Gonzo Dreams In Ol' Appledore (1)

I enjoy catching snatches of conversations: not getting the complete picture. It creates inner tension and sets one's mind into detection mode.

My Paradise Lost (1)


beached window frame -
letting in the sea, the mist
and a curlew's cry


We can do it.
We can do it.
We can all write stuff we call poetry...
at some level anyway.
All we need is the freedom
to experiment
and make mistakes.
Creation is the motivation
to carry on.

" You cannot write and fill up a blank piece of paper unless you love what you're doing. You need time and space to develop." - Michael Morpurgo.

Luckily we live particularized lives
and we all have experiences worthy of note.
Nobody else could begin to imagine
what's held our own deepest thoughts.
Every one of us has an exclusive insight
into this, outwardly crazy, messed-up
and slowing to a sticky end,
old world of ours.

" What keeps us alive? What keeps us going? Well, you need a clear plan, a clear intention and a belief in yourself and a belief in what you are doing. At times you need to ask yourself, 'Is it worth hanging on? It's not all about dying, but about how many times you live.' " - Benedict Allen.


for a while the
universe was balancing
on my head


Poetry is about sharing one's world view,
and I'm pleased to say
that my poetry has often been described
as 'honest,' and 'containing real values;
not hype and pretentiousness.'

Apart from highlighting
the Appledore Book Festival,
I see my role as Writer-in-Residence
as being, on the one hand...
a kind of gentle demolition man,
attempting to break down,
or reduce, the many barriers
that have been erected over many years
by those bods
who used to inhabit the stuffy,
ivory-towered world of academia.

The problem is...
there's still some building
going on. Continued by others who,
at readings up and down the country,
regularly disappear up their own
tight trouser legs,
leaving their dwindling audiences
befuddled, cold and neglected.

And on the other hand...
as an encourager of the unsure:
the ones who say, 'I can't do that.'

Poetry shouldn't be confined
to the classroom, but be read and enjoyed
in bars and on the streets too.
Let's get it done!
The remarkable gift of poetry
(something created from language)
is to enlarge all our imaginations.
Let's start to think big!

"When I was bored in class, I used to look up at a poster on the wall. On the poster was Blake's poem, 'The Tyger'." - Michael Morpurgo.


a short silence -
just a vapour trail
linking clouds


To be continued.


Eccentrically.
Colin.
http://www.inclusifolk.com/