In Conversation with Beth Soule Turning Japanese - Tanka Found Poetry - Confessions of a Traitor: Trials and Tribulations of Translating Poetry A ...

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In Conversation with Beth Soule Turning Japanese - Tanka Found Poetry - Confessions of a Traitor: Trials and Tribulations of Translating Poetry A ...
Confessions of a Traitor: Trials and Tribulations of Translating Poetry

A Close Reading: 'The Straight Jacket' by Pascale Petit

In Conversation with Beth Soule

Turning Japanese – Tanka

Found Poetry
In Conversation with Beth Soule Turning Japanese - Tanka Found Poetry - Confessions of a Traitor: Trials and Tribulations of Translating Poetry A ...
N       otice to Contributors
                                                                    C       ontents

13th March 2020 is the deadline for poems                           Contacts                                             2
from SPS members for the next issue. This                           Thoughts from the President                          3
will enable them to be circulated to our                            Words from the Chair                                 3
referees for their recommendations. If you                          Notes from the Editor                                4
are sending poems please put your name                              Confessions of a Traitor                             5
and contact details (preferably email                               A Memory of George Crabbe                            6
address) on each page. Submissions not                              A Close Reading                                      7
conforming to this requirement will not be                          Found Poetry                                         8
considered.                                                         Turning Japanese 4: Tanka                           10
10th April 2020 is the deadline for the next                        Letter to the Editor                                11
issue for all items other than poems:                               In Conversation with Beth Soule                     11
articles, write-ups of events or workshops,                         Selected Poems                                      13
reviews, etc. The preferred format is an                            6th Festival of Suffolk Poetry Review               16
attachment to an email to                                           A Clutch of Larks                                   20
editor@suffolkpoetrysociety.org.uk but you may                      SPS Events
send them by post to:                                               Border Crossing                                     22
                                                                    Bridges and Crossings                               22
The Editor,
64 Broom Street,                                                    Inspired By The Rubáiyát                            24
Great Cornard,                                                      Tea at The Priory                                   24
Sudbury,                                                            National Poetry Day                                 24
Suffolk,                                                            Other Events
CO10 0JT.                                                           Bugs and Blossoms Workshop                          26
                                                                    They Toil Not Workshop                              26
It is very important that your name and                             Brandon Pop-Up Poets                                26
contact details (preferably email address)                          Book Reviews (BR)
are written on the item you are sending.                            Nine Days (BR)                                      27
Images, drawings or photographs are                                 Exposure (BR)                                       27
welcome. Please send them, in as high a                             After-Images (BR)                                   28
resolution as possible, to                                          Dreams of Flight (BR)                               29
webmaster@suffolkpoetrysociety.org.uk.                              Other Items
                                                                    Remembering Stephen Glason                          29
Front cover:                                                        Café Poets' Corner – Sudbury Café Poets             30
Photograph by Derek Adams.                                          Future Events – 2020                                31
                                                                    Lavenham Press workshops                            31

C
Chair
      ontact details

                              Florence Cox
                                                  :                    suffolkpoetrysociety.org.uk

                                                                       chair@suffolkpoetrysociety.org.uk
Vice Chair                    Beth Soule                               vicechair@suffolkpoetrysociety.org.uk
Secretary                     Sue Wallace-Shaddad                      secretary@suffolkpoetrysociety.org.uk
Treasurer                     Colin Whyles                             treasurer@suffolkpoetrysociety.org.uk
Membership                    Diane Jackman                            membership@suffolkpoetrysociety.org.uk
                                                                       Tel: 01379 642372 for new membership enquiries
12 Rivers Editor              Fran Reader                              editor@suffolkpoetrysociety.org.uk
Publicity                     Derek Adams                              publicity@suffolkpoetrysociety.org.uk
Portfolio Secretary           Pat Jourdan                              portfolio@suffolkpoetrysociety.org.uk
Crabbe Competition            Rosemary Jones                           crabbe@suffolkpoetrysociety.org.uk
Stanza Rep                    Derek Adams                              stanza@suffolkpoetrysociety.org.uk
Webmaster                     Colin Whyles                             webmaster@suffolkpoetrysociety.org.uk

Published by Suffolk Poetry Society, c/o Fairweather Law Ltd, Solicitors,              Copyright © 2019 Suffolk Poetry Society
       16 Wentworth Road, ALDEBURGH, Suffolk, IP15 5BB, UK                                         Registered Charity 1162298
                                                                       2
In Conversation with Beth Soule Turning Japanese - Tanka Found Poetry - Confessions of a Traitor: Trials and Tribulations of Translating Poetry A ...
T    houghts from the
     President
                                     .... or rather it hasn’t yet gone wild
                                     but with typical quiet attention
                                     some local Quakers are reflecting
                                                                              doubt that whether we are
                                                                              imported or native Suffolkers, the
                                                                              contrast of our deep, quiet
The Quaker Graveyard Has             on what that might mean for wild         landscape with the sharp-edged,
Gone Wild                            life, visitors and, not least,           pervasive noise of present-day
                                     mourners, if it were to be ‘re-          politics is especially poignant.
grasses clamber on the deep-cut      wilded’.
                                                                              What do you think? Is it either or?
simple stones,                       This beautiful county of ours quite      Should we as poets turn away from
flashes of colour                     clearly and in many places               the racket of the newsroom and
light up the path                    demonstrates the same dilemma.           celebrate our heritage of natural
and where there was once ordinary    The small woodland path, once            beauty? Should we grapple with
silence                              neatly barbered, that I walk on          the big questions of our national
the deep voiced ministry             almost every evening when in             life in our poetry? What is a
of bees                              Suffolk is now overgrown. It             ‘political’ poem? Is there such an
                                     blazes with straggling plants,           animal?
speaks.
                                     many with sharp teeth. We have
                                     perhaps got used to a rather more        Having accepted the privilege of
Now we are scattering the ashes
                                     tidy version of husbandry than we        being your current president and
of that plain, silent, image                                                  heard, seen and read your work, I
of ourselves                         see in the hedges that lean and
                                     flash their changing leaves over the      don’t doubt that you have the skills
we like to believe                                                            and the heart to do what poets
                                     roads - and yet it’s beautiful. Is
is who we are                                                                 must and shine the light of poetry
                                     change always a paradox?
and a small, bright eyed                                                      wherever it needs to fall.
hedgehog joins our Meeting           All of us are grappling with that
                                                                                                       Kate Foley
and the bees.                        question at the moment and I don’t

W      ords from the Chair           I passed the test to get on the
                                     course but, although I heard
                                     there were some unfilled spaces,
                                                                              Now I usually gather the
                                                                              elements of a poem in my head,
                                                                              sometimes letting it stew for as
I’ve been thinking about how a       I didn’t receive the offer of a          long as three weeks. Then I sit at
poem gets into its final shape.       place. I sat on the steps outside        my computer very late in the
When I was younger and a poem        the college and wept. When a             day, literally and metaphorically,
was demanding to be written, I       man walking past asked what              and type it up. I love the ease of
would scribble it down on            the matter was, I sobbed,‘I want         re-drafting on the computer and
whatever came to hand: the back      to study here!’ Unbeknown to             I save each draft as I go along.
of a cheque book, an empty cake      me, he was the Director of the           Sometimes, after a lot of
box, the edge of a page of my        college. A few days later I was          alterations, I return to the raw
university lecture notes or even     accepted on the course, and              early version and make it the
on a till receipt in very tiny       because of it, I was able to earn a      definitive one. For over a
writing! Later, I would transfer     decent living and swap my                quarter of a century I have
these drafts, sometimes with         dingy room for a Paris flat with          shared my poems with a couple
modifications, into a succession      my very own shower, toilet and           of poetry writing groups, where
of thick exercise books,             hot water.                               fresh insight can be gained,
unearthed from my usual                                                       criticism taken on board and new
domestic clutter when I had a        I worked for a dynamic company
                                                                              ideas exchanged. I store my
spare moment.                        on the western edge of Paris, and
                                                                              poetry in ‘year’ folders, so all the
                                     it was here that I typed up my
                                     poems for the first time. My              poems I have written in one
I didn’t learn to type until I was
                                     typing was entirely fuelled by           particular year are in one place.
24. I had cycled from Ipswich to
                                     rage; I had a new colleague, very        But I must admit that I find it
Southwest France the year before
                                     attractive and smartly dressed,          difficult to locate poems with a
and was living in a gloomy
                                     but her lunch hours lasted all           connecting theme. I would love
upstairs room equipped with one
                                     afternoon and the work that she          to hear any ideas on how other
cold tap. The toilet was at the
                                     was meant to be doing arrived            poets store their work so that
back of the yard and was shared
                                     on my desk instead. I decided            retrieval is easy.
with fifteen people. I was doing
temporary work as a cleaner          that when my extra work was
                                                                              I often wake in the night, and
when I heard that I could apply      done, I would type up my poems
                                                                              sometimes a few lines of new
                                     until she deigned to put in an
to do a full-time bilingual                                                   poetry occur to me which I shape
                                     appearance. I soon filled a
secretarial course at a college in                                            carefully in my head. But if, in
                                     whole folder with my early
the town and receive the             works.                                   my drowsy state, I make the
minimum wage while I studied.
                                                        3
mistake of not writing down the         were set to music by Colin                  of exploring the fusion of poetry
fledgling poem on the nearest            Whyles and, accompanied by                  with art and photography during
piece of paper, in the morning I        Colin, sung by Lynne Nesbit;                the fascinating talk by the
cannot for the life of me               Virginie Roidiere’s harp music              Suffolk poet Clare Best.
remember the lines that had             beautifully enhanced the poetry
                                                                                    Poetry is not an island. Every
seemed so vivid and exciting.           of the Rubáiyát and the a capella
                                                                                    sort of artistic endeavour can
                                        group Triangle provided
This brings me to the exciting                                                      create associations in our minds
                                        entertaining and lively songs for
year of shared poetry in Suffolk.                                                   to inspire us. Whether your
                                        the Members’ reading. I
In May, we had another                                                              poetry is typed, memorised or
                                        performed at the open mic at
successful Festival of Suffolk                                                      scribbled on the back of an
                                        FolkEast for the first time, both
Poetry in Stowmarket, followed                                                      envelope, it is enriched by
                                        saying poems and singing a
in June by the Rubáiyát event in                                                    experiences, ideas and
                                        ballad of mine, whose lyrics
Ipswich and our annual                                                              impressions which can help to
                                        were praised by one member of
Members’ reading in Walpole                                                         bring your words to their fullest
                                        the audience afterwards! At the
Old Chapel. Each of these events                                                    flowering.
                                        SPS Members’ tea party on
was enhanced by a musical               September 8th, held at the                                        Florence Cox
element; at the Festival selected
                                        beautiful home of Victoria
poems by James Knox Whittet             Engleheart, we had the pleasure

N       otes from the Editor

I hope this issue will provide                                                      2. Book Reviews – it is very special
readers with pleasure in poetry for     Any existing member renewing for            to receive books and pamphlets
the winter months ahead and will        2020 before 31st December 2019              from SPS members for review in
inspire contributions for the           will get their membership at 2019           Twelve Rivers – please keep them
forthcoming issues in the first year     rates.                                      coming. Where possible we will
of the new decade. I find myself                                                     ensure that all books and
wondering what this new decade          Potential new members joining in
                                                                                    pamphlets are reviewed but, if this
will look like – will these Twenties    November / December 2019 will
                                                                                    is not possible, books and
‘roar’ with new ‘isms’ like they        have free membership for
                                                                                    pamphlets received but not
did one hundred years ago?              November and December 2019 and
                                                                                    reviewed will be noted as per Vol.
                                        start the annual subscription at the
                                                                                    10 Iss. 1 p.27.
Now to two important messages           2020 rates from January 2020.
for existing and potential members:                                                 We aim to ensure that all reviews
                                        The 2019 Membership / Renewal
                                                                                    can be seen to be independent, so
1. Membership – I have been asked       Application Form can be used for
                                                                                    please do not make
to remind all members that their        2020 membership and renewal
                                                                                    recommendations about a
annual membership fee is rising         applications before 31st December
                                                                                    preferred reviewer when
for the first time in five years. This    2019.
                                                                                    submitting a book or pamphlet.
increase was agreed at the AGM in
March 2019 and will ensure that         The 2019 Membership / Renewal
                                                                                    All books or pamphlets to be
Suffolk Poetry Society (SPS) has the    Application Form is available on
                                                                                    considered for review should be
funds to continue to run its annual     the website suffolkpoetrysociety.org.uk –
                                                                                    sent to the Editor – as per the
events, cope with the rising cost of    this form will change to the
                                                                                    address on the Notice to
postage and publish Twelve Rivers.      updated 2020 forms and rates from
                                                                                    Contributors on p.2. Each
                                        January 1st 2020.
                                                                                    reviewer is sent the copy received
The membership fee is due in                                                        and asked to write a review of
January of each year and in 2020        The Privacy Form on the reverse of
                                        the Membership / Renewal                    around 500 words by the agreed
will be:                                                                            deadline for each issue. Each
                                        Application Form only has to be
• Individual membership: £18.00         completed by new members – not              reviewer may keep the copy of the
                                        by renewing members.                        book they’ve reviewed. If you are
• Couple membership: £23.00                                                         interested in becoming a reviewer
• 18+ and in full-time education:                                                   please email the Editor at
  £5.00                                                                             editor@suffolkpoetrysociety.org.uk

• Postal Portfolio Membership                                                                               Fran Reader
  (optional extra)1: £20.00

1   Numbers of members of the Postal Portfolio are limited to keep it manageable.
                                                            4
C    onfessions of a Traitor:
      The Trials and Tribulations of
      Translating Poetry
                                        about an eminent scientist who had
                                        declared, around the time that
                                        bicycles were invented, that cycling
                                                                                  unfamiliar while still being a writer
                                                                                  with something interesting to say to
                                                                                  today’s reader. What I thought
                                        must be impossible: if you did not        might particularly appeal was what I
                                        fall off one side, you were bound to      saw as his psychological acuity in
                                        fall off the other. And yet cycling       describing a relationship with a
                                        continues to happen. And so does          woman he called Cynthia, whether
                                        verse translation.                        or not she really existed (the current
                                                                                  academic orthodoxy is that she was a
                                        Why? Many poets through the ages          literary invention).
                                        have doubtless simply felt inspired
                                        to render a poem they admired in          As I began work, I didn’t have much
                                        another language into their own.          going for me if my efforts were ever
                                        When, in the 1st century BC, Catullus     to make their way beyond my
                                        translated into Latin a love poem         computer hard-drive or, at best,
                                        composed by Sappho 500 years              some kind of Internet self-
                                        previously, he was writing for an         publication. I had made my entire
                                        audience who knew the original            career in 24-hour journalism and was
                                        Greek as well as he did; he may have      unknown in the world of letters. I
                                        wanted to flatter an erudite               was not (and still am not) an original
                                        girlfriend he had already compared        poet in English. But I had an early
                                        to the poet of Lesbos. But the main       stroke of luck when the head of the
                                        justification for literary translation,    Manchester-based poetry publishing
                                        including of poetry, has always been      house Carcanet Press, Michael
                       Patrick Worsnip to share important works with a            Schmidt – someone I had known
                                        wider public, however imperfectly.        slightly at university forty years
 Born in Gloucester, Patrick Worsnip Dorothy Sayers’ Penguin Classics             earlier – agreed, without
 read Classics and Modern               version of The Divine Comedy,             commitment, at least to look at
 Languages at Merton College,           published in the 1950s, may look          whatever I could come up with. (It
 Oxford. He worked for more than        dated and even odd nowadays.              was to be five years before Carcanet
 forty years as a foreign               Does it match the original Italian?       eventually decided to publish the
 correspondent for Reuters,             Of course not. But the fact is that,      book as part of their new Classics
 reporting from over eighty             thanks to her, thousands of English-      series). And I was inspired by being
 countries and covering stories         speaking people who would not             able to translate many of the
 ranging from the collapse of the       otherwise have done so got to read        hundred or so extant poems while
 Soviet Union to the conflicts in the    Dante’s masterpiece.                      spending my summers in a village in
 Gulf.                                                                            the Italian region of Umbria just a
                                        Some such consideration was on my         few miles from Assisi, where
 Since retiring in 2012 he has          mind when, a few years ago, I             Propertius was born more than a
 devoted himself to translation,        retired from a four-decade career as      millennium before St. Francis.
 mainly of poetry. His version of the a Reuters correspondent and
 Poems by Sextus Propertius was         decided to try to finally realise a        I was guided more by instinct than
 published by Carcanet Classics in      youthful ambition to translate Latin      anything else in choosing a style and
 2018. He is currently working on       poetry. But which author to pick? I       form to adopt. For a long time, the
 the poetry of Umberto Saba and -       settled on the love poet Propertius,      curse of translation from the Classics
 for relaxation - Dante's Divine        writing in the Augustan era roughly       had been archaism. By a process of
 Comedy. He divides his time            between 30 and 15 BC. I was still         logic that eluded me, translators had
 between Cambridge and Umbria,          enough of a newsman to judge that         thought that, because the original
 Italy.                                 Propertius was “news” in a way that       works were written a long time ago,
                                        the heavily translated Catullus and       the translations should be in the
Most of the memorable things that       Ovid, part of the same wave of            English of a long time ago. But 17th
have been said about translation,       poetic talent at that time, were not. I   century English is no more similar to
especially of poetry, have stressed its knew that many readers of English         Latin or ancient Greek than 21st
impossibility. From the Italian         poetry were vaguely aware that,           century English is. Yet usages like
proverb “traduttore/                    about a century ago, Ezra Pound had       “thou” and “thee” and “hasteneth”
traditore” (translator/traitor) to      published a poem called Homage to         and “hearkenest” lingered on in
Dante’s comment that “nothing           Sextus Propertius – for the record,       translation well after they had died
harmonised according to the rules of something between a translation and          out in original English poetry. Even
poetry can be translated from its       a loose adaptation of parts of some       when they finally disappeared
native tongue into another without      of Propertius’ poems, jumbled             around the mid-20th century, they
destroying its original sweetness and together. But how many people had           were replaced all too often by an
harmony”, to Robert Frost’s             actually read it? And of those, only a    unexceptional English that was
definition of poetry as “what gets       fraction would have read the Latin        timeless and, in my view, colourless.
lost in translation”. I am reminded     author either in the original or in a     Pound aside, the translations of
how, when I was a child, my father      more conventional translation. From       Propertius that I glanced at didn’t
told me a probably apocryphal story my perspective, Propertius had the            look like poems written by a real
                                        advantage of being relatively             person. Somewhere in the back of
                                                           5
my head (and no amount of                the “creative” translators, who are     out of translation and into
googling has enabled me to track         essentially trying to write a new       something else.
down who said it) was the phrase         work of their own. They could
“alive and writing in English            include Samuel Johnson with The         The book was published in
today”. That was the impression I        Vanity of Human Wishes (based on        September 2018 (https://
wanted Propertius to create.             Juvenal) or Edward Fitzgerald with      www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?
                                         Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam.               product=9781784106515) and was
There was a further problem relating                                             fortunate enough to get a
to the poetic form to adopt. All of      I didn’t adhere to either of these      recommendation from the Poetry
Propertius’ work is in an unrhymed       schools. I didn’t want Propertius to    Book Society. Publication is not the
Latin metre known as the elegiac         look like a museum piece. But           end of the matter for the translator,
couplet. I won’t go into detail here,    neither did I think I could do better   though – the most unexpected issues
but suffice it to say that you can’t      than him. I wanted to foster the        can arise. I’d agonised for a long
reproduce it in English. To reflect       illusion (and I concede it’s an         time over whether to translate
the variety of the poems, I went         illusion) in the reader that when       “puella” – a word Propertius
instead for a mix of English forms,      reading my work, he or she was          repeatedly uses for adult women –
ranging from free verse to limited       reading Propertius, not Patrick         literally as “girl”, before eventually
use of rhyme and half-rhyme and          Worsnip. To try to write in the         doing so on the grounds that it was
various kinds of metre or rhythm.        living language of the present day      not my job to turn him into a
                                         (while avoiding ephemeral slang)        modern “new man”. But, in its
All translation is difficult. But if      didn’t seem to me a particularly        review, the London Review of Books
your original author is new, and         revolutionary idea. But reactions       took me to task for playing down
especially if the language is little     from readers have suggested that        sexual violence in a poem where
known – Albanian or Icelandic, let’s     maybe it was more revolutionary         Propertius threatens to forcibly strip
say – it is down to that author to       than I thought. These have ranged       Cynthia, bruising her arms in the
impress the critics or not. The          from “He seems very modern” (a          process, if she does not voluntarily
translator needs to do a decent job,     welcome comment) to “Did                undress before going to bed with
no more. But taking on an                Propertius really say that?” (less      him. (In another poem, it is Cynthia
established Classic, writing in one of   welcome). Expressions I used such       who beats up Propertius).
the great world languages, is a          as “put-down”, “flip-flops” (the
different matter. The reputation of      footwear) or “megacity” have raised     Ah well. I’ll be more careful next
Sophocles, or Petrarch, or Goethe is     eyebrows but seem to me genuinely       time. To translate a Classic is an
beyond question. The onus is on the      the most exact translations now         object lesson in humility. The most
translator to make the case for          available of the Latin. And for those   the translator can aspire to is to
having had another shot when there       who equate any Latin author with        interest a new generation of readers
are plenty of translations out there     dusty schoolrooms from decades          in an author, but you cannot hope to
already. There’s no hiding place.        ago, let’s remember that Propertius     have produced the definitive version
Then again, translators have tended      seemed very modern to his               for all time. Even monumental
to fall broadly into one of two          contemporaries. On the other hand,      achievements like the King James
camps. There are the literalists –       I’ve eschewed glaring                   Bible were later considered outdated
Vladimir Nabokov, for example,           anachronisms. In one poem,              and in need of replacement. Sooner
with his version of Pushkin’s            Propertius laments that he’s lost his   or later, your effort is going to be
Yevgeny Onegin, or the founders of       writing tablet – a wax-covered          consigned to history, and others will
the magazine Modern Poetry in            wooden board. If you update the         take their turn to produce a
Translation. They believe that           tablet and have him losing his iPad,    translation more appropriate to their
fidelity to the original text is          you immediately lose your reader,       age.
paramount, even if the result looks      who knows very well the ancient
awkward in English. Then there are       Romans didn’t have iPads. You’re

A     Memory of George
      Crabbe
                                         Rector. In the evening the whole
                                         party adjourned to the Rectory,
                                         where they found Crabbe playing
                                                                                 * Kilvert's Diary, Volume 3
                                                                                 Selections from the Diary of the
                                                                                 Rev. Francis Kilvert 14 May 1974 -
* From the Reverend Kilvert’s diary      whist with three friends in a large     13 March 1879, Chosen, edited and
                                         drawing room. Crabbe’s son (who         introduced by William Plomer
Monday, 5 October, 1874
                                         was acting as his father’s curate)      (1960) pp, 91-92
This month there is in the Cornhill      was present, a keen-looking
                                                                                 (George Crabbe died 3 February
Magazine an article on Crabbe’s          laughable man…..He came
                                                                                 1832 aged 77. His body is buried in
poetry. My Father says he                forward to receive the visitors
                                                                                 Trowbridge and his heart in
remembers staying with the               while Crabbe continued his game.
                                                                                 Aldeburgh.)
Longmires at Wingfield about the          My father describes the poet as
year 1830. They took him one day         being a small plain insignificant-                                Frank Wood
to a book sale at Trowbridge, of         looking old man, bald and with a
which parish the poet was then           whitish yellow complexion.

                                                           6
T
'     he Strait-Jackets' by
      Pascale Petit:
      a close reading
                                           breathing easily; nostrils, almost;
                                           don’t, know; how, hours; asleep,
                                           cheeks; catch, wrap, strait-jackets.
                                                                                    surprisingly, For the first time since
                                                                                    I've arrived / he's breathing easily,
                                                                                    had the father also been dreading
                                                                                    this meeting, and confronted by
                                           The poem culminates with two             past misdemeanours found some
                          Derek Adams
                                           internal rhymes in the final line         sort of relief?
                                           ‘deep’, ‘sleep’, and the W sound of
                                           ‘wake’ and ‘once’, which also echo       At the end of the poem all the
                                           the word ‘work’ in the penultimate       hummingbirds are retrieved and
                                           line. This relentless rhythm is          once more returned to the strait-
                                           intensified by the block form of the      jackets and, by inference, to the
                                           poem, as well as the enjambment          case, so perhaps this hospital visit
                                           of many lines and the heavy use of       has not been as cathartic as it first
                                           alliteration: lie, live; feed, from,     seemed. While the father sleeps like
                                           flask; inserting, into; from, face;       a baby, does the poet find herself
                                           hover, he, humming; audible,             once more, like the hummingbirds,
                                           above, attached, almost; work,           trapped by her own mental
                                           wake; deep, doesn’t.                     straight-jacket?
                                           In contrast to this tension, the
                                           poem is full of soft words: gently,
                                           cushioned, swaddled, flower,              The Strait-Jackets
                                           feathers, eyelids and quietly. This      by Pascale Petit
                                           gives the poem a feeling of
                                           tenderness on the part of the poet,
In this issue we will take a close         she tells us the birds fly close to her
                                           father’s face as if he’s a flower…        I lay the suitcase on Father's bed
look at a poem from Pascale Petit’s
second collection The Zoo Father                                                    and unzip it slowly, gently.
                                           It comes as a bit of a surprise to
published by Seren in 2001. ‘The           find that this poem is from the first      Inside, packed in cloth strait-jackets
Strait-jackets’ is the first poem in        section of the book that deals with      lie forty live hummingbirds
the book. In it the poet tells us she      the poet’s reunion with a violent        tied down in rows, each tiny head
has smuggled forty live                    and abusive father, whom she had
hummingbirds into her father’s                                                      cushioned on a swaddled body.
                                           not seen since childhood, while he
hospital room and released them.           was dying in hospital and she was        I feed them from a flask of sugar water,
I chose this poem as I feel it is an       undertaking therapy to help her          inserting every bill into the pipette,
interesting example of Pascale’s           come to terms with her past.             then unwind their bindings
poetry and shows how she invites           However, this poem contains clues
                                           to the strained relationship of the      so Father can see their changing colours
you to suspend your belief with her
                                           two characters, the hummingbirds         as they dart around his room.
surreal poetry. After the intriguing
title, she lulls you with a very           are ‘tied down’, their bodies            They hover inches from his face
ordinary-sounding first two lines: I        ‘swaddled’, which seem to echo the
                                                                                    as if he's a flower, their humming
lay the suitcase on Father's bed / and     way her father is held by the
                                           hospital bed, tied down by the           just audible above the oxygen recycler.
unzip it slowly, gently.
                                           oxygen recycler and the cannula/         For the first time since I've arrived
The next six lines introduce the           attached to his nostrils. The strait-    he's breathing easily, the cannula
hummingbirds. Here Petit piles on          jackets of the title not only hold the
                                                                                    attached to his nostrils almost slips out.
the detail of how they are secured         hummingbirds down but are also
in the case and how they are fed;          the strait-jackets of family ties        I don't know how long we sit there
this wealth of intricate detail makes      which bind father and daughter           but when I next glance at his face
everything sound plausible and             together, despite years apart, and       he's asleep, lights from their feathers
this allows you to accept the              the trauma suffered by the poet
fantastical, or magical realist,           that caused the separation. Of           still playing on his eyelids and cheeks.
elements of the poem.                      course, the most important thing in      It takes me hours to catch them all
                                           the poem are the hummingbirds,           and wrap them in their strait-jackets.
There is a lot of tension built into       these little metaphors of memory
the sound of this poem by the use                                                   I work quietly, he's in such
                                           and feelings that the poet has
of internal rhymes and echoes,             carefully packed away in a suitcase      a deep sleep he doesn't wake once.
often in the same line, sometimes          over the years, tied down so they
in adjacent words: lay, suitcase;          can’t escape. When she finally sees
unzip, it; slowly, gently; packed,         the father who abused and                From The Zoo Father (Seren 2001)
strait-jackets; Inside, lie, live, tied,   abandoned her so many years ago,         reproduced with kind permission
tiny; down, rows, cushioned, on;           helpless in his hospital bed, she can    of Pascale Petit and Seren.
sugar, water; unwind, bindings;            at last release what had for so long
Father, dart; hover, flower, recycler,      been suppressed. Perhaps
cannula; arrived, attached;
                                                             7
F   ound Poetry                            everything. In found poetry, the
                                           poet is allowed to operate like the
                                           proverbial magpie and ‘steal’ words,
                                                                                     other poems or other textual
                                                                                     sources, as already mentioned
                                                                                     above.
                      Nicola Warwick       lines and phrases from other texts
                                           (not just other poems) to create          The following example shows how
                                           something which is frequently             it can be done, on a very basic level:
                                           referred to as collage. In fact, the      Here’s a great way to keep the kids
                                           Found Poetry Review describes it as       entertained.
                                           ‘the literary version of a collage’,
                                           using not just traditional sources            The neighbourhood cats keep using
                                           such as books, magazines or
                                           newspapers, but also the less                 the flowerbed
                                           traditional, like packaging or junk           around our house as a litter tray.
                                           mail. By joining extracts from the            We regret we do not have facilities
                                           chosen sources, the poet creates              for pets.
                                           something that is and is not part of
                                           the original text. As Annie Dillard           I was upset to find the stones
                                           says ‘by entering a found text as a           in one of my favourite brooches
                                           poem, the poem doubles its context.
                                                                                         were loose.
In July, Roger Bloor was announced         The original meaning remains intact
                                           but it now swings between two                 By removing the bottom of a plastic
as the winner of the Poetry London
Clore Prize 2019, with his poem ‘The       poles. The poet adds, or at any rate          lemonade bottle
Ghost of Molly Leigh Pleads, Yes           increases, the element of delight!’2          you find useful compartments
Cries for Exemplaire Justice Against       Found poetry can also be used to              to hold all your bits and bobs.
The Arbitrarie, Un-exampled                inspire poems if you don’t know               We store deposits in a secure
Injustice of Her Accuser’, described       what to write or if your writing is           account.
by the judge, Sasha Dugdale as a           inspired by a phrase or title of an
poem of ‘mesmerising rhythm and            already published poem and you                Please note anyone who has not
accumulative power’1. Leaving              just want to free-write from                  disclosed
aside its extremely long title, what       whatever first seizes your attention.
makes this poem remarkable is that                                                       a health problem. I prefer to buy
                                           A good example of this is Linda
it is an example of what is known as                                                     man-sized tissues. I punch holes
                                           France’s 2010 collection You are Her,
‘found’ poetry. At the time of             the title of which was discovered on          in the front of the boxes,
writing, the winning poem has yet          an information board at Hadrian’s             useful all year round as curtain
to be published but is described as        Wall, not far from the poet’s home.           ties.
using ‘found text and elements from        The missing final ‘e’ from the sign,
the legends that surround Molly’s          originally ‘You are here’, enabling           Groups of ten or more adults may
life’, Molly Leigh being a 17th-           the visitor to locate their position on       qualify
century woman who was accused of           a map, set the poet off on a journey
witchcraft.                                                                              for a discount, using just a piece of
                                           of writing poems both of location
                                           and disorientation. The title poem of         slate,
But what exactly is found poetry,
                                           the collection ends ‘…. you are her,          some pebbles, correction fluid
and how can it generate such
apparent intensity and power? Most         and her, and her, always guessing/            and a marker pen.
poets will experience what is              the missing letter, a perfect
                                                                                     The poem was created by combining
sometimes called ‘writer’s block’ at       mistake’3. Found poetry, then, can
                                                                                     phrases taken from ‘brainwaves’ or
some point in their career. The            have a disorientating effect on the
                                                                                     ‘your tips’ pages of two weekly
reasons for this ‘block’ are various:      reader (and the poet) in the way it
                                                                                     women’s magazines and some lines
lack of confidence, demands and             encourages a thought process that is
                                                                                     from the terms and conditions of
stresses of life outside the poetry        both surprising and imaginative.
                                                                                     booking a place on a residential
world or simply just not reading           I first encountered found poetry on        course with the Field Studies
enough. I find the more poetry I            an Open University course and             Council. Some phrases seemed to
read, the more I want to write; when       what appealed to me primarily was         knit together quite easily; others
I’m not reading poetry, I’m less           its experimental nature and the fact      needed a little more persuasion.
likely to write it. Taking all this into   that I could legitimately have fun        Nevertheless, the poem has some
account, a good technique for              when writing a poem. Peter Sansom,        very unexpected and surreal lines,
creating a poem, while waiting for         in Writing Poems describes a found        as well as some which are witty and
the muse to strike (or if the muse is      poem as ‘plagiarism as art’. It can       playful.
of the distinctly tardy kind) is to        also, he says, be like ‘ “sampling” in
have a go at found poetry.                                                           Of course, there are more ‘creative’
                                           pop music; though it tends to reline
                                           prose as poetry (rather than              methods of making a found poem.
So, what is it? Arguably, all poetry                                                 The Found Poetry Review sets out
is, to some extent, ‘found’: in the        borrowing from other poems)’4. The
                                           idea of ‘borrowing’ is crucial here,      four techniques for creating found
mind of the poet, within the                                                         poetry2:
experience which inspires the poem,        although I would go further and
the idea of ‘seeing’ poetry in             describe it as recycling or even re-        • Erasure - using an existing
                                           purposing material, either from
                                                              8
source of no more than a            The resulting poem has a                     just to be touched and dirtied
    couple of pages, erasing the        surprisingly logical narrative flow.          by something.
    majority of the text and            The final lines were not taken in the
    creating a poem from the            order they appear in the book,          The resulting poem retains some of
    remainder, read in order            enabling them to be repurposed into     the atmosphere of the original (the
                                        something which makes sense and         title itself is taken from the first line
  • Free form excerpting and            has a surreal quality to it. This       of Vicki Feaver’s poem) yet moves
    remixing - taking words and         method of writing, creating a text      away from it by focusing on the
    phrases from the source text        from other texts, is also known as      speaker’s feelings of rejection, on the
    and rearranging them in any         intertextuality, which describes how    absence of her husband as he
    order                               a piece of writing relates to other     concentrates on the harvest and
                                        texts, whether this is by allusion,     ultimately providing for his family,
  • Cento - using lines from other                                              Although lacking the drama of
                                        adaptation, translation, parody,
    writers’ texts into a new poem,                                             ‘Judith’, this poem retains a sense of
                                        pastiche, imitation or other ways of
    keeping the original lines                                                  power and emotion, not lost by
                                        transformation6. Intertextuality is
    intact, but rearranging them        also the name used to describe          weaving fragments of the original
                                        found poetry made where the             into new lines.
  • Cut-up - physically cutting or
    tearing up a text into words or     original text is cut up and worked      Using ‘found’ material, then, is a
    phrases from another writer’s       into another.                           way of making poems which seem
    work and rearranging to form        In the example below, the original      random but highly focused. The
    a poem                              lines and phrases from Vicki            collage style can generate raw and
                                        Feaver’s ‘Judith’7 are shown in         exciting work and is an exercise in
To avoid accusations of plagiarism,                                             shaping words and phrases into a
when using words or phrases from        italics:
                                                                                poetic form, taking them away from
another writer’s work, the poet         A good woman                            the original context, yet keeping a
should provide attribution, unless it                                           foot in the source text. Above all
is impractical or inappropriate to do                                           there is risk involved, a sense of not
                                            Watching his sleeping, wine-
so.                                                                             knowing how successful the
                                            flushed face
These four techniques can be more                                               resulting work will be, as if some
                                            my body flooded by a rush of         kind of magic is in operation, as
fluid, for example, the following
poem was created by taking the last         tenderness, a longing               poet Sean Kiely says, as part of the
lines of some of the poems from             to lie sheltered and safe in his    Poetry Book Society’s #POETIPS,
Vicki Feaver’s 1994 collection The          arms,                               ‘It’s alchemy......An attempt to turn
Handless Maiden5, with only a small                                             lead into gold’8.
                                            a vessel in safe harbour.
amount of manipulation.
                                            First light, and he’s gone; lured
After Vicki Feaver                                                              References and Further Reading
                                            to the glare
    The smell of arousal                    of the barley field; the dust and    All poems quoted in full are the
                                            heat of harvest,                    writer’s own previously
    makes him wear slippers.                                                    unpublished work.
    It’s a butterfly to his bubbling         the men breaking their backs to
                                            gather it all in                    1. Poetry London Clore Prize 2019 -
    chest,                                                                      judges report see: https://
    like boiling mare’s milk                before a break in the weather.      poetrylondon.co.uk/competition/
    with two fried eggs.                    And the heat – the merciless        2. For more on this, see: http://
                                                                                www.foundpoetryreview.com/about-found-
    Blind drunk from politeness,            heat
                                                                                poetry/
    he unzipped his furry pelt.             slipping from warm to balmy
                                                                                3. Linda France - ‘You are her’ in You are
    It was like the hiss of a tide          to unbearable before water          Her (Arc Publications, 2010)
    withdrawing,                            could be                            4. Peter Sansom - Writing Poems -
                                            pressed to his lips.                Bloodaxe Poetry Handbooks: 2
    dancing out on the edge                                                     (Bloodaxe Books, 1994)
    of another century.                     My husband pushing away the         5. Vicki Feaver - The Handless Maiden
                                            sponge                              (Cape Poetry, 1994)
    His wife gave birth
                                            I pressed to his burning head,      6. Chris Baldick - The Oxford Dictionary
    to their only child,
                                            batting away the balm I held        of Literary Terms 4th edition (Oxford
    her curled fists                                                             University Press, 2015)
                                            to his blistered skin.
    swirling past an orange moon                                                7. Vicki Feaver - ‘Judith’ from The
                                            The harvest becoming his new        Handless Maiden (Cape Poetry, 1994
    like souls in limbo.
                                            wife,                               8. Poetry Book Society - Sean Kiely’s
    He wanted to fit her into the sky        the farm a family he must           #POETIPS: https://www.poetrybooks.co.uk/
    of untouched clouds                                                         blogs/news/poetips-2019-sean-kiely
                                            provide for -
    to prove that space exists,             the mornings when I rolled in the
    to see if she’d sink or swim.           ash of the fire
                                                          9
T   urning Japanese 4:
    Tanka
                     Dr Tim Gardiner
                                        those killed without ceremony we gather
                                        without ceremony and place in the
                                        bonfire
                                                                                       There are deviations from the classic
                                                                                       structure above, but it’s useful to
                                                                                       write proficiently in this style before
                                        Equally moving is Masuda Misako’s              experimenting. Many poets who
                                        tanka:                                         struggle with the sparseness and
                                                                                       brevity of haiku find that the extra
                                        each time I see a boy’s body I bring my        two lines and greater scope for
                                        face close to see if he’s my boy as I travel   emotional reflection are more suited
                                        in search                                      to their style. A number of
                                        The atomic bomb literature includes            publications accept tanka, including
                                        many more examples of tanka,                   the British Haiku Society’s Blithe
                                        which I have displayed in one line             Spirit magazine and the Tanka
                                        due to the absence of obvious line             Society of America’s flagship,
                                        breaks in the source poem. Many                Ribbons.
                                        tanka were also written about
                                        Nagasaki, further underlining the              Tanka can be combined with prose
                                        sparse form’s value for emotional              to form tanka prose, a newly-
                                        poetry.                                        emerging form which is similar to
Tanka is a classical form of Japanese
                                                                                       haibun. More on this in a future
poetry which has existed for around     Tanka traditionally consist of five
                                                                                       article. I’ll leave you with a few
1400 years and came to be known as      units (often treated as separate lines)
waka for many centuries. In ancient                                                    hints to remember when writing
                                        usually with the following pattern
times, it was a custom between two      of on (often treated as the number of          tanka.
writers to exchange waka instead of     syllables per line):                           Tim’s tanka tips:
letters in prose, and the form
became part of aristocratic culture.    5-7-5-7-7                                      1. No rhyme, although it can be
Tanka were also commonly                                                               used subtly
                                        The 5-7-5 is called the kami-no-
exchanged between lovers. The           ku (upper phrase), and the 7-7 is              2. No title
writing of poetry was a desired         called the shimo-no-ku (lower
pursuit of emperors, to display their   phrase).                                       3. Mostly reflective, but can be
learned nature.                                                                        about any subject
                                        Tanka can be broken down into an
Emperor Meiji (reigned 1868-1912)       image/experience in lines one and              4. Humour must be light-touch
was a noted writer of tanka             two, followed by a pivot line for the          5. Usually written from first person
(allegedly, he wrote 100,000 poems      third which changes the tone. The              perspective
in his lifetime, roughly 4-5 a day),    fourth and fifth lines provide the
some of extremely high quality, such    emotional, reflective response to the           6. Syllables are less important than
as this famous one about clocks:        upper phrase (lines 1-3).                      content and feeling
in endless numbers
                                        pale blue confetti      experience/image

                                                                                       O
all our clocks have been wound up                                                              ur Web Presence
and then together                       smothering yellow       experience/image
they tick in perfect order              primroses
and this brings us much pleasure        swept away by the       pivot line             Our website:
                                        wind                                           suffolkpoetrysociety.org.uk
He was renowned for his wide
                                        the joy of a spring     reflective response
breadth of subject matter, even                                                        Our shop:
                                        wedding
writing about the process of writing                                                   shop.suffolkpoetrysociety.org.uk
in this classic tanka:                  so quickly forgotten    reflective response
                                                                                       Facebook:
being all alone                                                                        facebook.com/SuffolkPoetrySociety
and consoling our own heart             From Tanka Journal Issue 1.
for this one day                                                                       Instagram:
                                        Emperor Hirohito, towards the end
the time was spent quietly                                                             @suffolkpoetrysociety
                                        of his reign, speculated with some
in the writing of poems
                                        melancholy about World War II:                 Twitter:
Emperor Meiji’s tanka are significant                                                   @SuffolkPoetrySo
in the history of the form because      receiving celebration experience/image         twitter.com/SuffolkPoetrySo
they were written at a time when
Japan was opening up to the world.      from the people         experience/image       YouTube:
Even more effective are tanka           I’m happy but           pivot line             youtube.com/c/SuffolkpoetrysocietyOr-
written from the survivors of the       looking back            reflective response
                                                                                       gUk2015
Hiroshima atomic bombing in 1945.       I’m ashamed             reflective response     Donations:
Here is an extremely sparse, yet                                                       totalgiving.co.uk/donate/
powerful, poem from Sasaki                                                             Suffolk-Poetry-Society
Yutaka:

                                                               10
L    etter to the Editor                 I have had over 1,200 traditional
                                         form haiku published in a wide
                                         variety of publications, some
                                                                                 Charmion Watson on the inside back
                                                                                 cover of the Spring / Summer 2019
                                                                                 Twelve Rivers which contained both
Can I respond to comments about          definitely in the 'top' layer. I have    humour and an unexpected final
haiku expressed in all three of the      won national haiku prizes and my        line? Another haiku writer whose
'Turning Japanese’ articles? The         illustrated seasonal series of 112      work I admire, Denise Margaret
author states that 'these free-verse     haiku - known as haikai - sold out      Hargrave, has also experimented
haiku allow a certain amount of          and had excellent reviews in several    with enjambment in her haikai
freedom for the writer' which            national poetry magazines. In           series.
suggests to me that traditional 'five-    writing these haiku I have used
seven-five syllables, three lines and a   extended metaphor, assonance,           None of the above possibilities
seasonal word' haiku suffer from         alliteration, personification, asked     compromises the traditional haiku
that lack of freedom. He also adds       questions, deliberately repeated the    form and all are published
that it can be difficult to get such      same words and incorporated             examples. How, then, can this long-
haiku 'published in many of the top      references to art, music, other poets   established haiku form deny the
journals and magazines'.                 and religion. If this is starting to    poet 'a certain amount of freedom'?
                                         read like an ego-trip CV then can I                           Richard Stewart
That has not been my experience.         add the traditional form haiku from

R     esponse to Letter                  suggests that there is an openness of
                                         structure in the country of origin.
                                         One US publication (Haiku Journal)
                                                                                 writer should concentrate on the
                                                                                 contrast in imagery and intended
                                                                                 meaning. Without hinting at subtle
I note that Richard Stewart asserts      will only accept 5-7-5 poems. I think   emotions haiku are no more than a
that ‘traditional’ haiku written in 5-   there is room for both approaches       picture of nature. Richard Stewart
7-5 syllable format offer the writer     and I have written many traditional     writes excellent haiku with layers of
plenty of freedom for expression. In     haiku, too, one of which was            meaning. One of my favourites of
my workshops, I pose the question        published in the East Anglian Daily     his that has been widely published
of haiku structure in a discussion       Times in 2017:                          is:
and encourage participants to
choose their preferred form, either                 a day’s last sunlight                 Two peacocks fly up
free-verse or 5-7-5. Given that many           falls on Iken church tower –             Spiralling in a bright sky
Japanese publications accept haiku                  lone seawall shadow                  Covered by larksong.
in free-verse or traditional form
                                         Whichever form is chosen, the                                    Tim Gardiner

I  n Conversation with
   Beth Soule
                                         ‘The Ballad of Dan McGrew’, and he
                                         later introduced me to ‘The
                                         Rubáiyát’. At elocution lessons I
                                                                                 a workshop, the research notes are
                                                                                 kept too. I have always kept diaries
                                                                                 varying from detailed accounts and
                                         had to learn poems by heart and, in     reflections to a bare record of
                                         order to recite them meaningfully,      appointments and events with
                                         my teacher emphasised that we had       related ephemera stuck in, too –
                                         to understand them, and this was a      tickets, flyers, grandchildrens’
                                         wonderful training for my own later     drawings. I have boxes full and I go
                                         writing. My suffragette                 back through these every now and
                                         grandmother encouraged us to            then for ideas, or memory jogging. I
                                         think we could do anything but that     did have a go at script-writing once
                                         we should always aim to support         but the results were dismal!
                                         ourselves. So being practical, rather   PJ Which poets have been
                                         than follow a dream to act and to
Pam Job interviews Beth Soule as                                                 particularly important to you, Beth,
                                         write, I taught English and Drama,
she retires from being Secretary to                                              both as a reader and a writer, and
                                         the next best thing.
the Crabbe Competition.                                                          could you say why they appeal?
                                         PJ I know how all-consuming             BS From my teens I loved Philip
PJ I’m interested in your early          teaching can be so I wonder if you      Larkin’s and Thomas Hardy’s
poetry experiences, Beth. Where did      did manage to keep writing while        poetry. I liked that both manage a
all this start for you?                  you were working?                       really tight control of rhyme and
BS My mother claimed my first             BS Poetry pushes itself through         form while achieving an almost
poem was ‘written’ when I was            when events or situations prompt it,    conversational tone. Ted Hughes
about three – I scrawled on a surface    so I always had, and have, a            was (is) another favourite along
newly painted by my father. When         notebook on the go for poems, parts     with Seamus Heaney but my earliest
she remonstrated with me, I said         of poems, ideas, and the occasional     loves were probably Gerard Manley
‘You say nuffink/ an’ I say nuffink/       reflection or even a short story now     Hopkins, Wilfred Owen, Dylan
an’ he won’t know nuffink about it’,      and then. Interesting facts,            Thomas and T.S. Eliot. My parents
but it was my father who recited         information, anecdotes get recorded     bought me an LP recording of Under
poems to me at bedtime.                  for later, and now, when I get          Milk Wood, and that would certainly
I remember ‘The Highwayman’,             started on a theme or I’m preparing     accompany me to a desert island!

                                                           11
I used to sit in my bedroom under       BS I love what the Society does and
the eaves and listen to that amazing    it felt right to help with the
voice on my little Dansette record      organisation of events – our
player when I was supposed to be        contributions to Poetry in
writing essays on Goethe or Keats. I    Aldeburgh and National Poetry Day
think because of my Speech and          for instance. I enjoy running
Drama training, poems that perform      workshops and have done so for
well really attract me. Now the         Waveney and Blyth Arts and for the
poets who stir me are people like       Suffolk Walking Festival. I was
Alice Oswald, Emily Dickinson           invited to read at Sudbury Poetry
(why was she never on the school        Café and Poetry Aloud this year,
syllabus!), Mimi Khalvati, Finuala      which I found exhilarating.
Dowling, Sharon Olds, Blake             PJ What about publication?
Morrison, Liz Berry. My recent
discoveries include Mary McCrae,        BS I have had poems published
Camille Ralph (an Emma Press            under the name Elizabeth Soule in
poet), and Yvonne Reddick.              Twelve Rivers, in Write to be Counted
                                        (an anthology in support of PEN)
PJ Well, that’s quite a gallop          and I have a couple of poems
through the poetry canon, and it’s
                                        scheduled for publication in The
certainly a very recognisable path      Dawntreader. I’ve also had work         PJ You really seem to have grasped
through the forest. I shall check out   published online by Second Light,       how technology can be harnessed to
the last three poets you mention,       Virtual Verse, Poetry24 and Norwich     poetry in imaginative new ways.
new to me. Interesting that the later   Café Poets.                             Good luck with that, Beth, you’ve
poets are mostly women, and you
                                        PJ What’s the next step, Beth, now      left me breathless by the scope of
are right – where were they in our
                                        you have stepped down from              your ambitions now you have the
school reading – not even Christina
                                        administering the Crabbe                time, hopefully, to really let rip!
Rosetti or Elizabeth Barrett
                                        Competition, which I imagine has        Good luck in all your ventures!
Browning to give us the idea that
women wrote poetry too. I’m sure        entailed an enormous amount of
Dickinson is a fixture now,              unseen work!
thankfully.                             BS I have been trying to get a
You have returned to your early         pamphlet published for the last
passion for poetry in retirement.       couple of years but I’m not              Textile Terrorists
How did that come about?                consistent enough in submitting to
                                        periodicals to get my name               Overnight
BS I joined Suffolk Poetry Society      recognised. I’ll probably self-
and was fortunate to have two                                                    the High Street has become
                                        publish next year if my current
poems published in the Norwich          efforts don’t bear fruit. I have a       a shrine to grannies.
Writers’ Circle 40th Anniversary        sequence of poems about Boudicca         Street furniture carefully
Anthology. I then had the               that has been performed twice, as        lovingly
confidence to join Bungay Poetry         has ‘Wicked Women’, and both are         swaddled
Circle, a wonderfully encouraging       about pamphlet length. In all            in lurid squares of double knit.
group.                                  honesty, I like reading/performing       Lamp-posts and bollards,
PJ Do you belong to any poetry          more than the hassle of trying to get
                                        published, and I like the process of     telegraph poles and post boxes
groups at the moment?
                                        researching and writing better still.    purled and plain-ed,
BS Yes, I belong to four poetry         Because I have been running poetry       cabled and fair-isled
groups – Bungay Library Poets;          workshops, a lot of my creative          love-bombed
what used to be the Bungay Poetry       energy has gone in that direction,       into a snugly smothering gesture
Circle and is now Ivy Poets, another    something to cut back on if I am
small group that meets fortnightly,                                              of elderly defiance.
                                        serious about submissions. I am
and a group that grew out of courses                                             We are not grey.
                                        working on my own website – my
run by Helen Ivory in Norfolk. I        husband is good at producing short       We are not even silver.
didn’t attend those courses myself      videos so it may include a couple of     We are a Joseph’s Dreamcoat
but was invited to join the group       ‘performances’. I do love that the       of crimson and gentian,
later. Over recent months I have        internet is democratising poetry and     jade, turquoise, cerise and olive,
been so busy I’m not sure I would       music; I’d like to have a go at
have written very consistently if I                                              cerulean blue
                                        Instagram. I’m fascinated by the
hadn’t had these groups to spur me                                               and vivid, vivid
                                        literal translation of ‘a poem’ as ’a
on.                                     thing made’. I love to make poetry       flame.
PJ You are now on the SPS               artefacts and photograph them.                                   Beth Soule
committee so you are really
delivering on your commitment to
poetry in a very practical way, too.

                                                         12
S    elected Poems

           The Editor thanks Antony Johae and James Knox Whittet for acting as referees for the selected poems.
                              Note: All poems are submitted to the referees anonymously.

Melting Snow                                                    Jackdaw

Over time                                                       One morning in the station car-park
you grow a narrative,                                           She was approached by a jackdaw which
irrigate and hoe                                                Folding its granite wings
a kind of order from the chaos,                                 Spoke to her in the voice of an old man
yielding harvests of familiar sentences,                        Calling her by name.
weaving a screen round the wasteland,
                                                                After that no one could ever
word-wall against the wilderness.
                                                                Persuade her she was mistaken.
One day in early Spring I glimpse                               That things of this sort do not happen.
a small bird foraging
                                                                Now each day, when the cranked-up sun
beneath the hedge, green shoots
                                                                Tips sliding photons on the rooftops,
revealed by melting snow,
                                                                She is there at the casement window, properly dressed,
and suddenly recall                                             Asking the city, hunting clues.
the awful day we cleared his flat,                               So far we know:
the poem neatly copied out (I have it still)
                                                                It was intended as a message:
about the thing with feathers
                                                                Something declarative at last.
that perches in the soul
                                                                The bright eye and the alien beak,
- though not in his,
                                                                The head racked left
and stumbling, I reach out for the wall,                        Like with a wiring fault of some kind.
clutch at sentences to break my fall.
                                                                Jackdaws are of course well known
                            Sheila Lockhart                     To imitate human speech.
                                                                Alternatively: there was a message
                                                                But it was not delivered. Only her name
                                                                Before something took fright,
                                                                A squabble of wings, and he was gone up.
Urban Fox                                                       If only the clouds had not parted thus
                                                                And swallowed him.
Is a Quaker among us
                                                                Lately, without meaning to, without intent,
Passing soft-footed through our absences
                                                                She has been scribbling over parts of the map,
Testing the crumbling green corridors
                                                                Deleting junctions and sidings
Only betrayed by sudden snow.
                                                                Smoothing the ambiguity of points and crossings.
                          Richard Stewart
                                                                She sheds her past like beech leaves
                                                                And becomes
                                                                A winter tree, comfortable by moonlight.
                                                                It is autumn after all that really hurts.
                                                                                                            Neil Fleming

                                                           13
Under the Ancient Mulberry at
Gainsborough’s House
                                                          A Broader View of Shelling Beans
What greetings to offer?
I am a trespasser.                                        Shelling broad beans is tedious
Wait till I am spoken to.                                 previous experience informs me.
                                                          Time is set aside to bide in the unzipping –
She has claimed the space, reached                        that gripping moment of discovery.
an understanding with the house.                          How many in the pod?
She is accommodated                                       The odds are on four.
and has pride of place.                                   It’s rarely more if they’re fat.
She leans on old elbows. Her branches                     But then the shock
finger purple silences.                                    to see the inner shell.
A stately dowager of ancient lineage                      You couldn’t tell before you thought
whose silk is privilege.                                  you’d unzipped the lot.
Her thistles set their bayonets, her nettle guards        And what have you got?
say keep out. Woodlice                                    The inner layer.
in hard hats                                              Tricked by something trickier.
clean out her spongy crevices.                            Pick it off with care
She lets in the windrock                                  since the innermost fruit is there
in whorls and whispers. Her dark-staining fruits are      soft, beautiful, vulnerable.
an acquired taste.                                        I’ve learned a great deal in the peeling.
She is not interested in pleasing me.                     Been to the heart of things.
                                                          Broadened my own understanding
After all, she can remember that
                                                          while shelling.
Shakespeare
                                                          Maybe got closer to God with each pod.
planted her sister.
Her roots weave through history.                                                          Lynne Nesbit

I bow down before her to touch
her split limbs, kiss
her ring of carbuncles.
                                                          By the River Alde
                               Christina Buckton
                                                          The sails of a distant wherry
Butterfly Lodge                                            swim through the reeds
                                                          in which you walk
That's my name for it. The sign says
                                                          You are the foreground
The Tavern House though it closed to drinkers
                                                          in an autumn painting:
long before the insects died. Only once
                                                          a dark shadow approaches
have I seen the door open: peeled paper,
drag marks in the dust, a bumping sound                   The river is calm, uncaring
that stopped as I reached the step.                       but persistent, nibbling at the path
                                                          downtide to Iken
No-one came, no-one comes. The dried corpses
dangle on the nets, their colours evaporated              A boardwalk bridges the marsh:
over long summers. Yet the wing patterns                  skeleton trees
are still perfect in black and white                      black against the sun
as though drawn carefully in ink, the butterflies          In the distance an island church
in different attitudes as though pinned.                  tempts us to risk the water:
On the day the door was open, an admiral                  offers us baptism
almost stirred. Did it stretch a wing,                    or isolation:
flutter an antenna? I tapped a key on the pane,            behind us maltings rear up,
like chinking glasses, rapped with a knuckle              hide the mooring places.
to evoke the drayman's horse,
unable to conjure a butterfly sound.                                               Tim Lenton

                                 Clive Eastwood

                                                     14
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