Countdown to the Comfort Zone

Monday 7th March 2016

Spent much of the day journaling and sorting college work. This evening just reading lots of student material. Will have to pack my case for the final session when I get up first thing in the morning. Gonna have to get an early night. At least I have clean clothes and don’t need to prep for the afternoon session! 11.08 pm.

Tuesday 8th March 2016

Got a case packed with loads of small press, perzine, flash books, poetry mags and collections. Session this afternoon went well – intrusions and conflicts, “what’s in the box?” and four paragraph flash. I keyed in the morning pages and sorted the room for this evening. Wrote out a big list of topics and publishing points that I wanted to cover and just bombarded the group with books and info. I like the final session. They all want to know about publishing and I enjoy talking about it. There were no vomiting passengers on the bus back home. Good to see Jenni and look over the paperwork. Pretty bloody chuffed with it. Pleased the day went well given all the hassle I had yesterday. Rargghhh! 

11.15 pm.

Wednesday 9th March 2016

Been feeling rather agitated of late. Think it’s the knock-on effect of being hassled by bureaucrats on Monday then little sleep on Tuesday night so I’ve been cursing technology and inanimate objects a lot today. Calmed down enough to do the evening session for Colour your Life. Most of the group were in the computer suite working on line-breaks and concrete poetry. A few stayed in the seminar room to try out triolets and terza rima. I flitted between the two. On the bus home I read eleven awesome poems by Charles Simic from the Faber book of contemporary American Poetry edited by Helen Vendler. Simic’s poetry really surprised me in my twenties. Little studies of objects – forks, shirts, shoes. Arresting in their directness, brevity and sharp detail. Looked at Gary Snyder, John Berryman and Anne Sexton. Earlier I read some AD Winans, another American. I need to read more page poetry. Need to observe the small details, the overlooked, the forlorn. Today has turned out pretty good. 

10.47 pm.

Thursday 10th March 2016

Wi-Fi on the 45 to Newcastle isn’t working and I’m running late coz I went for chips instead of waiting till town to feed my face and now I’m onboard with a big case of dirty clothes and a load of weekend food and there’s a bunch of teenage girls that sound like a pack of chattering monkeys with the odd hyena scream thrown in for good measure. I’m off to drop all this clobber at Jen’s place then back out to Alphabetti Theatre for Dominic Berry’s latest poetry show “Playing Mortal Kombat Guarantees You Inner Calm”. Asa J Maddison and AJ McKenna are on the bill. It’s been a canny day. Session with the Consett Writers was morning pages, triolets and Lines for the Fortune Cookies. I’m now away till Sunday so I’m hoping to get clothes washed before the zine workshop. Bus is well warm. 5.49 pm.

Friday 12th March 2016

Been out and about in Newcastle today just taking time off. Started in Beatdown Records. David Bowie’s ‘Low’ was playing as I stood looking at t-shirts and punk cds. Then I went into the vinyl room and Ozzy Osbourne was on the sound system. I looked through the seven inch singles and the books. Saw a copy of the Led Zeppelin sheet music book I bought when I was seventeen; a Depeche Mode biography called ‘Stripped’; and a New York Dolls photograph book. Details art supplies round the corner had some nice spiral bound pink pig sketchbooks, but I only stayed in the shop a few minutes. Then onto Travelling Man but all their indy zines were comics – I want text-heavy perzines. Got a chicken and bacon baguette from eat4less then spent two hours keying in notes and surfing the net in the library. Then over to HMV to check out music dvds, vinyl and metal records. Paperchase and another eat4less then back to Jen’s. She’s out at a gig now. I’ll be going to bed soon. Up to participate in a workshop tomorrow. 10.29 pm.

Saturday 12th March 2016

Me and Jenni went to a brilliant zine workshop in Newcastle today. The exercises were well paced, all leading us towards writing we were happy to share. Really enjoyed the editing and collaging then the final assembling of the zine. Wajid Hussain gave encouraging feedback throughout. Theresa Easton gave very clear and easy to follow instructions and shared examples of her bookmaking craft. As well as food. A great atmosphere with lovely participants. Definitely one of the best workshops I've been to. Me and Jen had an eat4less afterwards and a look in some shops then back to hers briefly before coming back to Consett. 10.54 pm.

Sunday 13th March 2016

Keyed in some morning pages and made a big bangers and mash, carrots, peas, broccoli dinner. Fell asleep for a while then watched a few episodes of Breaking Bad series three. Got some writing marathon admin done and checked out perzines on etsy. Ordered one called Echo Echo from Canada. Jen has been promoting JibbaJabba. 11.03 pm.