All entries for December 2008

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

David Morley : 19 Dec 2008 16:23 |  Tags: Poetry The Practice Of Poetry |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Annie Lennox's "SING" Campaign for HIV+ women and children

Writing about web page http://www.annielennoxsing.com/get-involved

I had not come across Annie Lennox’s “SING” campaign until today. Established to support women and children with HIV, the Lennox project deserves support.

It was a former student who drew my attention to the project. This student is the wonderful poet known in Romania as ‘adrian urmanov’ -  who is now a monk in Rasca Monastery. He is now known as Brother Serafim. Serafim ignited my awareness by e-mailing me these links below. They certainly altered my day and I hope they will alter yours. I have given a link to the SING website above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2jKCtkqiXQ&feature=PlayList&p=3CFBF39D48382654&index=5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS1bogOn0c&feature=PlayList&p=3CFBF39D48382654&index=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFkeOJ8Yj84&feature=PlayList&p=3CFBF39D48382654&index=2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhCzs5-drd8&feature=PlayList&p=3CFBF39D48382654&index=6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEgITHUaTc4&feature=PlayList&p=3CFBF39D48382654&index=7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJSylalIOtU&feature=PlayList&p=3CFBF39D48382654&index=8

David Morley : 15 Dec 2008 12:19 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Time to Howl

Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7779294.stm

The old St Lucy's Day is near and we have a wolf-eyed moon to prove it.

The Moon is set to pass closer to the Earth on Friday evening than it has done for the past 15 years. The Moon's elliptical orbit means its distance from the Earth is not constant. It will be a little over 350,000km away as it passes over the northern hemisphere, which is about 30,000km closer than usual. If the sky is clear it will appear brighter and lighter than usual, say astronomers.

Friday's full moon could appear up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full moons this year, Nasa said. Its orbit is elliptical, meaning it does not follow a circular but rather an oval path. It is currently approaching the point where this oval orbit is nearest to the Earth. "It's only every few years that a full moon happens to coincide with the part of the Moon's orbit when its closest to the Earth," said Marek Kukula, an astronomer at the UK's Royal Observatory. "What people will see is a full moon that's really bright and a bit bigger than what they're used to."  

The Moon is usually about 385,000km from Earth, but tonight it will be closer at around 363,000km. It will appear largest as it rises and sets, but this is a psychological illusion, Dr Kukula said. "When it's close to the horizon, our brain interprets it as being bigger than it actually is, this is called the moon illusion," he said. "The size may be striking when it's near the horizon," said Robert Massey of the UK Royal Astronomical Society. However, he cautioned against expecting too much. "The Moon may be brighter and may appear somewhat larger, but it's really quite hard for the eye to notice the difference; the eye will compensate for the extra brightness, it's not like going from night to day," said Dr Massey. The Moon's brightness varies throughout its annual cycle, during the mid-winter in the northern hemisphere it can appear brighter simply because it is higher in the sky.

Now, go out tonight and write a poem based on the notion of 'the moon illusion'. Howl at about eleven p.m. and I'll be listening for you all.

David Morley : 12 Dec 2008 14:43 |  Tags: Poetry The Practice Of Poetry |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Gift–Wrap These For Me, Please…And Let's Hope Santa is Bookish.

More seasonal recommendations! One of the richest and funniest collections I’ve read in 2008 is Philip Neilsen’s “Without an Alibi”. Nielsen is an Australian poet but, like Les Murray and John Kinsella, his poetry has a strong intercontinental flow. My first two readings were accelerated by the sheer wick of wit within these poems – sometimes the wit’s cartoon-visual (such as a poetic cricket match between John Tranter and Les Murray); sometimes the wit is deeply structural. But Neilsen’s work is a lot grainier and darker than I’m making it out to be here. This is a fully worked-out book-length collection, superbly realised by Salt. I hope it wins him many more readers in the UK. This is a Christmas poetry book for somebody you like.

I’ve always admired Maura Dooley; she's enlivening and kind, closely focussed on her work yet also generous towards the project of literature as a whole. I was delighted to find her new collection “Life Under Water” (Bloodaxe) to be a seriously beautiful - and searing. I am especially taken with the final, longish poem, ‘The Source’. Sarah Crown gets it right when she wrote in “The Guardian”:’ This is a collection, in fact, that's constructed on the vertical plane. Its visuals are all of rising and falling; of objects plumbing the depths (music that "drops like a stone, / falls like news") or growing up into the light (the "Rockefeller building, rising like sap").’ I recommend this book, as does The Poetry Book Society.

I tend to read poetry books when they come out. The other genres operate on a time lag. I catch up with creative nonfiction about a year after publication, prompted by reviews and knowledgeable friends. Fiction takes me far longer but not Sebastian Barry’s “The Secret Scripture” (Faber) and here’s why. Sebastian Barry [left] is a brilliant poet (anybody’s life is made brighter by reading his poetry collection “Fanny Hawke Goes to the Mainland Forever”), and so I read his plays and novels as and when they come out because I think, in my earnest and odd way, that these books and plays are also poems.

This novel most certainly is, and if it doesn’t win both the Booker fiction and T.S. Eliot poetry Prize I, for one (be assured ‘for one’ is not rhetoric), will be writing to the Great God Pan for His Reasons. Sebastian is one of the pleasantest writers I’ve spent time with: happy days at The Tyrone Guthrie Centre in County Monaghan. ‘Write as a poet even when writing prose’ (I am quoting a French writer here but the name has ethered its identity). What I am saying is Barry writes everything with a poet’s eye, with a precise sense of language, and has the music of words in his inner-ear.

My personal jetlag for creative nonfiction is evidenced by my recommending a book published a year ago – Jonathan Taylor’s “Take Me Home: Parkinson’s, My Father, Myself” (Granta). It’s a lovely and crafted account of the author’s ‘struggle for recognition from a father who is being transformed mentally and physically transformed’ by Parkinson’s. It’s terrifying to read this account, and very moving. There’s no sense of blame/shame/self-pity. I read somewhere that candour in writing is the public face of self-pity, but there’s none of this in Taylor’s first book.

Last for now – I am really enjoying the fact that term is over and I can return to these long poem fables and the morning journey to the writing shed, half in hope, half in doubt, half in sleep (when writing, I am 1.5). Nothing has distracted me from this when along comes the doorstep-sized “Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney” by Dennis O’Driscoll and – hey – I’ve not even got half out of the door...

This book has trapped me, tripped me, taught and tapped me. It’s amazing, and O’Driscoll and Faber deserve high praise for the whole procedure. It’s all fascinating, pithy and ice-clear: Heaney’s dealings with The Group, with Robert Lowell and Caroline Blackwood, about his move to Glanmore and so much more – the poet’s craft and vocation; the notion of poetry as an espousal, a ‘double-marriage’. My first thought is to make this a set text for every would-be poet. My second thought is to keep it to myself (and the thousands of other readers). All the above are good for gift-wrapping at this time of year. Amazon has a special deal on the Heaney, making it almost affordable. Lob this tome in your loved one’s stocking and enjoy the dividends of making them happy.

And remember: absurd as it seems, behavioral scientists claim kids don't want expensive toys - what they REALLY want is just to be loved (this last piece of wisdom was stolen from the "Amazing Christmas Facts" website and means I can send back the Wii).

David Morley : 11 Dec 2008 16:05 |  Tags: Poetry The Practice Of Poetry |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Gift–Wrap These For Me, Please…

I’ve written previously about the prose of William Scammell. Now I want to celebrate the poems. Were I making a Christmas choice, Scammell’s “Inside Story: Selected Poems” would be top of the list. Edited by his best friend Christopher Pilling the book is published by the noble Arrowhead Press. It’s a brilliant book and here’s why: Bill Scammell never compromised once. Not in criticism and never in poetry. The bravura and formal panache of these poems is so much more impressive because of the integrity of attack, the generosity of spirit and the playfulness – the constant playfulness – of the poet’s voice. This is a great book (it’s also quite a beautiful book), so Happy Christmas and buy one at once. Here’s how: http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/index.html

Jane Holland has been getting more attention this year and rightly too. Her editing of “Horizon Review” has been exemplary, demonstrating her razor intelligence, generosity and range. Her new collection “Campervan Blues” was published by Salt earlier this year. It’s a dark and lovely book. I think the standout pieces happen when Jane delves long-past poetries for new directions. Jane is an energetic poet with good taste, and she has an engaging way of talking to the dead (poets, historical figures) as if they were in the room with her (didn’t Blake do this for real?). “Campervan Blues” shows her the way forward. I personally think she’d be ideal to write a new version of Tamburlaine, something I’ve been planning for the past five years once I finish my various fables for Carcanet.

I also recommend Claire Williamson’s “The Soulwater Pool”, a vivid and dynamic collection of linked pieces. It’s a book-length poem voiced by several characters. It’s observationally very smart and subtle. I met Claire recently while reading at the Bristol Poetry Festival. I think she’s one of the most interesting younger poets on the scene. Claire Williamson is cool. She’s worked extensively in the opera world, including working with Welsh National Opera, Opera North and Music Box. Claire has a fine website at http://www.clairewilliamson.co.uk/which also includes details of her poetry films. She’s a poet who deserves a great deal more attention.

Isobel Dixon’s “A Fold in the Map” (another Salt book) was also excellent. Like Claire Williamson’s collection, it needs to be read in one go and it really rewards the reader if you read it like a novel from start to finish. Isobel Dixon’s a real talent I believe, and these poems are highly impressive for their emotional truth, and the élan and love with which she writes about her father. You end up liking the poet a lot after reading this book, which is too rare an event in poetry.

Finally (for now), although I keep asking people to send me treats for the lean months, nobody properly interpreted this message as ‘send me the entire Reaktion Books “Animal” series’. I don’t know why; you people need to start listening to me more carefully. “Animal” is just a fantastic collection of books. So fantastic I went ahead and short-circuited Santa, buying the entire series in one Amazon.co.uk dollop. Happy have been my days since they arrived.

“Animal” is a pioneering series: the first of its kind to explore the historical significance and impact on humans of a wide range of animals, each book in the series takes a different animal and examines its role in history around the world. The importance of mythology, religion and science are described as is the history of food, the trade in animals and their products, pets, exhibition, film and photography, and their roles in the artistic and literary imagination. I wanted them to fire my poetry fables, but now I find they also fire those dark, endless evenings as we slide towards St Lucy’s Day, ‘it being the shortest day’ and all that.

David Morley : 03 Dec 2008 13:22 |  Tags: Poetry The Practice Of Poetry |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem