More of the Same

Monday 28th September 2015

This will be a busy week. Lesson plans, reformat booklet for Mind, Poetry Jam, evening class stuff… Supposed to be going to British Biketrial Championships next Sunday but due to financial stuff such as plumbing and brickwork I won’t be able to afford much more this year. Food, transport and office supplies. That’s all. Doubt I’ll be riding the bike to Jen’s now. It’s dark too early for Sunday returns and if I leave it till Monday morning I won’t get started at work till after dinner. And the way things are looking this autumn I need all the time I can get. Still haven’t got the ANOMALIES 1989-2014 manuscript sorted. Hope I don’t have to leave it till next year. 

8.33 am.

Tuesday 29th September 2015

WORK-LOG: Morning pages. Bag pack. Session checks on the bus. Photocopying. Liaise with writers and staff. Session on POV and metric feet. Tidy up. More prep for evening. Two hour intro session. Book related emails. Laughter to Split Glass will now come out next year. Rates of pay / income projections. Private journal entry. 11.35 pm.

Wednesday 30th September 2015

Good session this morning. Great Attila the Stockbroker interview on Write Out Loud. Made me want to put up creative writing course flyers in community centres from Rowlands Gill to Chester-le-street. Wanted to go out for a walk over to the quarry this afternoon but stayed in to make up Chris Hill pamphlet reprint. Listened to The Cure, sent more paperwork to the college, got some interest in Dark Matter and had online chit-chat with Jenni about rates of pay. No more work on ANOMALIES for a while. Will definitely come out before Laughter to Split Glass now though. Time ticking. Must get off to be soon. 11.25 pm.

Thursday 1st October 2015

Productive morning with Consett Writers. Prety much got the pamphlet anthology in shape, just a couple more bits to add. Decided on cover colour and have ideas for image. Thanks to Simon for suggesting title from Valerie’s poem. Good call. And to everyone chipping in with the proof-reading.

Totally mega Poetry Jam this evening. Came downstairs at twenty-five past seven and had to practically force my way through the room. Totally wall to wall crammed. Thanks so much to our three excellent feature guests. Emma Whitehall's supernatural tales and poetry performances with musical backing worked great in an intimate space, Andy Humphrey was highly entertaining too - lots of laughs during the 'Birmingham' poem, but the depth and power to his finale was breathtaking. Jane Burn treated us to a suite of brilliantly observed character pieces, took us rock climbing and ended her set gazing into the night sky. Thanks to all the jammers and our amazing audience. To people who bought books - Andy sold all his, I shifted all the Dark Matter pamphlets I brought; I saw Emma and Jane signing their collections too. Just brilliant to have so much support for the poetry scene. Big shout to Fergus for setting up and working the cafe, and to Waddington Street Centre for the mint venue. Cheers Fergus also for the lift home... Sure my nifty tablet could take canny pix but I've grown rather fond of the monthly grainy stills cut from pocket cam vid footage. More of those up in due course. Keep it going!

Looking forward to a relaxed Friday. If the weather stays fine I might get out to cut the grass. 11.36 pm.

Friday 2nd October 2015

Booked some guests for the final two Poetry Jams of 2015. Copied up some notes then fell asleep. Bought food at Tesco then went for a wander over to the quarry to see if the rock section is accessible without getting up to the eyes in mud. When I got back I spent three hours composing and tweaking a new piece about biketrial. Anything I write related to the sport is just an echo of Coming Back to This. But it was a good exercise in producing a piece start to finish and putting it online. It would be good to write an essay / creative nonfiction a week. Put them in a book after a year or two. Maybe zine a few pieces. 11.25 pm.

Saturday 3rd October 2015

Dull weather. Didn’t get grass cut. Heating on. Uploaded Poetry Jam pix. Cousin Gordon brought builder over this afternoon. Four hundred quid to rebuild door pillar, lintel and point old brickwork. Read some James Tate poems after the name drop in a Simon Armitage interview. Fell asleep on the bus to Jenni’s. Watched Lewis. Ate chicken bake and beans. Had all the bigly laughs.

11.11 pm.

Sunday 4th October 2015

Lazy Sunday. Bakewell tart for breakfast. A laugh at Coronation Street then chicken dopiaza and four episodes of Breaking Bad series two. Jenni modified a photograph of a coal truck for the cover of Consett Writers anthology. Stayed back a bit later than usual. Fell asleep on the bus home. Cheese on toast. A little light reading in bed. 11.15 pm.

Monday 5th October 2015

Very full-on productive work day. Lesson plan revisions following last week’s Waddy sessions to include newly negotiated learning objectives / outcomes, prepped material for this week. All the handouts for evening. Exercises and poems chosen for Jesmond workshop on Friday. And most of Consett Writers’ booklet done including the cover. Just waiting on a few final poems and some acknowledgement updates. Been listening to Lou Reed this evening. Disappearing Act is a mint song. The live Animal Serenade album is brilliant. I had a front row ticket back in 1992 for Magic and Loss but the gig was cancelled. Had the chance to see him at The Sage in the mid noughties but having just started evening work thought I’d wait until next time. Sadly, there wasn’t a next time… 11.46 pm.

Tuesday 6th October 2015

Great evening session. Ten students in. Journaling. A2Z word banks. Objects and lies. Kennings. Some hilarious inventions and tall tales. Magic fridges, priceless cheese called Henry, pink pushbikes that fold up into a plastic shopping bag – fun before moving on to more technical stuff next week. On the bus back I sat looking through Shades of Grey. Coincidently, one of the workers from the warehouse – where much of the book came from – got on. “There’s Steve, reading his poetry,” she said to her husband. Shades of Grey is pretty raw and brutal in places. A few people have expressed a preference to it over my more recent writing. Tonight I told the class that writing got harder the less ignorant I became about technique and formal structure. Don’t think I’ll ever match the intense bleakness of some of those early vignettes. Although, if the workshops dry up I might end up in some shithole that triggers something close. 10.42 pm.

Wednesday 7th October 2015

Did a new piece on ‘light’ in the workshop this morning. Re-jigged some pages in Consett Writers anthology this afternoon. Surprised and pleased to see Jen enter Blakes Coffee House this evening for Telling Tales. Touch and go if I’d be there myself but Jeff Price messaged this morning to offer me a guest slot. Was good to be able to just stand at the mic and read the longest prose piece from Shades of Grey to a story audience. I followed Amina Evans who has a very soothing delivery. It made me drop mine a notch or two… Good to see Tom Kelly and Matt Miller there. Enjoyed Beda Higgins’ story. Some where a bit too richly descriptive to take in on a first listen, but an enjoyable eclectic evening. Me and Jenni had a drink in the Bridge afterwards where Spontaneous Wrecks improv group had just performed. We sat with John Farthing and family – Casey Railton as well. I left at eleven to get chips from Clayton Street before the bus to Consett. 11.29 pm.

Thursday 8th October 2015

Seven hours sleep doesn’t seem nearly enough. Force myself through the morning pages then lie still for a few minutes. As usual tasks stretch to fill the time available and I still end up racing around the house till it’s time to leave at ten past nine. Queue in the bank as usual. A member of staff asks if she can help to save me waiting and points to the cashpoint. As usual, I need an awkward amount. It’s twenty to ten when I get to Mind. A relaxed start to the session – some changes of plan for a few people so by the time we get admin sorted it’s half ten. But we get a good run at the group poem we’ve had on the go for the last couple of months. We pretty much have it sequenced by twelve. Pick up card from stock cupboard for anthology covers. Afternoon is a chasing my tail affair. Forgot to buy razors, don’t want to use cheap ones coz I’m liable to cut myself. I take an hour out to by some Xtreme 3 sensitive  from Superdrug in Consett and upon my return to Cellar Twelve still manage to hack a chunk out of the top of my scalp. Eventually get the workshop stuff for tomorrow packed up. There’s more weight to it than I thought so the wheelie case replaces my threadbare Hi Tech shoulder bag. The outer shells on the wheels are split in half and the cores are steadily wearing away too. Soon the bottom of the case will rub on the pavement and split. My workshop materials are heavy and hauled all over; no wonder the right shoulder, knee, ankle and foot ache a lot more these days. I have an all-day breakfast just after four, sort my finances, print out directions for tomorrow’s workshop venue then dash out for the V8 to Consett. I buy biros, ibuprofen and deodorant then listen to the young ladies curse coz their bus is late. Onboard mine, I check facebook updates on free wifi-fuelled tablet and am rapidly approaching Stanley town centre. Next bus is the ‘8’ to Washington for The People’s Republic of Poetry featuring Ralph Dartford and Matt Abbott with guests Rowan McCabe and Jenni Pascoe. I’m looking forward to it. 6.03 pm.

Later: Got to the Arts Centre at ten past seven. By twenty past I’d been told that Jenni isn’t performing as she’s been unable to get out of bed all day and has just managed to get across the room to her phone. Matt gave me a complimentary ticket and let me put my wheelie-case backstage. Chatted to Kirsten Luckins, Jenni’s replacement. She let me use her phone to speak to Jenni. She said no way could she have been onstage this evening. What a damn shame. She was so looking forward to this hometown gig. Her friend from school, Michelle, was there to see her. Show has been good. Enjoying the take turns grab the mic format with all four performers onstage throughout. Sharing a taxi back to Jenni’s place afterwards. 8.18 pm.

Friday 9th October 2015

Two nice little workshops at an art exhibition in Jesmond today. Mainly Waddy people participating as it was their art on display. Spent a couple of hours with Jenni afterwards. She ate a whole Victoria sponge cake like a cheeseburger. Went to Gateshead library for a slam. Not enough people to so we did sets instead. Aidan Clarke was there and a few I didn’t know. Thanks to Mark Speeding for an enjoyable evening and lift home afterwards. Had ham sandwiches, pickled onion flavour fish and chip biscuit snacks and cinnamon country slices for supper. Too tired to write. Fell asleep on the couch. Home for the weekend to get work done. Been a busy old week. Chuffed to have some successes. Bed soon. 11.45 pm.