The Poem's the Thing

The second visits to The Poem's the Thing in Kirkwall and Stromness last week saw us looking at three poems about pigs Why? I hear you ask!

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. WN Herbert's latest book of poetry had just come in to the library. It's called Omnesia and as I was flicking through it a poem Facts About Pigs caught my eye. Aha, I thought, I know other poems about pigs. There's Ted Hughes's View of a Pig and Les Murray's Pigs. That'll do. 

WN Herbert

A very diverting discussion ensued. Which poet got under the crackling to view the pig from the pig's point of view? Which was distancing himself from the pig - and from something else - death, perhaps? What about the relationship between humans and pigs? Hard to say anything but, Awhh, to the picture above. My colleague Louise found it and posted it on the Orkney Library & Archive facebook page. But the poems we read were somewhat darker, though not without humour. 

Ted Hughes

But to go back to the original question, why pigs. Without really thinking it through, was I trying to demonstrate that poetry can be about ANYTHING? Possibly.

Les Murray

So what could we follow the pig poems with? Seagull, anyone? We read Edwin Morgan's Gull, a chilling, spine tingling poem about a gull landing on the poet's window sill.

... He eyed my furniture, my plants, an apple.

   Perhaps he was a mutation, a supergull.

   Perhaps he was, instead, a visitation

   which only used that tight firm forward body

   to bring the waste and dread of open waters,

   foundered voyages, matchless predators,

   into a dry room. I knew nothing ...

Edwin Morgan

A scary gull for sure and much admired in the group. A cousin perhaps of this bold thief?

We also read Kathleen Jamie's poem, The Longhouse. You can read it here. 

... This is what happens.
This is why we loosed our grip and fled

like the wind-driven smoke
from the single lum
in the crooked roof that covers
both women and beasts, a roof
low and broken like a cry

It was a sombre set of poems, I guess! But the discussion was far from sombre. 

Kathleen Jamie

  

In Stromness we ended our discussion 

of the pig poems with one member's reading

of DH Lawrence's poem Snake. 

A suitably intense end to an interesting and

engaging discussion. 

Check out the Scottish Poetry Library's excellent
website for information about Scottish poets and
poetry. 

Reeling & Writhing with Orkney Reader

Alice with the Mock Turtle & the Gryphon

It's turned out a busy week for yours truly. Reeling and Writhing seems to describe it fairly accurately. As the Mock Turtle said to Alice, when she asked what he learned at school: 

'Reeling and Writhing, of course, to begin with ... and then the different branches of Arithmetic--Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision.'

I know how he feels! 

A busy week, but all good things, I hasten to add.

Alice in Wonderland came to mind because I've been asked to take part in an event on Thursday with Glasgow Women's Library in their soon-to-be premises in Bridgeton, Glasgow, to talk along with Magi Gibson, their Reader in Residence, and Wendy Kirk, their Librarian, about books that changed our lives. 

Alice in Wonderland is one I have loved since before I could read - not perhaps for the best of reasons: I thought the book was called Alison Wonderland and was about a fellow Alison! It was influential for me though, when I eventually did read it, because it showed me how much I could identify with a character in a book; how much I could go through Alice's experiences with her, worry when she worried, feel sad when she was sad, happy and defiant when she found the courage to stand up to the strange, unsettling creatures she found around her and survive her unnerving adventures intact.

Magi and I will be speaking about one work of fiction, one of poetry and one non-fiction that have resonated strongly with us at different points in our lives.

Yesterday, Monday the 11th March, I appeared on BBC Radio Scotland's Book Cafe to talk about my involvement with Glasgow Women's Library's 21 Revolutions with authors Louise Welsh and Denise Mina. Still haven't heard it myself, but I believe it is on again on Sunday 17 March at 3.02 pm.

Louise Welsh

Denise Mina

Tomorrow we have the second meetings of the two new poetry reading groups:

The Poem's the Thing 

The afternoon one meets in Kirkwall Library from 1.00-2.00 pm and the evening one in Stromness Library from 6.00-7.00 pm.

Last month, it being the eve of Valentine's Day, we read Carol Ann Duffy's poem, Valentine; and because it was near the anniversary of the death of Sylvia Plath, we read Mad Girl's Love Song, which is also the title of the latest biography of Plath. And we read The Overhaul, the title poem of Kathleen Jamie's new collection, winner of the Costa poetry prize and shortlisted for the TS Eliot prize. You can download a PDF of it and two other poems from the collection by clicking the link in the line above.

Kathleen Jamie

Tomorrow we'll read - ah, well, come along and see!  As a clue, let me quote Winston Churchill:

'I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.'

(Just noticed that 'equals' is an anagram of 'squeal'!)

Beat the Blues Writing Group

Beat the Blues:
Got the winter blues?
Is it too much effort to get out of bed in the dark mornings?
Too cold and wet to go out for a walk?
Too easy to sit slumped in front of the TV?

Why Write

Writing is one of the tools we can use to help us feel better about ourselves and life.

Reading work by other people who have faced similar struggles and written about them can help too.

And sharing your work with the other folk in the group can build a feeling of safety and solidarity.

What is the course?

The course will be run by Rosie Alexander & Alison Miller for six Saturdays and contain lots of activities & opportunities to read and write.

You don’t need to have written before, all you need is a willingness to give it a go.

Why not come and see if you can learn to write and read your way through the Winter Blues and look towards Spring? 

Where?     The Blide Trust, 54 Victoria Street

When?      16^th February

Time?        1.30pm-4pm

What next?

If you would like to book a place on the course then please contact Rosie or Alison. Rosie and Alison are also happy to talk to people who might be interested in the course before booking a place.

Contact:

Rosie Alexander e-mail: ro_alexander@hotmail.com

                      phone: 07835250745

Alison Miller      e-mail: alisonjanemiller@gmail.com

                      phone: Kirkwall Library: 01856 873166

This course is free of charge to participants.

(We  gratefully acknowledge the support of ‘See me’, Orkney Minds, the George Mackay Brown Fellowship, the Blide Trust, Orkney Library & Archives and Scottish Book Trust)

To the World

The course has grown out of a series of workshops which Rosie Alexander ran last year along with poet John Glenday.

Out of those workshops a book was produced, called To the World.

It contains poetry, prose and images from people struggling with the various knocks life delivers.

The poem below was written by Laura Grieve on a weekend workshop aimed at people with cancer.

This is it

The moment I knew

It was happening to me

The way it happened to her

Long ago

A chance moment

A chance movement

Quite unique

Had I ever stretched

Just in that way

And probed in just that place

Before

To soothe an itch

I'm sure I hadn't

I think to myself

Oh!

This is it

Happening to me

Sylvia Plath

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Sylvia Plath aged only thirty. She left behind a powerful body of work. The story of her life with fellow poet Ted Hughes and of her suicide after they split up have become the stuff of legend - and many hundreds of academic studies. Though she didn't survive the turbulent darkness that engulfed her, she wrote till the end of her life, poems that tried desperately to comprehend and express the anguish she felt.

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” ―Sylvia Plath









This is winter, this is night, small love -
A sort of black horsehair, A rough, dumb country stuff Steeled with the sheen Of what green stars can make it to our gate ...

From By Candlelight


The Poem's the Thing

Two new poetry reading groups will start this week, one in Kirkwall and the
other in Stromness Library.

The Poem's the Thing
Wednesday 13 February
1.00-2.00 pm in Kirkwall Library
6.00-7.00 pm in Stromness Library

The groups will run on the second Wednesday of each month. 

Put the dates in your diary!