@ Havant Arts Centre

Chichester Cathedral

Market Cross, Chichester

This past week I was filming John Agard in performance with Keith Waithe a flutist/composer both from Guyana and living in England.
They gave an exceptional performance in the black box theatre space at Havant Arts Centre. Keith has a vast collection of flutes from all over the world and he played on some of them that evening. I have never seen anyone do with flutes what he does. Beautiful innovative music through breath and touch.
John was in top form and the evening was a treat for all who had come out from Portsmouth, Chichester and the south coast.
The filming went very well also and a lot of that footage will be available on DVD with John Agard's upcoming selected book next year with Bloodaxe Books.
While visiting Havant I had a chance to return after almost 40 years to some of my childhood haunts.
I lived near Chichester for a while and went to school there. It is a very pleasant town and the centre is still unspoilt! From the Market Cross streets go North, South, East and West which makes it easy to get to know the place. The cathedral is right there in the centre on West St and can be seen from miles around since the country is very flat there.
A woman was singing opera arias at the Market Cross in a wonderful acoustic setting.
I also visited Birdham and Runcton where I had stayed and spent many a day going for walks in the harbour and bicycling.
Although I had not visited for 40 years or so it was not a sentimental visit strangely enough. I felt quite connected to the young girl I was then before as they say "the shit hit the fan"!

Off the Shelf

aka Sheffield's annual celebration of writing and reading.
Every autumn you can go to Sheffield and enjoy some of the best writers and events around. This year David Guterson of Snow Falls on Cedars will be at Off the Shelf. It is rare that he appears anywhere at all! So seize the moment.
Other highlighters are poets Patience Agbabi, Daljit Nagra, Lemn Sissay and Andrew Davies the film maker who has made several literary adaptions into successful films e.g. Pride and Prejudice and Bridgit Jones Diary.
We ourselves are there to present In Person 30 Poets in the evening of Monday October 13th 2008.
If you are in the area please join us!

Also this past weekend there has been a festival, SAMA , in Newcastle of South Asian arts; music, literature, poetry, and dance.
There was a book launch of the Bloodaxe Anthology of Indian Contemporary Poetry
and one of the presenters/readers was Imtiaz Dharker who is one of my favourite poets! The launch was followed by a reception celebrating 30 years of Bloodaxe Books! The samosas were delicious! There were speeches by Mark Robinson, Simon Thirsk and Neil Astley, all three did an excellent job using intriguing metaphors of wine and boats. All the staff were together in one place for the first time ever I think and I am sure they appreciated it.
I am impressed that a publisher of poetry is going strong and stronger for thirty years! Most probably on the road to another thirty! See you in 2038! Gosh will we even be around then? We may not, but poetry will.

Jean Marie Gustave Le Clezio

The Nobel Prize Winner in Literature in 2008

National Poetry Day (in the UK)

"To be great, be whole..."

To be great, be whole: don't exaggerate
Or leave out any part of you.
Be complete in each thing. Put all you are
Into the least of your acts.
So too in each lake, with its lofty life,
The whole moon shines.

- Fernando Pessoa

The Houseplace

The room where the Wordsworths ate, prepared for meals, the children played, knitting and sewing took place. It was called the Houseplace .It used to be an Inn, the house is about 400 years old, called the Dove and Olive and has flagstone floors. Hence the name became Dove Cottage, a surprisingly common name in England. Dovecotes were found in practically every village. We have kept doves in our two nearest villages here.
The day I visited there was a coal fire in the grate. Very atmospheric and the warmth was comforting on an autumn day.

Dove Cottage report

Tuesday evening at Dove Cottage, Wordsworth Trust, in Grasmere went very very well indeed.
There was a responsive audience and a warm interested atmosphere. Jackie Kay is really spirited and her reading was greatly enjoyed by all, I can safely say that!
I met old friends; Bill Gilson, Margaret and Peter Whyte, Pamela Woof and new ones too; Andrew Forster, Adam O'Riordan the resident poet, Nick Drake another poet and writer as well as the new Director Michael MacGregor. It was lovely and I had a wonderful time. Thank you all!
Afterwards the audience and participants can go to dinner across the road in an Italian restaurant and it creates a tremendous opportunity for people to meet one another and continue talking about either the event or move on to other subjects. I found myself talking about Northumberland where I live and longingly of Provincetown, Cape Cod where I used to live.
As a reading place it is unique in England. A consistently super attentive audience, a great environment, beautiful country and good company at dinner and delicious food. What else could one ask for?
In Person the 45 mins film version I think was appreciated and I heard some good responses where people had found it inspiring to hear and see the poets read as if to them individually.
The room in the B and B overlooked the surrounding mountains and I could even see a bit of Grasmere lake. Such a pleasant place to present work. I have to say Thank you again!
You can also go on a tour of Dove cottage itself and the Jerwood Center library and collections and special exhibitions. We saw the magnificent Turner watercolors when we came down with Moniza Alvi in the summer. This time I took the cottage tour again and a knowledgeable man named Peter took us around and told us many interesting facts and historic details from the Wordsworths life there. I found myself imagining a film set there in low light of course, fires and candles, and wondered what I would do to evoke the specialness of being there. If ever in Grasmere you must visit! I insist.
Today Andrew Forster the Literature Officer at Dove Cottage and organizer of the reading series is himself at an important event. He has been shortlisted for the Forward First Collection Prize and we wish him the best of luck!

Mushrooming

We have been having some lovely autumn days of late. Sunny and warm yet cold at night. First ice on the birdbath and frost on the pastures.
This weekend we are planning to go mushrooming! I used to pick mushrooms with my Swedish grandmother Mormor when I was a child. All kinds of them and she prepared them in a yummy way! "Stuvad svamp". Mmm...
We will be looking for chanterelles, field mushrooms, boletus, and if we are lucky morels!
Have a good weekend too!