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.

Buzzwords Poetry & Cheltenham Poetry Festival.

Buzzwords happens every month, usually on the first Sunday, at the Exmouth Arms in Cheltenham. The website is here: http://buzzwordspoetry.blogspot.com/  The meetings consist of a workshop led by a guest poet, readings by the guest poet and an open mic session. The guest poets have all been excellent. The group have been really welcoming and full of lovely people. I go to all the meetings I can. I always read as part of the open mic.


This weekend saw the opening of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival, which will go on until the 4th May. I have plans to go to at least five events and would like to go to more, but my care responsibilities make going to day-time and early evening events impossible.

Last night I went to a reading by students on the University of Gloucestershire Creative Writing Course. The course director is Angela France, who is also responsible for Buzzwords. Angela introduced her students to a sparse but appreciative audience. There were some good and accomplished poets in the group, as well as those who are just learning their craft.

Poem - My Grandfather and Uncle

This poem was first published in Pennine Platform magazine. It remains one of my favourites.

MY GRANDFATHER AND UNCLE

My grandfather and uncle

both returned to the earth

with untimely haste.

Although they worked it,

broke its back

for snow to bite into,

dragged sedge from ditches,

clawed back

lambs from snowheaps,

they did not inherit it,

unless it was

in the length and width

of a man's form.

And it claimed them

early,

reaching up through the chest,

pain filling the arms,

which had gathered harvests.

And still they loved it

and still they cursed

on cold wet mornings,

as it worked

like ringworm into their hands.

In death

they shall inherit the earth.

Until this time

they have been living

on borrowed land.

Muscovy by Matthew Francis

Here's another review that appeared on my magic realism blog.

Like his acclaimed Mandeville (2008), Matthew Francis's fourth Faber collection explores a world of marvels, real and fantastic. A man takes off for the moon in an engine drawn by geese, a poltergeist moves into a remote Welsh village, and a party of seventeenth-century Englishmen encounter the wonders of Russia - sledges, vodka, skating and Easter eggs. The scientist Robert Boyle basks in the newly discovered radiance of phosphorus (the noctiluca of the title) and the theme of light in darkness is taken up by the more personal poems in the book: phoneboxes, streetlamps, moonlight. 

Goodreads description

Another lovely poetry book for you. Not all the poems are magic realism, but most have that magic-realist sensibility that I have written about in the past. 

The collection opens with The Man in the Moon, an account of a trip to the moon powered by geese. It made me think of Calvino, although it is a based on a 17th century fantasy by Francis Godwin. Many of the poems in the collection are influenced by the past or by historical accounts. Some are realistic such as the title poem, which is based on an account by Andrew Marvell of an embassy to Russia. Others have a more supernatural  element e.g Corpse Candle and Familiar Spirit.  I have written before that historical novels (and poetry) that include the supernatural are presenting the world of the past realistically.

My favourite poem in the book is The Walker. It is a beautiful and subtle poem. It of course has a magic-realist angle, but also evokes its mountain setting accurately and in wonderful language:

And the sheep carried on, canted to one side,

    trotting on their adjustable legs

and the narrator's response to it:

I was an inkwash of myself, wet on wet, 

  among the limp vertebrae of ferns

  and the fuzz of bilberry. 

One stroke would smear me into a blur.

The natural eeriness sets the scene for the twist at the ending of the poem.

Wonderful stuff.

"The Worst Enemy to Creativity is Self Doubt"

Well I have done it, at last. I have started sending my poems to magazines again.

When I was younger I was regularly published in  magazines, including South West Review, The Rialto, Aquarius, Pennine Platform, and others. I was probably on the point of getting my first collection, but something happened.

I lost confidence. I have since discovered, this is not uncommon among women poets. Jo Bell and Jane Commane write about it in their excellent book How to be a Poet .  And I had a similar conversation about the issue with Briony Bax (editor of Ambit) at the Poetry Book Fair.  My loss of confidence was ridiculous really. I had two great poets saying I was good (Michael Horovitz, Philip Larkin) and still I gave up submitting.

There were some mitigating circumstances I suppose. Looking back I was struggling with depression, something neither I nor my husband really confronted. My way of dealing it was to stop being a full-time mum and taking on a demanding job, which meant I was balancing motherhood, career and poetry. Poetry was what suffered. My poetry was increasingly taking the form of long sequences or indeed long poems and so not exactly suited to magazine submission, and I used that as an excuse for doing nothing. Then of course the longer I left submitting poems, the harder it was to get back into doing so.

But that is behind me now. I have restarted submitting poems and already in just a month I have had three poems shortlisted for publication, so that is good for my confidence. Fingers crossed the poems make it to publication.

In case you are wondering about the quote in the title of this post - it is from Sylvia Plath.