - is being passed back and forth between the pair.
Mostly the poets are being commissioned at the moment, but do get in touch if you'd like to know more or be considered for a pairing. And have a read of the articles on the blog - 'Palaver' - which express very eloquently ideas relating to collaborative writing and writing collectives.
Link also added to the sidebar.
Monday, 2 March 2009
Things have been a little quiet here. But at the same time, things haven't been quiet elsewhere. Here are some things that have been taking up my time:
Ira Lightman on Ira Lightman
(Hilarious stuff! I hope the first in a new series of reviews from Stride Mag. Which reminds me: if anyone else has outstanding reviews for Stride, send 'em in.)
A pile of Shearsman titles lined up:
Claire Crowther's The Clockwork Gift
Robert Sheppard's Warrant Error
Susan Connolly's Forest Music
Hanne Bramness's Salt on the eye: selected poems (trans. Bramness and Frances Presley)
Technically should be sending them out for review, but I'm going to read them all first.
Robert Sheppard will be reading with Philip Kuhn tomorrow night in London. Wish I could go, but will be teaching out of town until late.
New Tears in the Fence is just out - issue 49.
(David Caddy very kindly put the G&P editors' poems on consecutive pages. I've not seen it yet as it went to London, not my Not-London address, but I assume our poems are sat side by side on stools, drinking caipirinhas and absinthe, muttering like graffiti scratched into the bar's much-abused surface.)
Which reminds me, the London Word Festival launches this Thursday. Invite received, with thanks, and declined, sadly for similar Not-London reasons. But hopefully one of the G&P agents will be there.
Meanwhile, the second issue of Horizon Review is due some time this month! Woohoo! (Good luck with the workload...) Expect inordinately long review from me, plus a column on the Singapore poetry scene (which, having spent all of 8 days immersed in it, I'm now more than qualified to rant about it).
And less-poetic time-consumers:
Questionable Content
(I feel really guilty about this one. While Simon probably gets all the indie references, I don't which leaves me with no excuse. Although the specials menu in Coffee of Doom sometimes brings great joy.)
Burial
(Thanks to Neeral for this one.)
Gojira
(And thanks to Jeph Jaques of Questionable Content for this one.)
Right, an inordinately unintelligent post, but if I keep regular with these, maybe Simon will crack his knuckles and outwit me.
~
GT
Ira Lightman on Ira Lightman
(Hilarious stuff! I hope the first in a new series of reviews from Stride Mag. Which reminds me: if anyone else has outstanding reviews for Stride, send 'em in.)
A pile of Shearsman titles lined up:
Claire Crowther's The Clockwork Gift
Robert Sheppard's Warrant Error
Susan Connolly's Forest Music
Hanne Bramness's Salt on the eye: selected poems (trans. Bramness and Frances Presley)
Technically should be sending them out for review, but I'm going to read them all first.
Robert Sheppard will be reading with Philip Kuhn tomorrow night in London. Wish I could go, but will be teaching out of town until late.
New Tears in the Fence is just out - issue 49.
(David Caddy very kindly put the G&P editors' poems on consecutive pages. I've not seen it yet as it went to London, not my Not-London address, but I assume our poems are sat side by side on stools, drinking caipirinhas and absinthe, muttering like graffiti scratched into the bar's much-abused surface.)
Which reminds me, the London Word Festival launches this Thursday. Invite received, with thanks, and declined, sadly for similar Not-London reasons. But hopefully one of the G&P agents will be there.
Meanwhile, the second issue of Horizon Review is due some time this month! Woohoo! (Good luck with the workload...) Expect inordinately long review from me, plus a column on the Singapore poetry scene (which, having spent all of 8 days immersed in it, I'm now more than qualified to rant about it).
And less-poetic time-consumers:
Questionable Content
(I feel really guilty about this one. While Simon probably gets all the indie references, I don't which leaves me with no excuse. Although the specials menu in Coffee of Doom sometimes brings great joy.)
Burial
(Thanks to Neeral for this one.)
Gojira
(And thanks to Jeph Jaques of Questionable Content for this one.)
Right, an inordinately unintelligent post, but if I keep regular with these, maybe Simon will crack his knuckles and outwit me.
~
GT
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