Seven Daze

Wednesday 22nd July 2015

Good bookmaking session at Waddington Street Centre this morning. Then an hour one to one on a student pamphlet. Fell asleep on the bus home. Woken by a prodding passenger at Consett bus station. Only slept for five hours overnight. Listened to an excellent Henry and Heidi podcast back home this afternoon on Hubert Selby Junior, author of Last Exit to Brooklyn and Requiem for a Dream, amongst others. Some great insights and some sad moments too. I printed out a copy of the little perzine that I knocked up last night. I like most of the stuff but my original handwriting for the most part is illegible – will need to rewrite neat. And preferably scan pages or copy masters on an office machine with good darkening control. Been staying up too late recently. Another two workshops tomorrow and JibbaJabba. The weeks are flying. Will work on my Red Squirrel Press book again most of Friday. OK.

11.03 pm.

Thursday 23rd July 2015

Keep waking up around five despite going to sleep at midnight. So consequently I’m hammered by lunchtime. Session at Mind went well. We have about three minutes of group poem sequenced. Session at Centre for Change a bit low-key but we had a good time. Fell asleep on the bus to Durham. Read some Dust Belt Jessie online when I woke up. I have some of her zines and am looking forward to her full-length book ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Punk’. Got an eat4less bacon and cheese Panini and a doughnut then had a walk over to the Cumberland for JibbaJabba. Mint first half, enjoyed all the open mic. Haythem is a great guitarist. Real jawdropping stuff. David O’Hanlon, Asa Maddison, Alix Alixandra. Good set from Alistair Robinson. Nice to see Kate Fox in the audience. Place totally packed out. Jack Gardner opened the second half – hilarious pub quiz and dial an uncle. Poems by Aaron Wright, Vinny McHugh, Ken Creen and others plus spoken word story by Olya Bowers and set from Daniel Cockrill including a game of Guess Haiku, balloon and smile poems. Quick dash back from Byker on foot to Eldon Square for the bus back to Consett. Will probably buy food at Tescos. Surprisingly, warm out tonight. Looking forward to a steak pie. 11.15 pm.

Friday 24th July 2015

Didn’t get much sleep last night. Got in from a great night at JibbaJabba about one this morning. Read some bit and pieces of perzines. Got a couple of Adrian Mitchell books in the post. Listened to The Damned and am considering going to see the band in September. Put the Poetry Jam event page up on Facebook then had a bike ride over to Jen’s and watched an episode of New Tricks. 11.47 pm.

Saturday 25th July 2015

Met up with Stephen Clark this afternoon. Good conversation on books, music and life in general. Went to HMV and discovered a mint Rowland S Howard DVD. Looked at punk and metal cds. Had curry with Jenni this evening then watched a film called ‘They Live’ about a drifter who stumbles across some sunglasses that allows him to see the negative reality of the world he finds himself in. Then an episode of Rebus. Good stuff. 10.33 pm.

Sunday 26th July 2015

Wrote morning pages about yesterday then read about fifty pages of Michael Moore’s ‘Dude Where’s My Country’. And a few pages of the Charles Bukowski biography by Barry Miles – about the release of early books Crucifix in a Deathhand and It Catches My Heart In Its Hands. These, along with At Terror Street and Agony Way, were compiled in the Black Sparrow Press collection Burning in Water Drowning in Flame. Me and Jen watched Columbo and Experimental. Went out to Tesco later on for extra food as weather too bad for biking home. Hopefully better tomorrow. 10.30 pm.

Monday 27th July 2015

Woken by the sound of the rain about four. Couldn’t et back to sleep so I did and morning pages. Finally got a few more hours before workshop prep. Rode home from Jen’s at eleven, soaked right through, bike and backpack absolutely filthy. Worked on ANOMALIES 1989-2014 and ‘Laughter to Split Glass’. Removed lots of poems from the former to go in the latter. I want ANOMALIES to be mainly prose pieces – essays, microfiction and detailed journals. Both books are a lot of work. Tried to watch The Filth and the Fury but the DVD sent to me didn’t play. The price you pay for cheapness, I suppose. Ordered a newer copy. Been chopping away at the work all evening. Good to hear from Stephen again and to play some Rowland S Howard tracks. Bed very soon.

10.52 pm.

Tuesday 28th July 2015

Listened to poetry interviews this morning as part of the prep for tomorrow’s workshop: Jo Shapcott, Simon Armitage, Jackie Kay and Adrian Mitchell. Did some invoices and took Jane Burn’s pamphlets down to Jen’s as I won’t be able to carry them around with me on Thursday. Pleased I triple-bagged the book box. Sick of the pissing rain. Was meant to be going to the Sunderland edition of JibbaJabba but the venue has a leaky roof so it was cancelled. Spent an hour or so at Jen’s. She asked how many poems I’ve written. I suppose it depends on the definition of a poem, which will vary from person to person, but it’s probably over a thousand. Jen says I should put them all in a huge book. I said it would be an awful mess… Read a Lydia Lunch article when I got home. Art Versus Commerce. Not sure where to draw the line on that. I like to eat. 10.30 pm.