Life is IMMENSE

Pity us
By the sea
On the sands
So briefly

I am beginning a new project with the new year, something I like doing very much. This is to be a DVD of the poet Samuel Menashe who lives in NYC. Bloodaxe Books is publishing a collected this year 2009 and the DVD will accompany the book. I am calling it Life is Immense which is a line from one from his poems. I have hours of video from visits made to his abode in Manhattan last September and from this material I will try my best to create a kind of visit to see him in his surrounding reciting poems from his heart and talking. The time spent with him was like being in the presence. Time out of time, very focussed and he was projecting as if he was talking to the future, beaming himself... Very special. I was awed and very honoured.
I feel his presence here as I work and I thank him for his generosity. It is blessed work this. A way to contribute to a time which needs wisdom and peace and a slowing down in order to listen.

Willoughby Sharp

Just heard the sad news that the legendary Willoughby Sharp died on December 17 2008 aged 72.
Meetings with Willoughby were unforgettable.
There has been this wave of deaths the past month, Harold Pinter, Adrian Mitchell, Mick Imlah, the poet Snodgrass, John Mortimer, and more...
I can barely catch my breath as the images spin in my mind of their faces and memories I have.

Adieu

Andrew Wyeth died today.

Snowdrops and raindrops

There has been massive amounts of rainwater falling here in Tarset and now the snowdrop shoots are poking out! A bit early for here I think but by Feb they are usually in bloom.
It is always grand to see signs of spring!
So John Agard Live! the DVD is finished and sent off and now I am preparing to start editing Life is IMMENSE a visit to Samuel Menashe.
The London trip was inspiring in many ways. I get to catch up on all levels; with my friend Paul, culture in its many forms, friends, the place itself and good Indian food!
Thank you Paul for being the most host.

Congratulations Jen Hadfield!

Jen Hadfield has just won the TS Eliot award for best collection of 2008! Congratulations! Jen did a magnificent upbeat reading at the Purcell Room to a huge audience on the Southbank. The prize was then announced at the oak-paneled Skinners Hall in the City, complete with chandeliers, galleries, rotunda and paintings, the following night. Valerie Eliot dressed in carmine handed over the check and it was a night to remember!
On the previous evening all ten poets had read from their books excepting Mark Doty who could not come so Nick Laird read in his place and Mick Imlah who was too ill to. Sadly Mick died the next day. Andrew Motion gave a very moving and inspired speech. They were long friends and Mick will be missed in the poetry world.
Moniza Alvi did a stunning reading from Europa and Maura Dooley also. I was very proud and happy to have been there. Saw some delightful friends and enjoyed meeting new ones.
Once a year it is quite an occasion and it is probably the most important poetry prize in the UK.
So Jen to you the youngest poet to win and may you keep up the great work!

Meret Oppenheim and friends

I created a new group on facebook called Meret Oppenheim and friends
.
It is a set-up for appreciation and sharing about MO and other artists. Connecting people whose work takes inspiration from the very real surreal.
Please join if you feel so inclined.

Here and Now Then and There

Last year several very dear friends died and I want to honour them in this post.
Firstly a painter and educator Tony Vevers on Cape Cod. He was vital in Provincetown and the art scene there for decades as well as wherever he taught. He was a great inspiration and a lovely presence. I am glad I have contact with his daughter Tabitha still, who is also a very interesting painter.
Later and very suddenly a friend Eugenia Butler died in Northern California. Eugenia was a unique human being, with a curious and inquisitive mind like I have never met before.To say that she was an artist does not fully satisfy. Life was her palette and all the people she met. Her daughter Corazon del Sol was very brave and courageous as she contacted all of her mothers friends around the world with the sad news while she herself was mourning and organising everything. I think of her very often.Corazon do get in touch if you wish.
Come April Arturo Vivante died, also on Cape Cod. He had been ill for a while but still the news brought a great sense of loss and a void. Arturo a writer and teacher but mostly a very dear friend, a very kind and gentle man.
He introduced Italy to me and for this I am so grateful. He taught me Italian words and exactly how to pronounce them. Those beautiful sounds. When I finally went to Italy to start another phase of my life, it is also where I fell in love. Grazie mille Arturo!
So with these losses and the void felt, I have also found that I appreciate my living friends and family so much more. Does it take loss to know what you have? Despair to know joy? I think I take far too much for granted and simply forget how precarious our time is here. Say the positive and vital things out loud in the here and now.
That is what I have learned. Thank you friends.