FLEUR ADCOCK
We were privileged to welcome Fleur Adcock to read
to us at our 'new' venue.
Thanks to the generous co-operation of Robert O'Connell and his staff
the committee room was cleared of tables and furnished with enough
small chairs to accommodate a crowded audience. The atmosphere was
intimate and just right for the occasion, enabling us to hear every word
and nuance without Fleur having to use the microphone.
Although in a long and rich career as a poet Fleur has written on a wide range of experiences, her theme concentrated mostly on family matters, her own children, their children and various relations. Mostly these were recent poems though she did respond to special requests, reading the interesting 1974 poem 'Please Identify Yourself', written when she was trying to find the graves of her ancestors in Northern Ireland - a powerful poem responding to the politics of the period but relevant still in today's Northern Ireland. Also to great acclaim she read the early poem 'An emblem', witty and brilliantly observed, about mating slugs!
However family has always been important to Fleur. We had the poem 'Direct Hit' about her father being bombed in the war on his 40'th birthday; More recent was the 'Heidi' poem - a true story - in which her grand-daughter died her hair blue and gave herself a punk crest.Her school objected that although died hair was not specifically forbidden, hers was not in the school colours. Her black friend then died her hair in 'the school colours precisely' but, to conclude, 'the battle was already won'.
Fleur's acute observation of detail is apparent in all she writes, always infused with feeling and/or wit. She pares down to essentials to communicate with direct, apparently simple, but nevertheless strong poetic power. A wonderful example is called 'The Video'. The father is making a cam-corder video of the birth of his daughter, Laura. He focuses between the parted legs as the head emerges. Kerry, her sister, replays the video; watches the birth, then reverses the mechanism and the birth to make the head 'go back in'! Wonderful. I doubt if there is a single adjective in the poem.
Fleur gave us an evening to remember.
Back to TopBOB WARD
For our second meeting at the David Lloyd Leisure Club our guest poet was our old friend and former Chairman of TPS. He came from his current home in Norfolk to give us a presentation on Words and Pictures, Poetry and Art.
It was more than just a reading - Bob had thoroughly researched his subject. Nor were TPS members allowed to doze off – they were called upon to read some of the poems by other poets which Bob had included in his programme.
He started with a section of “Artists Who Wrote”, or “Poets Who Painted”, whichever way round you like to put it. This included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Blake, David Jones and Adrian Henri.
Next he looked at two poems about portraits, Browning’s My Last Duchess, wonderfully read by Peter Stileman, and Stanley Kunitz’s The Portrait.
Then came a section of poems which were direct responses to paintings. Bob started with a poem of his own continuing with a poem by Dante Gabriel Rossetti about a painting by Ingres which was itself a response to a sixteenth century Italian poem by Ariosta. This section ended with Ursula Fanthorpe’s poem in response to a painting of Saint George and the Dragon by Uchello. The three sections, each voiced for a character in the painting, were given spirited readings by Brian Biddle as the dragon, a delightfully girlish damsel courtesy of Jean Janes and Bob as St. George.
During the interval members had time to study Bob’s display of some of his own poems mounted on an appropiate picture and books by himself and others.
The second half of the programme began with two poems about having your portrait painted by your daughter. The first by the Estovian painter Abraham Sutzkuver and the second by Les Murray.
This was followed by a selection of poems about painting or making pictures. This opened with Bob’s poem Old Press about a printmaking course he had been on. This was succeeded by Ted Hughes’s To Paint A Waterlily, Jacques Prevert’s To Paint the Portrait of a Bird, Miroslav Holub’s How To Paint a Perfect Christmas and ended with another of Bob’s poems Running Hare, about a painting by Robert Gilmore. Oh yes. We also had a poem by Lawrence Maxwell about a picture by Paul Klee.
To end the evening Bob talked about his work in this field - how years of taking photographs and years of writing had come together at last through the digital camera and the computer. He provided us with the hand-outs he used for one of his workshops, to share his experience in this area.
He talked about the examples he had on display and read us some of them including: Source – a picture of a water fountain with a bronze lion’s face; A Grandfather – picture of a pocket watch; Blickling Hall – where the poem was on an urn at one of the gateways.
Asked which came first the poem or the picture he said sometimes one and sometimes the other - he had some poems awaiting pictures and some pictures awaiting poems.
Peter Stileman spoke for us all when he thanked Bob for a most entertaining and thought-provoking evening.
Back to TopSTUART HENSON
What would be the effect of your learning about a secret that had been hidden in your family? Stuart Henson learned that his grandfather had been born out of wedlock, that between the time of the child’s conception and birth his great-grandfather had emigrated to Canada, and that the child had thus never met his father.
This sort of secret is not unique; two members in the audience at Henson’s Toddington Poets’ reading spoke of similar family histories. But for Henson, the secret was enough to spur his imagination. It propelled him all the way to Canada to ask questions of people who remembered his great-grandfather. And it led him to craft A Place Apart, a poetic narrative of what his great-grandfather’s life might have been like. The book draws on a few surviving letters, and on historical and family research, but much of the detail of the characters’ lives and inner lives is imagined.
Henson has set himself a difficult task, and he referred to it in a discussion following the reading. Is this a collection of poems, or a historical narrative? A narrative makes certain demands; the listener/reader needs to know how events and characters relate to each other; there must not be great gaps. In putting together such a collection, does the writer include poems that work less well than others, in order to ensure that the narrative is complete?
The first poem is about the absence of any photographs of the couple. The next two poems, one about the couple meeting on a bridge, and one about the woman thinking about her lover, both contain references to photographs: “A cloud is glazed like a photograph/on the water’s face.” The woman cherishes her image of her lover, “checking its hard, bright edges/ against the image she cherishes/ in the mirror of her heart.” This sort of interplay of themes and ideas between poems helps to ensure that they not simply fulfilling a narrative function, but are interesting and exciting poems in their own right.
Henson uses a range of styles, from litany (Forbidden Fruit) to found poem (Diseases of Sheep). Based as it is on actual people and events, A Place Apart includes photographs and extracts from letters.
Is it right to include private correspondence in such a collection? Henson has asked himself this question. His way to honour the writers is to allow their letters to speak for themselves in print, but he chooses not to read them aloud when he gives a reading from the collection.
How does a poet interpret a landscape and culture that is not his own? Henson visited his great-grandfather’s descendents in Canada, but spent only a few weeks there. This explains some inaccuracy and awkwardness (e.g. the size of a Canadian homestead.) But sometimes facts are overcome by truth, and the final poem, Lamp, is an evocative and moving tribute to the pioneering efforts of people like Henson’s English-Canadian great-grandfather: “a single lamp at the wood’s edge/ in the great night of a continent.”
Stuart Henson’s reading concluded with a couple of poems not in the collection. Newton’s Notebook was inspired by some items in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Newton’s birthday, 25 December; and the “great experiment of God dividing himself, Logos to Locus.” Henson regarded Tracking as “a personal domestic thing” but it was well enough regarded to be used for the British Council’s Christmas card.
The reading gave everyone present much to enjoy, and a few questions to consider in our own work.
Back to TopMERRYN WILLIAMS
Most of us know Merryn as the Editor of ‘The Interpreter’s House’, a poetry magazine that has gone from strength to strength, but the following descriptions reveal just how multi-faceted a person she is.
Merryn is an established figure in the literary world and we are fortunate to number her among our members: Magazine Editor; Biographer; Translator; and a Poet with a number of collections and competition wins behind her, she was nonetheless nervous. Why? Because this was, she admitted, the first time she’d used a microphone!
Her subject matter ranges widely, taking in the historical (e.g. Mary Ann – about her husband’s great-grandmother) to the political (such as Why We Had to Bomb).
The small group of Lorca translations was particularly interesting for those of us unfamiliar with his work and the subject of translating came up in the lively discussion in the second half of the evening. She bemoaned the lack of rhymes in English when compared to Spanish! Asked whether her poems sprang from ideas that she felt she must communicate, her reply was intriguing: “No, I have to start with words”. She also explained her love of getting inside the minds of historical figures – such as in Mary Ann.
At my request she rounded the evening off by reading one of her poems about Wilfred Owen, on whom she is a recognised authority.
And the microphone? It seemed to trouble her not one jot; she looked as if she’d been using them for years! Indeed, some said they’d never heard her read better.
Merryn Williams made this a truly inspirational evening and one to be remembered for a long time. An accomplished poet with several published collections, she did not fail to please the audience with the depth of her knowledge and creativity.
Merryn read a wide variety of fascinating poems, ranging across the themes of love, war, fame and fortune. They told stories of other people’s lives using a wide variety of voices, including both those of the dead (as ghosts) and the living.
'Why We Had to Bomb' was written in the voice of a Statesman. It helped place the grand theme of war into the context of an individual’s experience, with its surprising but realistic last stanza.
Why We Had To Bomb ……………. ……………. I deeply regret any civilian casualties …………………. My hands are clean, As I explained repeatedly The fault is not ours, but that of someone else……. Finally, may I take this opportunity to thank you for the many greeting cards I and my family have received this week, and wish you a very happy Christmas. (from The Latin Master's Story)
The first half of the evening was rounded off with Merryn reading her wonderful translations of the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, provoking much discussion later in the evening. One of my favourite poems was the Deserted Playground, which was poignantly written as a tribute to an Iraqi child. The poem induced a haunting feeling with its powerfully effective imagery of life during a time of war. Merryn's sense of humour was revealed in her portrayal of The Wife Of a Great Man. This poem highlighted her ability to project herself into another person’s life.
Wife Of A Great Man I am the mindless woman who tags along, dressed in pink or baby-blue, colours of decoration. Indeed, I have never uttered an opinion. ......................... ……………….. Someday, I'd quite like to tell this distinguished gathering all about him, his rudeness and his infidelity, but won't, obviously......................... ………………….. ………………….. As of today, I walk up the gangway, all eyes are not on me but him. It helps to have a woman on the margin of the picture discreetly supporting a great man. I am she. (from The Latin Master's Story)
The whole evening was a great success and I was personally delighted to have met this remarkable lady, who is keeping poetry alive for so many.