Eight Days

Sunday 26th January 2014

High wind brings filthy sky to Moorside.

cold drifts up the back of my fleece;

visitors slam car doors and pull coats tight

then scamper up neighbour’s path.

Seven hours sleep then up to do a bit of admin for a gig then made cowboy hash for lunch. Had another day off really, and made an art journal page. First time with acrylic paints, a bit of a collage. Thanks to Jonathan Parker for mint pic of me from 2012 graveyard shoot. Jenni is in her tiger suit and watching Family Guy. Toasties and curly fries, bacon rasher crisps. Munchie, munchie. 11.24 pm.

Monday 27th January 2014

Gesso coated paper sits curling on the glossy window ledge

Schoolboys in blazers scooter up the street to the shop for sweets

As the sky opens its mind to the possibility of warmth and light

We hear the coughs and complaints of the striding man

While the smoker on the doorstep inhales deeply

A yellow minibus skims a stationary car wing mirror

And the working week is in progress once again

Listening to The Brightest Light by The Mission after an evening of prep for the next five workshops. Wrote a draft of a mini-fiction, but it’ll probably amount to nothing – prefer prose poems. Pleased with the way my art journal page turned out. Would like to keep a regular session for that – probably a Friday night or Saturday afternoon. Lots of ideas but not enough time. Been working most of the day on prep. I start a writing course at Clayport Library tomorrow evening. Four hour gap between workshops. Probably do some typesetting. Toasted sandwich in the George Foreman grill that Jenni got me for my birthday. Sliced sausage, mushrooms, garlic and chilli salt, tomato, cheese and pickle. Tremendous. Clever Jenni. 9.45pm.

Tuesday 28th January 2014

Shot through black space – or is it

that we are just buffeted and bounced

over invisible tarmac? Tiny pinpricks

of sporadic orange light. The naughty boys

count their glories at the back of the 44.

Tonight I told the writing class I enjoy the cacophonous blend that is Einsturzende Neubauten. But right now the threat of migraine makes the indulgence of onstage chainsaw sparks, jackhammers and other theatrical destruction set to a backbeat over which a gaunt spectre of a front man that is Blixa Bargeld shrieks in a language I never learnt quite a turn-off. Fifteen minutes from Stanley. And still another hour to homeground. 9.47pm.

Wednesday 29th January 2014

Two shiny gold-wrapped discs

with orange cellophane twists containing

toffees, glinting on the edge of the drop-leaf table

You put them there in the small hours

when my brain was on go-slow and unbeknownst to me

the computer next door was still whirring away

Hard day. Always is after a late workshop finish the night before. Didn’t get home till eleven and up again at half-six. Session at Waddy totally off script. Sometimes, with the best of intentions, you have to just go with the flow – late arrivals, no homework, absence of key students around which the session was specifically structured. Managed to pull it off okay. Really tired. Slept on the bus back. Jenni tapping away at the keyboard this afternoon. I checked emails, prepared fish and chips then slept awhile. Edited some writing this evening. MATERIAL magazine requested some new stuff, so it’ll be interesting to see if any of it makes the cut. Pleased I wrote some stuff on the bus last night. Thought I’d done some this afternoon but hadn’t. Anyway, too tired to really focus. Not even on the journal. 9.39 pm.

Thursday 30th January 2014

I’m photocopying character sketches and Gaffney flash

when Jen saunters in. I tell her it was wise to

sleep in her clothes as she’s cutting it fine for the bus home.

I tell her there’s milk for tea but not Cheerios.

She says, “That’s awful! I can see

there’s nothing here for me; I’m going back to bed!”

Five minutes later she’s downstairs

scoffing my NICE biscuits.

Absolutely fucking freezing in cellar twelve tonight. Spent the whole evening chipping away at a thousand words of prose-poetry from my recent HOME TOWN SLOG all-dayer solo writing marathon and submitted it to MATERIAL. Fingers crossed. Been a pretty full day. Me and Jenni left Moorside just after nine. She headed for Gateshead, me to Derwentside Mind  for my weekly Consett Writers workshop. Then I went to Waddy for one-to-one catch-ups in the quiet room before keying in student poems for possible inclusion in the Waddy monthly magazine. Late back into Consett, so no cheap bacon and lentil soup from Barry’s Bargain Store. Got a small stash of supplies  from Tesco then home to the walk-in fridge. Jenni was off to The Stand comedy club tonight. Hope it was a good gig. Ok, before my wrist seizes up. 11.27pm.

Friday 31st January 2013

Tonight the cold is secondary to the thrill

of purple paint on a lovely blank journal page;

swirling red clouds and a vortex acrostic to

beat the Friday night pub crawl of decades ago.

The table covered in newspaper and watercolour:

good to have some time to just chance disaster

with brush and ink; the bristles now stiffening

as my monkey-mind finds other fish to fry.

Morning pages. Art journal research. Emails and Facebook. Number-crunching nightmare for a big chunk of the day. Pleased the finance checks are out of the way. Was good to get the next writing marathon booked. Thanks to Kirsten at Apples and Snakes for that. Hope to be generating quite a lot of material in marathons and Home Town Slog solo writing days. 11.35pm.

Saturday 1st February 2014

Morning pages, made up a new morning pages book, posted the marathon online and keyed in some notes. Edited some small stones. Then over to the Cumberland for Rob Auton’s Sky Show. Set up and door for me.

In the Cumberland at the little table by the door watching Rob set up. Outside it’s pouring with rain and blowing a gale. Inside, we’re hoping for a big audience.

Sky Hawkins up for soundcheck, people bearing gifts. Jenni messaged Kirsten this morning to say she’s unwell and won’t be hosting tonight. Kirsten is getting the camera set up to film.

Gratitude: Thanks to Jane for giving me a book for Jenni. To staff at the Cumberland. To Kirsten for stepping into Jenni’s role.  To Asa for helping with set up. And of course to Simma, Sky Hawkins, Aidan Clarke for excellent sets alongside the brilliant Rob Auton.

Sunday 2nd February 2014

Did some typesetting at Jenni’s place this afternoon while she slept. Then we watched the tail-end of an episode of Lewis. Read some of The New Diary by Tristine Rainer on the bus to Consett. Another booking for the February writing marathon when I got home. Only one place left. Busy week up ahead. Think I need an early night. 9.14pm.