The shaking city of Australian poet Cath Drake’s debut poetry collection is a metaphor for the swiftly changing precarity of modern life within the looming climate and ecological emergency, and the unease of the narrator who is far from home. Tall tales combine with a conversational style, playful humour and a lyrical assurance. The poet […]
The Shaking City – Cath Drake – Seren — The Poetry Shed
Back in April 2020, in the first lockdown, my collection, The Unmapped Woman was launched by Nine Arches Press on Zoom with great support from the fab poets Katie Griffith and Robert Peake. I didn’t know at the time that Jane Commane was in conversation with Helen Dewberry about a variety of film poems including […]
Creativity in Lockdown – A Film Poem by Helen Dewberry — The Poetry Shed
Looking back to the first lockdown how did it affect you and your writing? If I’m honest, I don’t really remember a lot of the first lockdown in great detail now. Because of my type one diabetes, I’ve stayed at home for most of the past year even when we weren’t in lockdown, and time […]
Creativity in Lockdown: In Conversation with Sarah James — The Poetry Shed
What I am Doing in Lockdown This one? I’m swinging back and forth between small bursts of energy and creativity and deep level procrastination because of a tricky and monstrous tax return. We’ve had some family members really unwell, so I’ve been managing my anxiety with walks with friends and mindless TV. I’m also working […]
Creativity in Lockdown: In Conversation with Deborah Alma — The Poetry Shed
For my first post from an artist, I had a conversation with poet and artist Claire Trevien earlier this month to discover how she is approaching creativity in lockdown. Claire has kindly donated an image as a writing prompt and I invite you to post your poems in the comments below. Each week, over the […]
Unlocking Creativity with Claire Trevien — The Poetry Shed
In your artist’s statement you say the relationship between the subject and the artist is an integral part of the pictures you produce and that you seek to connect and respond to your subjects and to reflect them and the artistic interaction, in a way that is full and human. How does this process work […]
Unlocking creativity with Mark Gilbert — The Poetry Shed
What did you find was helpful to you during lockdown and you would recommend to others? Early on in the pandemic, I did ‘morning pages’ every morning for a week. This really helped me unpack all the uncertainty and anxiety that was – and still is – around at that point. You simply write for […]
Creativity in Lockdown: in conversation with Caleb Parkin — The Poetry Shed
Yorkshire Pudding on Baking Tray with wood and decorative festive background
The Buzz
“Where are the Yorkshire Puddings?”
a customer enquires, and to show
them where is the gravy to my brain.
“Have you got any custard?”
I point to the correct aisle
and get the jam roly poly in my stomach.
That shot of serotonin to the head,
lifts the day. I know where to find
what they want or need feels worthwhile.
-Paul Brookes
the day I met Aunt Bessie
my life was forever transformed,
crisp and golden, never messy,
with gravy… or strawberry jam adorned…
-Andrew Darlington
The following questions have escaped the Creative Writing courses which gave them life then left them lying uselessly on the floor, and each one now urgently demands to be answered by everyone everywhere who claims any interest in poetry whatsoever, in no more than five hundred words and no fewer than fifty. Lives depend on this, along with your share of £15.26 prize money. Email answers to poetryliberal@pooroldpoetry.com.
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A few days ago, a sequence of poems entitled ‘Welfare Handbook’ by Sasha Dugdale appeared in Mal, the online journal of sexuality and erotics. Its subject matter is difficult: the artist Eric Gill, a culturally significant figure who created many celebrated works and developed the Gill Sans typeface, but also a sexual predator who among other things abused his daughters (I won’t discuss his art and crimes here, they can all be found elsewhere online). Dugdale recognises the difficulty of tackling Gill but she has faced it down to produce a remarkable and, I think, important work which highlights some of the ways in which poetry can respond in measured and careful, but no less fierce – and proud – tones to subject matter that could all-too-easily be washed over with angry denunciations or indignant defences.
I would recommend reading the sequence carefully multiple times before continuing.
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The Wombwell Rainbow 