Dear progress is a series of word art/poems written by Micah Purnell and displayed on billboards around the city of Manchester, England.
The video explains both the wording and what Micah is thinking on. He describes this work as:
Poetry can inspire by acknowledging a person, telling their story, celebrating their life’s witness. I just came across a poem by Luci Shaw, which tells us another poet/person’s story, their persistence through harsh circumstances. Encouraging. Luci’s poem begins with her introduction to Irina, in italics.
Irina Ratushinskaya
—Russian poet and physicist who was sentenced
to seven years in a Soviet labor camp for writing about
freedom and God. We met at a conference in Oxford
and gave a joint poetry reading.
In the gulag, denied paper, she wrote her
words on soap, then rinsed them off into the icy air
like breathing hope into the world. The words
she held safe in the wide freedom of her memory.
They were words of faith and love and outrage.
They were like her children, held in her mind’s
embrace for all those years until she could
speak them aloud and own them without fear,
un-silenced and un-cowed.
I have her little gold pill box, a love gift, still
holding in its minor space a breath of her courage.
Luci Shaw
Irina Ratushinkaya‘s account of her gulag imprisonment and how she and the other women survived, supporting one another, is published in her book: “Grey is the Colour of Hope” (resissued Hodder and Stoughton, 2016, Sceptre imprint. ISBN: 9781473637214 available as paperback and e-book/Kindle)
Part of Irina’s poetry, in the poem “I will live and survive” is quoted in the Guardian’s fascinating obituary:
And I will tell of the first beauty
I saw in captivity.
A frost-covered window! No spy-holes, nor walls,
Nor cell-bars, nor the long endured pain –
Only a blue radiance on a tiny pane of glass,
A cast pattern – none more beautiful could be dreamt!
The more clearly you looked the more powerfully blossomed
Those brigand forests, campfires and birds!
And how many times there was bitter cold weather
And how many windows sparkled after that one –
But never was it repeated
That upheaval of rainbow ice!
If you’d like to read more of her poetry, its books are titled:
early formative memoir: Irina Ratushinskaya
She has written the memoir of her earlier years as: “In the beginning: The formative years of a dissident poet”.
Her novels are “Fictions and Lies” and “The Odessans”
Do you know someone who you deeply admire for their persistence through life, despite great difficulties? Perhaps they could be a theme to inspire your song/poetry/visual art/dance/craft. You may find this an encouraging exercise, which strengthens your own resilience in life.
If you’re feeling the need to lose a few pounds for the new year, you have my sympathies. I am very amateur at this process, but have found a few useful hints along the way. I am not a medical doctor nor qualified to be a weight loss counsellor – any weight loss programme should only be undertaken through consultation with your doctor – these are just things I’ve found personally helpful.
I’m not going to obssess about food but instead make it a small part of my life
I get unhelpful foods out of my sight and have helpful foods to hand
I get rid of thinking about food as much as possible by having a week’s list of what I’ll eat each day for breakfast, lunch and tea. Also, a matching food list, so I buy all the ingredients ahead of time. This takes a lot of time to work out at the start. But once I’ve done it for a few weeks, I then reuse the weeks’ menu plans and shopping lists. If I have 3 weeks of such, I will have enough variety to not be bored.
Now, in this area, I am an expert, sadly. Here is how to fail to lose weight:
American poet Dobby Gibson (featured in blog posts on previous 2 days) took time during his New Year to give us the low-down on what poetry book inspires him to write poetry. Also, a personal note on how the writing of his next book is progressing….
Bookjacket
Dobby Gibson: The book I’m reading now is a 2017 book I’m rereading for probably the tenth time already. It’s called “There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé” by the American poet Morgan Parker.
This book is a total delight. Parker combines the unpredictable swervy-ness of a New York School-style of poetry with a wit, urgency and voice that is contemporary and completely her own. It was the most exciting book of poems I read in 2017. It’s a book that makes me want to write poems (the best kind!).
Having met Dobby Gibson in yesterday’s blog post, we get more of a sense of a practicing poet’s world with today’s video, including an interview with his editor (Jeff Shotts), his publisher (Graywolf Press) and Dobby reading at the book launch. (This is his third book of poetry).
*CommandCo Exclusive Tomorrow* We’ve been in touch with Dobby, and found out his favourite poetry book of 2017 – the one which makes him want to write more poetry. Also, the latest progress on his next book…. All this coming on tomorrow’s blog post!
If you’d like to find out more about the poet, his website will give a good indication of what books he has read, poems of his on the internet, and audio and video recordings and interviews. In fact, it’s a good example of a poet’s website, for those of us in at the beginning of life as a published poet, or working towards that.
Booklaunch Reading: Dobby Gibson reads “it becomes you”, his third book
In today’s video, Dobby is honest about the time taken to write this third book – even though it was a book with his usual publisher, he began by sending the editor about 8 poems, and then taking 3 years to accumulate enough other poems to make this book.
Useful to hear that kind of realism, to budget for the time it will take.
Andrew Motion was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom for 10 years – and he’s come up with 10 tips to help you write good poetry.
You’ll find the full 10 in the original BBC article here.
Here are a few tips (in my words)
and a huge observation in Andrew Motion’s original language:
Reading your poetry out loud is crucial and absolutely indispensable because wherever we reckon the meaning of a poem might lie, we want to admit that it’s got as much to do with the noise it makes when we hear it aloud, as it has to do with what the words mean when we see them written down on the page.
In a really fundamental way, I think poetry is an acoustic form and we’ve slightly forgotten that in the last thousand years. Since the invention of the book, the aliveness of poetry has been perhaps slightly pushed to the edge of things.
For 5 minutes, he was interviewed with a string of questions – watch this for quick transfer of information:
In the short video above, he answers some big questions on (deep breath):
If someone isn’t ‘into poetry’ – where could they begin?
Andrew Motion: “I think they should buy a big fat anthology of poetry, and when they hit somebody that they like, they should persevere, go and get that person’s individual collection – and when they don’t like it, they should turn over the page and wait until they get to someone they feel is more sympathetic to them.”
Expand your experience of poetry – read wider – by applying the same principle as for the beginner to poetry – get an anthology, and from it find new names/styles which fascinate you. Then check out those individuals.
Try writing early in the morning – at one point, when Andrew Motion was writing a novel, he wrote from 5.30 am to 9.00 am.
If you’ve ever wanted advice on “How to be a Poet”, there’s a book with precisely that title, by key UK poetry publisher Nine Arches press, published in a few days’ time (20th December 2017.) It’s written by Jo Bell and Jane Commane – who are poets and editors in their own write (right).
The book is a sizeable 200 pages long, on sale for about £15 (depending whether you’ve buying in a real bookshop or an online retailer) and as well as Jo and Jane’s insights, includes articles by “special guests”.
