New on the blog - recordings

As a follow-up to my last post I have recorded readings of four of my poems. They are to be found in the Recordings page here: https://zoebrooks.blogspot.com/p/recordings-of-poems.html

If you are interested in booking me for a reading, please get in touch. My email is zoe.brooks@googlemail.com

Speaking Poetry

A young Zoe reading poetry at the Young Arts Centre

I have always believed that poetry is primarily a spoken art. It certainly is for me and has always been. My mother told me that I composed poetry before I knew how to write it down and the same is true of poetry historically or should I say prehistorically. 

I still like to see the poem on the page and indeed usually buy a book if I have enjoyed a reading, but listening to a good reader of poetry can be an awesome and illuminating experience. Alas not all poets know how to read well. A good reader will reveal the poem's structure and music, giving it another dimension.

Now that I am back on the poetry scene, I have started reading to audiences again. The other day at Buzzwords, Anna Saunders complemented me on how I read and I replied that I learned young. Last Friday I went to Alison Brackenbury's party to launch her new book Gallop*, where we met up with an old friend, Christine Whittemore. Both Christine and I read in the open mic and frankly you could tell that we both had been trained in reading. When I say "trained", I don't mean taught in the conventional way. We both went to Cheltenham's Young Arts Centre, where we were active members of the EOS poetry group. Every year the group would put on at least two public poetry readings. Those readings would include our own poems and those of famous poets. I don't recall being taught how to read or project my voice, but then the Centre's director, Elizabeth Webster, was a teacher with such skill you weren't aware that you were learning from her. 

When I moved to London, I started reading with Michael Horovitz's Grandchildren of Albion crowd, which included some amazing poet readers. And now here I am again reading and loving it. Anna has asked me to read at next year's Cheltenham Poetry Festival. I am so looking forward to it. You can hear me reading four poems here.

*Alison is an excellent reader and Gallop, a selection of some of the best poems over her long career, should be on everyone's Christmas list. There is currently a discount on it on Carcanet's website: https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781784106959

Changes

My mother died at the end of June. I have been spending a lot of my time caring for her and before that my father over the last three years. As she was 89 and had Alzheimer's we knew her death was coming, but nevertheless it was a shock. But the blessing was that the disease did not take from her the awareness of who we were, she was still our mum.

Mum was very important in fostering my writing, especially my poetry. She had wanted to study English at university and would have done so had not her father's death meant that she needed to earn money for her family. When it became clear that I was naturally talented in poetry, I was given poetry books. I still remember poems from Happenings, and Junior Voices. But perhaps more importantly Mum encouraged me to look and to imagine. We would go on long walks and she would point out flowers, trees, animals. "Look, Zoe. Do you see that tree root? What do you think it looks like?" When I replied that it looked like a witch or a dragon's claw, she would be delighted.

When I sat with her in the last few months, I sometimes read poetry to her and she loved it.  Poetry has that power.  Despite her Alzheimer's she beamed when I showed her a magazine with one of my poems in it and a spark appeared in her eyes. 

With Mum gone, I have the freedom and time, and perhaps the emotional energy, to really pursue my poetry career. It is what she would have wanted. I am preparing a collection for submission to publishers. I have a publisher in mind already. In fact looking over the body of my work, I have enough for several books and I continue to add more poems, including one recently about her death.

Today would have been her 90th birthday. Happy Birthday, Mum.

Update on Submitting to Magazines

Today I had an email telling me that I have just had a poem accepted by another magazine (Northampton Poetry Review), which reminded that I really should write about my progress with magazines and how I approach submitting to them. Since October I have had eleven poems accepted by seven magazines.

The magazines that have already published are:
The Dawntreader issue 45: https://www.indigodreams.co.uk/the-dawntreader/4563791666
Obsessed with Pipework issue 85 : https://obsessedwithpipeworkblog.wordpress.com/
The Curlew Crataegus issue: https://www.the-curlew.com/
Prole issue28: http://prolebooks.co.uk/index.html

The magazines who have accepted but not yet published are:
Fenland Reed: https://www.thefenlandreed.co.uk/
Dream Catcher: http://www.dreamcatchermagazine.co.uk
Northampton Poetry Review: https://www.northamptonpoetryreview.org

Update to this update: Confluence https://www.confluencemagazine.co.uk/ has accepted three poems, making it fourteen poems accepted by eight magazines.

How I approach submitting to magazines
As so far my approach seems to be working, I thought I would share it with you.  It goes without saying that the most important thing has to be having poems ready for publication, so nothing goes out unless I am happy with it.

I did a lot of research into poetry magazines before I sent out anything. This included combining a trip to London to see my son with an afternoon in the Poetry Library, which is on one of the upper floors of the South Bank Centre in London. The Library has a large selection of current magazines on display as well as back copies. It also produces a list of magazines, which you can download from its web site; https://www.nationalpoetrylibrary.org.uk/. But I did find that the list included some magazines that no longer are in operation, which goes to show you do have to check with the magazines and their websites. What I was looking for was poetry magazines that I liked and wanted to be in and in which my poems would fit. I made a note of the number of lines on the page (no point sending poems which would be either too long or too short). I always make a note of the current editor's name (not always the same on the Poetry Library list), so I can write a personalise email/letter.

I drew up a shortlist and proceeded to buy copies of the magazines I was interested in. As I am a carer for my mum I don't have a lot of free cash, but I consider it a good investment, plus I really do not think that I can ask magazines to publish my work without being willing to buy at least one copy. I continue to buy magazines when I can afford to do so.

Most poetry magazines have websites or blogs, where I find advice on submitting my poetry to them. I follow the guidance to the letter. Different magazines can have very different requirements and it is very bad manners not to do what they ask you to. I also subscribe to their blog feeds and Facebook pages, as sometimes they will announce submission deadlines, themes for the next edition etc. through these.

I have a spreadsheet to keep track of my submissions. When I first started submitting back in the early 1980s, I didn't have a spreadsheet or a computer for that matter and it was easy to get lost and send to two magazines at the same time, which is a no no. In my spreadsheet I have one worksheet which lists the poems down the left side, against that I put the names of magazine I send them to and date. When the magazine replies I enter the response. If it is a no, I send it to another magazine and enter that info into the worksheet. Another worksheet lists the magazines with useful info e.g whether they take email submissions, number of lines per page, maximum number of poems allowed per submission, and of course the website address. Another worksheet is a monthly calendar showing which magazines are accepting submissions when.

If you are thinking about submitting poems to magazine, I hope this information helps.