Stone Circles Drop-In Celebration

The snow may have melted, but inside Waterstones Piccadilly on Tuesday 9th we had an enjoyable snow fight, throwing poetry and even prose at each other. This month the theme was “Stone Circles”, and there were some surprising poems read. Hosted by John Mole (Poet in the City poet in residence) we explored every corner of our Isle, covering a variety of stone circles including some transgressions involving crypts, houses and Bolivian mothers. It was great to see so many new faces; their enthusiasm was infectious.

As always we have made a list of all the poems read. Again the list may not be factually correct and any help filling in any gaps would be more than appreciated.

Stay warm. Thank you for the poetry

NOTE: Our next drop-in is on Tuesday 6th March. The theme is “Explorers”.

When: Tuesday 6th March 2012, 6:30pm (wine, browse, chat); 7:00pm (poetry)
Where: Waterstone’s at 203-205 Piccadilly, London, First Floor, Poetry Section
Cost: Free of Charge
RSVP: Phone Waterstone’s  020 7851 2419   or Email events@piccadilly.waterstones.co.uk

Also in March: Maria Stepanova on the 8th at Imperial College; A celebration of the Forward Prize with Seamus Heaney and Sebastian Faulks on the 19th.
And don’t forget Tennyson on the 27th Feb at King’s Place.
Visit Poet In The City for more info.

Tune in next week for a post on Tennyson.

Poems read at the Stone Circles drop-in on 7th February

John Montague – Like Dolmens Round My Childhood, the Old People
John Mole (host) – Quiet Stone
William Wordsworth – Incidents Upon Salisbury Plain
Leslie Norris – The Twelve Stones of Pentre Ifan
Kennet Steven – The Cavendish
Roger Thrush (poet in attendance) - Salisbury Plain
Thomas Hardy – Channel Firing
W H Auden – Prologue
Anne Boilen (poet in attendance) – The Kite Of The Tongue
Mark (poet in attendance) – At The Gate
Katherine Lockton (poet in attendance) – Babe; Three o’clock in the alto
Jazzman John Clarke (poet in attendance) – Stone Circle South East London
Pauline Syeiner (poet in attendance) – The Druids Of Primrose Hill
Martin Holroyd (poet in attendance) – Arbor Low
Jerry Steans (poet in attendance) – Stones Circles
Jamie Field (poet in attendance) – Stones
Lord Alfred Tennyson – excerpt from In Memorum
Gwyneth Lewis – Ancient Avenues
Geoffrey Grigson – Andrew Young April 1964
John Mole (host) – William Round Remembers A Sea-side Holiday
Ted Hughes – The Horses
Norman Kane – Climbing Saldon
R S Thomas – The Stones of the Field
Katherine Jamie – Finding (Prose)
Jo Ivie (poet in attendance) – Maeshowe
Rumi – The Mill, The Stone, The Water
John Burnside – Neo-classical
Tomas Transtromer – April and Silence
Alison Longley – Stone Circle
Norman Nicholson – The Monolith
Roger Thrush (poet in attendance) – The Peel Ring of Lumphanan
Wallace Stevens – Sunday Morning

“To strive, to seek, to find, and….?”

Can you complete this quote?

By the end of summer 2012, you should have no difficulty finding the final words, “…and not to yield”.

Many readers will remember that they are the last line of “Ulysses”, a dramatic poem about the heroic longings of Homer’s famous Greek adventurer, by the Victorian Poet Laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who is still one of the most popular and celebrated British poets of all time. Many of London’s visitors over the summer will doubtless visit his grave at Westminster Abbey or see his memorial at Trinity College if they travel up to Cambridge.

In March 2011 this famous line was chosen for a permanent installation in the centre of the Olympic Village, as inspiration and legacy for London 2012. The permanent poetry installations throughout the Olympic Park are supported and delivered by the Olympic Delivery Authority, within their strategy to integrate art into the park.

The selection of these inspiring and memorable words was made by Winning Words. This UK-wide project of the Forward Art Foundation to link poetry and sport is using the London 2012 Games to engage athletes, the public, young people and communities with the unique power of poetry.

Poet in the City, in association with Winning Words, is delighted to invite you to a special event celebrating the life and work of Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Speakers include:

• Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate from 1999-2009, was knighted for services to literature in 2009. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, University of London. Current titles include The Cinder Path, Laurels and Donkeys and In the Blood (Faber).
• Ann Thwaite is a celebrated biographer. Previous works include Waiting for the Party, a life of Frances Hodgson Burnett; Edmund Gosse; A. A. Milne (Whitbread Biography of the Year in 1990); and Emily Tennyson: The Poet’s Wife.
• Sarah Weir is the Arts and Culture Director at the Olympic Park Legacy Company and was previously Head of Arts and Cultural Strategy for the Olympic Delivery Authority.

Event Details

• When: Monday 27 February 2012, 6.30pm for prompt start of poetry at 7.00pm
• Where: Hall One at Kings Place,
  90 York Way, London N1 9AG
• Cost: £11.50, or £9.50 if booked online
• Bookings: Kings Place Box Office
  (Tel: 020 7520 1490) or online at www.kingsplace.co.uk. Please check ticket availability online.

Booking enquiries: tickets@kingsplace.co.uk
General enquiries or comments: info@kingsplace.co.uk

Resolutions Drop-in Revolution

Our first monthly drop-in of 2012 was both enjoyable and stimulating.There were many new and familiar faces at Waterstone’s Piccadilly on Tues 10th. With a humble direction from our host, poet Mario Petrucci, we explored the theme of Resolutions.

As always, the theme was open to interpretation and we were rewarded with a brilliant collection of poetry from our Poets in Attendance, as well as a selection of poems from our favourite poets, from John Donne to Carol Anne Duffy.

Once again, a few of us attempted to note the poets quoted and the poem titles. We tried to rectify any mistakes after the event; unfortunately, we weren’t able to confirm some names or titles. If you can  help, please let us know in the comments below.

In addition, I was asked by a few people to link to their own website/blog and I was honoured to do so.

Have a wonderful start to 2012 and thank you for the poetry!

NOTE: Our next drop-in is on Tuesday 7th February. The theme is Stone Circles.

When: Tuesday 7th February 2012, 6:30pm (wine, browse, chat); 7:00pm (poetry)
Where: Waterstone’s at 203-205 Piccadilly, London, First Floor, Poetry Section
Cost: Free of Charge
RSVP: Phone Waterstone’s 020 7851 2419 or Email event5s@piccadilly.waterstones.co.uk

Also in February, Poet in the City are holding a Bob Dylan event on the 20th and a Tennyson event on the 27th. Visit the Poet in the City website for more info.

Poems read at the Resolutions drop-on on the 10th January

Hafiz – All The Hemispheres ; How Did The Rose; Even After All That Time
Mario Petrucci (host)– Let Us Talk; What Is It Death
Rilke -We Cannot Know His Legendary Head
David Neita (poet in attendance) -Millennium Song
Gary – Resolution Rhyme
Lea Longford (poet in attendance) – I Will Not
? – Delay
John Short (poet in attendance) – Carol
Simon Harrison – New Year’s Poem
Abbas? (poet in attendance) – Outpouring Of Grief
Robert Browning – Prospice
Pamela Franklin (poet in attendance) – Ask
Daisy King (poet in attendance) – Sleeps
Mira Mehta (poet in attendance) – Eternal Conundrum
Edna St. Vincent Millay – Conscientious Objector
Jazzman John Clarke (poet in attendance) – Some Things You Should Care About
Alfred Tennyson – Charge Of The Light Brigade
John Whiting (poet in attendance) – Resolutions
Claudine Rage Franks (poet in attendance) – The Trees Ask Where You Are
Kim Adonizzio – New Year’s Day
Carol Ann Duffy – Stephen Lawrence
Alfred Tennyson – Ring Out Wild Bells
Jamie Field (poet in attendance) – In Order To
Irena Ratushinskaya – Will Live And Survive
Thomas Hardy – The Darkling Thrush
Antonio Francesco Alessandro – I’ve Been Around The Wild
Sally Gethin – Janus
Madeline Young (poet in attendance) – Writing Resolutions
Katherine Lockton (poet in attendance) – Arriving In Heathrow
Vicki Stannard (poet in attendance) – First Date
Kavita Jindal (poet in attendance) – How I Will Write Next Year
Matthew Dickman – Slow Dance
John Donne – A Valediction Forbidding Mourning
Maureen Birch – I’m Starving
Julija (poet in attendance) – The Place Where The Fox Lives
And For Tia who didn’t get to read:
Gerard Manley Hopkins – My Own Heart Let Me Have More Have Pity On

Fire and Ice Drop-In Delights

We had a really jolly evening Tues 6th at the Poet in the City monthly poetry Drop-In, which was hosted again by John Mole, Poet in the City’s beloved Poet in Residence. There was ice in the air outside, for sure, but fire in the hearts of the poets and poetry lovers who packed the Poetry section of Waterstone’s. It was our best attendance yet at the new venue and we had to get in some extra chairs during the evening as people kept on joining us!

The original idea of the drop-in was to honour Robert Frost and the American poetic tradition, but the theme of Fire and Ice evoked some delightful tangential associations in many of us and we heard from several British and European poets as well—including some poems originally written in Lithuanian, Portuguese and French!

At least three of us made valiant attempts to note the poets quoted and the poem titles. With some comparing of notes afterwards, we have produced the following list, but it’s not complete, due to names or titles misheard or missed! Please inform us in comments below this post of any poems that were read and are not listed, any mistakes made in the transcription, or any links to transcripts of the poems or poets’ bios on the web where we have not already included one.

Have a good holiday and thank you for the poetry!

NOTE: To give everyone a chance to recover from the holidays, the next drop-in will be on Tuesday 10th January, rather than our usual date of the first Tuesday of the month. The theme, aptly, is “Resolutions”! I urge you to make one to be there… and let it be one of those resolutions that lasts longer than the first week of Jan!

When: Tuesday 10th January 2012, 6.30pm (wine, browse and chat); 7.00pm (poetry)
Where: Waterstone’s at 203-205 Piccadilly, London, 1st Floor, Poetry section
Cost: FREE OF CHARGE.
RSVP: Phone Waterstone’s 020 7851 2419 or Email events@piccadilly.waterstones.co.uk

Poems read at the Fire and Ice drop-in on 6th December

Robert Frost – Fire and Ice
Frank O’hara – A True Account of Talking with The Sun At Fire Island
Richard Wilbur – A Courtyard Thaw
John Crowe Ransom – Winter Remembered
Elizabeth Bishop – The Armadillo
Bob Kaufman – Results of a Lie Dectector Test
Robert Lowell – Ill Wind
Gerry Skeens (poet in attendance) – I Could No Longer Call Her Name
Robert Hayden – Monet’s Water Lillies
Katherine Lockton(poet in attendance) – September The Third
? – Grand Fine
Paul Laurence Dunbar – A Warm Day In Winter
John Berryman – Dream Song 14
Charles Olson – A Scream to The Editor
David Neita (poet in attendance) – Cremation
The First Adventure
Wallace Stevens – The Snowman
Marianne Moore – New York
Ruth ? (poet in attendance) – Winter Solstice
Gérard de Nerval (translator Timothy Ades in attendance) – Horus – read in English
Herberto Hélder – ‘a knife doesn’t cut fire…’ – read in English and in Portuguese
Wallace Stevens – The Poems of our Climate
John Mole (poet in attendance) – Ragnar Rock; A Conflagration
Natasha Morgan (poet in attendance) – A Polar Carol; Wonderland
Mira Nehta (poet in attendance) – A Commonplace Story
Antanas Skema – Request 2
Carol Anne Duffy – The Duke Of Fire And The Duchess Of Ice
Michael Low (poet in attendance) – Not Quite The Truth
Anne Hébert – Snow
Anne Compton – What Light Decays
Andy ? (poet in attendance) – Smoke Without Fire; Slanted Rain; The Internationale
Louis McNeice – Snow
Derek Mahon – Antartica
Dante Alighieri – Dante’s Inferno – sinners in ice section
Thomas Carew – Mediocrity in love rejected
Jennifer Johnson (poet in attendance) – Uncomfortable Times
Sarah Hesketh – Suzanna Ibsen Is Cold
Robert Lowell – Skunk Hour
Robert Hayden – Those Winter Sundays
Theodore Roethke – The Waking
Robert Frost – Storm Fear
Billy Collins – Christmas Sparrow

John Berryman: An American Dream Song

Henry, edged, decidedly, made up stories

Henry the protagonist of the Dream Songs and his alter-ego Mr Bones (a minstrel Henry) occupy pages of a non-linear, disjointed poetry that portrays the life, fears and insecurities of its creator. John Berryman (1914-1972) initially denied that Henry was an extension of himself and repeats that the poems were “made up stories,”that Henry was just a character from his imagination. However in reading the songs, there are close parallels between the life of Henry’s and that of Berryman’s: the suicide of the Father, the antagonizing relationship with the Mother, the manic depression, the extra-martial affairs, the poverty, the laziness.

Having rigorously denied that he was Henry (listen to the opening of the University of Iowa reading). Berryman eventually capitulates in an interview saying: “Finally, I left the poem open to the circumstances of my personal life.”

In the use of personal references and biographical references Berryman is now camped out in the arena of confessional poetry, with Robert Lowell and Sylvia Plath.

1

Huffy Henry hid the day
unappeasable Henry sulked.
I see his point, – trying to put things over.
It was the thought that they thought
they could do it made Henry wicked and away.
But he should have come out and talked.

Berryman’s sonnet-esque stanzas that make up the Dream Songs are difficult and vague. The narration jumps between the first, second and third person, the syntax distorted and the dialogue between Henry and his alter Mr Bones just adds to the confusion. But this wackiness just adds to the power of the Songs.

The Songs after all, are an exploration of mental disturbance: the psychic states of neurosis, depression and schizophrenia. And in understanding this underlying intention you will find moments of tragedy, comedy and sentimentality (see Song four).

74
Henry hates the world. What the world to Henry
did will not bear thought
Feeling no pain
Henry stabbed his arm and wrote a letter
explaining how bad it had been
in this world

Henry is a character that always survives. Unfortunately this was the one fatal difference between character and creator. John Berryman committed suicide in 1972 by jumping off the Washington Avenue Bridge into the Mississippi River.

“Henry to some extent was in the situation that we are all in actual life-namely, he didn’t know and I didn’t know what the bloody fucking hell was going to happen next. Whatever it was he had to confront it and get through. For example he dies in Book IV and is dead throughout the book, but at the end he is still alive, and in fairly good condition, after having died himself again.” Berryman

John Berryman is my personal favourite American Poet because of his innovation and unique voice, but more importantly because I see a Henry inside me. Although John Berryman body washed up on a freezing cold January 7th, Henry still lives on, and I implore you to visit the crazy fool in those beautiful singing dreams.

[After the first 77 Dream Songs (1964), owing to popular demand and the pressures of fame, the number of songs double in the following collection: His Toy, His Dream, His Rest (1968), and are subsequently extended to around 400). In his latter collections some of the songs lose their lustre and are inadequate compared to the initial 77, but are an essential read in understanding the poet.]

If you want to hear me read the poetry of Berryman. Listen/read the works of other American Greats, or come and spread your own, why not come to our Drop in session on the 6th at Waterstone’s Piccadilly.

Villanelle: A Sublime Endurance

In our new section we explore the Art of Poetry, the forms, rhymes or even the absence of rules which makes the medium so enjoyable and intellectually challenging. To kick-start the journey we begin with my favorite and the most sublime form:

The Villanelle

As a writer of poetry, I have only written a villanelle once. Its elegance and strict structure makes a poem’s creation difficult. It is traditionally a melancholic and fatalistic form and its schizophrenic repetition often leads to some kind of metaphysical introspection (there are some upbeat exceptions see those by Wendy Cope).

The villanelle I wrote was specifically created for a reading at an Alcoholic and Drug Rehabilitation center. I wanted to write a poem that would capture the bipolar personality of an addict as well as the struggle to overcome that addiction. I used the villanelle because of the conflicting nature of the form, but more importantly because of its overreaching theme of endurance. It’s beauty comes from the use of its repetition, the power is in the refrain. For me the best use of the villanelle is sparingly and in moments of heightened emotion.

Structure:

five three lined stanzas (tercet) followed by a four-lined stanza (quatrain)
first line of the first stanza is used as a refrain to end the second and fourth stanzas
last line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line of the third, fifth
both lines are repeated as a refrain in the last two lines of the sixth stanza

Using capitals for the refrains and lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form could be expressed as: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2

Here’s WH Auden’s villanelle, But I Can’t (the repeated lines are highlighted):

Time will say nothing but I told you so
Time only knows the prize we have to pay
If I could tell you I would let you know

If we shall weep when clowns put on their show
If we shall stumble when masters play
Time will say nothing but I told you so

There are no fortunes to be told, although
Because I love you more than I can say
If I could tell you I would let you know

The winds must come from somewhere when they blow
There must be reasons why the leaves decay
Time will say nothing but I told you so

Perhaps the roses really want to grow
This vision seriously intends to stay
If I could tell you I would let you know

Suppose the lions all get up and go
And all the brooks and soldiers run away
Will time say nothing but I told you so
If I could tell you I would let you know

The most famous example of a villanelle is Dylan Thomas’s, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night. A poignant example is Sylvia Plath’s, Mad Girl’s Love Song.

Good Poetry Events Make Good Results

A review of Poet in the City’s Robert Frost event by volunteer Jamie Field.

It started with a mending of a wall and ended in a satisfying completion of it. The wall metaphorically being the poetry of Robert Frost that is, and the mending being an exploration. Each stone was diligently placed into the wall creating a firm and stable structure for those climbing over it (i.e. the audience) to fully appreciate its structure and it’s builder.

Now before I stretch the analogy beyond the point of no return, I’m going to take a leaf out of the Frost style guide and try to keep the writing simple but sophisticated, to simultaneously speak to both the average lover of verse, and the poetry intelligentsia. I’m going to attempt to re-live the sentiment of that event and unite us all in the celebration of the life and poetry of Robert Frost.

And what a celebration it was. We were introduced by the voice of the man himself reading Mending Wall, a fine example of how to perform poetry by one of its innovators. Then we were guided by our very capable speakers, each covering very distinct areas.

Professor Tim Kendall (the UK’s leading expert on Frost) explored the landscape of Frost and by using a scene from the Shawshank Redemption, showed how his poetic landscape is ingrained into the American psyche: “Like Something out of a Robert Frost poem.” How his poetry was one of the frontier, homestead and true values compared to the alienation and hostility of the city (see Christmas Trees). He discussed how by creating “poems of highest simplicity” and depth, Robert Frost overcome barriers between different constituencies and became a true American Poet.

Poet Jo Shapcott took the audience through the mechanics of the Poetry. Exploring how Frost was a poet of the horizontal as well as the vertical. How by using the heartbeat of the iambic pentameter (surprisingly the first time I have heard those two words at a poetry event), he was able to recreate the common speech, as well as underpinning his poems with complicated metrics. By guiding us through the sounds of Frost, Jo showed the audience “the virtuosity underneath the naturalness.” The whole discussion on meter was a welcome addition to the event and something I would personally like to see again in future events.

Thirdly, Matthew Hollis (biographer and poet) made a welcome return to the Poet in the City circuit, with a discussion of Robert Frost’s time in England (arriving in 1912). He touched on Frost’s friendship with fellow poet Edward Thomas, and his turbulent relationship with Ezra Pound. How he found his poetic style living in Beaconsfield. (I admit I felt smug when I found out that he had published his first collection here, as well as writing some of his finest poems in England). The most enlightening part of Matthew’s talk was to find out that Road Taken (Frost’s most celebrated poem) was about Edward Thomas’s inability to satisfy himself and choose the right road (which subsequently led to: France, the war and, death).

However, no matter how much the audience enjoyed each speaker, the best thing at a poetry event is undoubtedly the poetry. Throughout the night Frost’s poems were sublimely read to the audience by two American voices: Taube Brahms and Danny Mahoney (actors who are graduates from LAMDA). All the favourites were read including: “After Apple-Picking”, “Stopping my Woods on a Snowy Evening” and an emotional rendering of “Home Burial”.

In the end like Robert Frost himself the wall is indestructible and though we never really mended it, because it has never been broken, each person in that hall at Kings Place had added their own stone to countless others. And in doing so; the life and work of a Great American Poet is celebrated and possibly, can be seen from space.

P.S. On leaving event I overheard a gentleman say it was the best event Poet in the City has ever held (no pressure then Poet in the City).

[Professor Tim Kendall's forthcoming biography: The Art of Robert Frost (Yale University Press) is due to be published in 2012. Matthew Hollis's first prose book, Now All Roads Lead to France: the Last Years of Edward Thomas (Faber 2011) is now on general sale.]