Writing On the Body Plus Three

Tuesday 15th May 2012

Two pieces focussng on the human body 

from Writers Cafe Workshop ran by Kirsten Luckins

(i)

Crawl beyond the wall of reason

find a new season filled with backache

bellyache and procrastination.

Chew your way through the daily rag

till your teeth are newsprint black as

the clouds firing hailstones the size

of golf balls at the X71 while a child drones

in the seat behind and presses the bell till

your nerves jingle jangle shut the fuck up

but you just smile at her mum and keep

the bile firmly down coz to spill your misery

would be more than any child’s play

who wants to see ‘F’ words on a bus shelter? 

Who wants to sit unshaven in an over-

sized duffle coat and bloody swelter 

while the sky plays silly buggers?

You just can’t dress for it, she says,

You just can’t dress for it at all.

Wednesday 16th May 2012

Go to DETAILS

and gaze longingly

at the purple-covered

'Pink Pig' spiral-bound

black-paged journal

and think of all the lovely

silver-inked Halloween

scripts you could painstakingly

reproduce in it; buy an A6

hardback 128page blank

cartridge paper book and

make a one-off volume

of specially selected poems

and diary entries for a friend;

marvel at fold and staple

sketchbooks with spines and

think of the limited edition

pamphlets you could hand stitch

using the same design; get a set

of red, blue, silver and gold

metallic cover soft jotters to

scribble random thoughts in

whilst travelling on public transport;

flick the pages of a moleskin or

a magnetized hardback; dream away

at Paperchase and plan your next

purchases of pocket diary, worklog

and A4 page-per-day heavy-duty

tome for your next 365-day self-

analysis in longhand - oh the options,

the possibilities... - if only

when we purchase a new notebook

we could be granted the time

to fill it with our creativity,

oh yes indeedy!!

Thursday 17th May 2012 

Speaking For The Majority In The 21st Century

Available only in the collection "So Much for the Sunshine" published by Talking Pen 2013

Friday 18^th May 2012

Shake the dust, Steve, Shake the dust. Rise and shine. It’s time to travel the miles down to Durham then onto Newton Aycliffe. Me and Kate are with the year nines at Greenfield again for the slam. This is the final day we will be working with the large group. Come mid afternoon we’ll have our team of eight who will be going through to the regional event in Stockton in just under a month. The kids have been rehearsing between sessions and it showed last week.

LATER: Good session at Greenfield today. Kids really up for rehearsal. And all stepped up their game for the slam. Seven teams, three judges. About sixty kids in the room to make up the audience. The hour flew over really quickly. The tough bit was choosing of final eight from various teams afterwards. Outgoing/introspective/writers/performers/team leaders – things to take into consideration. An X-factor meeting with photos of all involved was needed to reach a decision. Then we had an hour with them. Barriers, logistics, Stockton, London. Then some freewritng at the end. Gave them the verb monologue. Got some fragments that might click together.

I'm still supposed to take the Larkin book back to a library. Might have to be tomorrow. Really tired. Want to see Attila the Stockbroker in Middlesbrough tonight but it might be a toughie. Will see how I feel when I get to Durham. 4.08pm.