For anyone who may be in the vicinity of Barmouth on Monday 18th August and wants to come along to either the Family Fun poetry workshop at 11am or the one just for adults at 2pm (for more info see earlier post), here is a video of me talking about what we will be doing.
Over-sized lions, puppets, bubbles and things that go bang in the day
If you’re in Barmouth on Wednesday 20th August you may see a dancing Chinese lion, giant puppet, bubbles and exploding custard, amongst other things. There’ll be a carnival feel when St Johns Hall Gallery will be holding an Open Day event and procession to celebrate the launch of the Gallery as a not-for-profit Community Interest Company.
Programme for the day:
- 1-6pm there will be a variety of live music and entertainment, poetry and puppetry, films and performance.
- 7:30-10pm a free entry evening of eclectic music and poetry.
“I want the Gallery to be a dynamic centre connected with Art in its widest sense, a place that draws the enormous pool of creative and intellectual talent in Barmouth and the surrounding area. A place where all kinds of people can come to be inspired, create, discuss, perform, display and share their ideas.” says Bernard Barnes, artist and curator of the Gallery.
I will be part of this extravaganza, reading and performing a few of my poems for a family audience in the afternoon and for adults in the evening. Barry Lim will be dancing the lion and hosting/performing the music evening. Ian “The Bubbleman” Russell will be making his huge bubbles and exploding custard. Bernard Barnes will be giving a talk in the afternoon about the ideas and themes behind his huge wall painting “The Captives of the Cosmic Web”, 24 paintings on the North wall of the Gallery measuring 20′ high by 28′ wide .
Don’t forget your sun block
Blessed
Do you remember
when summers were longer
and ice creams were bigger
and creamier
and the sun rose like a messiah
and cast his love over the land
and all his worshippers turned pink
to show that they had been blessed
(for who, all that time ago,
although they knew not to look directly at him,
would want to shield themselves from him or think
to use sun block – which probably hadn’t been invented –
for who, I say unto you, would have imagined
that such a mighty being
would ever do them any harm)?
Thus his faithful followers
lay down before him
day after day
again and again
for ever and ever, Amen.
This poem previously appeared on blipfoto.
Join me and write poetry in Barmouth on Monday 18th August
I’m running two poetry workshops on Monday 18th August 2014 at St Johns Hall Gallery, Barmouth, Wales. If you’re in the area I hope you will come along.
Family Fun Poetry Writing 11am to 1pm
This is a session where children and grown-ups can have some fun writing together. I’ll start the session off with a short performance (including guitar) to break the ice and stimulate writing ideas. I’ll then give you ideas, themes and structures based on what you have heard me perform, and then help individual pairs and groups to polish these into poems or songs. To finish off we’ll have a performance of the new poems.
If you’d like to hear some examples of my poems, I have a selection on YouTube, which are on my website here.
The event is FREE thanks to support by National Theatre Wales TEAM. Sorry we cannot have unaccompanied children.
Adult Poetry Writing Workshop 2pm to 4pm
I’ll start this session with a few short writing exercises as a warm up, and then we’ll use photographs and the pictures in the gallery as a stimulus for writing new poems. I regularly write poems to accompany a photograph and will illustrate how to do this and then let you all work on your own with assistance if you get stuck. The group can then read out your poems to each other for the experience of performing and also for feedback (but this is not obligatory).
The event is FREE thanks to support by National Theatre Wales TEAM. Sorry no children for this workshop.
How to book
To help us know how many people to expect, please book a place by sending an email to bookings@bernardyoung.co.uk with your name, which session you want to book and how many people will be with you. But if you don’t have chance to book, please do turn up on the day anyway.
What to bring
Just yourselves. We will provide pens and paper. A jumper or cardigan is a good idea if you feel the cold as the hall can be a bit chilly if you are sitting still writing.
How to find the venue
The address is Art on the Hill Gallery, St Johns Hall, St Johns Hill, Barmouth, Gwynedd LL42 1AF.
The gallery is in the centre of Barmouth. There’s a turn off the main road (A496 King Edward Street) opposite the station, up a short hill. You should see a sign at the junction saying “Gallery”. Some parking is available on site. The map below should also help.
Remember UK National Poetry Day is Thurs 2 October 2014
UK National Poetry Day is a nationwide celebration of poetry that has been held on the first Thursday in October since 1994. The next National Poetry Day is Thursday 2nd October 2014. Every year the organisers suggest a theme to inspire events and contributions, and this year’s is Remember. Share your poems for the event via Twitter and Facebook with the hashtag #nationalpoetryday or post them on the National Poetry Day Facebook page and follow the Twitter account to see what other people are doing. For more information about the day see the National Poetry Day Website.
Naturally this is a busy day for performance poets who work in schools, so it is worth booking early to avoid disappointment, and also having some flexibility around the day, perhaps having a poetry inspired week. If you would like me to visit your school, please contact me. This post will give you an idea of what a day in your school could be like.
Here’s one of mine on the Remember theme:
School Report
We never could remember
how to spell diarrhoea.
It was easier to invoke
a chill or an upset stomach
than to search for a dictionary.
But it didn’t matter
what my mother wrote
as long as her note
excused me from football
or rugby or cross-country.
Finally I openly rebelled
and raised a two-finger V
in time to be recorded for posterity
on the annual school photograph:
a brief yet permanent moment
of glory and defiance;
it went unnoticed for months
and prints were sold.
When parents eventually complained
I was caned and, unceremoniously, expelled.
This poem has previously appeared on blipfoto.
Please make it stop!
Not wishing to alienate anyone, to balance my previous post, here is an anti-football poem.
Stop
Please make it stop
(Yes, I’m in a huff!)
It’s hardly got started
And I’ve had enough.
People are driving around
With flags on their cars.
It’s all over the TV
And blasting out from bars.
Someone has just told me
That it lasts for a month.
That’s bad news.
Grrr! Snarl! Humpf!
World Cup everywhere – everyone’s got football fever
Football Fever
I’ve caught football fever
Now I’m football mad
Football’s taken over
I’ve got football bad
Yes, I’ve got football fever
I thought I was immune
But I’m not sick as a parrot
Instead I’m over the moon
So I don’t need a doctor
I don’t need a pill
I’m not feeling awful
I’m not really ill
I’ve just got football fever
I’ve just gone football mad
I’m as crazy as my sister
As barmy as my Dad
We’ve all got football fever
Each one did succumb
But if you think we’ve got it bad
Wait till you meet Mum!
This poem is in my book “Brilliant“. If you are looking for other football poems, there’s a collection of poems with the same title as this in my anthologies section.
Anthology update
We’ve been doing some updating of the website, and as part of that a new page has been added with a few of the more recent anthologies that my poems have appeared in. The new page is here. Generally poets get a one-off fee for a poem to appear in a collection such as these, and the books reference the person who selected the collection, as there is no editing involved. My work has appeared in a lot more than that list, but that gives a flavour, and there’s no point in pointing to books that are no longer easy to get hold of.
Trying to get in to the mind of a cat
Nose and Finger
Does the odour
of last night’s
fish supper linger?
Have you got an itch?
The human touch?
Is that what you long for?
What can you smell?
Who are you singing
your purring song for?
Post Bank Holiday Blues?
Never mind. Every cloud has a silver lining…
Your walks on the beach are over.
Your footprints will be washed away.
Tuesday will feel like a Monday.
But…….it’s only a four day week. Hurray!
Bernard Young Poet 