Wave Silo

Thank you for visiting my blog! I haven't posted here in a while. Feel free to peruse the older stuff you'll find here, of course, but you can find more recent updates on my Substack  - wesviola.substack.com - and explore my work in general on my Linktree  - linktr.ee/wesviola

In early 2020 I was invited by the Illuminate Rotherhithe community project to write a poem about migration, specifically inspired by the Mayflower pilgrims, to perform at their community celebration later in the year. That event never took place - it was one of the first I was connected with to be cancelled by the pandemic. This year, Illuminate Rotherhithe came back, and asked me to write and perform a poem about this year's core theme - TREES. I knew I was set to perform the poem at the bandstand of Southwark Park, so took a wander down there to see what trees would be around us. It's almost all London Planes ; suitable for a festival whose core theme is migration since London Planes are not strictly native at all, being a hybrid (deliberate or accidental) of Planes orient- and occidental. They've become such a familiar and welcome part of the urban landscape of our capital that they bear its name. I asked Pat Kingwell - a man with extraordinary knowledge of Southwar...

This was written for the Dalston Writers audio anthology. 'Home'; which you can listen to in full, including my own reading of this piece, below: Dalston Writing Group · Dalston Writing Group The Home Project 2021 My reading is introduced by group leader Jon Fortgang at 17:45 (you can get an insight into Jon's own work in his profile on my Wedding Ritual blog ) Ten Things on Our Wall at Home View this post on Instagram A post shared by Wes White (@wave.silo) 1. A promo poster for the B-movie ‘NOT OF THIS EARTH’ - the 1988 one featuring Traci Lords, which has a 33% critics rating on RottenTomatoes; not the 1957 one featuring Paul Birch, which has a 36% critics rating on RottenTomatoes, nor the 1995 one featuring Elizabeth Barondes, which has no rating. The one in the middle. This poster, which I snuck into the four-foot-cubed box of your stuff that we had shipped over from your apartment in the States, has the tagline, ‘TRACI LORDS IS... NOT OF T...

My piece 'Dust' has been published in 'Bog issue 2 - the Dust issue' 'Bog' is a wonderful e-zine that recaptures the feel of the fin-de-siècle internet, those pioneering late-90s websites that were exploring what was possible online, before so much was so comprehensively homogenised by the social media giants. Bog's editor Eilidh has a passion for archaeology, and the website aims - more successfully than you might think a digital interface could - to replicate the sense of digging around in the mud, encountering what you will and making of it what you may. If you want to dig around in the mud, encounter what you will and make of it what you may [recommended], go here . Or, if you'd prefer to go straight to my own 'dust' for 'Dust', click here . 'Dust' is a true story. 

In 2018 I wrote a poem cycle, 'The Way to Zed', a personal journey through the shapes, sounds and histories of the letters of the alphabet. 'H' - The Fool I was delighted to read the cycle in full for Camberwell Arts Festival 2020 . 'M' - Reflection (Temperance) The reading was accompanied by a presentation of the Tarot designs I've produced based on the poems - these were available in an exclusive online exhibition for the Festival (for a very limited period, so check them while you can ) 'Z' - The Ace of Swords You can see and hear the reading in full here: The surreal quest described in the poems is mapped out by the symbols that our modern letters descended from. The corresponding ancient symbols, and the Tarot cards I've chosen to represent the letters, are as follows: Letter Corresponding ancient symbol In the 'Way to Zed' tarot A Bull's head Ace of Wealth ...

This month I've be very happy to be featured in Southwark's online Festival of Words , with three past readings and a new one recorded at home specially for the purpose going online as part of the borough's wider celebration of language and literature. Three of the four poems have been recognised in poetry contests in the past. This afternoon the final video is going live, in which I share some of the thoughts that went into the writing. That premieres at 4pm today: All four of the featured readings follow. These will all be available throughout the summer along with readings and talks from many other established and emerging writers . Snowdrop Leopard Wood Have Catwoman

"Once upon a time in a place called Wheatley (which means wheat field, and is well named) there was a field of wheat - I tell a lie, there were many..." ' The Naughtiest Thing ' is the timeless tale of a vicar's daughter committing the ultimate transgression in a wheat field. You can read the tale in full on my Substack . This fairytale poem has been published on a centuries-old letterpress as a limited edition broadside of 50 numbered copies, featuring a hand-coloured chaffinch - the namesake of the goblin in the tale. It was (and perhaps a few still are) available exclusively in Glastonbury bookshops. 'The Naughtiest Thing' is a work of fiction and any similarity to any former Prime Ministers or Home Secretaries living or dead is entirely coincidental.

Edit : regrettably, but understandably, the measures to combat the spread of COVID-19 Coronavirus have forced the cancellation of this event. We and Théâtre Volière hope that it will be possible to stage it in happier times. - Through February and March this year, I have been working as part of a group of writers (including my wife, Erica Viola ) with Théâtre Volière  on a set of poems inspired by the traces left behind by Europe's lost empires and cities. Together, these traces of an imagined 'Vanished Kingdom' will conjure a culture that never was, and which yet feels very familiar. Coins, pottery shards, epic poems, spells, curses, folksongs, monolithic stones - our unreal land had none of these. Still, we will describe their ghosts. On Monday 23 March 2020 we'll be performing ' A Vanished Kingdom ' as part of the 2020 Marchland Festival at Canada Water Theatre . A further performance of 'A Vanished Kingdom' will be taking place at the sam...

Chi Chi or qi is a concept derived from Classical Chinese Philosophy. It can be expressed in English as ‘life force’, but also as ‘air’, ‘breath’ and ‘energy flow’. We might compare or contrast chi with Awen , a Celtic word which Bards use to mean inspiration - and which also relates to ‘breath’ and ‘flow’. Sometimes the Hindu notion of kundalini is referred to in relation to Chi. But kundalini does not translate to ‘air’ or ‘breath’ or ‘flow’. Kundalini is a coiled snake . Me Me, I have some ideas. Me, I hope you understand. Me, I look forward to hearing from you. Me, I trust you are well. Me, I want to select carefully. Me, I have now settled on the theme. Me, I am attaching a painting. Me, I work in Property. Me, I am a very proud and happy Mummy. Me, I am active and rooted in Community. Me, I managed to replace my day job of more than 33 years as a legal PA. Me, I have been running my own business. Me, I fully sacked my boss. Me, I came t...

In July last year I offered an original poem as a raffle prize at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants ' Summer Party. I promised that the raffle winner would be able to name a subject of their choosing, and that I'd write a poem on the subject that they could do with as they wished. At the end of a truly lovely afternoon spent with supporters of JCWI, the artist and law-worker Jagrati Bhatia won my poem-prize in the raffle. In the weeks and months between then and now, Jag and I have been exchanging thoughts over email and webcam about the possibilities of the poem, the theme for which she decided would be 'Identity'. To my great pleasure, Jagrati also told me of her intention to arrange for the finished piece to be displayed alongside her artwork at the Law Society's Art Group exhibition this month. The exhibition starts tomorrow, Tuesday 14th January, at the Law Society's Reading Room - 113 Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1PL - and my poem 'Chim...

Klaus opened up the big red book for the last time that night. He turned it to the last page, and ticked the last three stops: Zurich, Zwickau, Zwolle. Done, done, done. It was always the same three to finish with, heading back North towards the Arctic. So many years, so many rituals. The reindeer harnessed... the chimneys caved... the brandies downed, at so many firesides. But tonight there was a new ritual. One he would perform only once. The Arctic Elves had been instructed, and the deer provided for - everything would go on. The world would not even miss him. His image was everywhere, and anyway, they thought he was a myth. Nicholas the Wonderworker took his sack down off the sleigh. He set it down flat on the snow, and opened it out in a wide circle. The open bag was a portal to a seemingly bottomless pit, walled with 1700 years’ worth of toys. He took a few steps back, adjusted his belt, ran forwards - and leaped in . Now he fell down the tunnel of toys. At the very t...

I am again taking part in Dalston Writers' 'Take-Away Tales', which means copies of my festive flashfic 'The Last Christmas' are available from CLR James Library . I'm number 8 on the menu - pick one up if you're in the area and I'll post the full text here on Christmas Eve.

"Once upon a time in a place called Wheatley (which means wheat field, and is well named) there was a field of wheat - I tell a lie, there were many..." 'The Naughtiest Thing' , a tale of lies and curses and forbidden forays into wheat-fields, is set to be published as a Glastonbury Broadside Ballad in the first week of March 2020. Image by Pezibear from Pixabay

In 2018 I undertook a fool's journey through the letters of the alphabet, writing a poem a day (more or less) for each of the 26 letters known to English speakers today. The poems were influenced by the shapes and sounds of the letters, and by the ancient symbols - the hieroglyphs and pictograms - which were their ancestors. The sequence of poems quickly began to take on the form of a surreal quest narrative, with the mysterious letter zed at its end. After some crossing some hurdles I finally made it to the izzard on the July 1st 2018. I am now (as of February 2019) working on a Tarot deck inspired by the poems with the artist Abigail Jones . The rest of the sequence is now taken down for editing (and publisher-seeking), but the current (February 2019) drafts of 'A' 'B' and 'C' appear below. The ancestral symbols which are relevant here include: for A , a bull's head  (I would also refer readers to Malcolm McNeill's article ' A is for Girl...

Highly commended in the Shepton Mallet Snowdrop Festival Poetry Prize , 2018 - click the link to read the other winning entries. Thanks to David Reakesmith for alerting me to the contest, and Billy the Bard (Chaired Bard of Glastonbury) for representing me at the prizegiving.

Cross-posted from Southwark Heritage . On Tuesday 5 December, the footbridge over Salter Road was named ‘The Poet’s Bridge’ in a short ceremony which also involved the unveiling of twin weathering steel plaques at its centre. The specific poet for whom the bridge has been named is  David Jones , whose epic war poem ‘In Parenthesis’ was described by TS Eliot as “a work of genius” and by WH Auden as “a masterpiece”. It is a quote from this poem that now decorates the bridge: “The returning sun climbed over the hill, to lessen the shadows of small and great things” Jones was a visual artist as well as a wordsmith. These words are rendered in the shape of Jones’ calligraphic script and accompanied by a reproduction of his woodcut ‘Holy Ghost as Dove’. The panels were designed by the artist Parm Rai and finished at the workshop in Deptford. The work was funded by Southwark Council through the Bermondsey and Rotherhithe community coun...

These few lines were composed for Stephen and Sandra Cole, members of the Bardic College of Ynys Witrin, on the occasion of their handfasting on the Fair Field at Glastonbury Tor today. They are pictured here 'jumping the broomstick' as part of the ceremony. Stephen is British and Sandra is from Mexico - by extension, this short verse is meant for everyone in a cross-border relationship. This love has beaten national notions This love has overcome the ocean This love has defeated Theresa May This love has conquered all, today. - The mention in the third line of this short verse, of the name of our current Home Secretary in the United Kingdom, Theresa May, has a particular relevance in this country and at this time - but I hope that Bards and others will feel able to recite these lines at all times and in all places to honour the additional challenges that couples in cross-border relationships must face. The name 'Theresa May' here stands for all national officials a...

Sat in the court room Where they were deciding The immigration status of our distant family members, All I could think was - The animal carvings, The stained glass windows, The dignified procedure, The grandeur of the court... ...how I wished she was there to see it too.