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Welcome to The Literary Pig's blog - a safe haven for all those afflicted with
the unbearable urge to write.

Wednesday 19 February 2014

A poetry interlude

One of the most stimulating parts of the Indoor Writer's MA course is the poetry drop-in sessions organised by lecturer, Stephanie Norgate, an excellent poet and advocate of embracing the creative life. Sounds like it should be full of poetry drop-outs, but the joy is you don't have to write poetry to drop in.A recent session focused on American poet, Philip Levine, and his poem The Simple Truth. You can read it here - like many of his poems it is written in simple understandable language, but there is a deep poignancy in it that brought tears to my eyes.

Another session looked at opposites in poetry. A wonderful example is Simon Armitage's You're Beautiful. This is one poem that is better heard and here is Armitage reading it himself, click here. Not all poets do their work justice, but Armitage is an excellent reader and brings his words to life.

There were exercises set around each topic, but I'm afraid the Indoor Writer is still not up to sharing her poetry. She's waiting on the next Vogon Poetry Festival before taking that particular plunge.

However, after attending Lynn Jennings' excellent workshop at West Sussex Writers meeting last week she now knows all the tricks. Lynn talked about 'Performing your work' or as she put it: doing justice to your gems. With both poetry and prose examples read by well known actors (on CD, not the real thing) she worked us through 'The P's of Performance': here are a smattering of her top tips ...
Prepare - read it aloud at home or to someone first
Posture - try not to cover your face with the book, remember body language speaks volumes!
Pausing - stand and PAUSE before you launch into reading
Pace - take your time! (the audience is unlikely to run away...)
Pitch - think about varying the pitch, breathing properly will help!
Power - for just a few moments the audience is putty in your hands ...
Paint - try to paint the picture you want the listeners to see in their mind's eye
Passion - this is about enthusiasm, but it can also be about confident serenity
Production - when you read your work it's a mini-production, so help the audience to enjoy it to the full
Presence - believe in yourself and the audience will believe in you too
Personality - we each bring different gifts to share and remember 'you can't please all of the people' etc

We listened to the same poem read by different actors and discussed our preferences. This almost ended in a writers' punch-up (poetry fans are an emotive bunch) as the room fell into disagreement over the better reading of Dylan Thomas' Fern Hill: Richard Burton or Michael Williams. Sorry, but I'm a Burton fan through and through. His version was sublime.

Finally, I'd like to share this reading with you. WH Auden's poem Funeral Blues (popularly known as Stop all the Clocks) became immortal after being read by John Hannah during the  film 'Four Weddings and a Funeral'. I read it recently and hated it - to me it seemed such a flimsy, almost comic poem, not a fitting epitaph to a loved one, nor capturing true grief. And then I heard Lindsay Duncan reading the poem, you can listen here. It was as if I was hearing the poem for the first time. The emotion resonates in her low, barely contained voice, and it seriously got to me.

If like the Indoor Writer you are a little scared by poetry and couldn't tell a villanelle from a pekingese then I recommend the anthologies of modern poetry published by Bloodaxe (edited by Neil Astley, photo top right): Staying Alive, Being Alive and Being Human. You can dip into these at your leisure to discover new poems and revisit old favourites. And if you want to learn more about poetry forms and history then these have just been recommended to me (but not yet read):
The making of a poem - Boland and Strand
Poetry the basics - Jeffrey Wainwright
Poetry Handbook - John Lennard


Are there any poems that have gotten to you? Please share.

18 comments:

  1. Ah, see... I didn't need to go after all - it's like missing a lecture at Uni and cribbing someone's lecture notes. Thanks Tracy!

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    1. But you did miss a terrific evening, Wendy. Scriptwriting with Ian for March ...

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  2. I can explain about opposites in poetry. There's good poetry - and then there's mine!

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    1. Hmm, me thinks you are being too modest, Patsy. Didn't you once win a poetry competition, quite a big prize too wasn't it? Your poetry can't be worse than mine!

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  3. This post is just in time, Tracy, since I'm reading my shortlisted poem in London next weekend! I think the results are after the readings (although most likely chosen by now!) - just as well.

    Your course sounds brilliant.

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    1. Good luck with the reading, Rosemary. This sounds very exciting and can't wait to hear how you get on :)

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  5. Tracy, yes (and thanks for this really interesting post).

    The one that gets me every time is 'Armada' by the brilliant Brian Patten. He read it - to my horror (because I knew what would happen...) at a poetry reading I went to and I sat there with tears streaming down my face.

    I told him at the end what he'd done to me - and he signed my book at that page.

    Ah, it's lovely. Click here and you can listen to the poet himself reading it to you.

    And if the link still doesn't work, I'm afraid you'll have to cut and paste:


    http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=5924

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    1. Thanks, Helen - you've started me off again. A truly memorable poem and one that stings your eyes every time.

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  6. I have trouble choosing favourite poems as there are so many I love, both classic and modern. Ernest Dowson's Cynara is one favourite (though it's real title is in latin and I can't remember it!) and here is a new favourite from the wonderful Roger McGough - an appropriate one for us writers.
    http://acupofpoetry.tumblr.com/post/66405815426/take-comfort-by-roger-mcgough-take-comfort-from

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    1. I agree, Bernadette, and my list of favourite poems keeps growing as I read more poetry! Had read/heard this one before - a good choice. But then I could listen to Roger McGough reading his shopping list - love him on Poetry Please.

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    2. I agree. I've been lucky enough to see him several times and last time I dragged my husband along, who's not really a poetry person. Even he had to admit he'd enjoyed it!

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  7. I'm really interested in the idea of reading aloud. I'm wondering how hard it would be to set up a sort of open mike event for writers locally.

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  8. Go for it, Julia. We've just tried this with our MA group - wine and nibbles helped everyone to relax and it was a safe environment where everyone knew each other. It does help to set a max time limit, but few readers want to exceed 10 mins. Or try it at someone's house first - again it can be very relaxed if aided by drinks and cake!

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  9. Thanks very much for the Ps of Performance, Tracy. Your post is very timely because I just heard an hour ago that I have been 'crowned' Disney Winnie the Pooh Laureate of the Midlands and will have to read my story at the Birmingham Disney Store in a fortnight. So I will be taking note of Lynn Jennings advice!

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    1. What fabulous news, Sally, thanks for sharing this. I'm sure you will do an excellent reading. And what a wonderful title - think you should put this on your blog 'Winnie the Pooh Laureate of the Midlands'. Good luck with the next stage :)

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