Ink Sweat & Tears - the poetry & prose webzine

Does time matter to poets - more from Aldeburgh

Charles Christian — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:56:00 +0000

After some vile weather last night, the sun is out in Aldeburgh and there are egrets on the wing across the marshes between here and Thorpeness, the next village along the coast. I'll be reporting on the day's events and sights later however back to yesterday evening...

One of the other sessions I caught was the exchange between Peter Blegvad and Albert Goldbarth on the role of time in poetry. Was it 'the grand metaphysical imponderable' for poets. Discussing such issues as whether time was cyclical or flowed like an arrow – citing poets and philosophies from around the world – Goldbarth and Blegvad treated the audience to a fast and furious foray into one of the key issues poets have struggled with throughout the ages. Although if you accept the argument that time is cyclical, then we'll all be revisiting this topic at another festival in a few millennia's time.

After several audience participation questions – one of which revealed that the younger half of the audience felt they had all the time in the world, whereas it was tempus fugit – and grab every pleasure while you still can, preferably right this instant – for the older half, the conversation moved off into the realms of Albert Golbarth's 'memory car' mnemonic for helping to stimulate memory. Memory car??? If you want to remember fish, think of the fins of a 1950s era Cadillac.

We were also treated to such nuggets from Blegvad as time comprising "a beginning, muddle and end," "imagination is like a muscle, it will increase with exercise" and "time is abolished by a god metaphor". Goldman countered with the idea that "when you open a book, the author lives again" before going to explain that the old 4-frame cartoon strip has the same structure as a sonnet or setsina. This final point may seem a little obscure but as both Blegvad and Goldbarth explained – before time's arrow ran its course and the session ended – both poetry and comic strips can only provide the framework, leaving it to the reader to fill in the gaps, whereas with short stories and novels, the author does most of this for you. As Blegvad summed it up "poets leave everything out – they telescope narrative time – and leave you to write the story in your head."

All in all, a fascinating and thought provoking session – if only there had been more time to explore it further, which is where we came in...

Aldeburgh - first night report

Charles Christian — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:54:00 +0000

And so the Festival got off to a cracking start with homemade cakes and tea in the Cinema Gallery, which this year is hosting an exhibition of some of photographs of festival performers taken over the years by Peter Everard Smith.

Then it was on to the first of the Festival's six Close Readings – this is one of the hidden gems of the Aldeburgh Festival: one poet reading and scrutinising one of their favourite poems. This year, the first reading was by Tom Paulin looking at the WB Yeats poem In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz. Of course we're biased when it comes to the Close Readings as they are sponsored by Ink Sweat & Tears! Later that evening, Paulin was the headline act in the first of the festival's three-handed readings (along with Richard Price and Pascale Petit) when he read poems covering such diverse topics as the Rev Ian Paisley and the cleaning fluid Swarfega. For those of us who have previously only seen him on Late Review on TV, Paulin's performance and is poetry were an eye-opener.

And finally it was time for the Poetry Quiz, complete which such favourites as Who is the Groucho Marxist Poet? - the Spin that Poet Rap - and The Mystery Voice. For those of you who missed it, the answer to the tie-break question was Pascale Petit. The quizmasters were MC Dean Parkin and Grandmaster Mikey Michael Laskey. There was probably less blatant cheating than last ear – perhaps a spirit of friendly collaboration between teams would be a better term?

Here some more pictures, starting with the celebration cakes (all homemade)...

Here's the reception – that's Peter Everard Smith way at the back of the shot talking to Katrina Naomi (my camera is not as big as his).

And finally, our two quizmasters for the evening.

Its day one in the Poetry Festival house...

Charles Christian — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:03:00 +0000

More from the Aldeburgh festival front. We've sung happy birthday – eaten cake – and have full evening ahead – including the notorious festival quiz. Last night I actually overheard someone complaining that there had been cheating at last year's quiz. To think, poets cheat to win prizes. More pictures to follow.

Aldeburgh Poetry Festival Update #2

Charles Christian — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:14:00 +0000

More news from the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival... Last night (Thursday) saw the official launch reception (great wine and nibbles btw) at the Peter Pears Gallery. This was a 3-in-1 event as it also included a preview of Peter Blegvad's Poetic Polydidsia & Other Pictures – Peter is The Poetry Trust's commissioned illustrator for 2009. And, the official book launch of Herbert "Bertie" Lomas' new collection A Casual Knack of Living – Bertie also gave a short reading of some selected pieces, including a poem written as a challenge to find words that rhyme with 'turd' – there's an awful lot of them, although some are a little absurd. Here are some random pix from the reception...

Poetry Trust director Naomi Jaffa welcoming everyone.

Some of Peter Blegvad's illustrations

Herbert Lomas signing copies of his latest collection.

The reception – poet Pascale Petit among others pictured

Poet and all-round Poetry Trust creative whiz Dean Parkin

Poet and festival founder Michael Laskey, among others

Four haiku for a Friday - by Neal Whitman

Charles Christian — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:14:00 +0000

appleful for home
swinging a tote in each hand
fall Farmers Market

Yorkie off the leash
garden party commotion
the first guest to leave

tall brown grass bending
toward the row of apple trees
late afternoon winds

What's the big fuss?
two jays and just one acorn
first frost

* Neal Whitman is a member of various haiku societies in the US. His haiku has been chosen for Simply Haiku, Bear Creek Haiku and Geppo. The online journal Getting Something Read regularly features his seasonal haiku. He also teaches (gratis only) a workshop Haiku for Anyone, for Everyone.