Tracks, Cracks and Comebacks

Monday 1st June 2015

Sad start to the day. Found out Kevin Wilkins died at the weekend. A theatre practitioner and musician who taught on the Small Fires Leaders Course at Stanley Civic Hall in 1999/2000, Kevin was a great man – warm, friendly, inspirational, hugely supportive. He took great interest in my writing efforts and helped on our group anthology The Chocolate Onion. Lots of tributes on line, some from people I worked with. Been thinking about him and his wife Suzanne a lot today. I never met their daughter.

Put in at least twelve hours doing workshop prep and paperwork over a fifteen hour period. I won’t get any publishing stuff done today. Listened to Toyah and PiL again. Pleased to be seeing both – a few days apart – in September, Stockton and Newcastle respectively. Got a pamphlet query this evening but can’t take on any more work of that sort at present. Lucky to be ready for tomorrow. It’s going to be a busy week. Out three evening in a row. Think I’m at home this weekend; Jenni is staying here after Poetry Jam. 11.50 pm.

Tuesday 2nd June 2015

Sometimes I come away from workshops and think: you have no cause to complain about anything, Stevie, that was easy; shut up and get on with the next task. But it only seemed easy coz I spent so long double-checking everything – ensuring all the handouts, exercises and prompts were in order. Had previous session feedback written plus plans B and C. Now I’m home and my fucking head is splitting. Fifteen hours action yesterday; four hours delivery today plus a load of prep for tomorrow. I only have to walk into Waddington Street Centre at five to ten tomorrow morning coz my half-marathon was all set up after the evening class. If I don’t get to bed soon my head is going to fucking explode. So much for no more publications, I got the first dummy done for a student collection and am at the reformatting stage. I read two-thirds of last May’s HOME TOWN SLOG on buses to and from sessions. Mostly anecdotes about bands I like; no poetry. Oh well… 10.43 pm.

Wednesday 3rd June 2015

Arriva 46 bus absolutely reeks of stale piss. Don’t know if it’s one of the old guys up front, the dog lying on the floor or just a lingering odour from someone who was on before, but it’s catching my breath. Fucking awful. Reminds me of the time that guy at the front of the X70 from Newcastle to Consett soiled himself. Well, at least we’re moving now; the windows are open, in ten minutes I’ll be in Meadowfield. 1.33 pm.

Two great little workshops today. Half-marathon at Waddy gave us eight new first drafts each; and quarter-marathon at Appletree another six. Very impressed with the engagement of the participants. I finished reading the May SLOG notes. Not much to copy up, but the marathon writings make up for it. I got most of the corrections listed for Jane’s pamphlet and will send them asap. Just had an Eat4Less bacon and cheese Panini followed by a fruit and oat cookie from Greggs. The one in Eldon square near the bus station now has a café but the mark-up price to eat in was about 70%. And besides, I didn’t have time. Nearly got on the wrong metro tonight. Grateful to the woman who gave me info on the platform.  Supposed to be meeting Jenni at half-six in Whitley Bay for Jibba(ish). It’s ten-past now and the train doors don’t seem to shut properly. The driver keeps getting out to bang them shut, so I’m going to be a little late I reckon. Oh well… And now the carriage is like an oven… But never fear, we’ve been told to vacate as ‘the train has developed a fault but another will be along shortly’. More later. 6.17 pm.

Good night at Jibba(ish). All the guests were entertaining. Arid Fool mixed acoustic guitar and melody with raw Geordie rap and did it well. Josephine Scott told us about the nuns and Jimmy Nail and read poems from her two Red Squirrel Press collections. Ken Brady (aka Byker Dan) was very funny. Really quirky stand-up. And a storming set from Tony Williams who read a great poem about a photocopier and one about being trapped underground. His flash fiction is excellent as well. Nice to see Jeff Price and Aidan Clarke both do turns on the open mic. I provided guest accompaniment as human saxophone on Aidan’s Newcastle poetry rewrite of Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street’ and read two pieces of my own. Nice chat with Jenni, Josephine, Sheila and Tony afterwards. Thanks to Sheila for the Happenstance pamphlet on poetry publishing. Me and Jenni got the metro back to Newcastle and had supper at Clayton Street chippy. Now on the bus, tablet Facebook on free wifi, pleased to have survived the day. 11.43 pm.

Thursday 4th June 2015

BIGLY THANKS to everyone who came down to Poetry Jam this evening. Top notch sets from Helen Anderson, Vinny Boy McHugh and Mandy Maxwell. Some great open mic as well. Thanks to Fergus for setting up and working the cafe (and the lift home); and Waddington Street Centre for the space. Pix will be up tomorrow. Cheers!

Well and truly hammered today. Pleased all the appointments are done for the week. Averaging about fourteen hours of work-related activity a day since Monday. Cracks beginning to show. A bit absent-minded, some bad choices: poor reading at the start of Poetry Jam – but redeemed myself in the second half by reading Intrusions, a poem from Tightrope Walker that was originally published in Tears in the Fence magazine; and ‘Jumping Jack’ from Shades of Grey. The guests were good. Some lively open mic, but I wasn’t giving it my all. Pleased to be home by twenty past ten. I will take it a bit easier tomorrow. Jenni isn’t here; she didn’t make it to Poetry Jam. I need to spend more time on poems; struggling to match my good ones – need to recharge the batteries. Poems are rare for me these days. Ok. 11.17 pm.

Friday 5th June 2015

Good to have a day to myself. The phone rang a few times. I listened to PiL whilst typing and The Mission whilst assembling some pamphlets. Took a walk over to the print shop and put a dozen untrimmed copies through the letterbox then walked back. Finally got the Poetry Jam pix up. Ordered some more zines from Julia Eff. Another zine writer from America is going to do a swap with me – three zines for one of my paperbacks… I’m a bit too flat and wrecked to write this entry – I did a big one for morning pages. Think I’ve got a bit of post-workshop/gig burnout. If I’m a bit more chipper tomorrow I might get the grass cut. Not sure I should eat any more tonight or I’ll probably not sleep too well. 10.49 pm.

Saturday 6th June 2015

Good to have a lie in and read from ‘Wastelands’. Fantastic collection. DIY poetry publishing at its best. Nice one, Julia Eff. Attacked the elephant grass with a puny Flymo, worked up more tweaks on Jane Burn’s pamphlet. Think we’re just about done. Watched some grossly fascinating blackhead-removal videos on YouTube. Ate ham and cheese and enjoyed my day. 11.25 pm.

Sunday 7th June 2015

Thanks to Murder Slim Press for posting the ‘Harry Crews: Guilty as Charged’ YouTube video link on Facebook. Today would have been the author’s eightieth birthday. Haven’t touched any of his stuff for over a decade, so I took ‘Classic Crews’ off the shelf and read the opening chapters to ‘A Childhood: The Biography of a Place’ and checked out ‘Car’, ‘Celebration’ and ‘Feast of Snakes’ online. Southern Gothic, I think, his style gets called. First time I’ve taken much interest in novels for quite a while… Fell asleep on the couch this evening. Rarely sit in the living room these days. Only managed a fraction of the tasks on the list today. Listening to the Mission and thinking about having the same supper as last night then more reading in bed. 10.40 pm.