Monday 16th April 2018
At the computer much of the day. Took a while to get GloPoWriMo poem started. Fingers hurt from typing. Took all day to key in notes. Headache, knee-pain, bullshit in the news. Got a problem? Bomb someone, that’ll sort it – NOT! Got stuff sorted this evening for first session of new Waddy / New College Durham writing course tomorrow. Watched 25 Years of Punk (documentary from an American perspective) kicking off with the Velvets, MC5, Iggy, Ramones, New York Dolls, Richard Hell, etc… I’ll be in bed by half ten. Still a bit of a headache. Not sure a cheese toastie is the way to go but will see. OK. 9.54 pm.
Tuesday 17th April 2018
GloPoWriMo tough today. Feel bad about dredging up personal shit from the distant past but family anecdote is what was prompted and abuse is what was delivered before breakfast. Pleased to receive positive feedback. First new session for Waddy this afternoon. Was uncomfortable devising house rules aspect of the course, but the writing exercises went really well. Going at a slower pace this term, but would like to pull a little pamphlet anthology together for the end of academic year, if possible. In other news, Bells chippy in Durham has been renamed Freddies and the chips are mega thin and look like McDonalds fries but still taste like the big seaside wedges I bought on the same premises after the Phill Jupitus gig last November. Went to Jen’s for a couple of hours tonight. She didn’t feel like coming out for a gig.
Babble Gum was at Alphabetti Theatre. Lovely intimate space in the bar with mic set up in front of the piano. A canny crowd in there too. Great singer songwriter, Adam Sams, to open – acoustic and thoughtful. Insert name here. Then Richard Atkinson took us through some of his anecdotal poems in a seated laid back style to ease us into the evening. Metro stations, fat lemons and humorous café observations. James McKay did two poems in the open mic whilst playing with string and created a cats cradle. Rowan McCabe did Deer in the Heaton Number Plate shop. Second half started with panda comedy (including costume) from Rosie McMahon which was pretty clever. Then a few more open mic slots with a serious poem on recovery after a stroke by Ken Brady, then a guy reading a piece about an undesirable football club owner, and a short poem by Olya Bowers about 9/11 and Manchester bombings. Top draw for me was Lisette Auton. Great set, strong vocabulary, well crafted, clear delivery, highly engaging – and from the page – particularly resonant were poems about the military and problems faced by wheelchair users. All hosted with consummate ease by Matt Miller. Babble Gum is back at the Cumberland Arms next month, but it worked really well at Alphabetti Theatre. Cracking night. Big thanks to all involved.
Also thanks to Richard Atkinson who gave me a copy of The Sex Pistols File in exchange for my ‘Hypomaniac’ and ‘Shades of Grey’ books. Now on the last bus to Consett. It’ll be nearly one o’clock by the time I get to bed. 11.29 pm.
Wed 18th April 2018
Six hours sleep not enough. GloPoWriMo prompt was another bugger but I go two pieces out of it. Wrote a few comments on Facebook posts. Got some meagre supplies at Barry Bargain Superstore. Had my weekly chicken tikka and rice for tea at Waddy. Evening workshop went well: Another look at today’s GloPoWriMo, starting with the last line of a published poem. The last line is last coz it has closure. Trying to write beyond it and work backwards through the previous lines is a bugger. I gave it the attention it deserves, posted and expect not a single like. I'm trying to stick to official prompts as I've always gone my own way in the past. Got so pissed off with the prompts in 2014 this year's is the first attempt since. It's pretty ridiculous anyway, really. How many poets dash off a masterpiece every day and send it to a magazine within 24 hours? I might have another crack to come up with something better, but not bothered really. Feeding the machine gets a bit tiring after a while. We looked at some poetry magazines and then went through some practical advice on preparing for public readings. Read a bit more of the Sex Pistols File on the bus home, but could do with a magnifying glass for some sections. 11.36 pm.
Thursday 19th April 2018
GloPoWriMo prompt was to write something from a paragraph on what’s outside your window or a visit to the shops, then use the erasure technique or development of composition in some other way. I stuck with the first subject but ditched the scrubbing out and went for non-metrical three-line stanzas. Included house numbers left and right and referenced a neighbour. Not sure if that’s an okay thing to do. Checked out an arts grant application link but unfortunately it was for groups and organisations, not solo practitioners. There’s another one I can look at in due course, so no worry. Listened to ‘Henri and Heidi’ podcast which centred on ‘The End of Silence’ album, the murder of Joe Cole and the 1992 Rollins Band tour. Saw Rollins three times that year. Also watched some Sex Pistols stuff tonight, played a live bootleg and soundboard recording from their final gig at Winterland, San Francisco. Put on a YouTube film clip featuring Lydia Lunch but a bit too graphic for me, thanks. Ordered a couple of mental health zines from America. 11.20pm.
Friday 20th April 2018
GloPoWriMo was easy. Write a poem with an air of disobedience. Did three sides of this in the morning pages but having made plans to be out early today, I thought, Damn! – wish I’d just stuck to a single A4 handwritten page to upload as a j-peg to Facebook. So I did another piece in five minutes and didn’t change a single word. Scanned and posted by 8.46 am.
Good to get out on the longboard today. Really warm. Unfortunately an aerobics group were doing their thing in Consett and Blackhill Park by the bandstand, so I couldn’t get as much speed as I’d have liked coz I usually carve left off the slope into that area to slow down. Haven’t mastered the art of speed-stops; can’t pluck up the courage to go fast enough to learn how to get the board to slide – so it’s footbraking, run-offs or choosing a route that flattens out in order to decrease speed. Or crash.
Loving the warm weather. Was going to cut grass but decided to leave it another week. Me and Jenni have very kindly been invited by Sky Hawkins and Ben Dickinson to Ruby Wax’s show FRAZZLED at Northern Stage tonight. It’s about stress and mental health and I’m looking forward to it. Gonna drop off stuff at Jen’s place first.
Facebook is hot with outrage over Windrush and Universal Credit and basic disgust for The Monster Raving UK Nazi Party currently overseeing the dismantling of all that is actually ‘great’ about Britain. Obviously I’ve edited this for fear of recriminations but Aneurin Bevan pretty much nailed it at a Labour rally in Manchester on 4th July 1948… Had a mince pie for tea. And three bits of chocolate. So much for the big health initiative. 5.27 pm.
Saturday 21st April 2018
Late rise and a tricky prompt from GloPoWriMo focussing on the Myth of Narcissus – took a couple of hours. Haven’t been outside today. Wrote some good stuff so far this month… Watched bits and pieces of Columbo, Harry Hill, Ninja Warror, Britain’s got Talent, and Rebus on TV. Ate porridge, ravioli, chocolate and cheese on toast. Running low on android tablet power for the net so will be tricky to do a poem tomorrow. Might just write a short one by hand and post it in a photo. OK. 10.22 pm.
Sunday 22nd April 2018
Yes, GloPoWriMo was a tough job. Three hours to get it down from inception to handwritten A5 page. Tried to fit in all the elements suggested by official prompt relating to things impossible, but seemed to focus mainly on the ‘pigs can’t fly’ aspect and looked to American political figures of ‘fun’ – and in doing so produced my weakest piece of the month. I’ll be surprised if it gets any positive response at all. Another lazy day at Jen’s place. Then copy-ups at home. 11.17 pm.
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