Poetry News (Spring 2022)

POETRY NEWS

The Newspaper of The Poetry Society www.poetrysociety.org.uk

Jump for joy Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2022 is launched

National Poetry Competition: early venture, first prize •

Congratulations to Eric Yip (right), who has won first prize in the 2021 National Poetry Competition with his powerful and vivid poem, ‘Fricatives’. Judges Fiona Benson, David Constantine and Rachel Long praised the “two, or three... worlds” of the poem, and how it confronts, thrashes with and navigates “the murky and treacherous waters of language, race, migration, and of being heard when ‘Nobody wants to listen / to a spectacled boy with a Hong Kong accent.’” Astonishingly,

Eric only started writing a couple of years ago and this is his first poem published in a literary journal – it’s sure to be the first of many. Read our interview with Eric on page 3.

Second prize went to Jed Myers for ‘I Picture Him Driving’, “a poem with a great deal of human love and sorrow in its heart”, wrote the judges, its “choppy tercets” inviting us into the “deeply sensual mess and grace” of the Italian meal shared by the father and the speaker.

Emma Purshouse won third

In October The Poetry Society launched About Us, a collaboration with video design company 59 Productions and social enterprise Stemettes, writes Natasha Ryan, Poetry Society Education Officer

Part of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK, a major arts programme taking place throughout 2022, About Us has brought together poetry, design, science and music to explore the many ways life across the universe is connected. With our partners, The Poetry Society developed an ambitious learning and participation programme culminating in a multimedia light show, including young poets’ prize-winning work, which is touring to Paisley, Scotland; Derry-Londonderry, Northern Ireland; Caernarfon, Wales; and Luton and Hull, England, from March to May 2022.

From the project’s inception, it was important that each town or city the show visited played a role in co-creating its content. Local choirs are singing the soundtrack in each venue, and video portraits of town residents also feature. Most importantly for us at The Poetry Society, poems by local schoolchildren are

celebrated on enormous plinths throughout the daytime during the show’s run. These poems have been created in workshops that have taken place in around ten schools in each area. The aim has been to put young writers at the heart of the community, allowing them to see their words shaping the About Us experience.

of a sugar tin owned by Eddowes, the fourth woman to be killed and mutilated by Jack the Ripper. “A deft and deeply effective way of saying not-saying the unspeakable,” commented the judges.

Our seven commended winners were: Kizziah Burton, ‘We Were Learning to Not Look Away But To Look Through It Like a Wind Eye’; Jo Haslam, ‘A lyke wake for auntie’; Lindsey Holland, ‘A Riddle of Hamsters’; M.R. Peacocke, ‘Out of School’; Martin Reed, ‘Durleigh’; > Ctd, p. 2

Councils, community organisations and local poets helped us to make sure that the poetry workshops reached different communities and postcode areas. Celebrating different languages as part of the project, including Welsh in Caernarfon and Gaeilge in Derry-Londonderry, was also a priority.

“I was somewhere, then I went home, where all things are”

About Us has lit up Caernarfon, Derry-Londonderry, Hull, Luton and Paisley with poetry, writes Natasha Ryan

prize with ‘Catherine Eddowes’ tin box as a key witness’ – a poem full of “horror and pity”, spoken in the voice

A letter the director•

It’s the two-year anniversary of the first lockdown, and after those long interior episodes that followed, this month The Poetry Society headed outdoors, for our first large-scale in-person events since the pandemic started. When we started devising the About Us project a year ago, we could only guess if Covid conditions would allow it to see the light of day – or more correctly the light of night, since this multimedia exploration of life-on-earth gathers communities together under the nightsky for a moving experience combining projected animations, music and poetry.

To be back travelling and mingling again took some mental adjustment, but it was all the more emotional to be standing side by side with others in the biting air, to experience the transformation of Paisley Abbey and the Guildhall, Derry, with new music composed by Nitin Sawhney interspersed with our poetry commissions, and lines gathered from our young people’s competition. What a joy to finally meet up with the new poets we’ve been working with in each location. On 30 March, About Us

heads to Caernarfon, then Luton (14-20 April) and Hull (30 April-6 May) –do join us if you can.

With ‘From thought to thumb to bright screen’, Stephen Sexton closes the show with a meditation on how we’ve stayed together through technology. “When we say goodnight – / from my dark room to yours, / yours to mine –/ we speak as stars do, with light.”

And, sadly, yes, there are goodbyes here at The Poetry Society too, as our wonderful colleagues Poetry Review Editor Emily Berry and Poetry News Editor Mike Sims set out for new adventures. Mike writes:

“This is my last issue as Editor of Poetry News, and a week ago Review Ed. Emily Berry and I signed off our last as partners on that esteemed journal. Not without regrets am I off to do something different – it’s been an honour to work at The Poetry Society. First though, I’d like to say a deeply felt thank you to the wonderful colleagues, writers, readers, interviewees, members, members’ poems comp. winners, Review editors (the long-termers and the guests), Stanza reps, publishers, printers, (invaluable) proofreaders, illustrators, web designers and Café exhibition artists that I’ve had the good fortune to have met and engaged with. You’re what the perspicacious Joelle Taylor would term my Poetry Tribe. Thanks for all the branching thoughts of your poems, essays, artwork, readings, emails, conversation, and pub chats – lucky me, they’ve wreath’d [the] trellis of a working brain (thanks Keats!). Thanks to all the good friends I’ve made – I’ll be seeing you still on the poetry circuit actual, virtual, textual and only-reallyimagined. This has been a proper spot of time measured by the Wordsworthian chronometer and it will have a fructifying virtue.” s

Judith Palmer

HLR, ‘When I First Bled’; and J. C. Todd, ‘Old Friends, Here and Gone’.The2021

National Poetry Competition received over 16,700 poems by writers from a hundred countries. Thank you to everyone who entered and congratulations to the poets who

won and were commended, and to those who were longlisted from such a staggering number (see page 16). A huge thanks, also, to our wonderful judges: Fiona Benson, David Constantine and Rachel Long. s Read the poems by our winners at poetrysociety.org.uk/npc

Poets for Ukraine

As Poetry News went to press, poets worldwide were gathering for a fundraising and gala event on 27 March to raise funds for the people of Ukraine. More on p. 5 s

Some 1,500 children have taken part in schools workshops, run jointly with Stemettes, and by the time their work has been shared with the wider school, over 9,000 young people locally will have engaged with the poetry that has been produced. We also ran a nationwide competition for young poets and coders aged 418, and commissioned poets with a background in education to create free learning resources – these have been accessed by around 2,000 young peopleThealready.poets who ran the local workshops took the theme of ‘connection’ in all sorts of directions: some explored cosmological connections, asking children to think about the idea that we’re all made of stars; others focussed on nature and symbiosis; others, the climate crisis. Children were encouraged to think about their identity within the wider world: in Paisley that inspired poems cham-

pioning Irn-Bru and Scottish independence, and in Hull, what it must have been like to create Hull Fair.

The poems are a diverse reflection of the many different communities we reached with About Us, highlighting the unique perceptions of those towns’ youngest residents.

We were all one thing once, even this turnover tree we imagine planting last spring in the school garden.

We[...] could have Derry more or Derry less. The world is in awful danger.

Will there still be chips? And people to share them with?

Some exhort us to look after the planet; some reflect on history – in Derry-Londonderry, the city’s origin as an oak grove offered a potent symbol that recurs throughout the poems (for one example, see below), while in Caernarfon, heritage prompted some tongue-in-cheek irreverence

(David Lloyd George described as “bird poo boy”).

When[...] we get older what will we not have to imagine any more? I was somewhere, then I went home where all things are.

With the poems written, the About Us team took to the road to film the children reading them. It was a real joy to visit the schools (thirty-six in one month!) and meet the children: their pride in their work and their excitement at the opportunity to share it was clear. Offers of cups of tea were plentiful and we even made some fluffy friends when the cameraman met the sheep at Ysgol Rhosgadfan. We were delighted by the fish tanks in the foyer of all the schools in Derry-Londonderry. Less delightful were the seagulls in Caernarfon, eager to steal the limelight. Ultimately, though, we were struck by the sense that, as unique as each of these locations was, the prevailing tone of the children’s poems was a shared feeling of wonder and joy, of adventure and curiosity, and of the comfort of home. s For more information on About Us, visit aboutus.earth

– from ‘The Turnover Tree’, created with Mícheál McCann, Oakgrove Integrated Primary School,

Mike Sims Congratulations Eric, what a lucid but intricate poem ‘Fricatives’ is! Would you like to say something about the themes in the poem and how you see their interconnection?

Eric Yip Above all else, I see the poem as a coming-of-age for the speaker, reflected through the transformation of his city. It’s about different types of oppression and how the speaker navigates them. The poem begins by looking at the legacy of colonialism in influencing how we speak, or how we think we should speak. Then there’s the political dimension, which feels impossible not to write about. There’s also submission in the sexual sense, but even that scene has colonial undertones. And finally, there’s assimilating into an English-speaking country. All this mirrors Hong Kong’s journey from a colony to a battleground, to a site of exodus.

I think there’s definitely an element of survivor guilt in the poem. Hong Kong is experiencing its largest emigration wave in history, but not everyone has the means to move to another country. For me, being able to write this poem is a form of privilege. I’ve always done my creative writing in English, and now that I’m in the UK, I speak a lot of English as well. What does it mean to abandon my mother tongue, and by extension, my home? At the end of the poem, the speaker tries to re-establish that lost connection through food. Restaurants run by immigrants are an interesting space for me; they’re a facsimile of home and a nourishing shelter for the diaspora. But for the speaker, something is irreversibly lost in that restaurant. I think the poem is my way of figuring out what exactly that is.

MS That “something... irreversibly lost” – is it hope?

EY I don’t think it’s necessarily hope. I think it’s the loss of a place one could always return to. I read a Reuters article that followed a family’s final days in Hong Kong before they emigrated to Scotland. There’s a part where they’re having their last dinner with the grandparents who weren’t leaving, and reading that just broke my heart. It’s a reminder of how much we must leave behind in order to survive. I feel the poem is honest about that: the speaker’s language, freedom, and identity are either taken away or surrendered. The speaker ‘makes it’, so to speak, but has done so by expunging a part of himself and his past.

But even after all this, I don’t think hope is lost. The poem begins as dictation and morphs into an act of storytelling. As Joan Didion famously said, “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” There is life in making one’s story heard, and power in choosing the framework with which to tell it. I’ve chosen the well-trodden ground of English and poetry to tell my story, and the agency I have in the space of language gives me hope. I’m very honoured that this poem, which touches so much on the difficulty of speaking out, will now be read and heard by many more people than I could have ever imagined.

MS Have you written much poetry? It’s quite something for so young a poet to win the National Poetry Competition!

EY As for winning, it’s so incredibly surprising I still can’t believe it. I’ve never had a poem published in a literary journal before, so I truly had zero expectations. I’ve been writing poems for around two years now, but only just started sending some of them out to the world. Winning a big competition like this and having your poem scrutinised can be quite

Eric Yip: “I feel the poem is honest about [how] the speaker’s language, freedom, and identity are either taken away or surrendered.”

daunting for someone new like me, but it’s transformative in the sense that you view your work in a whole new light. I hope to take this as an encouragement for me to keep writing and improving, and to believe in the validity of what I’m trying to say.

MS What was difficult about writing this poem, what developed most easily?

EY The first draft came quite easily, but like most first drafts, it was far too bloated and inert. Much of the work had to do with trimming, rearranging, and rewriting lines. It’s almost like bonsai. You have to give it time and contemplation. I’m still very much learning how to do this.

One aspect I found difficult was the sonic quality of the poem, which felt vital for a poem that opens with an anecdote about pronunciation. Perhaps I’m slightly disadvantaged in that I didn’t grow up in an Englishspeaking environment, so things like cadence don’t come as naturally. But I find it quite fun to pay conscious attention to rhythm and the interaction of sounds. It’s a kind of exploration for me.

MS I hear you are a big fan of Sarah Howe. Who else do you read and why?

EY I’m glad you mentioned Sarah Howe! I have a habit of reading poems for my mother, where I would recite them in English first, then haphazardly translate them to Cantonese. Reading Howe’s poems from Loop of Jade was a moment of connection for us. For once, people like my mother could see themselves represented in ‘Western’ literature. Obviously, Howe is not the only person writing about Hong Kong. I also enjoy the works of other Hong Kong-British poets like Jennifer Wong and Kit Fan. Now that I’m in the UK, I relate even more to that perennial searching for home that threads through the work of so many diasporic writers, and I’m finding similar ideas popping up more and more in my own writing.

To be entirely honest, I’m more acquainted with American poets like Ocean Vuong, Li-Young Lee, and W. S. Merwin, just to name a few. Vuong in particular is someone I admire greatly. Night Sky with Exit Wounds was my introduction to contemporary poetry, and I still return to it often. I’m not afraid to admit that most of my early poems were bad Vuong imitations.

MS Hah! No need to worry about that now. What’s next for you?

EY There’ll always be more poems to read and write, so I’ll definitely keep doing that. I think winning has made me more conscious of myself as a ‘poet’, rather than ‘a person who writes poems’. Not that I believe there should be any distinction between the two, but it’s crystallised poetry as a lifelong pursuit. I’ll be submitting more of my poems to journals, and I also hope to involve myself in poetry communities. Whatever happens, I’m pretty excited about what lies ahead. s Read Eric Yip’s ‘Fricatives’ alongside the other winning and commended poems in the National Poetry Competition Winners’ Anthology, mailed free to members with this issue. Poems can also be read online, with other NPC-related content and resources, at poetrysociety.org.uk/npc

“The agency I have in the space of language gives me hope”

Mike Sims interviews Eric Yip, our National Poetry Competition winner •

In brief

News & eventsupcoming •

Banging at the windows

•Poetry News Tell us about Safety in Numbers, your latest collection. What was behind the impulse to revise some of your earlier poems and include them?

Photo: Steve Parsons/PA

Gold Medal Grace

Warmest congratulations to Grace Nichols, who was presented with the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry during a private audience with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle on 16 March. Grace said she felt overwhelmed and humbled to receive the award: “In my own work I’ve celebrated my Guyanese/ Caribbean/South American heritage in relation to the English traditions we inherited as a former British colony. To poetry and the English language that I love, I’ve brought the registers of my own Caribbean tongue. I wish my parents who used to chide me for straining my eyes, as a small girl reading by torchlight in bed, were around to share in this journey that poetry has blessed me with.” More at bloodaxebooks.com

Roger McGough What I found interesting during the past two years was that with no gigs and no travel, I spent more time than usual in my study. More time working on poems, revising and rewriting. And perhaps more interestingly, ‘quarrying’ through books of mine long out of print to discover lost gems. ‘Lost gems’, of course, is self-parody, but rather, poems that I felt could and should have an afterlife. Those were the ones I refer to in my ‘Self-acknowledgements’ page at the end of the book.

Obviously, the older you get, the more poems you have in your locker/garret/archive; it becomes tempting from time to time to bring them out into the light. Most, of course, seem perfectly happy with their own imperfections, but some reach out to be looked at again with a more experienced eye. I believe the answer to that question “When do poets know when a poem is finished?” is that they don’t. The poem is finished once the poet dies.

PN ‘Adultery in Isolation’ seems to be about the end of Matt Hancock’s political career, which would be quick work as that happened in May and your book was published in November. How quickly do poems come?

RMcG An interesting connection you make there between Hancock and the adultery poem, but no, it was composed before those shenanigans. I had no one particularly in mind. Normally, poems come fairly regularly, but when I’m busy doing other things, I keep them on hold. During lockdown, they came banging at the windows – and I was pleased to let them in, to take my mind off things. What doubly occupied me was that between writing adult poems about isolation and the contagion of fear, I was also writing about silly old cats and runaway sprouts for a children’s collection called Over to You, which Puffin publishes in May. (And if you’re wondering, no, I don’t put on different clothes to write verse for children.)

more ambivalent. Maybe the grim but hopeful last stanza of ‘Another Year, Another Bicycle’, the last in the book, sounds the collection’s keynote?

RMcG I think my poems were echoing something of how people were feeling. That mix, stifling sometimes, of apprehension and genuine fear, tempered with disbelief and anger. Inevitably, in my case anyway, a comic surrealism helped soften the blows.

PN There are a lot of bicycles in the book!

RMcG I suppose there are a lot of bikes on view. Don’t know why really, I’m no cyclist. Lots of queues as well, which I can understand, as queues, signs and notices became part of the landscape. ‘Let me take you for a walk’ I found unsettling to write. ‘Last Times’ as well, although the envoi pulled the carpet from under it.

PN Everybody played with your band The Scaffold –Elton John, Graham Nash, Jimi Hendrix... Did they regard you very differently, being a wordsmith?

RMcG Ah, I could go on for hours about the positive effect I had on so many sixties musicians who owe much of their stardom to myself. I have written poems about Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Macca, the Gallaghers etc. But being a famously modest poet, and not wanting to embarrass them, I have never banged on about it.

PN You’re back touring again – how’s it going?

New Publisher at PTC

Nashwa Gowanlock, writer, editor, and translator of Arabic literature, has joined the Poetry Translation Centre as Publisher. She writes, “[G]rowing up bilingual, the act of translation has been part of my life for [a long time]. I arrived in the UK in 1990 following the invasion of Kuwait, where I was born and raised. For me, language has been a way of forging poetrytranslation.orgconnections.” s

PN You’ve a lot of poems about the sad, frightening times we’ve been living through, some appalled, but some

National Poetry Day for the environment

RMcG My most recent show was on 11 Feb at the Liverpool Playhouse, which was sold out. I was particularly nervous before going on stage, but soon relaxed and it was great. The reason for the angst, I suppose, was a lack of practice. Holed up in my study for too long writing bloody poems. s

Roger McGough is touring from April to July. Find your nearest venue at bit.ly/mcgoughsafetytour

Put it in your diaries: National Poetry Day 2022, on Thursday 6 October, will be on the theme of The Environment. Every year, The Poetry Society sends an expert team of poet-educators into schools around the country to help celebrate NPD. If your school is thinking of booking a poet visit for the occasion, we recommend that you contact us as soon as possible. Find out more at nationalpoetryday.co.uk poetrysociety.org.uk/education/national-poetry-dayand s

Poetry Society President Roger McGough on “quarrying” for his latest collection and his return to live gigs

RogerPhotographyNickMcGough.Wright

Stellar Review launch

Please join the Poetry Society team and a very exciting line-up of readers for the launch of the new issue of The Poetry Review, via Zoom on Tuesday 12 April 2022, 7pm BST. The event will be introduced by Emily Berry, her last launch as Editor, who will present contributors Tara Bergin, Fred D’Aguiar, Joyelle McSweeney and Jane Yeh. Space may be limited, so book your place online at bit.ly/spr22launch s

•Clockwise from top left: Review launch readers Fred D’Aguiar, Jane Yeh,

Poets fundraiserUkrainefor•

Jump for joy: it’s Foyle 2022 •

Look lively – the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2022, one of the world’s biggest and longest established prizes for young people, is now open for entries. If you’re an aspiring writer aged 11-17, be sure to enter your poems by the closing date of 31 July 2022 at Ourfoyleyoungpoets.org.2022judgesarepoets

Anthony Anaxagorou and Mona Arshi. A young poet himself when he began his writing journey, Anthony is a poetry educator, and founder and editor of Out-Spoken Press. His second collection, After the Formalities, was shortlisted for the T.S Eliot Prize and the Ledbury Munthe Poetry Prize. Anthony has also written a practical guide and memoir, How to Write It, so he brings lots of experience to reading new work and helping to inspire young writers.

Having just released her debut novel, Somebody Loves You, Mona Arshi knows what it’s like to take a step in a new creative direction and explore different types of writing. She’s written two poetry collections; her first, Small Hands, won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. She’s an experienced judge and has previously been on the panel for the National Poetry Competition, the Forward Prize, and the T.S. Eliot Prize.

Foyle entries always offer a unique insight into the interests and concerns of young people worldwide, and Mona and Anthony can’t wait to dive in. This year’s award kicked off with the publication of 2021’s Top 15 winning poems in our new anthology, Some Sort of Joy (see above), which will be mailed to members this summer. The title was taken from Alex Dunton’s commended poem, ‘Teeth’, and was chosen to reflect the joyful community of young writers we’ve discovered through the Foyle Award. Look out for the anthology of poems by the 85 commended poets, which will be published online.

Artwork: James jamesbrown.infoBrown,

Do you dream of starring in next year’s anthology? Enter the 2022 award and as well as publication you could receive: mentoring opportunities from The Poetry Society, including a weeklong writing retreat for the Top 15 winners; complimentary Youth Membership of The Poetry Society; quarterly copies of Poetry News; and poetry books, chocolate, and other goodies.

To get your creative juices flowing, we’ll be publishing a range of resources online between now and 31 July, offering insights into previous winning poems and prompts to inspire your own writing. They are suitable for individuals and teachers. Go to bit.ly/foyleyoungpoets to find out more.

The Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award closes for entries at midnight BST on 31 July 2022. It is free to enter, and you can submit as many poems as you like, on any subject and of any length. Everyone who enters the competition will receive an e-certificate to congratulate them on participating. You can enter as an individual or teachers can enter a class set. Any questions, check the website or email us at fyp@poetrysociety.org.uk s We want your poems – are you ready to send them? Go to foyleyoungpoets.org to find out how.

FromandMcSweeneyJoyelleTaraBerginleft,Foylejudges

A fundraising poem-a-thon and reading for the people of Ukraine is being held at JW3, the Jewish Community Centre, London NW3, as well as online, on 27 March 2022. Guests Juliet Stevenson, Jessie Ware, Meera Syal, Sophie Ward and Nick Hytner will appear alongside poets Naomi Shihab Nye from the USA, Jackie Kay, Gillian Clarke, Imtiaz Dharker, Hannah Lowe, Fiona Benson, Carol Ann Duffy and Andrew Motion. The Ukrainian poets Lyuba Yakimchuk, who appeared at the StAnza festivals in 2021 and 2022 and is based in Kyiv, and Sonia Jarema, who is based in the UK, will read alongside other Ukrainian poets as circumstances

Jacquelineallow.

Saphra of Poets for Ukraine said, “Even at this time of suffering, peril and disinformation, poetry continues to speak and to communicate some deep truths. This day is an opportunity to let the poets galvanise, nourish and support us, and bring us together.”

Olesya Khromeychuk, Director of the Ukrainian Institute London, said, “When Ukraine was split between empires, it was poets who took on the role of statesmen and stateswomen... It is thus particularly important for poets around the world to build cultural bridges with Ukraine that no wars can burn.”

All proceeds from the event will go to support two charities presently working with Ukrainian refugees, Goods for Good and Hope and Aid Direct, and all sponsorship and other donations raised through the Poets for Ukraine effort are being directed via GoFundMe pages for both charities. These pages will remain open for donations after 27 March 2022 at bit.ly/poetsforukraine s

Mona Arshi (photo: Karoline Heller) and Anthony Anaxagorou (photo: Alessandro Furchino Capria)

Some Sort of Joy the anthology of the Top 15 poems in our 2021 Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award, mailed to UK schools in March.

In brief

News & eventsupcoming •

Lauren wins Peggy Poole Award

It’s a thumbs up for Kendal fest

All smiles at Kendal Poetry Festival which has received news of a successful funding bid to Arts Council England. Festival Co-Directors Clare Shaw and Kim Moore look forward to welcoming attendees to this year’s hybrid event, 23-26 June 2022. Watch for more details at kendalpoetryfestival.co.uk

Battling for men’s mental health

The Battle is the latest poetry collection by Antony Owen, previously shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award 2017. The collection opens up a fearless and frank conversation around the urgent issues of men’s mental health and suicide, suicide being three times more common among men in the UK, especially those aged 45-49. The Battle will be published by Knives Forks & Spoons Press in May, during Mental Health Awareness Week, with the support of Coventry & Warwickshire Mind. Coventry City Football Club, which runs a community programme to raise awareness of mental health, will show a video of Antony reading his deeply moving poem ‘What the woods taught me’ at half-time in their match versus Blackburn on 2 April, with a feature in the matchday programme. “Hopefully it does some good,” Antony says.

You can view the film at bit.ly/owenwhatthewoods s

Congratulations to Lauren Garland , selected by Paul Farley as the winner of the Peggy Poole Award 2021. Lauren will receive mentoring from Paul as her prize, followed by a celebratory reading in the North West in 2023.

Lauren grew up in Leeds and graduated from the Manchester Writing School in 2019 with an MA in Creative Writing. Her pamphlet, Darling, was published in 2020 by Broken Sleep Books. She works at a mental health charity and lives in the North West of England. She said, “Being selected for the Peggy Poole Award is a surprise and a joy. The mentorship is a fantastic opportunity and I’m incredibly

grateful to Paul Farley for reading and selecting my poems. Receiving the award gives me a little more confidence in my work and I look forward to seeing how it develops with Paul’s support over the coming year.”

Run alongside the National Poetry Competition, the Peggy Poole Award is a talent development scheme for poets based in the North West of England. The Award is in memory of the poet and broadcaster Peggy Poole and made possible thanks to the generosity of her extended family and many friends. s More at poetrysociety.org.uk/peggypoole

As the hugely popular Director of The Poetry Society from 1994 to 2000, Chris Meade set up The Poetry Café at The Poetry Society’s Covent Garden premises, and the lottery-funded Poetry Places project, described by Andrew Motion as “a modern miracle”; he was also at the heart of the New Generation Poets initiative. Chris helped champion some of the most exciting writers of the period in what was a fastchanging, expansive and newly confident phase for poetry. His premature death in January, aged just 65, was a shock and source of great sadness to his many friends in poetry.

PS Director Judith Palmer says, “The Poetry Society – and with it, UK poetry – were transformed by his vitality and vision, his determination to throw wide the doors and make everyone welcome.” PS President Roger McGough echoes these sentiments: “The years I spent with Chris Meade during his tenure as Director of The Poetry Society were both fruitful and joyous. Approachable and amenable, he got things done. Non-elitist, he was a moderniser with a love of poetry and a strong belief that it belongs to everybody.”

After The Poetry Society, Chris was Executive Director of BookTrust, 2000-2007, running the Bookstart scheme and a range of book prizes and promotions. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Chair of Modern Poetry in Translation Sasha Dugdale, editor of MPT at the time, remembers Chris’s “sweetly can-

do approach”, and how “It seems to me now that poetry occasions were always happy when Chris was around.”

He was also an author and playwright and – following an MA in Creative Writing & New Media at De Montfort University and a practice-based creative writing PhD at Bath Spa University – deeply interested in the future of the book, working prolifically in the crossovers between literature and digital media. He founded ‘thinkand-do-tank’ if:book uk, encouraging experiments in new media, and created a variety of publications, projects and performances exploring his interest in the concept of ‘Nearly’, calling himself “Doctor of Nearlyology”. Benjamin Zephaniah says: “Some people get stuff done. Some people are creatives. Chris Meade was a creative that got stuff done.”

Maura Dooley recalls meeting Chris when he was ‘getting stuff done’ by co-founding the influential Sheffield-based Opening the Book Festival: “His warm, interested, thoughtful, permanently amused-by-life manner is what I remember from that first encounter and what comes to mind every time I think of him [...] Forever opening the book, open-minded, open-hearted, open – that was Chris.”

The latest collection of Chris’s witty and hugely affecting writings, Very Important Work, produced mainly during lockdown and while he had cancer, has now been published online; you can read it at www.veryimportant.work. To read the tributes here in full, visit bit.ly/meadetribute s

“Open-minded, open-hearted, open”

Warm tributes to Chris Meade, former Director of The Poetry Society

Lauren Garland and her cat, Shadow.

L to r: Kendal Poetry Festival Co-Directors Clare Shaw and Kim Moore

Frank Skinner is on a mission to make poetry more mainstream. Tim Relf talks to him as his podcast begins a fourth series

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Frank Skinner’s poetry podcast came about by chance. He happened to quote a line of poetry in an interview, the journalist suggested he make a podcast, and Frank laughed and said he’d love to –only later to read a headline trumpeting his intention. This prompted his bosses at Absolute Radio, where he presents a Saturday morning show, to ask why he wasn’t doing it for them – so he agreed to. “It was a happy accident, brought about by chance and misreporting,” he jokes.Whatever the impetus, the result has garnered audience and critical acclaim since it first aired in 2020, with each episode featuring Frank in his attic, talking typically for half an hour or so about a particular piece of work, interweaved with candid reflections on his own life. His choices span the contemporary and the classic – everything from Ella Frears and Robert Frost to Cathy Park Hong and Alexander Pope. “I wanted it to feel like I’m tugging someone’s sleeve in a pub, talking about a TV programme, saying ‘you’ve really got to watch this because this is brilliant’ or ‘I think you’ll really like this bit’.”

The enterprise took many by surprise, given the West Midlands-born host had become a household name mainly as a stand-up comedian and TV presenter. Less well-known, however, is his long-standing passion for poetry – something he traces back to a Wordsworth-reciting lecturer at Birmingham Polytechnic in the late 1970s.

“I remember being incredibly moved by him. He was a very bluff, working-class bloke from Derbyshire, not the cliché I’d imagined of someone in a chiffon scarf and fedora.”

At a stroke, the then-English undergrad realised both the power of the medium and, critically, how it wasn’t only for an elite or a certain class of person.“I feel that when you read – and I mean, really read and re-read and soak up and think about – a poem that connects with you, there is a level of intimacy between you and the poet which I often don’t get with face-toface human encounters. It doesn’t matter if they’re contemporary or have been dead three hundred years.

“I really want other people to feel what I feel. I’m not talking about some warmish glow, like an un-bled radiator! I’m talking punch-the-air elation. When I get it, I want to pass it on. There’s nothing I would rather

Frogmore at forty

•Congratulations to The Frogmore Press, forty years old in May. Founded by André Evans and Jeremy Page in 1983 at the Frogmore Tearooms in Folkestone – once a favoured haunt of H.G. Wells – the Press publishes individual collections and

be an ambassador for than poetry.”

It’s not – or certainly shouldn’t be – a closed world, he insists. It’s for everyone – and right now it’s where the big ideas are happening.

“Poetry is one of the few forms of entertainment – or art – left that assumes the intelligence of the audience. Poets trust people. They think: I can really make a complicated statement and people will get it.”

Reading it, he says, is great for the brain and mental health, because of the interactivity it engenders.

“You meet the poet halfway – you don’t just sit and have them come to you. All that white space around a poem is thinking space. We have to fill it and that’s very healthy, because it’s not a passive activity. It’s not you watching people do art. You’re in there having to pull some of the levers.”

The latest podcast series kicked off in January with Caroline Bird, vaulting to Milton in episode 2. “I think it’s important that those are seen shoulderto-shoulder and not as separate,” he says. “The notion that there’s contemporary poetry and then ‘poetry’, as if contemporary poetry doesn’t quite hit the mark, is something I’ve tried to avoid.”

Many listeners have found their love for particular pieces of work reignited, sending them back to authors they haven’t looked at since school, as well as seeking out new ones. “I don’t want episodes to end with a full stop. I want them to end with a ‘dot dot dot’ so listeners go away and read,” says Frank.Butdoes this evangelist for the art form write it, too? “Definitely not. A lot of people assume that if you like poetry, you must write it – in the same way they assume that if you like George Formby you’ll play the ukulele. To me, the excitement of a poem is going in, not knowing what I’m going to find. I don’t have any desire or any urge to produce it – I just want to investigate it.”

So that means there’ll be a fifth season of the podcast, right? “I’m not going to stop reading poetry so I might as well share it. I’m already creating the sausage meat – I might as well make the sausages!” s You can listen to Frank Skinner’s poetry podcast on a range of apps, including Timplanetradio.co.uk/podcasts/frank-skinner-poetry-podcast/RelfisaLeicestershire-basedpoet,workingonhisfirst collection. His most recent novel, What She Left, is published by Penguin.

anthologies, as well as the journal The Frogmore Papers and online sibling morphrog. In September, a celebratory hundredth edition of The Frogmore Papers will appear. The Frogmore Poetry Prize was established in 1987 and has always been unique in paying its prize money in guineas (currently 250 – the equivalent of £262.50). This year’s prize, the thirty-sixth, will be adjudicated by John Freeman – see page 16. More at frogmorepress.co.uk s

“There’s nothing I would rather be an ambassador for than poetry”

Cover illustration by Ukrainian artist Marysya Rudska

In brief

News & eventsupcoming •

Jhalak Prize longlist announced Congratulations to all on the Jhalak Prize longlist, especially Poetry Society friends: Mona Arshi (Foyle judge 2022, Review contributor and PS member) for Somebody Loves You; Vahni Capildeo (Review contributor and member) for Like a Tree, Walking ; Kayo Chingonyi (SLAMbassador, past Foyle judge and Review contributor) for A Blood Condition; and Kei Miller (Review contributor) for Things I Have Withheld . The Jhalak prize celebrates books by British/ British resident BAME writers. jhalakprize.com

Birmingham: imagine and make

Editor and poet Naush Sabah on the rise of Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal and how the city’s vital poetry ecosystem has helped it thrive

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Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal has changed considerably since it was founded as a voluntary, student-led project in Birmingham’s Eastside in 2019. This year, we’re celebrating our third birthday and also offering two digital issues in addition to the biannual print publication. Birmingham-born poet Zaffar Kunial, who has previously won both the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize and the National Poetry Competition, will guest edit our spring digital issue; in the autumn we’ll publish an exciting cross-Atlantic collaboration coedited by Birmingham, Alabama poets Gabrielle Bates, Ashley M. Jones, and Alina Stefanescu. Our small team has seen changes too, with Sana Goyal joining as Marketing Officer and Ibrahim Hirsi as Editorial Assistant. The

journal’s next print issue will appear in June and feature poems from Jacqueline Saphra, Jo Bratten, Lewis Buxton, and Martha Sprackland, among others. Prose contributions will include a fascinating conversation between Gita Ralleigh, Sarala Estruch, and Rushika Wick, of the South Asian poetry collective Kinara; Camille Ralphs will interview Fred D’Aguiar and Christopher Reid; and David Wheatley will be reviewing The Citizen and the making of ‘City’(Bloodaxe, 2022) by Birmingham’s very own Roy Fisher (edited by Peter Robinson).

New to The Poetry Society team

Farewell to Emily Berry, illustrious editor of The Poetry Review, and Mike Sims, Publishing Manager. A warm welcome to Jane Ace, who succeeds Mike, and one of whose tasks will be to support Andre Bagoo and Richard Scott, as guest editors of the summer Review. Jane has worked in publishing for over twenty years, and was previously Editorial Manager for Tate and Managing Editor at Phaidon Press.

The Society also welcomes Tiffany Charrington as Administrator. A graduate of the Creative Writing MA at Royal Holloway, London, Tiffany worked as a Library and Open Access IT Assistant at Camberwell College of Arts.

Winchester welcomes Clare As the new Artistic Director of Winchester Poetry Festival, Clare Pollard is already planning for 2023. “It is an exciting time to be joining one of my very favourite poetry festivals, that has always combined a sense of the local with an ambitious and international outlook,” she says. winchesterpoetryfestival.org s

Prize rage, light and joy

Poetry Birmingham arrived late to an already burgeoning poetry ecosystem. The second city is home to distinguished figures like Liz Berry, Gregory Leadbetter, Isabel Galleymore, and Luke Kennard, and publishers including The Emma Press, which specialises in pamphlets, anthologies, and children’s literature, and Verve Poetry Press, with its associated festival. Writing West Midlands, led by Jonathan Davidson, runs the Birmingham Literature Festival and the National Writers’ Conference each year. We have a Poet Laureate and Young Poet Laureate, currently Casey Bailey (a Poetry Society Trustee) and Fatma Mohiuddin respectively. Apples and Snakes holds a monthly performance poetry and open-mic night called Hit the Ode and arts organisation Beatfreeks has a similar offering with Poetry Jam. University of Birmingham’s creative writing society Writers’ Bloc runs Grizzly Pear poetry night at The Bristol Pear in Selly Oak, and Birmingham City University’s Institute of Creative and Critical Writing continues to host a brilliant programme of events at the university’s Eastside campus.

However vibrant our live events and open-mic landscape, the pandemic brought to the fore important conversations – often led by disabled poets and carers – about how poetry spaces can be inaccessible. Many of us look at existing arts infrastructure and

Congratulations to Hannah Lowe , who won the Costa Poetry Award and the overall Costa Book of the Year Award with her joyful collection, The Kids (Bloodaxe). A book of sonnets exploring Hannah’s decade spent teaching in an inner-city London sixth form, The Kids’ success suggests the sonnet – both as form and idea – may be having a moment, with Luke Kennard’s Notes on the Sonnets, a reworking of Shakespeare’s originals into 154 anarchic prose poems, winning the 2021 Forward Prize for Best Collection.

Huge congratulations also to Joelle Taylor, former

artistic director of The Poetry Society’s SLAMbassadors programme, who won the T.S. Eliot Prize for what the judges called “a blazing book of rage and light”, C+nto and Othered Poems . Interviewed by Poetry News in summer 2021, Joelle said, “[T]his book demands community, it brings the gay bar to you. In spite of the sorrow of much of the poetry, C+nto is a party.” And unmissable – here’s to Joelle! s

L to r: Joelle Taylor and Hannah Lowe

Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, founded as a voluntary, student-led project in 2019

L to r: Jane Ace and Tiffany Charrington

provision and see it doesn’t quite fit our needs or interests. Coming from a working-class Mirpuri background, with no literary credentials, no interest in the spoken-word circuit which seemed like the only place working-class poets of colour existed, nor the time and liberty to spend nights immersed in a ‘scene’, I remember feeling there wasn’t anything for someone like me who wanted to engage with page poetry without the fog of academese or elite literary networks that often seem London-centric. Birmingham is known above all for its entrepreneurial spirit and industry. It remains a place that’s being constantly demolished and rebuilt; you can’t get a bus into town without seeing the guts of the city dug up or cranes crossing its skyline.

PBLJ too has been about digging up and rebuilding; speaking to the literary traditions and histories of the city and its various peoples, encouraging new poets and critics from Birmingham and beyond, particularly those from minoritised groups. The journal may be the city’s only dedicated print poetry periodical but it’s by no means the only recent venture that seeks to renew ways of engaging with poetry. Forward-commended poet Nafeesa Hamid, writer, actor, and expert in Panjabi poetry Rupinder Kaur, and visual artist and poet Kamil Mahmood co-founded Gully Collective in 2020. Gully is a word in many South Asian languages that translates to ‘road’ or ‘alley’ and it’s clear that South Asian poets in Birmingham are setting out to carve their own path through contemporary poetry. Gully Collective began by creating a digital zine and recently piloted a poetry and live music event; they emphasise the need for culturally sensitive care in creative spaces.

Burning bright: new children’s poetry journal

There’s a widespread feeling among working-class poets of colour that even in the warm world of indie presses and arts organisations in Britain, emerging writers are rushed into press or onto stage with little to no aftercare, appropriate promotion, remuneration or thoughtful management and stewardship of their work. They are sought for innovation, fresh, ranging ideas and diction, to ‘diversify’ existing brands but often their work can be framed for an exploitative gaze that trades in trauma or exoticisation and they may not be given the opportunity to nurture their creative vision. We cannot rely on a few national development schemes, a niche marketplace, nor long-established arts organisations; there was a deep sense of betrayal when The Rep theatre, for instance, was repurposed as a courthouse during the pandemic. In Birmingham, we’re developing our own platforms on our own terms. Artist-led projects are some of the most exciting here; the Overhear App founded by Tom Peel is co-directed by Adrian B. Earle and Kibriya Mehrban and is all about poetry on location; Yard Arthouse, founded by Amahra Spence and Amber Caldwell of MAIA group, is a radical, Black-led arts space based in Ladywood that provides a drop-in and open house; and this year Ort Gallery in Balsall Heath will host four poets in residence. Not everything is for everyone but perhaps in Birmingham everyone can find something – and if not, they can do what Brummies have always done: imagine and make. s

poetrybirmingham.com • maiagroup.co • theoverhear.app vervepoetryfestival.com • gullycollectivecom.wordpress.comwritingwestmidlands.org•theemmapress.com

In brief

News & eventsupcoming •

Laureate’s library tour

Last spring, Poet Laureate Simon Armitage embarked on the first leg of a ten-year tour of the UK’s libraries, visiting cities, towns and villages beginning with the letters A and B. In March and April this year, he is touring C to D, reading alongside local poets (including Phoebe Stuckes, former Foyle and Dearmer Prize winner), at free events that are also live-streamed. Simon’s tour is a celebration of what he regards as unique and vital institutions: “By planning readings up to a decade in advance I’m being optimistic about the future of our libraries, and challenging those authorities who would consider closing them down,” he writes. Look out for details of next year’s E to F leg at simonarmitage.com

Tyger Tyger Magazine is a new online journal of poems for primary school children, publishing once a term with twelve new poems on a shared theme, plus free downloadable poetry posters and teaching resources. The magazine is edited by Rachel Piercey, with editorial support from Rakhshan Rizwan, Helen Steffens and Kate Wakeling. “There are comparatively few places for children’s poets to send new work,” explains Rachel, “but so many children’s poets

out there writing bubbly, lyrical, thought-provoking poems which deserve a wider readership. I wanted to create a warm and welcoming platform for children’s poets all over the world, with an emphasis on well-crafted poems which will support young readers’ ongoing confidence with and love of poetry. I also wanted to encourage use of the poems in schools, so we offer free posters and free lesson plans.” Find out more and subscribe at tygertyger.net s

Italy celebrates Shelley

The Gulf of the Poets Festival, 1619 June 2022, is held at Lerici, on Tuscany’s spectacular coast, where Percy Bysshe Shelley was living at the time of his death in 1822. On 8 July, Shelley was sailing back to Lerici after visiting Lord Byron in Pisa when his boat, which he had named Ariel, sank in the Gulf of Spezia. Shelley’s body washed up ten days later on the shore at Viareggio, identified by the contents of his jacket pockets: a diary and a copy of Keats’s poems. The area became known as Il Golfo dei Poeti and two hunded years later, a Festival will mark the anniversary of Shelley’s death. It will include readings from Simon Armitage and Scarlett Sabet and two Italian poets, Annelisa Alleva and Paolo Febbraro, a visit to Shelley’s house, and a boat trip across the Gulf.

Details at keats-shelley.org s

From left, the Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal team: Sana Goyal, Marketing Officer; Ibrahim Hirsi, Assistant;Editorialand Naush Sabah, Editor.

Illustration: Imogen Foxell

Members’ poems ‘Solastalgia’

Sheri Benning on your poems about ground lost •

The Canadian poet and philosopher Tim Lilburn writes that each of us has a place, or maybe a few places, the return to which we find pleasing, calming. In such places we feel ‘gathered’, as though we belong, or have been taken in. Our maximal identities accrue through our relationships to such places. They shape our language, our bodies. Increasingly, we are losing our places to anthropogenic climate collapse. If our very selfhood is vitally interconnected with our loved places, it stands to reason that our loss of them is unspeakably devastating. However, as Lilburn writes, “We have no name for this particular interior wreckage around lost land, and the general culture overlooksManyit.”

of us are afflicted with a new and nameless sadness for our places lost to unchecked industry and climate catastrophe. This new affective state is “unlike anything in memory or imagination”. As quoted by Sue Sinclair in Brick magazine, Lilburn writes:

It occupies an entirely new category. Though it may contain aspects of malaises we know quite well, like regret, nostalgia, penthos, depression, there [is] an unnamed something else [...] an unidentified intensifier.

A possible term for this sadness might be solastalgia. This neologism coined by Glenn Albrecht bears the echo of the word nostalgia [nostos (return to home) + algia (pain, suf-

fering)]. According to Albrecht, solastalgia signifies a longing for solace in places to which return is made impossible by their desolation: fracking; agribusiness; cityscapes rendered unrecognisable by towers of steel and glass. Albrecht writes that he created the word to fill a gap in our language for the distress we feel when confronted with unwelcome changes to our home environments.

Engendering a deeply felt sense of place via literature might help us cultivate a vocabulary to approach what we have lost and what we stand to lose. While we don’t know how to precisely name what we feel, in ‘These are the days of snow and ice’, the poem by Ilse Pedler (Grange over Sands), we recognise a sadness that is circular and pervasive. ‘Lake Michigan’ by Lara Frankena (London) teaches us how to make do in the ruins, while ‘Losing Ground (Happisburgh)’ by Aly Stoneman (Nottingham) depicts a small, beautiful act of resistance. ‘Clearance Village’ by Harriet Torr (Thurso) reminds us of a labour that joined our bodies to the earth, and in ‘Slow Radio’ by Seán Street (Liverpool) time attenuates, the moment lengthens to allow for complete immersion in place. Finally, ‘A Tree is Not a Forest’ by Michael Brown (Middlesbrough) mercifully unhooks hope from futurity by insisting on the presence of a beauty that precedes and exceeds human awareness, a “language of signals sap and root and scent”. s

For details of our summer competition on the Plath-inspired theme of ‘Magical nature’, judged by Ian Humphreys, see opposite.

17 metres in 3 months: It’s ironic really, remarks the bartender who lives in Eccles (the new Eccles). The pub and church are Grade II listed, but the sea can do what it likes.

Later, I pick my way between derelict statics a few feet above the beach, and bald rectangles of sandy soil with defunct electric hook-ups; calendula, sea holly and poppies where caravans were.

A woman walking her dog stops to check me out – people take things, so she’s keeping an eye. Sad, isn’t it –the owner’s had to lock the gates, but he’s seeding the site with wild flowers. This will be a rainbow next spring.

... Harriet Torr Clearance Village

There are no workers honing down, no hands swinging the scythe, no seabirds weeviling the flail in the tractor’s wake; yet still I feel them homing in the dusk, their tools hung to rest, brass and dust, a century’s windlass circuiting the pores of old wrinkledsaddles,leathers breathing horse dung and sweat.

I drink the stars in the water’s face, hold in my mouth the small legends, my tongue ploughing the sky’s ruck and fold, the nudged summits of a trough’s granite where a universe has drowned.

Seán Street Slow Radio

At the tone, the time will be that night when the glass glowed before the sound came, the moment recorded itself and outside there were reeds at the winter’s edge, there was a north wind across marshland. That night by the lake when the old boat that would never float again moved slightly as the waves brushed it through the grasses, as the lapping seeped through.

And the song when it came, came gradually from a crackle like a throat clearing, and when you heard the tone it was 1957, and it was worth the set’s tuning, the dark whispering across the reedbeds with the hiss of a distant signal in place of what was lost, while the amber-lit wireless smile, once warmed, stayed constant.

...

Ilse Pedler

These are the days of snow and ice

they should be the shortest days but they feel like the longest.

Yesterday I walked through a field scattered with zeros, wondered if it was a message

but it was where sheep had lain overnight and frost had frozen the grass around them.

We curl sadness about us like a cat’s tail living our secrets – behind doors;

I am a bird with a broken wing flapping against a window I am a lame deer dragging from room to room.

These are the days of snow and ice we wake each dawn to the thinness of light.

Lara Frankena Lake Michigan

As sand slips through my toes, shards surface; brittle plastic honed by wind and waves. I bury my son in sand, covering him with shattered straws, bottle caps, cracked spoons and multi-coloured chunks of broken beach toys. As my children paddle, my mother and I comb with plastic rakes and dig with plastic spades, filling our pails with fragments for the car park bin.

My delighted four-year-old dredges a clear bag of mucky water from the lake, the size and weight of one that I once carried fancy guppies home in. I find no treasure apart from a plastic coin for her till. As the sun sets, I wade in, capture a plastic fish with flapping tail to plop into the tub for bathtime fun.

... Michael Brown

A Tree is Not a Forest

sometimes he’d wonder how the tree would grow expand the slow reach for light how it might go on in the years without him in the dense silence speaking its language of signals sap and root and scent it would be there he knew to summon even the hint of a lightening the slightest change in the air he couldn’t see it yet that imminent later life time quickening rising through the canopy of leaves the older trees broadening from its cambium membrane shifting limb from limb filaments crackling to no-one and everything none of this for him

A warm welcome to Ian Humphreys as judge of our next members’ poems competition. To mark the ninetieth anniversary of Sylvia Plath’s birth, Ian has chosen two themes from her work: ‘magic’ and ‘nature’. He says: “‘Magic’ and ‘nature’ are both themes Plath explored in her poetry. By combining them into ‘Magical nature’, I’m hoping for alchemy on the page.” Up to three of the six winning poems will be published in After Sylvia (Nine Arches Press) – an anthology of new writing inspired by Sylvia Plath, edited by Ian and fellow poet Sarah Corbett, due in October to celebrate her ninetieth anniversary.

Ian Humphreys’ debut collection Zebra (Nine Arches Press) was nominated for the Portico Prize. He won the Hamish Canham Prize and has been highly

commended in the Forward Prizes for Poetry. Ian is the editor of Why I Write Poetry (Nine Arches Press, 2021), and the producer and co-editor of After Sylvia (Nine Arches Press, 2022).

The deadline for entries is 3 May 2022; poems must be unpublished as of our summer issue publication date – end of June 2022. Please send no more than TWO poems on the theme, each a maximum of forty lines, typed on A4, with your membership number only, not name and address. Please enter online via Submittable at thepoetrysociety.submittable.com/submit. If you have difficulties using Submittable, you can email poems to the editor, Jane Ace, at jace@poetrysociety.org.uk s

‘Magicalcompetition:Summernature’Judge:IanHumphreys

In brief

News & eventsupcoming •

Slow time

My husband and I have been boring friends about food for years, so when the Big Dream of opening a restaurant in London was toppled by rising rents, we had to realise our vision elsewhere. With a newborn in tow and costs mounting, baking sourdough in York felt like it might just be a credible choice – I grew up here and my husband loves all the snickelways, barsthat-are-gates and gates-that-are-streets. Our very little shop is on the very Little Shambles – a mecca for all those Harry Potter buffs and nicely sidled up to a Minster Quarter that attracts tourists in droves.

So we learned patience – in the same way I’m still learning to be patient with poetry. For me, a poem is cajoled just like a loaf can be: waiting for the ‘mother’ to bubble could be like waiting for that first spark of an idea to arrive. The fusing of a flour and water autolyse could be the tender balance between form and tone. All the trials and the errors – well, there are enough of my poems that will never see the light of day to give weight to those notions. And of course, the way a flat, lifeless loaf can so easily be turned out, before you go back to the drawing (or shaping) board.

The way we eat food and the choices we make for ourselves and others carry a huge emotional charge too. We all lug along narratives from those early mealtime experiences in our lives and it feels like a great privilege – and sometimes a big responsibility – to bake and sell bread to customers. We really, really want them to love it. Baking can also be as aesthetically gorgeous as you might think. The collective zeal for creating a beautiful sourdough with just the right smattering of seeds or a sprightly, popped crust can be addictive. Luckily, we now have a team of bakers to help us achieve that and we all carry that mixed sense of pride and accountability.

Reviewing the Review

Thanks to all who took part in our recent Poetry Review survey, the 511 responses yielding many insights into how readers engage with the magazine. 92% of respondents said they regularly read poetry, 89% write it themselves, and just under half have published a book or pamphlet, belong to a workshop group, and regularly attend events. 26% belong to a Stanza group. 89% of responders agreed that the Review introduces them to new contemporary poets and we had lots of appreciative comments on this theme. Over fourfifths keep their magazines and refer back to them. Our online launch events have proven very popular, with almost double the number making it to virtual events as had attended in person. And our digital Review content is popular too – over half of respondents have explored what’s available, and we had enthusiastic comments in particular about the podcasts. The survey provides invaluable information for The Poetry Society as we plan future issues and events. s

The thing about sourdough is that it’s slow. Dead slow. It’s the slowest bread you can make. Between each step of the process, there’s a wait. A knead, a prod and then a wait. And it can be a monster to master. Chemistry colliding with physics followed by a good old stretchand-fold and a proper prove-a-thon, before it slides from a wooden peel into a blisteringly hot oven.

Time might actually be the only thing you need bags of, but I didn’t always feel like it was on my side. When I started writing seriously – whatever that looks like – I was in a hurry to make up for what I thought was lost time. Time spent chasing my tail around London trying to get a foothold in badly paid journalism – and even more time not-so-guiltily enjoying myself instead of building any career of note.

But after moving to York, we found ourselves anchored by babies, bills and – with nowhere else practical to bake – the kitchen table of our Victorian terraced house. We cycled bread to neighbours, sold it in the local pub and spent winters plugging away on freezing market stalls. Everything was small, slow and labour intensive, the absolute antithesis of a footloose decade in London.

Shop work has its own poetic merits. We are closer to the mannerisms of fellow humans in a special sort of way. Because of our location in the heart of York, we welcome customers from all walks of life and all corners of the globe. People-watching becomes an extreme sport, which is a brilliant source of inspiration for writing.

Crusts yield best with pressure from a wilful knife – backbone for a balanced crumb. Pulled from tray to shelf each loaf speaks of those who temper it.

In the shop, a woman will decree the dark rye cremated before asking me how life can be snatched away from those precisely in the middle of living it.

I will search for the right moment to hand her a whichchallahfalls evenly, squat in spread palms.

Some of my poems – like ‘Leaven’ (excerpt above) –take shape after a minute-long encounter with a customer in the shop, not that they would know or probably care. They are mostly just feeding a keen bread habit, while I mostly just feed a keen poetry habit s

Nicky Kippax, who runs a bakery in York, on crafting bread and poems DayTheJob

Nicky Kippax, poet and baker. bluebirdbakery.co.uk

“The poetry is the thing”

Graham S. Tennyson, Edinburgh Stanza rep , contacted Poetry News recently to update us on how the group had grown from a two-person meetup in a wine-bar to a thriving monthly Zoom event. Numbers have increased so much that Graham now runs the meeting over an evening and an afternoon session, enabling those with evening time constraints to attend.

Graham also mentioned that he has a degenerative visual impairment and is registered blind, so uses adaptive technology to help his reading. We asked if he’d tell us more. “Zoom can be tricky,” he says. “I now have to use a device I got from the local RNIB office that uses Optical Recognition technology – an Optelec Electronic Video Magnifier (of an uncertain vintage – like me!).”

Stanza members share work in progress, then the poem gets reread and fellow members offer feedback, so the reader is an important aid: “I use the reader to magnify my poem (or a poem I am rereading for another poet),” explains Graham. “It isn’t perfect but I am determined to stay independent, and explore new ways that people with visual disabilities can stay in the real world.”

He adds, “I had envisioned handing over the Stanza to someone younger at some point. However, it is a very supportive group and they seem to accept the limitations of having a blind rep. The technology is a help, but the poetry is the thing.” s there

to in full on YouTube at bit.ly/headpoetryjazz Derby Stanza rep and North Yorkshire Stanza member Ian Gouge has started a monthly online poetry reading; visit coverstorybooks.com to find out more about

Ockit.

Stanzas are workshopping and performing all over the country in the coming months –here’s where you can get a dose of poetry: Isle of Wight and Portsmouth and Havant Poetry Stanzas will be performing at Ventnor Fringe Festival in July, reading poems of place inspired by the island, and by the UK’s only island city. The events will be hosted by rep Maggie Sawkins and Steve Rushton.

Severe weather having caused Cross Border Poets to put off a face-to-face meeting last November, the group rescheduled for April. Jonathan Davidson will be running a workshop on 30 April at Gladstone’s Library, Flintshire – and we wish them not a single April shower!

Mole Valley Poets will be launching their new anthology, Memory, in May, with a Poetry in the Park event in Dorking and an online launch –visit molevalleypoets.co.uk to stay up to date.Heartlines, the Headingley Stanza, recently staged an evening of Poetry and Jazz with the Jean Watson Quartet, which is available to listen

Poets, South Oxfordshire’s Stanza group, had their first meeting on 5 March – a reading, writing and sharing session at Abingdon Library. They will meet on the first Saturday of each month, 2-4pm; for more information, email jannshanahan@gmail.com

Chipping Norton Stanza will be performing as part of the ChipLit Festival in the Chequers Pub on 21 April – check out the full programme at chiplitfest.com and if you would like to read at the Stanza’s open mic, email Lucinda Kowol on lucindaoxford@hotmail.com Roundel Poets, the Tonbridge Stanza, is celebrating its tenth anniversary with an anthology of work, which the group will be launching in May. Stay posted at roundelpoetrytonbridge.wordpress.comPoetryTeignmouthisholding a minifestival on 28 May with four events, including the prize-giving for the Teignmouth Poetry Festival Competition and readings from judges Katrina Naomi and Rosie Jackson. You will find full details online at poetryteignmouth.com nearer the date.

Look out for Kenneth Wilson (left), North Cumbria Stanza’s ‘poetical cellist’, who takes to his bike in April to cycle from Hadrian’s Wall to Rome, towing his cello behind him on a special trailer. He will be giving poetry and cello recitals at stopping places along the way – here’s wishing you melodious meanderings, Kenneth! s

In brief

Stanza news & upcoming events

• Stanzas on show

An exhibition of Southwark Stanza’s poetry postcards, Wish We Were There: Postcards & Poems from Home, was shown in March. Since 2020, the group has exchanged postcards with short poems: “the humble postcard kept us in touch with each other and with a sense of humanity otherwise at risk in the ether,” explains Stanza rep Janet Harper. The group’s postcards celebrating International Women’s Day 2022 also appeared in the show.

Groningen Poetry Stanza in the Netherlands exhibited poems at the Literair Café de Graanrepubliek, where they hold their meetings, as part of Dutch National Poetry Week in February.

New children’s poetry Stanza

Zig Zag Stanza is a new online group dedicated to reading, writing and workshopping poems for children. Stanza rep Rachel Piercey says, “I love writing poems for children – it is joyful, challenging and freeing all at once. But there are not many events or spaces which specifically bring children’s poets together. I am so excited to build up a friendly group of poets dedicated to this important, highly entertaining artform.”

Zig Zag Stanza – named after a poem by Charles Causley – welcomes established children’s poets, beginners, and poets who write for adults who would like to try something new. The group will meet via Zoom on the third Monday of the month, 7.30-9.30pm from 18 April. To join, get in touch with Rachel at zigzagstanza@gmail.com

Sestinas at six North Yorkshire Stanza celebrated its sixth anniversary with a sestina competition. The winning poem, by Kate Swann, used email, pub, poem, room, throng and toil as its six words, in an intricate piece that artfully charts the rich history of the group. s

Graham S. Tennyson, who is registered blind, on running Edinburgh Stanza •

In brief

Young poets’ news

Foyle takes flight •

The talent-spotting Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award is open again, welcoming poems on any subject by young writers anywhere in the world aged 11-17. We’ve more on this year’s Award and our judges Anthony Anaxagorou and Mona Arshi on page 5, and we know you’ll find inspiration from our latest amazing anthology of winning poems, Some Sort of Joy, included with next issue’s mailout and available to view now online. Here’s more encouragement from Giovanni Rose, a Top 15 winner from 2021: “Through my experience of winning Foyle, I learned that you should never be afraid to express yourself. This competition has opened so many doors for me and all I had to do was speak from the heart. If you’ve got even the slightest bit of passion, do not hesitate to enter Foyle.” s

Everywhere About Us

As you’ll have seen elsewhere in this edition of Poetry News, we’re including young poets’ prize-winning work in a new open-air multimedia show touring the UK from March through to May – and we invite you to come and watch! The show, which involves projections, animation, music and more, is completely free, and will be coming to Paisley, Derry-Londonderry, Caernarfon, Luton and Hull. It’s a once in a lifetime thing, so don’t miss out –head to aboutus.earth to find out all you need to know.

Congratulations to...

Foyle Young Poet Ahana Banerji, the youngest poet on this year’s White Review Poet’s Prize shortlist • Artistic Director of SLAMbassadors Joelle Taylor, on winning the T.S. Eliot Prize and bagging £25,000 • Foyle Young Poet Nadia Lines, working with Nine Pens Press to publish her debut pamphlet Stephen the Phlebotomist in 2022 • Four-time Foyle Young Poet winner Phoebe Stuckes, joining Poet Laureate Simon Armitage on his tour of the UK’s libraries • Foyle Young Poets Sarah Fletcher and Mukahang Limbu on the publication of their pamphlets from Out-Spoken Press: Sarah’s Caviar is out now, and Mukahang’s pamphlet is forthcoming in July 2022. s

A diary from the Hurst

Foyle winner Erin Hateley on a week’s retreat at an Arvon writing centre

•

During February half term (and Storm Eunice), a group of 2021 Foyle Young Poets gathered at Arvon’s The Hurst for their prize: a week’s writing residential in beautiful Shropshire. One of the poets, Erin Hateley, shares a little about the week. Read a longer version of Erin’s diary on The Poetry Society website at bit.ly/foylearvon21

On Monday, a group of us travelled up from London. Meeting the other poets and our tutors Arji Manuelpillai and Clare Pollard at the start of the week was a little intimidating, but we quickly learned that we were all going to get on brilliantly. The next day I was introduced to the wonders of the Arvon kitchen (there’s cake all the time!) before our first workshop with Clare. We discussed what a poem is and the common features of one, such as rhyme, which sparked my favourite poem of the entire week – Lulu’s masterpiece, “I went to Slough, I saw a cow”. After some muddy afternoon ventures into local village Clun, we gathered again in the evening as Arji and Clare performed some of their poems. They are both such incredible performers and it was a magical evening.

Wednesday was rainy , but the poetry workshop with Arji was one of the most productive mornings I’ve ever had, looking at identity and putting our own names in our poems. On Thursday, Clare encouraged us to write with our own idiolect (personal vocabulary) and Bri made a poem using “groovy” – one of my favourites from the week. The great thing about working with a group of poets is that everyone responds to the prompts in their own method and style, so no two poems were the same. In the afternoons, we all had one-to-one tutorials with Arji and Clare which were ridiculously inspiring and a real confidence boost.

On Friday, Storm Eunice hit . The topic of the workshop was ‘chaos’, which was rather apt. Ending the week was bittersweet, but I think we all felt very accomplished with what we’d created. We put together a group anthology, named after a panicked text from Anja: “ALSO MIND THE STORM!” And we finished the week with a performance of what we’d written. Seeing my new friends perform work that was quintessentially them made me realise just how lucky I was to have spent the week with such talented people. s

Illustration:

Send your poems for this year’s Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award by 31 July. Full details at foyleyoungpoets.org

About Us, Derry-Londonderry, March 2022.

Campaigning for protest poetry

What do we want? Protest poetry! When do we want it? Now! Looking for a writing challenge? We’re on the hunt for protest poems.

Inspired by one of the first mass rebellions in English history, the Great Rising of 1381, we want you to document a demonstration, write letters of protest, or explore the body as resistance. Visit YPN for more prompts and background from Vanessa Kisuule, whose own protest poem about the toppling of slave trader Edward Colston’s statue went viral during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.

To help further inspire entries, we’re also running a free online poetry workshop on protest poetry on 12 April. Former Young People’s Laureate for London Theresa Lola will offer even more ways into this challenge. This is for all young poets worldwide (aged 13+ recommended), and we can have up to five hundred young

This winter, we asked you to write about pop culture. The entries were totally brilliant, and the winning poems range from a moving pastiche of the iconic Star Wars opening to a double sonnet for Edward Cullen as he survives the Spanish Flu, asking “What do you do when you are seventeen and the / world is ending?” Read the Toy Story inspired first-

Scott Lilley Howdy, Partner

people in the Zoom room with us – head to the challenge page to find out more, and submit to the challenge by 9 May. Full details at bit.ly/1381peopleprotest s

prize winner ‘Howdy, Partner’ by Scott Lilley below. Who is more beloved by young poets than Sylvia Plath? For the ninetieth anniversary of her birth, we ran the challenge After Sylvia, inviting young poets to submit poems on the Plathian themes of nature and magic. The entries were mind-blowingly good – and there were more of them than any other YPN challenge to date! Check Young Poets Network for the winning poems, coming very soon. We also asked for your love poems this winter – judging is underway and we hope to share the lovely winners soon. s

•Young poets’ news •

Verve Young Poets Takeover

On 19 February, YPNer Dale Booton (below) hosted our first in-person Young Poets Takeover since 2019! We met so many brilliant young poets at Verve Poetry Festival in Birmingham, and in spite of Storm Eunice, our headliners – YPNers Aliyah Begum and Tom Rowe – were able to perform via Zoom.

—the plastic cowboy does not look plastic as he explains this is after life, partner. You are not quite appearing yourself. The plastic cowboy does not look plastic but is plastic just as this moment is not the afterlife or even an afterlife, but simply, after life. This world looks drawn and you are feeling fleshless. Downstairs a boy is screaming. You hear him, partner? He’s the puppeteer round here, you hear him, partner, he wants us all still. The plastic cowboy checks if you understand so you nod. The plastic cowboy sounds like Tom Hanks and you understand this. In truth you struggle with the plastic cowboy, this world looks drawn for you. There are others, here, like you but also not like you. They, too, are plastic but do not look plastic. The plastic cowboy explains to you that, although he doesn’t have high enough clearance to decide for how long you’ll be staying, he does hope you’ll enjoy your stay. This doesn’t trouble you as you feel you’ve been travelling for some time now and you’ve decided this world is drawn for you. On the stairs a boy is screaming. The others are motionless. A boy is at the door. The plastic cowboy is motionless now and there is a snake in his boot. A boy is at the door. This world is drawn for you. Everyone is motionless. You open the door.

UniSlam convergence

UniSlam took place this year 18-20 March as Poetry News went to press – good luck to all university teams competing in the slam! Though there’s no National Youth Poetry Showcase this year, a group of Poetry Society young poets are converging on Birmingham for poetry workshops, to meet other young writers, and to watch the Grand Final. Maybe we’ll see you there.

Don’t forget to hop aboard at

Right: Vanessa Kisuule (photo: Jon Aitken). Above: The boy-king Richard II meets the rebels on 14 June 1381, in a miniature from a 1470s copy of Jean Froissart’s Chronicles

Right: Sylvia Plath illustration by Zoë Taylor. zoetaylor.co.uk

Seen & Heard

BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please, one of the world’s longest running programmes, has issued a call on Twitter for poetry requests for the Spring programme – name your favourites to hear them read aloud. bbc.in/ 3u9J4LL

Poetry Worth Hearing is a new poetry magazine podcast curated and hosted by Kathleen McPhilemy. The first two episodes feature A.B. Jackson reading from The Voyage of St Brendan (featured in the last issue of Poetry News), as well as contributions from PS members Vanessa Lampert and Pat Winslow, and many others. Kathleen is also looking for future contributors; to find out more, visit poetryworthhearing.biz

The Behind the Poem series ventures deep: Zakia Carpenter-Hall takes us into the dream-world of her Review poem ‘The Gold Price’, exploring how changing the tone and forging into strange terrain helped the poem click into place. Ralf Webb ponders ingredients old and new in his poem ‘On Waking’, about a “violent nightmare”, via Twitter GIFS, memories and poetrysociety.org.uk/behindthepoempoem-droughts.

Poets’ prizes

Poetry Society members’ recent successes

•Astra Papachristodoulou of The Poetry Society team is one of many excellent poet-artists in Judith: Women Making Visual Poetry, a book featuring innovative work from thirtysix women in twenty-one countries. bit.ly/judithvisualpoetry

Lemn Sissay and Valerie Bloom

recreate a photograph from 1992 and talk about their thirty-year friendship in this lovely piece in the Guardian : bit.ly/sissaybloom

Leo Boix’s Latinx Mixtape brings together experimental, political, mythic, surreal, incantatory and tender poetic encounters, from Latinx poets around the poetrysociety.org.uk/mixtapeworld.

No jauking, Robert Burns was once advised not to write in Scots, reveals new research from the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Robert Burns – advice he ignored of course! bit.ly/burnsandscots

With a new film about Cyrano de Bergerac, swashbuckling wordsmith, now in cinemas, The Conversation offers an interesting look at the man behind the legend: bit.ly/cyranoconversation

The arrival of spring makes the Guardian’s ten poetry walks, following in the footsteps of Carol Ann Duffy, John Cooper Clarke, Edward Thomas and others, look particularly enticing: bit.ly/poetswalks

Charlotte Shevchenko Knight has written movingly about the war in Ukraine for the Poetry Translation Centre. “Poetry as a mode has always been vital to the preservation of Ukraine’s collective memory,” she says. “[I]n the midst of this destruction... writers, particularly poets, [are] documenting the war. Their words are one thing it cannot kill, they are a means of fighting against misinformation.” More at bit.ly/ukrainecsk

Our latest Poetry Review podcast features American poet Shane McCrae talking to editor Emily Berry about starting to write poetry because of Plath’s ‘Lady Lazarus’, woundedness and happiness, and converting from free verse to metrical soundcloud.com/poetrysocietyverse.

This account of how a TikTok star’s dream had unexpected consequences for an out-of-print poetry collection is rather charming, though it may not be especially adaptable as a marketing strategy for anyone else... bit.ly/tiktokkerwindow5

Poet and activist Maya Angelou is the first Black woman to appear on a US quarter, her arms outstretched, a flying bird and rising sun behind her. More quarters featuring pioneering American women are planned: bbc.in/3CL0Ad8 s

Philip Burton won the Collection HQ Prize in the East Riding Festival of Words poetry competition • Hannah Linden, Jenny Pagdin and Maria Isakova-Bennett won first, second and third prizes in the Café Writers Competition; Nicolette Golding won the Norfolk Prize; Vanessa Lampert,

Classifieds

36th Frogmore Poetry Prize

Adjudicator John Freeman will read all entries. Closing date: 31 May. www.frogmorepress.co.uk

Nick Makoha and Jenny Pagdin were commended • Ahana Banerji and Simon Middleton were shortlisted for the White Review Poet’s Prize • Robert Bodman, Jeanette Burton, Yvonne Green, Hannah Linden, Isabella Mead, Mike Pullman, Amanda Rackstraw and Jean Stevens were highly commended in the Wales Poetry Award • Isabelle Baafi and Anita Pati were shortlisted for the poetry prize in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Awards • Jenny Mitchell won first prize in the Bedford International Poetry Competition, Vanessa Lampert was third • Patricia Helen Wooldridge won the Cinnamon Literature Award 2022 • Elena Croitoru won the

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South Bank Poetry Prize • Alun Hughes came third in the Troubadour International Poetry Prize; Andrew George, Alexandra Corrin, Mark Fiddes, Cian Ferriter, Charlotte Cornell, Elena Croitoru, Robert Walton, Julian Bishop, Mary-Jane Holmes, Patrick Maddock and Christina Lloyd were commended • Elena Croitoru was commended in the Michael Marks Greek Bicentennial Poetry Pamphlet Prize

Warm congratulations to all the Poetry Society members who appear on the National Poetry Competition 2021 longlist: Aileen Ballantyne

• Andrea Witzke Slot • Anne

ISSN 1353 7237. Editor: Mike Sims. Tel: 020 7420 9880 or Themsims@poetrysociety.org.ukemailviewsexpressedin

Poetry News

are not necessarily those of The Poetry Society.

Macaulay • Caroline Stancer • Catriona Wright • Charlotte Shevchenko Knight • David Bleiman • David Swann • Donald Futers • Elena Croitoru • Ellen McAteer • Ewan Mackinnon • Harriet Torr • Hilary Taylor • I. Patterson • Inua Ellams • Jane Draycott • Jane Houston • Jeanette Burton • Jenny Mitchell • Kathryn Bevis • Kirsten Irving • Lauren Garland • Leonardo Boix • Lindy Barbour • Lynne Jones • Mark Fiddes • Merrie Joy Williams • Mike Pullman • Neal Hoskins • Partridge Boswell • Rachel Burns • Roger West

• Sanah Ahsan • Steph Morris • Vanessa Lampert • Vijaya Venkatesan • Zelda Chappel. s

Thanks to Rachel Piercey for her invaluable assistance.

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Robert Burns, a mezzotint and etching by William Walker & Samuel Cousins, after Alexander Nasmyth, published 1842. Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington.