Thank you Ama Bolton for spreading the word for us all, and Ali Bacon for great poster. This really is going to be a very special afternoon.
Do join us for a snacky lunch followed by some cracking presentations.
Going so much further together than we could go on our own
The meetup on Saturday 20th July was so extraordinarily successful – and so extraordinary – that we are using this entire post for subscribers’ memories and thoughts. The morning was devoted to ANN CULLIS’ collaborative almanac project. In the afternoon, with PETER REASON, we revisited our earlier meetup on the climate catastrophe, opening with a slideshow of catastrophic images showing the tragedies which, thanks to human egotism and negligence, are befalling so many species other than our own. The music was Henry Purcell’s Dido’s Lament.
Remember me . . .
from the subscribers
VERONA BASS
On an unexpectedly sunny day in rooms where we have delivered our well-honed words before, this day seemed to have added significance. We had been primed for it since March and asked to speak our truth. In many venues locally and worldwide the ‘Climate Change’ words have resonated, so that the choice of this day seemed prescient for the group that gathered. The date had extra poignancy for me as it was on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing, the occasion upon which not only did man step onto the Moon , but the sight of Earth fired our imaginations and brought the indelible image of a singular planet.
In addition the date co-incided with another anniversary when climate scientists had first given dire warnings about earth’s systems and climate being affected by unsustainable behaviours. Now, thirty one years later, we were describing and lamenting situations in the world that have become intolerable for many, and in which we feel complicit and yet powerless. Human and animal suffering, species loss, and climatic effects were the threads throughout the afternoon programme.
Our words were powerful in the way that only the spoken word can achieve amongst those with ears to hear. In the morning’s Almanac entries about the month of June we celebrated our joy in the world, its beauty and quirkiness. While ‘climate change’ bells are being tolled, we as writers and artists have the skill and the capacity to show those aspects, and to dwell on our good fortune to have it within our grasp to describe them, and perhaps in that way to help preserve them. Although our group was contained, with people who were mostly familiar to each other, we were performing an act similar to lighting beacons on hillsides to signal to others, so that with each new flame being lit the light of the message spreads further and further.
The responses to the video Rise and the poems that resulted were rich and moving. All the readings carried such charge that it was hard to keep up with the energy and attention required to absorb it. I felt completely at home with the natural choreography that arose out of expecting readers to go forward when the moment was right for them. That was a good decision and shows we can be trusted to co-operate and give the subtle signals that enable a smooth flow. This in itself was the lesson we could take as template for future action in the world we live in. After all we had read these words together:
Sisters and brothers
We read our poems
as a reminder
that life in all forms demands our respect
that these issues affect each and everyone of us
None of us is immune
and that each and everyone of us has to decide
if we
will
rise.
The final poem delivered by Conor Whelan was a truly bardic moment, where he intoned The Lake Isle of Innisfree from memory in an inspired decision to deliver those familiar words and not to read something heavier by Rilke. It reminded us what to value. Peace came dripping slow as we sat and contemplated for a while. More of those silent moments would be valuable.
AMA BOLTON
It’s not my habit to introduce my posts with biblical passages. But the chilling verses from Genesis, quoted by Sue Boyle at the start of her audio-visual presentation on Saturday afternoon, do sum up pretty well how our species has used the earth and the other species with which we share it.
Sue’s presentation, of moving slides accompanied by Dido’s Lament from Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas”, came to an end in stunned silence. It was magnificent, but applause would have been inappropriate.
For me, this was the high point of an outstanding meet-up.
At our meeting on 1st June, Ann Cullis proposed a project called The June Almanac. The object was to write a short observational piece for each day of the month, avoiding similes and metaphors and the use of the first person. Fourteen of us took part, and later submitted our choice of ten entries, which Ann collated and anonymised. They were read during the morning session by a team of five readers. Later, some of us read a few more entries. They were, on the whole, just as good as the chosen ones. Overall, a very high standard of observation and writing, taking in all the senses, and including notes on weather, human foibles, and activities of birds, animals, insects and gastropods. Each one was complete in itself, and together they gave a wide-angled view of our lives over the previous month. All the participants enjoyed the process and felt they had benefited from it. We are grateful to Ann for proposing this project and for seeing it through. Below is a photo of the submissions laid out in date order.
The Almanac Project in Progress
The afternoon session of environmental writing was introduced by Peter Reason, starting with a showing of the film “Rise: from one island to another“. Do take a few minutes to watch this film, unplug from your daily distractions, immerse yourself in the beauty of our shared home, and let the poetry heal.
Sue’s presentation (mentioned above) was followed by an unrehearsed ceremony of readings in response to “Rise”. Each reader came to the lectern at what felt the right moment.
After two dear deaths in the past two weeks I was rather emotional, but even without this I think I would still have been moved to tears by many of the readings, and especially by Eileen Cameron’s short poem “A land laid bare”.
Conor Whelan brought the afternoon to a close with a performance from memory of Yeats’s “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”. The day was a heartfelt sharing of our deepest concerns. As a group we are moving forward into new territory, growing into a deeper knowledge of ourselves and of one another.
EILEEN CAMERON
I was going to write to you to thank you for yesterday. You were right. It was worthwhile doing the whole of my response to ‘Rise’ in one go rather than break it up among the other readings. Thank you for that platform and thank you too for letting me read ‘The Land Laid Bare’. I have to confess, I am a little amazed at how much I have suddenly enjoyed reading in public. I think the microphone session you organised definitely helped, but perhaps what helps most of all is the lovely supportive atmosphere which members generate towards each other.
Your opening remarks and bible reading before the afternoon session were very apt. Congratulations on your images and choice of music. They worked together in a very powerful way.
Connor’s choice of the’Lake Isle of Innisfree’ to end the afternoon was perfect, as was his performance.
What I cherished most about the day was the fact that we worked as a team in both the morning and afternoon sessions. It seemed to bring out something special in everyone. I enjoyed the sense of togetherness – of being a part of something.
Thanks again to you, Peter and Ann for being the driving forces,
CLAIRE COLEMAN
The morning showed one form of collaboration between writers and delivered a feast for the senses, with wit, tenderness and compassionate close observation.
The afternoon’s beginning with Sue’s quote from Genesis and the film slide show with that moving song (may I have a copy of the words – or reference to find it please- ) and the heart-breaking images broke my composure. Then the Rise You Tube with 2 sisters in humanity paved the way for Bath writers’ responses to this.
The ringing bell between readers, and the mastery of the poems, created a deepening sense, feeling, resonance of something I will not name, but something flowered as evidenced by the smooth improvisation of who will rose to read, and how the silence lingered after.
It felt a relief to discuss how to use this afternoon to widen the work of artists in a time of catastrophe.
The afternoon closed with another set of wonderful poems and clever Conor giving us the Lake Isle of Innisfree “in the deep heart’s core” .
THANK YOU for a moving and inspirational day with our community of poets.
The images flow
the poems sing
tears fall
down the skin
as we face
the rise and rise
and the bell rings
for each poet
who tells their truth
who stand up
and after whom
we sit in silence
resonating.
PENNY GARDINER
After an early start, it was lovely to come in to a sunny room and such a warm welcome – and to now know so many of the group. But the best – the absolute best aspect of the morning was that fourteen of us – or was it seventeen in the end? – had written each day and submitted their ten best from their almanacs. And that June had been carefully observed, the results opening up into a fascinating kaleidoscope: some funny, some idiosyncratic, some focusing on a particular interest, many showing what a wealth of interest is out there, once you look. And knowing that we’d all had our ears, eyes and noses alerted to the details around us – and that we’d all been in it together… well that was truly wonderful. Then to hear them read out … both the best and the second best … it really was as if we’d each brought a variety of patches to the room which were then sewn together to make an amazing and all inclusive quilt – our quilt. Ours.
ANDREW LAWRENCE
What I liked was the mix of thoughts and ideas drifting together in Ann Cullis’s compilation – lovely to hear other people touching on one’s own feelings and without knowing who they were. And then the strong contrast with the serious issues being dealt with in the afternoon. Having the film was an excellent addition, despite the impossibility of hearing the speech in the soundtrack.
I would certainly be in favour of future events focusing on the climate crisis etc.
ANN PRESTON
After living with the almanac for a whole month it was very rewarding to hear my ten choices integrated with other people’s in a concert piece. The recurrence of subjects like roses, birds, bees and caterpillars has already been pointed out – June is a busy month for gardeners. I noted a tendency of all writers to look to the outside world for inspiration resulting in a marked contrast between the entries of urban and suburban/country dwellers. Few of us took much notice of domestic interiors – no dust on cobwebs or headlights fanning across bedroom ceilings.
On a personal note I was intrigued to learn of more than one Viking in the Bath area on June the first! The fascination with the exotic and evocative names of roses suggested ‘a rose by any other name’ would definitely not ‘smell as sweet’. That thought led me to another fascinating aspect of the exercise. Although I know we all stuck strictly to the guidelines, we nevertheless knew that we had to pick a ‘top ten’. I wonder how often the choices were based on style rather than subject matter. I found that, as the days went by, I was spending longer and longer mulling over the choice of words. This might have been down to boredom but I wanted to make those few words striking by injecting humour, personification, irony, surprise. I paid much more attention to style than I would have done in a diary entry.
I am already way over the word limit but I am including a list of possible spin-offs.
Repeat the concert in another venue (suggested by Ann).
Keep an almanac during a winter month.
Post some of the entries in the almanac section of the blog.
Compile an almanac for just one or two days with every entry illustrated by a slide.
Develop individual entries into poems, stories or flash-fiction.
Try to analyse what we have learnt from writing the almanac.
Repeat the process with journal entries, word ‘I’ allowed (suggested by Sue).
PETER REASON
Peter Reason
I truly appreciate the way in which the Bath Writers members have responded to my initial challenge about art in a time of catastrophe. You have been both generous in picking up the issue, I think demonstrating how the public conversation about climate and the ecological catastrophe has is changing.
Specifically thinking of the Sunday ceremony of readings, I first want to appreciate Sue’s initial idea of responding to Rise with our own poetics and made space for it in the calendar of meetings. Sue, Conor, Graeme and I then met and exchanged emails, thinking through just how to set up the ceremony. We had all kinds of thoughts and plans which in the end were not needed because those present responded in such a dignified and orderly manner. Plans are important, and have to be discarded!
I am sorry the soundtrack of the film is problematic. I was moved by the poems that were read. Because they all circled around a shared theme I was not overloaded with images as I sometimes am. I do now wonder if a little more silence between readings would have been good.
I very much liked Sue’s slideshow with music. We briefly discussed the choice of ‘iconic’ species, and I understand the reasons behind Sue’s choice. I suspect any choice of images will through up questions, since the issue of extinction is so very complex. But I thought the whole impact was strong and shows a different way of raising ecological issues through presentational form.
I will follow up on the idea of taking this work public in some way, and will explore different film stimuli, venues, the Festival and Fringe, and keep everyone in touch. Please contact with any suggestions; I will get back to you when I need help, which I will
GRAEME RYAN
‘The world is troubled by a lack of looking.’ A morning attending to the world as it is, in all its quiddity, in all its senses, through the pages and voices of an almanac of June, with impressions that have swum up it to the surface of consciousness. No reference to I or me, no mediation by simile or metaphor, just attending, as we sit in a circle.
Sentences and fragments conjure storylines; we talk about what worlds are hidden beneath all our surface lives, the ancestors that have brought us here and their absences, the lacunae: a bundle of letters in an attic, a young adulthood in Nigeria, a lost uncle. Worlds suggested by a fin here, a tail there, a swimming shoal that dips below the surface again but in our cells we know is present. Where are we migrating?
The face of a young woman from the Marshall Islands is tattooed – it is the story of her family and ancestors. She stands back to back with a young woman from Greenland and the sea is rising as their poem combines. One of them has tears on her face. How would it be for us to have this connection – as they have – to the sea and the land? To join our personal biographies to the flow and presence of the planet, so we realise we are part of something far bigger, far richer, far more radical, far more humbling.
To attend and know our place. Urgently. But to know we have a place.
JANET SNOWDEN
This was my first visit to the group and I didn’t know what to expect. Within a few minutes I knew my decision to come was a good one. Everybody welcomed me kindly for a start. Then the presentations began. I was struck by the quality, originality and creativity of what I heard. The ensuing discussion was interesting and lively. Everyone’s contribution was thought provoking and considered. I enjoyed the respectful manner in which people listened to each other, showed a genuine interest in what others had to say and gave of their own experience. My only regret was that I was unable to stay the entire day. It was certainly a morning well spent.
JUNE WENTLAND
I really enjoyed being involved in the almanac project and it was wonderful to hear the combined results read out and have a discussion around our experiences in taking part. It’s the sort of project that remains in the thoughts – not forgotten on completion.
CONOR WHELAN
This event felt significant. The generosity of the performers and the focused attention of the audience created a charged space. In the bowl that the audience created, sat as in an amphitheatre, the poets’ words took on an elegiac quality. I was reminded of Robert Macfarlane’s Lost Words; like in his work, the poems became spells that evoked the endangered species, people and places they named, as well conjuring the urge for change. The afternoon felt important and it therefore feels important to share the work beyond ourselves in future.
Remember me …..
A fruitful meetup in the Elwin Room on the hottest day in June
Thank you so much to subscriber/performers ALI BACON, VERONA BASS, AMA BOLTON, CLAIRE COLEMAN, EILEEN CAMERON, ANN CULLIS, ANN PRESTON, PETER REASON and GRAEME RYAN, to PAUL BROWNE of the BRLSI for doing our set-up, and to all our lovely guests.
If only we could spend more time working so happily together, as nine of us did yesterday morning, on ways to improve our performance of our work. Using a set of short ‘audition’ pieces sent in by the group – most of them due to be presented in the afternoon – we were able to work first on the basic essentials of any performance – audibility and use of the microphone – and then move into the range of more subjective questions which can only arise when an audience can actually hear what a reader has to say.
- What kind of piece reads well?
- Is there a too rich density of detail, or a too speedy turnover of shifting ideas and images which will ask too much of an audience unfamiliar with the written text?
- Do some pieces of writing need to be shortened for performance to prevent audience overload and fatigue?
- The speed of a reading mustn’t make the audience ‘switch off’ with the effort of comprehension, but is there such a thing as a reading that is too slow?
- Are authors the best readers of their own work?
- Are ambitious typographical devices ( irregular indentation of lines, for example) helpful in performance, or should they really be kept back for the printed page?
- How and how far should a reader honour the line breaks when performing someone else’s work?
Some of the morning pieces simply sang themselves off the page. These tended to be pieces with a strong and straightforward trajectory – ‘narrative’ in the sense of working their way clearly through their subject, starting with an arresting moment, maintaining their energy, then closing well. Pieces whose development was episodic and unpredictable, pieces whose centre of interest was ill-defined, pieces whose core of energy waxed and waned tended, in performance, to work less well.
The same of course was true of the outstanding sets we heard from some of our subscribers in the afternoon. The fifteen minute performance ‘window’ is both a huge privilege, and, of course, a trap. A privilege because so few of us get many opportunities to present our work at this length. A trap, because longer sets need such tight intelligent structuring and such an unflagging sense of conviction to hold an audience’s interest throughout.
If only Bath Writers & Artists could find a rehearsal/performance space we could more easily and more frequently afford! Those of us lucky enough to be in the Elwin Room yesterday will look back on this meetup, I think as one of our golden days.
The Clearing
I have just published a short piece Beyond in collaboration with artist Sarah Gillespie in publisher Little Toller’s on line journal The Clearing.
https://www.littletoller.co.uk/the-clearing/beyond-by-peter-reason/
Don’t Miss These ……
So many good things on the horizons ( the near horizon and the far ) for Bath Writers & Artists that I am gathering them into this summer/early autumn post to make sure you don’t miss anything. Get your diaries out if you are one of us still running your life in that old-fashioned labour-intensive way. Please note how many links there are in this Post and, as you read, please click and explore them all. This web of activity is a wonderful sign how busy and creative so many Bath Writers & Artists are. And this is only a small selection, as you will know if you follow other members’ blogs.
For those of us on Facebook, ALI BACON has now created a special BATH WRITERS & ARTISTS group page which she has very kindly offered to run on our behalf. Please get signed up, and comment/like when you find the time. And promote to your Facebook friends. There might be someone very special out there we could welcome to the group.
Soonest is CONOR WHELAN’S SUMMER SOLSTICE CELEBRATION in Kelston Barn.
Next up …..
…our own Elwin Room meetup on SATURDAY 29 JUNE. All subscribers are welcome to join the afternoon session, as are all subscribers’ friends. For those of us reading on the day, or indeed on any day or any night, AMA BOLTON has very kindly sent us this excellent advice by Roy Marshall. It’s a really practical, useful and thought-provoking piece. As I’ve just been given a one hour slot in the coming Appledore Festival of Books, I shall be devouring every word. (Yes, that IS a plug. I’m so excited, very properly, and also very properly so alarmed! )
Many of us now are more than half way through ANN CULLIS’ brilliant challenge to contribute to a communal Observers’ Almanac for the month of June. We have to make our last entries on the 30th, and then have a week to prune down to ten preferred moments from our month. Bath Writers & Artists has spread its geographical wings for this project, with two separate groups meeting in Bath ahead of Ann’s deadline, to share and perhaps help choose the highlights from each others’ work. MARGARET HEATH is very kindly hosting one of these sessions. I am hosting the other. Altogether, nine of us will be able to enjoy these convivial editings ahead of discovering the compilation ANN CULLIS will bring to the meetup in July. ( Link here.) I hope that these spin-off small meetings will soon become a regular feature of our group.
Healing Words – Writing through Cancer
As you can see from the link above, SUE SIMS will be speaking at the Bridport Literary and Scientific Institute on Saturday 13th July. Her talk, Healing Words – Writing Through Cancer, will be a free event with donations shared between Cancer Research and the Bridport LSI. Over the years, we have been privileged in the Bath Writers & Artists group to share Sue and Mark’s journeys and to hear some of the wonderful poems in Splitting Sunlight, which Sue launched with us earlier this year.
Next up, on 20th July will be our own meetup, when we will be performing ANN CULLIS’ version of our Observers’ Almanac in the morning, and revisiting Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner and Aka Niviâna’s remarkable video poem Rise in the afternoon. PETER REASON introduced us to Rise in The Place of the Arts in a Time of Catastrophe meetup in March. Between now and then, subscribers are invited to re-view and re-read Rise at home and to write their own responses as though their lines could be interwoven with that text. The idea is to immerse and lose yourself in the poem, your voice becoming part of a chorus joining into that remarkable dialogue. We will be creating a performance of our contributions during the afternoon. All the links you need here.
October seems a long way away, but time to mention that there are only TWO places remaining on the Day of Good Poetry based on the workshop papers given in June by VERONA BASS, ANN PRESTON, SUE SIMS, and JUNE WENTLAND. If you would like to join these four writers and MARILYN FRANCIS, MARGARET HEATH, ANDREW LAWRENCE, MIRANDA PENDER and me in the Murch Room on the Day of Good Poetry, please let me know as soon as possible.
sue boyle
Pluses and minuses of an amazing day
The two meetup sessions on Saturday 1st June were just as rich in variety, content and excellent preparation and performances as we could have hoped. Preparation for the morning workshop, in particular, had been so imaginative, so wide-ranging and so thorough that we came out of it brimming with new thoughts on a huge range of topics and with another full day of poetry discussions and presentations already planned.
Four subscribers – VERONA BASS, ANN PRESTON, SUE SIMS and JUNE WENTLAND – offered us such excellent papers on their chosen themes that we will be using them as the basis for a Day of Good Poetry in October 5th or October 19th, whichever suits the majority of those four writers best. All them have generously agreed already to make their papers available in advance so that we can come to the Day of Good Poetry fully briefed. As usual, watch this space!
All the day’s presentations were excellent – better I think than anyone could have hoped – which, ironically, brings this post to the first ‘MINUS’ of the June 1st meetup day. Which, as so often, concerns the ticking of the clock.
FIFTEEN PEOPLE wanted to make presentations, all of them worth every minute of the time we could make available. And many deserving more. But quite a few of these contributors had also hoped for discussion around their work. Having time for discussion would have certainly deepened and enriched the whole experience of the day. But since most of these same contributors chose to use every available minute of their time allocation either to present or to perform, this left no time in the programme for feedback, Q&A or discussion of any useful kind. Our day overflowed with wonders, but many people felt disappointed that there had been a little too much ‘the successive sounds of one hand clapping’ and rather too little creative dialogue.
THE LOGIC OF THIS IS PAINFUL. If a subscriber would like feedback on their work, then they themselves have to design their presentation to create the open minutes this will need. Presentations will either have to be more compact than they were on June 1st, or we will have to arrange more, smaller discussion-style meetups through the year instead of trying always to provide time and space for everyone.
What most writing event organisers know already is that the largest part of most audiences consists of people who know that they, too, will get their chance to read. The logistics of the lovely Bath Writers & Artists Group are quite brutal in this respect: we must have enough subscribers to pay our rent. And to get our subscribers, we must offer them chances to read whenever they want to, whenever they want to come.
THERE WILL BE MANY WAYS OF TALKING AROUND THIS ISSUE. THE COMMENTS BOX BELOW WOULD BE A BRILLIANT PLACE TO START…
One of the outstanding successes of the day – there were many, many, many – was the collaborative Observations Almanac which ANN CULLIS launched for all subscribers to take part in during the month of June. At least fifteen people – not all of them subscribers who were with us on June 1st – have taken up Ann’s challenge which will be emerging in its performance-ready form on Saturday 20th July. You will be able to follow its progress on the meetup Page for that date.
TECHNICAL FAILURE is always the thing we dread. Usually we manage to get by. But on June 1st something happened to the colour values being transmitted from the laptop to the projector in the Lonsdale Room and we had to make do with slides which had entirely ( almost entirely?) lost their blues and reds. ALI BACON, AMA BOLTON, ANN CULLIS and MIRANDA PENDER have all very kindly checked the powerpoint file via a Dropbox link and found nothing wrong with it. There is nothing wrong with the flash drive when I run it through at home. PAUL BROWNE is investigating on our behalf. But it was a decided MINUS on the afternoon, and particularly disappointing for ANN CULLIS and LOUISE GREEN whose presentations in their full colour were so very good.
I am creating a Page on the Header menu for thoughts from subscribers what makes a performance presentation ‘work’ . Those of you who are editors can add to that Page directly. If other people like to mail me their wise comments, I will add them by cut and paste. It will be a very tactful way of helping us all improve our presentations without identifying any particular ones which we feel could have been rather better than they were.
HOPING TO SEE AND HEAR MANY OF YOU ON OUR ELWIN DAY ON SATURDAY 29TH JUNE. LINK TO THAT PAGE HERE: Saturday 29th June 2019
And just until the new poster starts coming in…… a lovely reminder …..
