Tiowa Diarra

The title of today's blog is a person's name. Tiowa is a priest working for an organisation called Tent makers International. He is the national representative for Mali in Africa and he is also the coordinator for all of Africa - important job or what. I came to know Tiowa as I intercepted a message from him to a Sudanese friend. Tent Makers seek to bring Christ to people at a grass roots level in their communities often working where there is no church at all.
Tiowa like all good leaders is restless in pursuit of his goals and as you will see from the web link above, if you scan the homepage, hosting an all African conference. At the moment he is preparing for a trip to a place called Brazzaville in Congo to set up more Tent makers groups. The photo shows the members of a training session held in Mali last year. Click on it to see it full size.
As usual Tiowa wants me to pray for him and his needs, it's my pleasure to do this. His other need is for partners in mission which is one area I cannot help him much beyond encouragement. There are practical things that Tiowa needs such as air fare or a van for the conference. If you feel that you can help Tiowa or would like to know more about his work with Tent Makers check out his website at this link . Even a few prayers of your own would be of great value to him.

Peace Dave

Spatial Awareness

If you have ever seen one of those fake snow novelty gifts which works by shaking it to simulate snowing that's how poems come to me. My life is a hectic blur of activity which is constantly swirling all around me obscuring the poems that lie hidden within. Sometimes things clear a little and I can make out an image or a thought and that's just enough. It's enough to get me going and enough to remind me that it's time I got writing again. It's the writing part that I really love. Once I have an idea I can tease out a phrase or word or two and start building. I'm a bit like a manic builder using words like bricks to form things into shape and build structure. That's when I look for rhyme and make decisions like size of stanza or length of line. I'm a bit like a cow chewing cud, thing go up and down, digest a bit, chew a bit, digest a bit, chew a bit. I used to try and count beats on the syllables of the words but now I find it easier to read my lines out loud and see how they flow. I don't really have any rules for this, it's right when it's right.

You may recall that I wanted to write a poem for my priest who will soon be leaving our parish for another. I really wanted to write something iconic as I have known him for twelve years.

Right, back to the fake snow bit, I have published my book, I did my reading, I had a report for the Diocesan committee I attend - done, print work for our church - done, it's my day off, I'm at a loose end. Suddenly I'm walking my dog (check out the picture, Smudge is a good boy) and the phrase spatial awareness is in my mind. It's the usual trick my subconscious has clambered into my frontal lobe and scrawled graffiti inside my head.

Literally spatial awareness is the perception of yourself in relation to your environment and the ability to predictably adapt to it's change. As he will be changing environments and both he and those left behind will have to adapt this seems like a good theme. I've been chewing it over this afternoon and I think the angle to approach this from is the parallel of being present when you are gone by the impact you have when you were there. Something like a saint or a celebrity. All I need now is a really good opening line and a few words to get me going and I'm in business. If this gives you any ideas please contact me via the comments and let me know, I'd be interested to hear.

Peace Dave.

Success Story

I'm still glowing a bit from yesterday, it did go a lot better than I thought. I want to gloat but the reality of the situation is that I entertained some pensioners for an afternoon in a church hall not the Albert Hall. I know that several times I stuttered and had to repeat my self - not at all professional. But for me psychologically I was performing. What I noticed was the encouragement I got from applause. It was amazing to get applause. I've read things in Church before and when you finish there is never any acknowledgement. I realise that applause would be inappropriate in most services but the difference between the two situations was very apparent. It was a peculiar situation because these people had no need to be polite about their feelings. I will definitely look for another venue to read at and may even try to use it to raise funds for a charity. Probably the best thing for me was that for once I was able to get my poems out and actually share them rather than just letting them sit quietly on a shelf gathering dust.

Peace Dave.

Honeypot Result.

All too often in my life I am rushing from one thing to another. I realised with fear that today the day of my reading at the Honeypot day care centre that I was on nights and had volunteered to cover another night shift tonight. So I woke, went to the day care centre, read and went back to work. Almost just like that.
The thing is that the rushing quelled my butterflies and made me just get on with it. The result was a really good afternoon with people that appreciated being entertained and for the first time people listened to my poetry and clapped afterwards. The feeling of elation that this brings is hard to describe, suffice it to say that I am still smiling. This was a risk when I agreed to it and it was a risk that for me paid off. I have had a really good time and I will definitely be doing this again.
Don't let your poems go mouldy or dusty, find some one to hear them and share them out with the vigour that you wrote them with. You'll love it and so will they.

Peace Dave.

Rhyme Find

When I can find a quiet moment I try to follow a daily office called Common Prayer. I find it very good and the language spot on. Last night I was reading through a section of the evening prayer for Saturdays and I came across an odd rhyme scheme. The passage is called A Song of the Light and is only ten lines long. It's divided into three stanzas and in the first the it's the first and last line that rhyme. Then the second line of the first stanza rhymes with the first line of the second stanza. The last two lines of the second stanza rhyme. The last stanza has four lines which rhyme on the first and second line and the third and fourth. It was the last stanza that actually picked out the rhyme for me. I've probably read this dozens of times recently and it suddenly struck me, hey there's a rhyme here. Check it out:

Hail, gladdening Light, of his pure glory poured,
Who is the immortal, Father, heavenly, blest,
Holiest of holies, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now we are come to the Sun's hour of rest,
The lights of evening round us shine;
We hymn the Father, Son and Holy Spirit divine.

Worthy are you at all times to be sung
With undefiled tongue,
Son of our God, giver of life, alone;
Therefore in all the world your glories, Lord, they own.

Have you ever found hidden rhymes ? let me know.

Peace Dave.

My Arrival

I gazed with wonder today at my proof copy of my first ever book. This was me in print, not in a "church magazine" or "buy your way in anthology" but a whole book. I'm a bit chuffed. Lulu the company that printed the book did a good job but true to their word they printed exactly what I created. This is reason they insist on a proof copy and really it's a good idea. There were several errors, all of my own creation, which I have now put to bed. This means that my poetry book, called Pilgrimage is now available to buy. If you think you might like a copy it can be found at www.lulu.com/content/470819

As you might expect this is quite an exciting thing for me, it's a bit of dream come true, I'm published and I feel that now in some sense I have finally arrived as a poet. Go on buy a copy.

Peace Dave.

Jane's Poem

I am working on a good way to post my poems but here as I mentioned is Jane's Poem.

Reader.

He in me and I in him.

His word
Dances in me,
Day and night.

I am his voice,
When I stand to speak
He wanders in
Around my words,
Speaking out.

When I shine,
His light fills the air;
His spirit creeps about
Grinning in the glow,
Reaching out.

I am his hug.
His joy leaps through my every embrace;
Breaking down barriers,
Tearing away formality,
Spilling fun everywhere.

I am his angel.
Clasped in rapture
I am his annunciation.
Loudspeaker of love,
Broadcaster of good news.

I am his worker
My every breath is his.
Each syllable his gift,
Even should I fade, opaque
They linger on crisp.

Like gently planted seeds,
That we sowed together,
My Lord and I;
Words rise up stretching,
Seeking out the light.

Shaking with life
His words dance on,
Day and night.
He in me and I in them.

Priestly Issue

Our church is fast approaching interregnum, that is to say that the priest that has led,guided and counselled us for fourteen years is moving on. By December 31st he will be gone. As you may expect people are starting to gather parting gifts to give him when he goes. I would like to think that I could write a poem for him to take with him that might express some of the times that we spent together. As I have stated before I'm not a plan ahead type poet and seldom write to order. Having said that I did manage it for Jane our reader when she left. Jane really stuck a few chords, in fact she was a bit of a string quartet, but that's good. Always being in your comfort zone is not a really good thing. One of the things I like about the type of Christian that knocks on your door is the sense of challenge they present. How much do they embarrass me and can I stand up to their questioning and out smart them in biblical knowledge. The Sudanese have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the bible and I would love to see one go head to head on my door step.
That's another issue and I have digressed. The bottom line is can I write a poem to order and if so what form should it take. These are fairly big issues for me as I don't usually address them prior to beginning a poem. I would like to present our priest with a poem, one that he would enjoy receiving - he's not really an affictionardo. A priestly issue, can I do it?

Peace Dave.

Rhyming On

If you write poetry and you like rhymes how do you employ them? Do you always finish every other line with a word that rhymes? How far do takes your rhymes are you always looking for an exact match? When I began writing poetry this was me and to be honest done properly there's nothing at all wrong with that. If you've read my blogs you will know that I have an issue with repetition and this led me to experiment with rhymes. First it was not having exact matches for rhymes, using words that sounded roughly similar but were spelt differently such as "sun" and "come". Then I tried moving the rhymes so that you had to go an extra line to get the rhyme. Care has to be taken here to keep the flow of the poem alive. I tinkered with alliteration and even wrote a whole piece utilising this technique with each line having a different defining letter and no rhyme at all. The key to this poem is it's rhythm; it's about Jesus in the boat on lake Galilee calming the storm ( see Luke in the New Testament chapter 8 verse 22) so there is an obvious crescendo to follow.
I tried repeating rhymes at the end of three line stanzas and using groups of words to make rhymes such as "load me" with "mould me". In the poem these two rhymes are all that appears on their lines so I'm trying to control the way you say the words to enhance the rhyming effect. What I have discovered is that there is an endless variation of ways to employ rhyme and that poems often benefit from this variation. At the end of the day poetry is a form of communication where words are sculpted to achieve a goal. Tinker, play and experiment and let me know how you get on.

Peace Dave.

Excellent Service

Mooching around as I often do I came across a neat little poem finder in a website run by the Poetry Foundation, a US society I think. I was so impressed by this service that I have added a link to it on my site. I used it to find a poem that I could only remember the first line of, although there are several other ways to hunt a poem down. It turns out that it was a Longfellow poem called The Arrow and the Song; I was able to print it off there and then. I could also have-mailed it to my friends. Talking of e-mail I have now managed to syndicate my blog as a news feed and offer it as an e-mail update. I hope this makes it easier to receive and get out to the world. Here's the poem that I looked for and have been looking for these last two years or so.

Peace Dave

The Arrow and the Song
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend

Newspaper Issue

How do you make people who come church once want to come back. That's a question which I think many church groups work on, agonise over and wish there were easy answers for. The youth work in our church is struggling with chronic low numbers and we would desperately like to see more children in our church. The catch is that kids don't come alone, they have to be brought by parents; parents that probably don't want to get up on a Sunday.
We are hosting a children's club event at our church on the Saturday afternoon before Christmas (click the title for a reminder from an earlier post) and the likelihood is that we will have a full attendance at the club and similarly a full church at the children's Christmas Eve Crib service. Naturally we will bend over backwards to display the love of Christ in our lives and church fellowship to try and make people feel welcomed and wanted. But at the end of both events how can we keep contact with these people and hope to entice them back without making them feel targeted? Obviously some will firmly intend not to come back and we can only pray for them in their absence.
Others may be impressed with what they've seen and heard from their children. They may only want a reason to come. This hope is the basis for a silly little activity that I am planning at the moment. I am creating a fake newspaper - a four page spread to be handed out at the end of both the Children's event and the Crib service. The content will lightheartedly reflect the subject of the club and service, i.e. the nativity story. It will also feature all the contact details for our church and youth group with a list of future activities. I'm calling the paper the Bethlehem Evening Star and headlines may well include: Angels Spotted, Shocked Shepherd Speaks and Health Service Crisis, Baby Born in Cattle Shed. The printing cost of this venture will be tiny (black and white only) and hopefully they will make enough of an impression to stick in the mind before they are recycled. My hope is to cheerfully and gently build a link with the recipient through this paper and firmly invite them back through it. You've got to try.

Peace Dave.

Honeypot Dilemma

On the 27th of this month I will have my second ever public reading of my poems at the Honeypot day care centre. If you don't remember this subject check this link (Honeypot). It's not the Hollywood Rose Bowl or the Albert Hall but that still doesn't mean that I'm comfortable with it. I am the entertainment and it will lie with me to fill the afternoon for them. I am beginning to select the poems that I will take with me and I find it interesting to see the psychological process behind this. Consciously I am picking poems that I feel will be popular rather than poems that I necessarily feel are my best. Being a member of a poetry group has taught me that what I may think is a good poem others would be dissatisfied with and vice versa.
I have never tried to write what I think people will want to read but what I feel I like as poems. I set demanding standards of myself, I don't like badly written poetry so I try not to create it. I do sometimes try to mimic the style of others, I once wrote in the style of Craig Raine, but usually I remain individual. If something you write pleases you that's fine but believe me if it pleases others that's really gratifying. Here's the nub of the issue, it would be all too easy to read a load of poems, pleasing myself and experience other people's politeness. Remember, I am the entertainment and so I am there to please them first. This is my dilemma and I really need to resolve it soon or I will simply stand up and make a fool of myself on Monday. I don't want that.

Peace Dave.

Lighting Up

Christmas is coming, no doubt about that. The shops are filling up with toys that bleep and flash and images of Winter are everywhere. Advent has not yet begun and already planning has started for the Christmas Eve Crib service. This is a special service that we lay on every year especially for families with young children. The key theme of the service is to tell the story of the nativity. If you're not familiar with this story you can find it in any Bible in the New Testament section in the Book of Luke, chapter 2.
As part of the service we fill a display crib scene with figurines. This display actually changes as Christmas passes to Epiphany and stays in the church until Candlemas is February. It's a sort of visual memory device.
We try to put on a very visual and interactive service that is both fun and different. This year we are hosting a kid's club on the day before just to make life interesting. Our thinking is to replicate elements of the kid's club in the crib service. Our plan is to teach the nativity in a way that will provide for the people who are looking for a traditional Christmas but also in a way that will stick in the mind. For many Christmas will have ended as soon as the presents are opened this is far from true.
So the plan is Census, Caesar decreed a census and so a census will take place both at the kids club and also at the service. We're talking Roman soldiers, innkeepers and everyone having a card to be stamped. At both events a couple will arrive late and struggle to get lodging. They will have come far and be tired, one will be heavily pregnant. They will be pushed to a poor animal shelter where a baby will be born. Angels will come singing and shepherds will come looking, clutching a lamb.
Our other motive is to raise funds for the Children's Society by handing out Christingles. The word Christingle means Christ Light and many Crib services are associated with Christingles as Jesus is symbolically regarded as a light in spiritual darkness. Check out the Children's Society Christngle website. Christmas hasn't started, but the planning has !

Peace Dave.

Rhyming Timing

I have a dislike for repetition. If I have to do things repeatedly I get fed up and annoyed. I could never do a job that involved a lot of repetition and I admire those who can switch off and just do a job repeatedly for hours on end. I can't help it that's just the way I am. I find this attitude creeping into my poetry; I very seldom repeat a rhyme scheme exactly. In fact I some times get bored with rhyme all together. For some this is sacrilege. I know a poet that only ever writes four line stanzas that rhyme second and fourth line end words. Nothing wrong with that, except for me there's a sort of Status Quo feel about things so that you know what's coming next. It's a form of repetition.
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against rhyme and I am a frequent user of it but I try to create my poems for their overall impact and construct them with that as my guiding principle. A lot can be done with the flow of reading scan or length of lines or alliteration without pairing up a single end word. But care must be taken to stay within the remit I set myself or otherwise I end up writing structured prose. The poetry that I like best often can be read so easily that you slide along the words and get to the end almost before you realise. I like my poems to have this quality and even deliberately disturb this polish to make point or catch the reader's attention. It's a bit like a stream flowing over a rock.
When to rhyme and when not to is a discussion that rages still and for me it's a personal choice about the poem. Often at the start of writing a poem I will not know whether the end product will have a defined rhyme scheme, but at some point I will stop myself and make choices about how I want the poem to be. Quite a few poems of mine have been stripped down and re written half way through. When you write do you plan first or during ? do you adhere to a rhyme structure or look for a style that fits the work. I would value your thoughts.

Peace Dave

Ayok Letter

Part of my involvement with the Church of England is to be an officer on a diocesan committee. I am an officer with the Salisbury Diocese Sudan - Link Committee. It may sound like a posh title but really it's just a name for a person in a group of people to get things done. The diocese of Salisbury has had a link of fellowship with the province of Sudan for over thirty years. It's a pleasure to interact with and support Christians who are so active and trusting in their faith.
An example are Joseph and Karin Ayok who were CMS missionaries and also have worked in the Diocese of Salisbury. There are many needs in Sudan, please visit any Sudan orientated blog or news site and you will see. Education is probably the highest priority next to peace and food. Along with many other people Joseph and Karin are trying to bring education to South Sudan where currently there is none. This is no small task and I admire them for doing this.
I recently received a news letter from them out of the blue which jolted my memory. In case you are interested I have added a link to their website and the Dioceses website to my links. Joseph and Karin's organisation is called Under Tree Schools. Please take a moment to check both out and if you have a spare moment pray for Joseph, Karin and the people of Sudan generally.

Peace Dave

One Door

I had an odd conversation with my neighbour yesterday. They have been trying to sell their house and move for some time. In the UK this can be a very fraught and drawn out process. My neighbour told me that she had received serious interest from a retired priest and it was as likely as not that he would be the next owner.
The odd thing about this is that our own parish priest will be leaving his post at the end of December. We only have the one priest so this means that our parish will have an interregnum, that is waiting period before a new priest is appointed. This can be a good time for a Church community to let it grow in faith as it takes on some of the tasks that the priest just did as routine. It Can also be a time when people opt out of a church community and go elsewhere. For Sunday services priests are begged, borrowed and stolen from anywhere that can be found. It would be really nice to have a local retired priest that could fill in and provide some support. In my experience priests never really retire, they slow down. Having said that it would be wrong to drag the poor sod in and hand him the church. Just a little support and the comfort of having a person with a collar about could make a lot of difference to a Church struggling ( as ours will) with a suddenly absent priest.
It may be that the priest never buys the house or if he does never comes to our church and I am being careful not to count my chickens but God does have a wonderful way of providing and as one door closes often another opens, it's a case of seeing it happen.

Peace Dave.

Strange Day

Today or rather tonight I will be working nights. So today all the usual rules of living will be suspended as I prepare for working from 6pm to 6am. For instance I have deliberately laid in bed very late to compensate for not sleeping. I have deliberately avoided strenuous tasks to save my energies. I've tidied and organised and picked up small tasks that I usually leave until later. The result is that the day takes on a strange feeling of listlessness and lack of purpose. There seems to be a vacuum of action in my usually busy life. It's at times like this I feel inclined to write or pick up a part finished poem and complete it.
I get this feeling when waiting for things like a dentist appointment or a MOT test on the car. Not every occasion brings a poem just the feeling that one could come. Does any one else get this? When do you feel most like writing. When do you get most done ? This harks back to a post several days ago about regimentation and creativity. Do you get most out of doing things regularly. I have started using Common Prayer at work. This is an authorised worship patten from the Diocese of Salisbury. The snag is that my job changes from day shifts to night shifts and also has no structure itself. I mend thing that fail in a production environment and this is unpredictable in nature. So there are no structured meal or tea breaks. You stop when nothing has broken down. All of this has become highlighted even more now that I want to do something regularly. Do you follow a regular pattern of worship other than Sundays and how do you cope with organised chaos?

Peace Dave.

St Teilo's Other Miricle

This August I visited the Museum of Welsh History just outside Cardiff and was thoroughly impressed. It has a huge outside area with restored buildings from every part of Welsh history. It's very interactive and I can highly recommend it for a good day out. The thing that struck me though was a particular church that was being rebuilt. This was still in process and was literally rising out of the rubble all clean and new like a phoenix from it's ashes.
Resurrection or what ! The image hit me like a steam train and I felt compelled to write a poem. I had several lines and a structure before I left the museum. The church is named after St Teilo a local Welsh saint who was once Bishop of Llandaff. The thing I thought was what a miracle for a saint to perform rebuilding a long disused church in a place where people will always come to see it and wonder at it. Believe me when the work is done people will stare in wonder. The church is being restored to an age when ornamentation and colour were prominent in all churches. I saw the rood screen being painted and that was spectacular.
So I wrote a poem and called it St Teilo's Last Miracle. To end it I wanted to finish with a Welsh greeting and so while shopping in Cardiff I popped into the church by the market and met the Reverend Keith Kimber who obliged me with a translation for "welcome in Christ" even though he was already very busy. Naturally I sent him a copy and to my surprise one of his churches is a St Teilos and my poem has wound up in their magazine. Rev Keith e-mailed me tonight to say that he is sending me a copy - I'm really chuffed, hence the title to this post.

Croeso yng Nghrist. Dave

LuLu Anticipation.

A few months ago I found a website called Lulu.com . Lulu provides an online publishing service for all kinds of writers that would otherwise be ignored and overlooked. Their publishing is by demand only so there are no set up costs. They are very helpful with simple instructions and plenty of tutorials. It's a bit like EBay for writers. The bottom line is that it's all down to you. If you decide to publish badly written rubbish and not advertise it well it won't sell and no one will make anything out of it. If on the other hand you put some effort and thinking into your project and support it well it may well sell and that's good for everyone.
For me the exiting part is that my poetry will be in print properly not through some vanity press or compilation that I can buy at a pound discount. I'm never going to be a professional poet, I accept that but that does not mean that poems aren't good enough to be in print. At the end of the day it's the customer that will decide and that's how lulu works. It's worthwhile having a mooch on the Lulu site even if you never want to be in print. Before going for general release I have to read an approval copy of my work which should arrive soon. If that's OK then the book will be made available through Lulu's website and there will be an advert on my blog, believe it.
I told my friend Pat about this and her reaction was "ooh that's exiting, I have a copy please".
Wow, I thought, I already sold a copy!

Kids Program

Playing on the television just now was a kids cartoon program. One of the central characters was a writer of poetry and had been selected to write for his school. He was assigned to work with another child that was very organised and applied his strict regimentation to the poet child. There was a strong play about creativity verses production target. I won't tell you how it worked out because that's not the point of this. I struggle with regimentation and being organised with my poetry. I cannot produce poetry on demand and find that there are an ever increasing set of distractions that interfere. How do you cope?
The reason I attend a poetry group is to have a reason to write regularly; morally I am accountable to the group so I blackmail myself a bit. Do you write simply when you want or do you need your creative juices stirring in some way. What sets you off ? how do you start? where do your ideas come from? Does being organised work for you ? do you trade off creativity against being organised or does one feed the other? It amazes me that I spontaneously create poetry. It usually needs a lot of editing, but the original idea, the first few lines are usually very spontaneous. It bothers me a bit that being organised may eat into this creativity and kill the very thing I want most to make use of. How about you.

Evensong Thinking

Evensong for those of you who don't know is the traditional Church of England Sunday evening service and can be found in the book of common prayer. It was devised in the sixteen hundreds by a leading cleric of the time. It's a service written in a language of great beauty but sadly is often lost to very boring services that do not do the words justice. I can count on one hand the number of evensong services that I have not detested.
In case you're wondering why I attended services I did not like it is because I often have to work on a Sunday and evening services are all I can make on these days. I have recently discovered a church that hosts a very different style of service that has a feel which is far from boring. The liturgy is still Church of England, Common Worship this time though. The difference for me is really in the delivery and the emphasis on praise in an openly joyful way. I actually feel good about this worship. Tonight I attended this service and I am really grateful for the talents that God gives people.
This stirs in me the question of presentation and the ever nearing Honeypot day care centre reading. I want my listeners to feel good when I've finished and even happy. If you attend church services how do you feel when the service ends and what effect does it have on you ?

Peace Dave

Honeypot

In a recent post I mentioned having to read at a day care centre. The centre is called the Honeypot and on a Monday it provides a good lunch for the elderly and infirm. Lunch is at midday and there is entertainment all afternoon (with tea and cakes) until four. On November 27th the entertainment will be me.
It's a bit spooky as I was a volunteer for this organisation once, managing their transport needs in my spare time. Some of the people there will be old friends and others will be total strangers. It's not my first time, that really was scary, but I still feel some concern. The thing is I want this to go well. I want the people there to enjoy themselves and I want them to enjoy themselves with my poetry. Catch is they might not.
What this means to me is that I must spend time choosing and preparing, getting ready so that I can feel relaxed about what I am doing. All too easily things can go wrong and you end up like the stripper that trips up over her own nickers. I'm not a natural performer and the last thing I want of all is to get flustered and choke. If you have tips to share I would appreciate them, let me know.

Peace Dave.

Technorati Task

Technorati Profile

Do You Communicate

I was walking my dog today and while he, Smudge, was sniffing about my thoughts turned to communication in poetry. I have spent a while recently soaking up information on textual graphic representation. Sounds impressive but really it's just about how you layout the things you want people to read so that they will definitely read them and you get what you want out of them. It's about use of font, space and association. This line of study is mainly aimed at adverts and newsletters but it strikes me that the very way a poem is laid out on paper can communicate to the reader. Some poems I realize are shaped to represent an image but I am referring to far more subtle manipulation and also the placing of words to generate interest in much the same way as a newspaper headline. What I am literally suggesting is using a poem itself to advertise itself to the reader. Naturally a great deal of thought would need to go into this and no small measure of planning. Is this an original thought or has some one already done this?
I have not yet thought how to apply this idea to an actual poem, maybe I need to walk the dog again.

Peace Dave.

Past Blast

I have to do a show for a day care centre soon, more on that later. So I have been looking at my poems to pick out some that are suitable. The old folks that come to the centre, despite their age and ailments want to be entertained and have a laugh, so I've been looking out more humorous and interactive poems. In doing this I came across a poem that I wrote when I was thirteen about digging a garden. Thirteen is a long time ago and it was spooky to see how I wrote then. I'm not pretending that the poem was a masterpiece as it wasn't, but it' didn't take much editing for me to feel ok about reading it out. Going over this piece evoked all sorts of strange feelings and memories. Thirteen is a long way back and predates most of the stuff that is in my life at the moment. At that time I had no agenda and no message in my work I just wrote.
Hopefully my editing has done some good to this piece and I can use it to provide a good afternoon for some people that could do with a laugh. If I can do that then my poetry is worth something. As regards old poems, keep them, look at them and edit them when you are ready because after all they are your creation. As regards new poems, just write them and let them be come old poems.

Peace Dave.

Poetry Day.

This is the one ! Today is poetry day. It's a bit sad really but I look forward to meeting up at the library with the poetry group. Today I was in charge, so's to speak, but really just guiding discussions a bit. That's it really for me, discussion. I love to read out my own poetry to the group but it's the discussion with others about poetry and all manner of related subjects (you wouldn't believe what topics we cover. This for me breathes life into my interest which all the rest of the time is a fairly solitary one to be honest.
The group today was as it usually is small, lively and well away form the boring image that many would easy expect. We shared and discussed poems from the poetry international 2006 initiative and that lead to general trouncing of publication method which was aimed at young trendy people. We have our issues and the fact that the librarian that has lead the group is leaving makes life more complex (or interesting) , but that aside we all feel that the group is as necessary as oxygen and must continue.
Apologies for the brevity of this message but my wife is serving tea even as I speak and the other thing that I need nearly as much as oxygen is my wife's lovely cooking.

Peace Dave.

New Challenge

My job means that I must work a continental shift pattern. This means that I sometimes start early for work and sometimes start late and work all night. This week I am working nights. Tomorrow afternoon I will be attending my local poetry group in the afternoon, although it will feel a lot like morning for me ! The group is run in the local library with one of the librarians running it. The problem is - and in life there is always a problem somewhere - the librarian is being moved to another library and has asked if I will run the group. The answer is no, as I really don't have time but at the moment but I don't think that there is any one else that would. The library being short on staff now also are not keen.
That aside I will run tomorrow's group as there really is no one else tomorrow. We are discussing the presiding spirits pack which has been issued through the Poetry Society from the Poetry International 2006. This comes from the South Bank Centre, London - High brow stuff. If all of this is strange to you check out my link to the Poetry Society as all the details are there to be had. In the mean time lets hope for a quiet night and wish me luck for tomorrow.

Peace Dave.

Fireworks in Church

On the first Sunday of every month there is an all age worship service at our church. It's intended to appeal to people of all ages but infact it's real purpose is to encourage younger people to start coming to church. It's more of a welcoming and please come back service. I cannot recall a time when this service fell on November fifth before so I was wondering how the firework theme could be preached on.

If you're not familiar with the British calendar I should tell you that November fifth is the day when the whole country remembers the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot with Guy Fawkes. Fawkes would have blown up the entire parliament and the king if he had got away with it. Please follow this link to Wikipedia if you would like to learn more, the whole story is there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_Plot
The bottom line is that on the evening of November fifth when it's really dark and cold early in the evening the whole country has bonfires and lets off fireworks. So culturally this is a very prominent and common experience - a great platform for a sermon.

This Sunday in the Church of England is also all saints day and I was surprised to hear our priest telling us that saints were like fireworks. He began by holding a sparkler, which is a little steel rod that fizzes and sparkles when lit. He then challenged us to call our the names of fireworks, Catherine wheel, banger, rocket, Roman candle and of course sparkler. Then he ran through the list comparing the saintly behavior of saints with different fireworks. Some saints like rockets traveled far and brought sudden action of great energy, some saints like roman candles performed exactly where they stood and brought the light of God to their area in the beauty of their deeds. Some saints like bangers made sudden loud noise frightening and challenging us. Catherine wheels whirling were likened to saints that worked tirelessly to bring the word of God to people. Lastly we were challenged about ourselves and reminded that we are all saints in our own way and that just like a sparkler we have a light to share. Despite the fact that we may only feel like it is a little in a great darkness to the beholder that little is very precious.
Of course a firework is an inert object until it is lit by a flame and this was the core theme that for us to behave like a saint or a firework we need to be touched by a flame and in that he meant the holy flame evident at Pentecost. I thought that this was an excellent sermon and I might add that the delivery was very good too. I really like the theme and may even try to generate a poem from it one day.

The question is what kind of firework are you and have you been lit yet ?

Peace Dave.

Saturday

I read a little Craig Raine today. He is most famous for his "Martian sends a post card home"poem. It surprised me how he was able to use such similar styles for other poems to such a powerful effect. I find that I very rarely use a particular style twice. This is not to try and say that I am particularly clever, because I know that I am not. But I find myself searchinf for something different all the time. Is this a curse or a blessing. Let me know, tell me ho w you feel.

Peace Dave.

Bonfire Evening

Tonight about half seven I attended our church youth group bonfire do. I attend a small Church of England church and our priest hosts a smal but fun fireworks event every year. The kids love it and I get to play with a bonfire. His wife lays on hot soup and hotdogs which also makes things a bit more sociable. Tonight in my part of the world the night sky was gin clear and the air temp was about 2 celceius. We had a reasonably large fire which burned bright orange and spewed sparks high into the air. Looking up this was a magical sight to see bright orange cinders flying up high through the leaves of the surrounding trees glowing against the dark blue night sky. I found myself just staring for ages. It reminds me of the poem about rushing around that starts - what is this life if full of care we have no time to stop and stare. I think this is a really beautiful piece of poetry that speaks logically straight to the heart of our being and never gives up one shred of meter or composure to do it.
There is so much beauty in this world that we often ignore for lack of time or never respond to and acknowledge. For me poetry is often about communicating something I have seen or felt or an idea that I have grasped. Communicating that well, so well that another person may enjoy remembering it is a real challenge for me, one that I don't always rise to. It is gratifying though when someone says to me " I really enjoyed that, read it again". Job done.

Peace Dave.

Busy Day

Today has been a busy day for me. I rose at 5am and have been on the go all day. As such I have not been able to keep my thoughts on anything poetic or literary. It surprises me that after days like this when I could not be more divorced from the thought processes that usually engender poetry, ideas still crop up. One of my greatest fears used to be that I would suddenly lose any ability to write after prolonged times of not writing. Mercifully this has not proved to be the case. That is not to say that every idea has proved to be a literary gem - I do sometimes write real rubbish - but at least the stuff came. I hope to work out a way of sharing some poems through my blog and also linking to other poets on the internet. You will see two links on my blog at the moment one is the UK Poetry Society, of which I am a member and the other is for my favourite charity Together for sudan. Please take a moment to check them both out. Chill, peace and let's hope for a better day tomorrow.

Here we go Blogging

I have wanted to blog for ages and have never found the time. Today I set all my excuses aside and made the time. I'm not really sure what I'm going to blog about but let's worry about that detail later. Suffice it to say I'm here and I'm started.