Wave Silo

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.

Saturday February 6th - National Libraries Day Lots of things going on in Somerset Libraries and around the UK for National Libraries Day. As Bard of Glastonbury, I'll be reading poems from the books on the shelves in Glastonbury [Public] Library all day. Come and find me for a one-to-one reading (or one-to-several if I get a crowd). 10am - 4pm (but I'll take breaks when I feel like it!). Street Library is also launching a creative writing competition the same day, which I'm picking the poetry winner for. From noon on the same day there is a fundraising tribute to David Bowie taking place in the shop window of Cancer Research UK on Glastonbury High Street. I'll be reading 'I Was Pianos' - my cut-up tribute to Bowie - as part of the event. Wednesday February 24th - Read Aloud Day I'm taking part in World Read Aloud Day for Library of Avalon . I'm not sure exactly what format this will take... but it will definitely involve me reading aloud... ...

“This is the way I do cut-ups - I don’t know if it’s like the way Brion Gysin does his, or Burroughs does his, I don’t know. But this is the way I do it” - David Bowie I Was Pianos (After W.H. Auden's 'Funeral Blues') Coffin, doves, black and dead, Cut off the wood, Pour away the mourners: Everyone's in gloves tonight And every dog's in love. Would the stars see me now? Pack up the traffic. Bring out the ocean. At noon I want a juicy rest With nothing overhead. Let the white necks of policemen Sing songs to my wrong. Stop the turning circle, Put out my telephone. Silence all the midnight, The midnight from my bone. Put crepe bows round the message: "Can Sunday come?" I was pianos. Let aeroplanes wear moaning, With a sky-working week. I thought: South, sun, Cotton, West, my East, Scribbling on the clocks, And my public He was good, and... With my muffled talk, Dismantle the moon. For now, prevent the last. Come North, barking, and drum f...

Back in September 2015, I launched my writing residency at Library of Avalon. Part of the idea of the residency was that I would report back on what I was doing... well, we're three sessions in, so long past due for an update. At my first session proper (after a small workshop on the launch afternoon), on 23rd September, I was taken aback by the popularity of the event. I'd pictured myself sat quietly and more or less in solitude in a corner at the Library, taking my time to explore... in fact, I had a good half a dozen other people there with me - mostly for the whole three hours. I was coming in with what I hoped was an open mind as to the possibility of what might happen - in fact, this is the approach I try to take each session. I don't go in with anything much of a plan. I go to see what I will find. And - I found these people. So, for most of the session, we chatted, introducing ourselves to each other and casually sharing thoughts about writing. At one point, one...

Glastonbury-based storyteller Sarah Mooney is setting off on what, as a bard of Glastonbury myself, I cannot help but see as a Bardic Quest. Starting this week, Sarah is going to be sailing the Atlantic Ocean from Senegal to Brazil, with thirteen other women (including scientists and sailors), creating stories on the way to bring back to schools and other groups on her return. She has raised an amazing £4605 towards funding the voyage through crowdfunding - you can see her made for the fundraising effort, in which she explains some of her motivations and hopes for the project, here: I asked Sarah a few questions before she set sail. How did you come to be involved in eXXpedition? I sailed from Cornwall to Ireland on a 100-year-old ketch called the Keewaydin with my son and some friends a  couple of years ago. When I came home I kept saying to myself "I am a sailor!" On board there was talk about a group called the New Dawn Traders who are sailing goods from So...

I've been conscious for some time that September was going to be a busy month as Bard of Glastonbury. On the night in May when I was given the Chair, I remember Stuart the sound technician coming up to me and making a point of mentioning that there was to be a Bardic Stage at Night at the Abbey, and that it was up to me to make sure things went on there. After that, other offers started coming in - we decided to launch my Library of Avalon residency in the same month, and later on to have my first resident session there, too. I was also glad to receive an invitation to appear as the guest at Street Library's Poetry Lunch Club. Night at the Abbey Only as the 'Night at the Abbey' date (11th September) approached did I realise how many aspects of the Bardic Stage were actually up to me to sort out, and it was only with about a week to go that it dawned on me that it was indeed up to me to sort out lighting! I am very grateful to my family at  Splotts Moor  for providin...

Today I launched my new residency at Glastonbury's Library of Avalon . I am grateful to Dearbhaile Bradley and all of the volunteers and trustees involved at the Library for organising the event and for reading some choice texts from the shelves by way of an introduction. I read a few poems that I felt were at home in that space (' Catwoman ', 'Dunstan' and 'The Annual Visitor'), and afterwards ran a taster workshop for those present who chose to stay for it. For the workshop, I invited the 5 writers in the room (plus me) to find a book on the shelves that got their attention. We straight away had a real mix - a book of folklore about Merlin, a pulp science fiction novel, Nichelle Nichols ' memoirs, one on prehistoric London... you already start to get a picture of the breadth and the particular nature of Avalon's bookshelves. The writing exercise I led involved choosing a word from a random page in each book, and inviting each writers t...