All entries for October 2008

To My Friends in the North

Writing about web page http://www.litfest.org/events/

Dear Friends in the North,

I am reading tomorrow at the Lancaster LitFest at 6 pm in The Duke's Playhouse (in The Round - see link above).

Alongside me - the excellent Michelene Wandor and Soleman Adel Guemar.

Now, I am not saying come to the gig necessarily so much as - well, for once in my life I do not have to rush away at the end and run back to Middle Earth.

I'm staying over.

So since the gig starts early, that leaves the night (a Saturday night) extremely young.

Lancashire is my home county.

Friends, let us drink and eat to that tomorrow, and to you.

See you in the plyahouse bar about 7.30,

David.

David Morley : 31 Oct 2008 09:55 |  Tags: Poetry The Practice Of Poetry |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Slow Poems – The Films

Writing about web page http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/audio/more/slowpoetry/

Last month, Emily Little and Lesley Scrine worked with me to create five poetry films based on the Slow Art Trail in Yorkshire. Click the weblink above.

I hope you enjoy them. It would be really good and helpful to have your feedback on this development. I am pushing towards trying to create a new way of presenting poetry that involves film and specific location.

With thanks to Tom Abbott at Warwick for his support and work, and to Chrysalis Arts for commissioning and realising the work, and to the Bolton Abbey Estate for hosting it.

And here they are again:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/audio/more/slowpoetry/

David Morley : 15 Oct 2008 15:17 |  Tags: Poetry The Practice Of Poetry |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Slow Art Trail – More Poems

Writing about web page http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2008/oct/02/conservation.climatechange?picture=338126299

I am again sorry for the delay in posting these photos. When I am not teaching poetry I am writing it, and am cantering into a longer poem about a Horse Fair just now.

Here, dear poets and bloggers, are some more of those elm haiku and slow art trail poems including the Barden Tower piece, a found poem from Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal, and the Leaf Light sequence. Oh, and I have been told by my betters to state that all words and concepts are under copyright. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

As a news update, I have been working with a fantastic film-making team on a poetry film. Final edits are being done and I recorded some voice-overs last night. The whole thing is looking good (the camera work and editing are really special) and I hope we can have this film live on the web next week.

Haiku on Elm

Haiku on Elm: sorry about photo

'The Want of It' on easel of hazel looking to Valley of Desolation

Green Woodpecker Haiku on Elm

'Barden Tower' on Fabric

Leaf Lit sequence on fallen wood

Under Strid Wood Haiku on Elm

The Red Plough riffed of Carlos Williams on Elm

That's my son Gabriel, very pleased with this red plough if not the poem about it...

Viewpoint to Barden Tower from Strid Wood with poem on easel of hazel.

Fly Agaric Haiku on Elm

Poem sited on easel of hazel as you approach Christmas Tree Plantation

Haiku on Elm about Ramsons, lines of which have now been engulfed within the new 340-line epic 'Hedgehurst' (a poem told from the point of view of a mythic creature who is half-man and half-hedgehog).

Kate Maddison took some of the haiku and did this brilliant fabric work.

I am very pleased with how my four 'Leaf Letters' turned out here. My next task is to realise these from leaf litter, once the trees have turned, and these colours captured naturally in the leaves themselves.

More of Kate Maddison's excellent fabric versions of my poems.

My poem 'Proserpina' acting as the official bus stop for the Slow Art Trail. The poem travelled back and forth to Skipton and reported that she found the companionship of her travellers beneficial to her lineation.

Wood and Word Worms Within the Walls.

Inside the Bird Hide on the back wall - fifteen 'bird poems' on fabric. The syntax and shape of the poems mimic the call, movement and nests of the species.

A closer look at those bird hide poems - Kate cleverly cast the poems on a huge piece of fabric that can be wound up, almost like a map, on a rod of hazel.

Haiku on Elm: 'The Marriage of Strid Trees to those in The Valley of Desolation'

Haiku on Elm about Moles - Let's just say that Gabriel had a hand in this one.

Slow Art Trail poster.

There are many more poems and installations I could put up, but I shall leave off here as I feel I am neglecting the new poems I have to write.

Enough downloading [ed.]. More news of the poetry film next time around.

Comments and commissions are very welcome. I have boys to feed.

David Morley : 10 Oct 2008 13:57 |  Tags: Poetry The Practice Of Poetry |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Slow Art Trail – The Poems

Writing about web page http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2008/oct/02/conservation.climatechange?picture=338126299

Here are some more of the elm-planked ankle-high haiku in Strid Wood including the 'Hide and Seek' installation. The Guardian link about the trail is above. More soon. Comments welcome!

David Morley : 07 Oct 2008 19:59 |  Tags: The Practice Of Poetry |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Slow Art Trail – The Poems

Writing about web page http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/gallery/2008/oct/02/conservation.climatechange?picture=338126299

Good to see The Guardian picking up on The Slow Art Trail. There are excellent photographs of the sculptures and installations at the website link given here, and  a lovely shot of my Word Worms.

I promised to download more shots but I have been wrapped up in writing a long poem, completed today, so here are some of the fifteen haiku which are carved on to planked elm - elm that had to come down many years ago through disease now finding new life here as 'pages' in the wood.

David Morley : 07 Oct 2008 18:10 |  Tags: The Practice Of Poetry |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem