The Broken Word

The first Poetry Cafe of 2013 will be on Wednesday 9th January, when we'll be reading Adam Foulds's, The Broken Word,  a poetic sequence set in 1950s Kenya during the Mau Mau uprising.

Here's a review from 2008, when the book won the Costa Poetry Award, and an extract.

12pm for a 12:15 start – we'll discuss Foulds until 1pm.  After that we'll get on with the workshop as usual, and aim to finish by 4pm.

Have a Merry Christmas and happy New Year.
Angelina

A Sleepwalk on the Severn

December 5th will be the last Poetry Cafe this year.  We'll be discussing Alice Oswald's A Sleepwalk on the Severn, from 12:20-1pm, and then we'll workshop each other's poems until 3pm.  Perhaps if you're free, we could go for a drink after the workshop to celebrate Christmas.

There's a review of Oswald's work here, and an extract here.

The cafe is now being run by the cooperative behind The Rude Shipyard.  There'll be a grand opening of Towards the Lighthouse, Beyond the Shipyard, and The Lighthouse Gallery in the New Year, but in the meantime, the cafe is open and serving: http://bankstreetarts.com/news/poetry-cafe-3/

See you there

Poetry Prizes

Here's a link to the finalists at the Manchester Poetry Prize.  The winner will be announced on October 19th, but Antiphon and I were wondering what you thought of the finalists' work, and whether you had any thoughts on who should win, in your opinion.

Perhaps you have thoughts more broadly on poetry competitions in general?  The prize at Manchester asks for a selection of poems for the judges to consider, rather than everything hanging on a single poem, and the judging panel consists of three poets, this year: Ian Duhig, Frances Leviston and Adam O'Riordan.

The finalists' work is available via the link above.  Let us know what you think.

Swamp Area

In November (12pm Wednesday 7th) we'll be discussing Alistair Noon's Swamp Area, a pamphlet published by Longbarrow Press.  You can order copies from the website for £4 inc P&P

There are recordings of Alistair Noon reading his work available on line, as well as a review of his work by Susie Wild.

This is the first time we've looked at a pamphlet in the group, so it would be good to hear what we think about the format, as well as the poetry.  It's been said in recent years that the pamphlet is making a comeback, possibly because there is less investment required from publishers, and so less risk?  Perhaps people are more easily persuaded to part with £4 rather than £10.

On the other hand, bookshops have found it difficult to merchandise pamphlets effectively, alongside full collections, maybe because often pamphlets don't have a spine, and so need to be facing out to get noticed, which takes up a lot more shelf space.

What's interesting about pamphlets, I think, is the flexibility of the form, that they can be designed to complement the content, perhaps more easily than full-length books.  They are already removed from the mainstream expectations of the book; they are competing for attention on different terms.

The act of designing and making the pamphlet is then an extension of the creative act, and the outcome will perhaps have more in common with the artist book genre, than mainstream publishing.  However, this level of attention can become labour intensive, and so perhaps few publishers are willing to experiment, and realise the full potential of the form.  The need to generate revenue can't be ignored, if a press is to survive, and go on to publish more work.  

The pamphlet can focus its attention, be an exploration of a specific theme.  At the last meeting, we discussed The Water Table, in relation to a concept album.  We talked about the skill of spending a full collection circling a subject, the difficulties of keeping an idea new across a substantial body of work.  Perhaps the pamphlet can lend itself to the concept album analogy, if not an LP, then perhaps an EP?

We'll discuss Noon until 1pm, and then move on to the workshop.  Bring copies of your poem as usual, 8 still seems a reasonable number, I think.  Ten if you're feeling lush.

Angelina

The Water Table

The next Bank Street Arts Poetry Cafe will be on Wednesday October 3rd, 12pm for a 12.20pm start.  We'll begin by talking about Philip Gross's The Water Table.  

There's a review of the collection in the Guardian, here.  And here is a link to his poems on the Poetry Foundation website.  

Gross has said: "In a sense water in itself is nothing, but it is this perfectly clear, perfectly reflective substance in which you can see the world reflected in all its angles.

From 1pm we'll workshop, so bring copies of a poem you want share with the group.  About 8 copies will do.

See you then.

Also Steve Sawyer's review of Continental Shelf is on the reviews page here, so go over and have a look.

Thanks,
Angelina

Evening Brings Everything Back

The August Poetry Cafe at Bank Street Arts is on 1st August, 12pm.  Bring copies of your poem to workshop with the group as usual.  About half a dozen should do it.

For the reading group we're looking at Jaan Kaplinski's Evening Brings Everything Back

See you then!

Art vs Laundry

Our next Poetry Café session at Bank Street Arts is on the 4^th July (all the usual arrangements, bring poems, 12pm start, etc), and to celebrate, or more precisely, by coincidence, we’re reading an American, Elizabeth Bishop. 

We discussed narrowing the reading a little, perhaps just to North and South, from The Complete Poems, but then what about “The Moose”, “Sestina”, etc … So let’s say we’ll read North and South, but then we can throw in any favourites on the day.

Here’s a link to her Poetry Archive and Poets.org pages.

While I was looking around for articles about Bishop, I found this one by Stephen Burt, called "Art vs Laundry", on the Poetry Foundation website, and thought it was interesting.

'More and more, this year—especially since our second child was born—I’ve come to feel that poetry just can’t be as important as most people who write about it now make it seem: that, as Elizabeth Bishop put it in another connection, “Art just isn’t worth that much.”' 


What do you think?

Continental Shelf

The next Poetry Cafe Workshop at Bank Street Arts is Wednesday 13th June, 12pm until about 3pm.  Hope you can make it.

After the workshopping, we'll be reading Fred D'Aguiar's Continental Shelf  for the book group. Here's a link to his page on The Poetry Archive.

You might also be interested in an exhibition and symposium at Bank Street Arts called ArText, which is on this week, and is looking at the relationships between art and text.  Click the links for more information.

Thanks!

As Though We Were Flying

We made it through the blizzard for this month's Poetry Cafe.  We had a close reading of a couple of Matthew Hollis's Ground Water poems, which was good fun.

The book for the next Poetry Cafe at Bank Street Arts is Andrew Greig's As Though We Were Flying.  Here's a link to the online magazine Antiphon, and a review by Rosemary Badcoe.


The next meeting is Wednesday 2nd May, 12pm as usual.  Bring copies of your poem.

See you then.

@cafebankstreet

More Ground Water

We ran out of time at the March cafe, and so we'll be discussing the Matthew Hollis collection, Ground Water, at the April meeting.  We're meeting on 4th April, 12pm, as usual.

See you then.

Ground Water

A small group in February, but we spent 3 hours talking about poetry and writing.  It was wonderful.

The next workshop at the Bank Street Arts Poetry Cafe is 7th March, 12pm until around 3pm.  Bring copies of your poem as usual.  We'll be discussing Matthew Hollis's Ground Water in the reading group, which I'm looking forward to.  This is a link to his poem "Wintering" on the Poetry Archive website.

And here is an interview with Matthew Hollis soon after Ground Water was published, posted on the Textualities Wordpress site.

We've got a couple of new reviews going up soon, so keep an eye out on the reviews page.

See you in March!

@cafebankstreet

Changeling

It's good to be back after the Christmas holidays. We met last week and it was great to have the conversation around each other's poems spread out to discuss broader ideas of poetry. For example, in tutorials, or writing groups, you might hear someone say that a poem with stanzas of unequal length should be revised into a more regular pattern. Equally, you might ask why someone writing in free verse would use a regular stanza length form. Lots of ideas, preferences, etc, can seem like rules, and it was good to have the chance to break down these ideas and question them.

We were reading Rimbaud's Illuminations (trans: Ashbery) in the reading group. There was a really mixed response, as I guess you might expect, with some people enjoying the read, others struggling with it (me), and others just not excited by it, questioning why Rimbaud is still being read and translated; what does his work do for the contemporary reader?

I found the Illuminations difficult because I couldn't remember what I was reading once I closed the page, I wanted to come away with something more than confusion, but I would question whether my own reading history has left me with a certain way of approaching texts, a way of making sense of it, which these poems don't lend themselves to (and perhaps are trying to avoid). I'd be interested to spend more time with the poems, and more time reading around them.

The next Bank Street Arts Poetry Cafe workshop is Wednesday 1st February - 12pm start.

The reading group is looking at Clare Pollard's Changeling. Here's a review by Ben Wilkinson from the Guardian last July.

See you then.