tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41994567839011619652024-03-14T07:59:27.441+00:00Stephanie Green's BlogOn poets and poetry mainly............... .......... but segues into other obsessions.Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.comBlogger159125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-61694857076902037462023-12-06T12:54:00.001+00:002023-12-06T12:54:08.951+00:00Aesthetica 2024<p>The Aesthetica Anthology</p><p>Delighted to have been shortlisted in the competition and for my poem 'Lilias' to be published in their magazine, as from 18th December. </p><p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgZ-fSLwhO8EofSLW4QcNC-1BcQvz8nnVyM9IynuonQSRWBN62r28X7WaENVdbNN_yXTzzvRj1AASTu1l3aJnLqgrGdMg1905PUwvqRJbc7Llx0onG57M3840ma_-tAMF-iTxbG_uE5ic0Az-1lLFpBU1gjkzBo20hhVeZ11V5rcewj-rVBpLB65CAI4SY" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="848" data-original-width="600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgZ-fSLwhO8EofSLW4QcNC-1BcQvz8nnVyM9IynuonQSRWBN62r28X7WaENVdbNN_yXTzzvRj1AASTu1l3aJnLqgrGdMg1905PUwvqRJbc7Llx0onG57M3840ma_-tAMF-iTxbG_uE5ic0Az-1lLFpBU1gjkzBo20hhVeZ11V5rcewj-rVBpLB65CAI4SY=w453-h640" width="453" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-9916824640391923302023-11-06T17:24:00.003+00:002023-11-06T17:25:54.041+00:00Featured Writer in Federation of Writers (Scotland)'s newletter.<p> Delighted to be Featured Writer in November's Federation of Writers (Scotland)'s Newsletter.</p><p><br /></p><p>Featured Writer</p><p>This month we are delighted to welcome the winner of this year’s Alastair</p><p>Reid Poetry Pamphlet prize and co-curator of PoetryLit, Stephanie Green, as</p><p>our featured writer. As her biography shows, Stephanie has an excellent track</p><p>record as a writer and collaborator in poetic projects and has the distinction of</p><p>having been shortlisted for the Wigtown Poetry Prize this year as well. ‘The</p><p>Roider’, the poem she has chosen to share with newsmail readers, is one of</p><p>the poems in the prize-winning pamphlet: its visceral immediacy, economy of</p><p>language and the poignancy of its deeply moving ending amply demonstrate</p><p>the qualities of Stephanie’s writing which so impressed the Wigtown judges.</p><p>Biog.</p><p>Stephanie Green is Irish/English. Her pamphlets are ‘Glass Works’ short-listed</p><p>for the Callum McDonald Award, 2005, ‘Flout’ (HappenStance, 2015) and</p><p>‘Ortelius’ Sea-Monsters’ (Wigtown Festival Company, 2023), winner of the</p><p>Alastair Reid prize. She has collaborated with Sonja Heyer, Sound Artist,</p><p>creating poetry/sound walks: ‘Berlin Umbrella’ which appeared at StAnza,</p><p>2020 and ‘Rewilding’ (online at Writers’ Rebel) at the Orkney Nature Festival,</p><p>2023. She was shortlisted in the Wigtown main prize, 2023 and came 2nd in</p><p>the Poetry Wales Award, 2023. She co-curates ‘PoetryLit’ online, works as a</p><p>Dance reviewer and lives in Edinburgh. www.stephaniegreen.org.uk/</p><p><br /></p><p>6</p><p>Roider</p><p>A dark red H – I once knew the word -</p><p>on the black funnels of whaling ships.</p><p>I pray your flesh, dark, red, will cure me,</p><p>but I must have nil by mouth,</p><p>strung up, fed with liquids like the gulps of sea</p><p>that swooshed through your baleen, a vast brush,</p><p>each cold, rubbery strand jammed tight,</p><p>trapping thousands of micro-organisms</p><p>as once every sensation, pulse of life,</p><p>filtered through my brain.</p><p>How many remembered now?</p><p>Synapses fizzling. Black-out.</p><p>Acrid smoke fluctuates, revealing</p><p>sunlit trees, as I walk through a wood</p><p>down to the beach holding my mother’s hand.</p><p>Who is the stranger who seems to know me</p><p>as she kisses my forehead? A young man</p><p>comes less often, and is impatient to be gone –</p><p>he seems familiar – one of my ship mates, perhaps -</p><p>who sniffs the kelp and salt on the wind</p><p>and hears, as I do, the call of the white seas.</p><p><br /></p><p>Note: H stands for ‘hval’, Icelandic for whale.</p><p>This poem is taken from ‘Ortelius’ Sea-Monsters’ (published by Wigtown</p><p>Festival Company, 2023). It was the winner of the Alastair Reid pamphlet</p><p>prize. ‘The Roider’ was first published in the Rialto.</p><p>© Stephanie Green 2023</p>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-77558953481399058852023-10-05T16:00:00.003+01:002023-10-05T16:03:25.278+01:00Inspiration for two Whale Poems in 'Ortelius' Sea-Monsters'<p><br /></p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBA_syFNmr2zuxjj-jnyEvQxohQRvf0sHdWPM5aI0vVQdL6LJeTlZ-CNCexBfPNl6xLB3u-y2Wjpe17eO4wROx6RaqIcZsbMvnhFypNOGRhH5VG87LBCq95ecqtdTvqq5JAZmQP8ICKHZ3YJv9kPTQb74AKNonqWKdIk5BForu-X8_xCnorVDjf5trxGc/s1600/IMG_20170525_181132.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBA_syFNmr2zuxjj-jnyEvQxohQRvf0sHdWPM5aI0vVQdL6LJeTlZ-CNCexBfPNl6xLB3u-y2Wjpe17eO4wROx6RaqIcZsbMvnhFypNOGRhH5VG87LBCq95ecqtdTvqq5JAZmQP8ICKHZ3YJv9kPTQb74AKNonqWKdIk5BForu-X8_xCnorVDjf5trxGc/w640-h480/IMG_20170525_181132.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p> Still from film of a humpback whale in the Husavik Whale Museum.</p><p>On the same May 2017 trip to Iceland where I saw sea-monsters on Ortelius' map, I also spent a day travelling along the coast to Husavik, whale-watching capital of North Iceland. </p><p>Included in my 'Ortelius' Sea-Monsters' pamphlet are two poems about real whales as a counterbalance to the trauma of those sea-monster poems. However the plight of whales is also potentially traumatic as they may be on the point of extinction if we don't clear up pollution of the oceans, whether from plastic, oil or noise of shipping lanes.</p><p>I've written extensively about my 'To a Humpback Whale' poem in a feature 'How I wrote...' published in Poetry Wales (online) and also briefly mentioned the atmospheric experience of the Husavik Whale Museum.</p><p>See previous blog posted 2022/03/how-i-wrote-to-humpback-whale-poetry.</p><p>Some photos of the trip:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY4LQ0KK5Y4k3PRUAvrTLmNLooUSAWiMwfdqWpwUfyjEHZxITLTq9Gc-ekkKDtc5cNJJy0Q-wsbSZ4hCfHlSWQpQrGoH1zIptj9n-4dldbJM4pz9FbVa0Ah3IginbRHv_JOoy7Yxjdyw_4wZAHQCoadRmQ-wDOxhGvFp4-rMBukCYrvbHWig_xehSVAUc/s1600/IMG_20170525_122924.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjY4LQ0KK5Y4k3PRUAvrTLmNLooUSAWiMwfdqWpwUfyjEHZxITLTq9Gc-ekkKDtc5cNJJy0Q-wsbSZ4hCfHlSWQpQrGoH1zIptj9n-4dldbJM4pz9FbVa0Ah3IginbRHv_JOoy7Yxjdyw_4wZAHQCoadRmQ-wDOxhGvFp4-rMBukCYrvbHWig_xehSVAUc/s320/IMG_20170525_122924.jpg" width="240" /></a></div> Kitted out against the cold wind and spray.<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsOMeI66UIne493l_xsQAYmvuf0C7hPPdzSsWI0cfoaxm_cBA4LiA7UpX6NIKn1MegqwY2sLhgC8B245XaZsjrUc9C0kzOFJE1BAuEIoryhjvCF1Cb1G5qk11PBotnjxizrLuaMQmk_xVvkq7wyVpXYNbPwA_Q1DsIsicXXe-v30oRw3spgd5_DoOr0XQ/s3072/IMG_5409.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2304" data-original-width="3072" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsOMeI66UIne493l_xsQAYmvuf0C7hPPdzSsWI0cfoaxm_cBA4LiA7UpX6NIKn1MegqwY2sLhgC8B245XaZsjrUc9C0kzOFJE1BAuEIoryhjvCF1Cb1G5qk11PBotnjxizrLuaMQmk_xVvkq7wyVpXYNbPwA_Q1DsIsicXXe-v30oRw3spgd5_DoOr0XQ/w320-h240/IMG_5409.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /> A "blow".<div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG1OhLxrYlH_-jq8MzgEc52hrw79oaBvrAobaGBNSRZaSpyDFOSPGZx-Gp0x7Z0rvIyAibeBkc0kZC9Y5N2VTf98asrr5X14BJ2g_GNtS0t2-pChhC4jAAMS5MxdYIi_-_3iCQVCB-jiGmFA0cgsPOi3B6CvVzqNREhfvI1pj8Vc5_R6HcPEfgSFbsbHk/s3072/IMG_5389.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2304" data-original-width="3072" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG1OhLxrYlH_-jq8MzgEc52hrw79oaBvrAobaGBNSRZaSpyDFOSPGZx-Gp0x7Z0rvIyAibeBkc0kZC9Y5N2VTf98asrr5X14BJ2g_GNtS0t2-pChhC4jAAMS5MxdYIi_-_3iCQVCB-jiGmFA0cgsPOi3B6CvVzqNREhfvI1pj8Vc5_R6HcPEfgSFbsbHk/s320/IMG_5389.JPG" width="320" /></a></div> All we saw. No breaches. Oh well.</div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf0_dJUSVzIs56lCWVNWwsts9jFnBEkBfcI5ElA9ZYRhh_Y8eDJs00eLB8SBojYgRQ_60N7odqmLrAQRh4vZdlAte_oicmg9BE7Zhr_YZjJWqryA4o2IHf27SgFMSGFgkmsVAexYkLCKOUvDww3aPhoKnzSza7YH3np71WOm2WKL4jrDBfFLuWaLAQ-3o/s1600/IMG_20170525_165209.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf0_dJUSVzIs56lCWVNWwsts9jFnBEkBfcI5ElA9ZYRhh_Y8eDJs00eLB8SBojYgRQ_60N7odqmLrAQRh4vZdlAte_oicmg9BE7Zhr_YZjJWqryA4o2IHf27SgFMSGFgkmsVAexYkLCKOUvDww3aPhoKnzSza7YH3np71WOm2WKL4jrDBfFLuWaLAQ-3o/w400-h300/IMG_20170525_165209.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> Inside Husavik Whale Museum.<br /> <br /><p><br /></p></div></div>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-238037234760714712023-10-05T15:27:00.006+01:002023-10-05T17:15:39.696+01:00Sea-Monsters in Akureyri Museum, Iceland<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh7PuT75h1LkfI-NYcMa6gRQZzYUwG7sJRMfTT3nIhR5-pAm7uQqU7nw21oLygjvjrwiYtdJiV_ghLQcsmWCV9x9JA0LDdpgeAZr38aksniJ0-nSeOEcdH9pSlTcnl87lE0lhzO6Ft46MT47UKZFV0yjmMX2rcenjPBeu2f_QGq721uqqD7mBMWryugqAc" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNfTYTcaFfqv3EzaUrhzDVaCn2rR6dcS7SBxXKCCv5XZvAM2Qt68caUzBGfdD6itUmSDGo9kb86DyJDfZeRczl18ybz9zu-40iBF7foJjl14KEy46yxigKsDoduW5N4dbx06OUDxuU9TuMF5Bw56Kx3XN0UNEyrbPowCXIKQ-28Cp73gZEagjABYaz30k/w400-h308/IMG_20170526_115338.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNfTYTcaFfqv3EzaUrhzDVaCn2rR6dcS7SBxXKCCv5XZvAM2Qt68caUzBGfdD6itUmSDGo9kb86DyJDfZeRczl18ybz9zu-40iBF7foJjl14KEy46yxigKsDoduW5N4dbx06OUDxuU9TuMF5Bw56Kx3XN0UNEyrbPowCXIKQ-28Cp73gZEagjABYaz30k/s1600/IMG_20170526_115338.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><img alt="" data-original-height="174" data-original-width="232" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh7PuT75h1LkfI-NYcMa6gRQZzYUwG7sJRMfTT3nIhR5-pAm7uQqU7nw21oLygjvjrwiYtdJiV_ghLQcsmWCV9x9JA0LDdpgeAZr38aksniJ0-nSeOEcdH9pSlTcnl87lE0lhzO6Ft46MT47UKZFV0yjmMX2rcenjPBeu2f_QGq721uqqD7mBMWryugqAc=w400-h300" width="400" /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0000ee;"><u><br /></u></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0000ee;"><u><br /></u></span></div>Hanging from the ceiling of Akureyri museum were several papier mache monsters made by local primary school children. I hope they did not haunt the kids with nightmares as they did me after a visit to this museum, in North Iceland, May 2017.<p></p><p>The models were inspired by this map of Iceland with its surrounding seas full of mythological and fantastical sea-monsters. I was electrified by these monsters, and they became the inspiration for my poems exploring trauma -arising from the sea of the unconscious I suppose - which eventually became the pamphlet 'Ortelius' Sea-Monsters' which has won the Alistair Reid Award, 2023. </p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil7abYTtwF9G-2LqqgSZnJdANOec3t9wT07AyEqZ_jF3KoyMNEAdxeQt-bfam-6mJKM7CXvdzA2LXrS1RAvcqrdilEoIF9-StAQldKYuokgbjwzdeOLpbsG67j0WvI-dlH6JcvOled4ckZgmqQ5-PpP_O6xDfkmTlRXWIRk13oYg7RzWVqWcdUDM8qr2Y/s1600/IMG_20170525_175705.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil7abYTtwF9G-2LqqgSZnJdANOec3t9wT07AyEqZ_jF3KoyMNEAdxeQt-bfam-6mJKM7CXvdzA2LXrS1RAvcqrdilEoIF9-StAQldKYuokgbjwzdeOLpbsG67j0WvI-dlH6JcvOled4ckZgmqQ5-PpP_O6xDfkmTlRXWIRk13oYg7RzWVqWcdUDM8qr2Y/w640-h480/IMG_20170525_175705.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><p></p><p> Map of Iceland by Ortelius, 1590, Akureyri Museum, North Iceland</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Here is the description of the monsters available in the Museum with close-ups images added by myself.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><span id="docs-internal-guid-dd18f518-7fff-8d70-c01b-80ed95241191"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 100px; overflow: hidden; width: 289px;"><img height="180.17143233503637" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/2qLtj40Pe-ZedTo8OpE_Cl1pMQIn5kGylwXIkTi0E1U-Mvz1SFdpnSc1vc_kImO4GRAG2rmMWR9MWD6Fx_mRce4zgXqzj7mRvJbvickhcXZzIajGaQN8MD5bORSGxH5ca32sDlDpkq17HqH-ZD97aeQ" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: -80.1714px;" width="289" /></span></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">a) The Nahual. If any man eat of this fish, he dieth presently. It hath a tooth in the forepart of his head, standing out seuen cubites. This diuers haue sold for the Vnicornes hornes. It is thought to be a good antidote and foueraigne medicine against poison. This Monster is forty elles in length. (This image is not found on Ortelius’ map, so I have used one by Pierre Pomet, 1694).</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 150px; overflow: hidden; width: 254px;"><img height="150" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/wVgO1fgSHDWWfmMDzTe88rqnSng3YLXynI0IeHo8XqAytfhBZv2cV93Ewc4Lbudd-0nkqjSk3t53WZI7bHltupWn32vUwbVMb3JcwjAO8bnBX5JUZiaw0dDs2dHZ2SutTg4vWlcD5lmpICcGBygRlOc" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="254" /></span></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">b) The Roider, a fish of an hundred and thirty elles in length, which hath no teeth. The flesh of it is very good meat, wholesome and toothsome. The fatte of it is good against many diseases.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 159px; overflow: hidden; width: 246px;"><img height="159" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/2NEiJnAI7IgFimP-o_LDd7kSQQ3EUgh5PmSPPEeEEnCZQ3WbBkPIUg5sIDddWWRXT9drxuWMgZEsZWEYaTkxDqkl8qShufIH5eaRsVcAswFkU9-ZQxLRepHu53MRGMEQ7Ab2Ua2-1ikEpalGKC8X6Kk" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="246" /></span></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">c) The Burchualur hath his head bigger than all the body beside. It hath many very strong teeth whereof they make Chesmen or Tablemen. It is threescore cubites long. (A sperm whale?)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 147px; overflow: hidden; width: 284px;"><img height="147" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/sEuxRRRR6FTzWJfDGvkKrIAiyfB99GhALBSaZ8cw6uLlMtqIO0EymnqMMT_AKM9hke1EZViHQnazDpkWxhdbY0Mte74_QMOIEY5VOarwWDl4SEbVpSrKUi3351LD6aGvJhCKnYY9nvZLOdvx82l1G0U" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="284" /></span></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">d) The Hyena, the sea hogge, a monstrous kind of fish, of which thou maiest read in the 21 books of Olaus Magnus. (N.B. 3 eyes in its flank.)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 139px; overflow: hidden; width: 259px;"><img height="139" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/RoULLOaAuK3CMZkpjDeXxJg0zp9TCIPAsKr0cRpXzV_oSZMwV4mOynGx7ZLhapobAxDTjjvsVxSRpt08hqhw9Mu2cDaDozM_6cF_eVRWgirz6cpMdP5QLQ_GXb4zY0KI3yuf05od3PxuKEfxUmB9XJ4" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="259" /></span></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">e) Ziphius (or Xiphius) an horrible sea monster, swallowing the blacke seale at one bitte. (An orca?)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">f) The English whale, beached. Not used.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 208px; overflow: hidden; width: 316px;"><img height="208" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/xp4IHxraA58P0d4AoSygykl5hg-fEi5gH_P_36-w308C5WLDZlX2oFFa-nV4VeyO0E6AStmB11ehOQ6alBnER5XeP3xmt2UhlexiJI7fY9HhuUd7GX4zpUiCR0D3biwDnr32-SepJ86h2FfAvZzH6nY" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="316" /></span></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">g) Hroshualur, that is as much as to say Sea-horse, with a mane hanging downe from his necke like an horse. It often doth the fishermen great hurt and skare.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">h) Not used. The greatest kind of Whales. It is more like a little iland, than a fish. It cannot follow or chase the smaller fishes, by reason of the huge greatnesse and waigth of his body, yet he praieth vpon many, which he catcheth by a natural wile and subtility which he vseth for to get his food.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 12pt;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 203px; overflow: hidden; width: 255px;"><img height="203" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/IMUf6jn18irtBl10XUOh0CV9MZAHyXIGWg2J5gYREjkyXwaPu4PvPneixHH9Tf7Ltjn9dvSw8nxcYmc_yQrZkTnVWf9Hz38uiELM_eUTGMtO0PwOEGaE4KcOAPj0thxeWIxdqiYlVEQp0ccWTcMuMbY" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="255" /></span></span><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">i) Skautuhvalur, this fish altogether full of gristles or bones, is somewhat like a ray or skaite but an infinite deale bigger: when it appeareth, it is like an iland, and with his finnes ouerturneth ships and boates.</span></p><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><br /><p></p>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-11560368354942962952023-09-30T18:55:00.007+01:002023-10-01T17:54:49.306+01:00Ortelius' Sea Monsters wins the Alastair Reid Prize.<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuWpSIS_kL1t-6K07s1PJJwniAX3peEpldM18rHXxUs80d-QUbUVdM61-KNsHREhDlRDO3ko29LO8WpPjJIVCAULuFAwd083KC5fQi4wm5Krxs5SGnN3QVCOjaZiztpr4_ArJiZMPQkDc3VSYFd4IIPThVqgRJKnvtbu-14yyriwYp-WQ5u9QlVGQlKT4/s4000/1696149787421.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="2992" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuWpSIS_kL1t-6K07s1PJJwniAX3peEpldM18rHXxUs80d-QUbUVdM61-KNsHREhDlRDO3ko29LO8WpPjJIVCAULuFAwd083KC5fQi4wm5Krxs5SGnN3QVCOjaZiztpr4_ArJiZMPQkDc3VSYFd4IIPThVqgRJKnvtbu-14yyriwYp-WQ5u9QlVGQlKT4/s320/1696149787421.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><br />So delighted to win the Alastair Reid 2023 (Wigtown Book Festival) Poetry prize.<p></p><p>Wigtown's Facebook page says:</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans"; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px auto 26px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Alastair Reid Pamphlet Prize</strong></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans"; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px auto 26px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Named in memory of one of Scotland’s foremost literary talents, this recognises a collection of work rather than individual poems. The prize is for the work to be set as a pamphlet by Gerry Cambridge and published by the Wigtown Festival Company.</p><ul style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans"; font-size: 17px; margin-bottom: 26px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 0px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 21px;">Winner: <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Ortelius’s Sea Monsters</em>, by Stephanie Green</li></ul><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: "Open Sans"; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px auto 26px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">Donald S Murray, the judge, said:</strong> <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">“‘Ortelius’ Sea-Monsters’ is outstanding in terms of its source of inspiration and the varied ways in which the writer examines the fantastical beings to which the reader is introduced within its pages. I relished each encounter, fascinated by the different ways in which each creature is described. This is a work which is a triumph both for the writer’s imagination and their wide and surprising range of poetic skills.”</em></p>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-51798840393284476022023-06-08T13:35:00.001+01:002023-06-08T13:35:53.952+01:00Writers Rebel feature Rewilding Brodgar<h1 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;">Yay! Rewilding Brodgar is featured on the Writers Rebel website. How great to be paired with Rachel Carson's <i>Silent Spring.</i></span></h1><div><span style="font-size: small; font-weight: normal;"><i><br /></i></span></div><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="m_6527994852140208830templateContainer" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0px; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; max-width: 600px !important; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td id="m_6527994852140208830templateHeader" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin: 0px;" valign="top"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; min-width: 100%; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td style="margin: 0px; padding-top: 9px;" valign="top"><table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="m_6527994852140208830mcnTextContentContainer" style="border-collapse: collapse; max-width: 100%; min-width: 100%; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td class="m_6527994852140208830mcnTextContent" style="color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 18px 9px; word-break: break-word;" valign="top"><h1 style="font-size: 26px; line-height: 32.5px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, "lucida sans typewriter", "lucida typewriter", monospace;"><span class="il">Writers</span> <span class="il">Rebel</span> Newsletter</span></h1></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; min-width: 100%; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 9px;" valign="top"><table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; min-width: 100%; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 9px; text-align: center;" valign="top"><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://writersrebel.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3Dc8dbceeb590ec372c1a76b6e0%26id%3Dceed8e0061%26e%3D9dfbee96a8&source=gmail&ust=1686313925495000&usg=AOvVaw0FYgBJNsPAg76wfqmJ_Y2j" href="https://writersrebel.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c8dbceeb590ec372c1a76b6e0&id=ceed8e0061&e=9dfbee96a8" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank" title=""><img align="center" alt="" class="m_6527994852140208830mcnImage CToWUd" data-bit="iit" src="https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/ThLCnjnwVBXmNR2Ad03t9RRuIxSp9RDYAi7DGcB-aNRAcH8xtjaFeUgaOiXIowkMcX4qBD-bkXeTUiQ-I8bAZjvWvkzKruxVaLbzOdznGCB1UDchWHzkRwoZjM_LshvgUC3GAmEIcEKIuNPD3As2jnk92GZfdw=s0-d-e1-ft#https://mcusercontent.com/c8dbceeb590ec372c1a76b6e0/images/7dd31f05-4e18-480d-bfef-fec75b0a3300.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: inline !important; height: auto; max-width: 600px; outline: none; padding-bottom: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: bottom;" width="242.52" /></a></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td id="m_6527994852140208830templateBody" style="border-bottom: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin: 0px;" valign="top"><table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse; min-width: 100%; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td style="margin: 0px; padding-top: 9px;" valign="top"><table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="m_6527994852140208830mcnTextContentContainer" style="border-collapse: collapse; max-width: 100%; min-width: 100%; width: 100%;"><tbody><tr><td class="m_6527994852140208830mcnTextContent" style="color: #202020; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 18px 9px; word-break: break-word;" valign="top"><p style="line-height: 24px; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, "lucida sans typewriter", "lucida typewriter", monospace;"><strong>Dear Friends,<br /> </strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, "lucida sans typewriter", "lucida typewriter", monospace;"><strong>Rachel Carson’s ground-breaking work, <em>Silent Spring</em>, a classic of ecological literature, is not just a deeply-researched investigation into the damaging effects of agricultural pesticides but an evocative warning about the loss of the heartbreakingly beautiful music of the natural world.<br /><br />This week, we showcase an exciting new project developed by poet Stephanie Green and sound artist Sonja Heyer. They are highlighting the relevance of Carson’s message by drawing attention to the sounds of endangered species in their natural habitats.<br /><br />To read a little more about the project, visit <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://writersrebel.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3Dc8dbceeb590ec372c1a76b6e0%26id%3D4f80234ad7%26e%3D9dfbee96a8&source=gmail&ust=1686313925495000&usg=AOvVaw11T9zskcTuVkZky4m11Nei" href="https://writersrebel.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c8dbceeb590ec372c1a76b6e0&id=4f80234ad7&e=9dfbee96a8" style="color: #007c89; font-weight: normal;" target="_blank"><span class="il">Writers</span> <span class="il">Rebel</span></a>.<br /><br />Or to start their addictive, mesmerising 15-minute sound walk in Orkney straight away, visit <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://writersrebel.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3Dc8dbceeb590ec372c1a76b6e0%26id%3D5533a52493%26e%3D9dfbee96a8&source=gmail&ust=1686313925495000&usg=AOvVaw3Q6G5MKaKYjUUteI4qJfaV" href="https://writersrebel.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c8dbceeb590ec372c1a76b6e0&id=5533a52493&e=9dfbee96a8" style="color: #007c89; font-weight: normal;" target="_blank">https://rewildingbrodgar.<wbr></wbr>netlify.app/</a>.</strong></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, "lucida sans typewriter", "lucida typewriter", monospace;"><strong>Love and rebellion,<br /><br /> <br /><span class="il">Writers</span> <span class="il">Rebel</span><br /> </strong></span></p></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /></p>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-66785607157316169592023-05-31T20:07:00.002+01:002023-05-31T20:12:12.418+01:002nd Prize Poetry Wales Award 2022<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDCra6fYsF4CewZZm0s8OTi7h9mIYL9n4VwHQL1Q4Sz-CeuKz2MflzCcX3ItOL71-jEGDWf7S8Tu2Sl-NxiH-MMRKrHEgPjfr-7JvFXgryoG3JGUQRdAoO3f0Y6Z8NlXvyT0a4KLvxnm28FQvIX2SP8tMdBAKQ96RGDXldKxXrxMbQ_4Rvc1ghVE2v/s640/346067063_6298350490231938_5259635341374022718_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDCra6fYsF4CewZZm0s8OTi7h9mIYL9n4VwHQL1Q4Sz-CeuKz2MflzCcX3ItOL71-jEGDWf7S8Tu2Sl-NxiH-MMRKrHEgPjfr-7JvFXgryoG3JGUQRdAoO3f0Y6Z8NlXvyT0a4KLvxnm28FQvIX2SP8tMdBAKQ96RGDXldKxXrxMbQ_4Rvc1ghVE2v/s320/346067063_6298350490231938_5259635341374022718_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzlQDfgsVY2iaAKM4kNjKPcQd-uQ1ii_aIZD9QIVLgaFty7LcoJK6l83t1_x3OmTjgreisDz5bDNp-EhPPybYsGB4YrRUBHxbL1LZOgVQE-I0MiEA1W_d3eQF3eFIE9loGMUkXcsVdqjpkWuhdmAFOsqJthGQqNE0aGnaB1E0Oaa1ij3joDMbsYvfG/s1080/346057121_633735915267970_5904873068232256477_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzlQDfgsVY2iaAKM4kNjKPcQd-uQ1ii_aIZD9QIVLgaFty7LcoJK6l83t1_x3OmTjgreisDz5bDNp-EhPPybYsGB4YrRUBHxbL1LZOgVQE-I0MiEA1W_d3eQF3eFIE9loGMUkXcsVdqjpkWuhdmAFOsqJthGQqNE0aGnaB1E0Oaa1ij3joDMbsYvfG/s320/346057121_633735915267970_5904873068232256477_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> Over the moon to receive 2nd Prize in the Poetry Wales Award, 2022, judged by Gwyneth Lewis.<p></p><p>Katherine Bevis was a well-deserved first prize.</p><div style="font-family: inherit;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="x1iorvi4 x1pi30zi x1l90r2v x1swvt13" data-ad-comet-preview="message" data-ad-preview="message" id=":r6k:" style="font-family: inherit; padding: 4px 16px 16px;"><div class="x78zum5 xdt5ytf xz62fqu x16ldp7u" style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: -5px; margin-top: -5px;"><div class="xu06os2 x1ok221b" style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-top: 5px;"><span class="x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x1xmvt09 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x xudqn12 x3x7a5m x6prxxf xvq8zen xo1l8bm xzsf02u x1yc453h" color="var(--primary-text)" dir="auto" style="display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.3333; max-width: 100%; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word;"><div class="xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs x126k92a" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Wales Poetry Award 2022 - Winners Announced! <span class="x3nfvp2 x1j61x8r x1fcty0u xdj266r xhhsvwb xat24cr xgzva0m xxymvpz xlup9mm x1kky2od" style="display: inline-flex; font-family: inherit; height: 16px; margin: 0px 1px; vertical-align: middle; width: 16px;"><img alt="🏆" height="16" referrerpolicy="origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/t5d/2/16/1f3c6.png" style="border: 0px;" width="16" /></span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">A huge congratulations to</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="x3nfvp2 x1j61x8r x1fcty0u xdj266r xhhsvwb xat24cr xgzva0m xxymvpz xlup9mm x1kky2od" style="display: inline-flex; font-family: inherit; height: 16px; margin: 0px 1px; vertical-align: middle; width: 16px;"><img alt="🌟" height="16" referrerpolicy="origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/t7f/2/16/1f31f.png" style="border: 0px;" width="16" /></span>First Award winner Kathryn Bevis</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="x3nfvp2 x1j61x8r x1fcty0u xdj266r xhhsvwb xat24cr xgzva0m xxymvpz xlup9mm x1kky2od" style="display: inline-flex; font-family: inherit; height: 16px; margin: 0px 1px; vertical-align: middle; width: 16px;"><img alt="⭐️" height="16" referrerpolicy="origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/t35/2/16/2b50.png" style="border: 0px;" width="16" /></span>Second Award winner Stephanie Green</div><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="x3nfvp2 x1j61x8r x1fcty0u xdj266r xhhsvwb xat24cr xgzva0m xxymvpz xlup9mm x1kky2od" style="display: inline-flex; font-family: inherit; height: 16px; margin: 0px 1px; vertical-align: middle; width: 16px;"><img alt="✨" height="16" referrerpolicy="origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/t75/2/16/2728.png" style="border: 0px;" width="16" /></span>Third Award winner Kit Griffiths</div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="x3nfvp2 x1j61x8r x1fcty0u xdj266r xhhsvwb xat24cr xgzva0m xxymvpz xlup9mm x1kky2od" style="display: inline-flex; font-family: inherit; height: 16px; margin: 0px 1px; vertical-align: middle; width: 16px;"><img alt="💫" height="16" referrerpolicy="origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/t8c/2/16/1f4ab.png" style="border: 0px;" width="16" /></span> And to all of our Highly Commended poets: Guinevere Clark, Lesley Curwen, Jonathan Greenhouse, Gill Gregory, Rae Howells, Anna Kirby, Iris Anne Lewis, Kathy Miles, Frances Roberts-Reilly, and David Walrond</div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">Read their poems here: <span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="x1i10hfl xjbqb8w x6umtig x1b1mbwd xaqea5y xav7gou x9f619 x1ypdohk xt0psk2 xe8uvvx xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r xexx8yu x4uap5 x18d9i69 xkhd6sd x16tdsg8 x1hl2dhg xggy1nq x1a2a7pz xt0b8zv x1fey0fg" href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fpoetrywales.co.uk%2Fwales-poetry-award-2022-winners-announced%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR2TqZvkqjzCT0kdQqocJ15Cv8eFOp6QeIKur6GavFX7WG8ZU6yguXphFDE&h=AT1J1dgVwCy0Fbu3EYXDnZcHsJHSD3aT2dILCHqR9UI3Zm60qcFfXvhLCPB1grzGzSfOkSxrjOv91Kj__AEJkaSgxjwOx5rOm57SiCPlE87gIMlfsj13RkVh4qav9QDjQg&__tn__=-UK-R&c[0]=AT1nq5lgUtZHTyyZshJWY3efe2Fi3sRS-j8G3qIMI_lf4UvzDbcgsqwduVJiW1IilGQCJGyChZmKqXCGEgYjWK0GsuwZX6vfhJlLgeHvowZVJqb4Jc4vGmKaeJIdQz2EP9OM63ik1QzZ_OuN31QgAQo9" rel="nofollow noreferrer" role="link" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-family: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0" target="_blank">https://poetrywales.co.uk/wales-poetry-award-2022.../</a></span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="font-family: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div dir="auto" style="font-family: inherit;">And keep your <span class="x3nfvp2 x1j61x8r x1fcty0u xdj266r xhhsvwb xat24cr xgzva0m xxymvpz xlup9mm x1kky2od" style="display: inline-flex; font-family: inherit; height: 16px; margin: 0px 1px; vertical-align: middle; width: 16px;"><img alt="👀" height="16" referrerpolicy="origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/t67/2/16/1f440.png" style="border: 0px;" width="16" /></span> peeled for the video of the Awarding Ceremony, coming soon to our website and YouTube channel!</div></div></span></div></div></div></div><div class="x1n2onr6" id=":r6l:" style="font-family: inherit; 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box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-height: 1.3333em; outline: none; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: inherit; touch-action: manipulation; user-select: none; z-index: 1;" tabindex="0"><div class="x9f619 x1ja2u2z xzpqnlu x1hyvwdk xjm9jq1 x6ikm8r x10wlt62 x10l6tqk x1i1rx1s" style="box-sizing: border-box; clip-path: inset(50%); clip: rect(0px, 0px, 0px, 0px); font-family: inherit; height: 1px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; width: 1px; z-index: 0;">All reactions:</div><span aria-hidden="true" class="xrbpyxo x6ikm8r x10wlt62 xlyipyv x1exxlbk" style="float: left; font-family: inherit; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; width: 100px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="xt0b8zv x1e558r4" style="font-family: inherit; padding-left: 4px;">33</span></span></span><span class="xt0b8zv x1jx94hy xrbpyxo xl423tq" style="background-color: var(--card-background); float: left; font-family: inherit; margin-left: -100px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="x1e558r4" style="font-family: inherit; padding-left: 4px;">Jenny McRobert, Kathryn Bevis and 31 others</span></span></span><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="x1e558r4" style="font-family: inherit; padding-left: 4px;"><br /></span></span></div></div></span></div></div><div class="x9f619 x1n2onr6 x1ja2u2z x78zum5 x2lah0s x1qughib x1qjc9v5 xozqiw3 x1q0g3np xykv574 xbmpl8g x4cne27 xifccgj" style="align-items: stretch; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #65676b; display: flex; flex-flow: row nowrap; flex-shrink: 0; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; justify-content: space-between; margin: -6px; position: relative; z-index: 0;"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-75509000172094935012023-04-20T15:20:00.008+01:002023-04-24T12:35:48.988+01:00Brodgar poetry/sound walk now called 'Rewilding'.<p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZbAY9QTRALs1MDdlKHQ6QaQP1wi6PjS8k1tr2f1qD0wJeCzFBUu298gDUUYgnSrA1uRGGjHTE6IbemrqnFk_kvPoAQfSrh9U7-LOEDXcIZVnz7hc-KHhebChPk-Cp2Q-GHiUPWButlcYk0fmZH0mrq8WhWgVDZHVXK03bybn5mIjUU-LBxx7O97il/s3072/IMG_2145.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1728" data-original-width="3072" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZbAY9QTRALs1MDdlKHQ6QaQP1wi6PjS8k1tr2f1qD0wJeCzFBUu298gDUUYgnSrA1uRGGjHTE6IbemrqnFk_kvPoAQfSrh9U7-LOEDXcIZVnz7hc-KHhebChPk-Cp2Q-GHiUPWButlcYk0fmZH0mrq8WhWgVDZHVXK03bybn5mIjUU-LBxx7O97il/s320/IMG_2145.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 14.6667px; font-variant-ligatures: none;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 14.6667px; font-variant-ligatures: none;">Delighted that the RSPB will be hosting Sonja Heyer and my Orkney poetry/sound walk, now called 'Rewilding', as part of the Orkney Nature Festival 14th May-21st May, 2023. You can listen in person walking round the Ring of Brodgar and along the path through the RSPB Reserve or listen online from wherever you are. </span></p><p><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 14.6667px; font-variant-ligatures: none;">Due to the wind in Orkney the idea of listening through umbrellas has been jettisoned! Participants will listen through their own headphones.</span></p><p><span style="color: #212121;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-variant-ligatures: none;">Much of the sound work is natural sound recordings (wind, water, birdsong) taken on site or throughout Orkney but we now have some musical additions to the final work including percussive effects by Sonja. Also there is an extract from 'Farewell to Stromness' by Peter Maxwell Davis to a poem warning of the demise of the lapwing, curlews etc. This will have particular resonance to Orcadians and others who know that 'Max' wrote this to protest against proposed uranium mining (1980) that would destroy Stromness - the heavy beat suggests the villagers/refugees leaving their homes. I felt it beautifully fits the potential extinction of various birds and other species on the A List at Brodgar. Thankfully, Stromness was saved, as I hope birds on the endangered list will be too.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #212121;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; font-variant-ligatures: none;">I'm also delighted that local Orcadian, Lucy Alsop, soprano, agreed to sing some verses of 'Ariel's Song' ('where the bees sucks... ' words from Shakespeare's 'The Tempest', music by Thomas Arne) which meld beautifully with a poem about the Great Yellow Bumble Bee (also in danger of extinction.) We've also inserted recordings of Orcadian poet, Ingrid Leonard, pronouncing the Orcadian dialect words for birds. Thanks therefore to my friends, and singer/poets, Lucy and Ingrid.</span></span></p><p><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 14.6667px; font-variant-ligatures: none;">Details of the event will shortly appear on the festival website... here is a wee promo of us doing the research to whet your appetite.</span></p><p><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 14.6667px; font-variant-ligatures: none;"><br /></span></p><p><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 14.6667px; font-variant-ligatures: none;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 14.6667px; font-variant-ligatures: none;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bUk-ANd7PoY" width="320" youtube-src-id="bUk-ANd7PoY"></iframe></span></div><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="color: #212121; font-size: 14.6667px; font-variant-ligatures: none;"><br /></span><p></p><p>Click on <span style="color: #212121; font-size: 14.6667px; font-variant-ligatures: none;"><a href="https://youtu.be/bUk-ANd7PoY">Rewilding research and recording.</a></span></p><p><br /></p>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-62412667380313884532022-08-04T17:25:00.004+01:002022-08-04T19:12:44.066+01:00Brodgar poetry/sound project : 2. Listening Wall<p> <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkDaanWLb_n-LLFP30exWrCgqFmhQMIZMA3koHRLU5uvEimcYVFmO4fMSFHnvh96Lk_B16tdLHY2NgX45djTKeRRD9IBbSs4RIsoLnvhUbnny3aKeQsRMeuESJC2gAIFh67ZnEUmBBQnAhugwqLKwQNCtIobDXMfMN0R9c0fTBl5E4nzz64IFL5XQM/s4000/IMG_20220729_180114.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2992" data-original-width="4000" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkDaanWLb_n-LLFP30exWrCgqFmhQMIZMA3koHRLU5uvEimcYVFmO4fMSFHnvh96Lk_B16tdLHY2NgX45djTKeRRD9IBbSs4RIsoLnvhUbnny3aKeQsRMeuESJC2gAIFh67ZnEUmBBQnAhugwqLKwQNCtIobDXMfMN0R9c0fTBl5E4nzz64IFL5XQM/w499-h239/IMG_20220729_180114.jpg" width="499" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The Listening Wall at the Loons.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfdg_d5dDGy804x_aIKftamuaG9JH93XjLCaOJVeyBT-0iNEhrS95j-UAp6MhOYGiHvBVenaiX8VyAc4ToHhFUFyc_s-jcFujQkK_90aScfLz6IOkHmG5o71VK0AbuiFROwtUoU-wwuLJjBREIYZFQtQJNULFCoJ4SIX6WzS3vTUlp7g1OPYmozmWS/s4000/IMG_20220729_180827.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2992" data-original-width="4000" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfdg_d5dDGy804x_aIKftamuaG9JH93XjLCaOJVeyBT-0iNEhrS95j-UAp6MhOYGiHvBVenaiX8VyAc4ToHhFUFyc_s-jcFujQkK_90aScfLz6IOkHmG5o71VK0AbuiFROwtUoU-wwuLJjBREIYZFQtQJNULFCoJ4SIX6WzS3vTUlp7g1OPYmozmWS/s320/IMG_20220729_180827.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> Sonja recording bird song.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">We had a wonderful few hours at the Listening Wall at the Loons. An extraordinary experience. You have to stand on the 'sweet spot' in the middle of the parabola and amazingly the sounds are magnified. The wall was inspired by the World War II concrete walls dubbed 'listening ears', or acoustic mirrors used along the south coast of England to give early warning of approaching enemy aircraft before they were visible. Radar made them obsolete. http://www.andrewgrantham.co.uk/soundmirrors/ </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn9QI95c6_UYYmmzAALdYf1lt0kD7O0hBLnSdIK0L8EXk2fx7tQr0dGJTs7YnCrjyl7H-7JtnTrjy87ppRQBF6sQoF_hD382M-ePWGp4IMoUvTjKgYI8lnSSY37NS32bjIAsG7l6N5dsmXjdLmM5oZcG1JF2TPrFwh7Ntn9hncIeo0PcyeVWylelws/s4000/IMG_20220729_180906.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2992" data-original-width="4000" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn9QI95c6_UYYmmzAALdYf1lt0kD7O0hBLnSdIK0L8EXk2fx7tQr0dGJTs7YnCrjyl7H-7JtnTrjy87ppRQBF6sQoF_hD382M-ePWGp4IMoUvTjKgYI8lnSSY37NS32bjIAsG7l6N5dsmXjdLmM5oZcG1JF2TPrFwh7Ntn9hncIeo0PcyeVWylelws/s320/IMG_20220729_180906.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><br /><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>The sweet spot.<p></p><p>Here below is Sonja also recording night sounds at Brodgar. What we called her Caspar David Friedrich pose.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDW3j1zFWPrBqYYBZArA7qhQcWadhFqfXRjZyHtAxPrRPN8XCLdO5Qx7R4RSj1wJqJ5jWlT4iIZ9ig8wn4-JsEj54f8EHqJ5h6HtUnf5_9VidTyUeo-53VE5JD5T9_fjYSekwSWWD2OjkSv5v_JOqNUfjI0HdU1PISOKFcv0Wrb29gCYOGK97ylseo/s4000/IMG_20220729_222421.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="2992" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDW3j1zFWPrBqYYBZArA7qhQcWadhFqfXRjZyHtAxPrRPN8XCLdO5Qx7R4RSj1wJqJ5jWlT4iIZ9ig8wn4-JsEj54f8EHqJ5h6HtUnf5_9VidTyUeo-53VE5JD5T9_fjYSekwSWWD2OjkSv5v_JOqNUfjI0HdU1PISOKFcv0Wrb29gCYOGK97ylseo/s320/IMG_20220729_222421.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><br />Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-32236759446465592502022-08-04T17:10:00.001+01:002022-08-04T17:26:40.459+01:00Brodgar poetry/sound: 1. research visit<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZxFY_ksS8M0I1puZvaU_0nEmXtx7IcsWaXff6wYHF9j3uxYBY0q-nwoStqgH3p3tmbFJnltamj6cGvcTB1LNeXPTP0XxNXePQJ4doS0-8vOp4eigyZ6WGIicjLvqW5O0HTr91RBWClDELjvaBuQ7lPJ7w1ulTS7yKIvj_zEsVNx6t6akYyVw3dprz/s4000/IMG_20220727_134941.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2992" data-original-width="4000" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZxFY_ksS8M0I1puZvaU_0nEmXtx7IcsWaXff6wYHF9j3uxYBY0q-nwoStqgH3p3tmbFJnltamj6cGvcTB1LNeXPTP0XxNXePQJ4doS0-8vOp4eigyZ6WGIicjLvqW5O0HTr91RBWClDELjvaBuQ7lPJ7w1ulTS7yKIvj_zEsVNx6t6akYyVw3dprz/s320/IMG_20220727_134941.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Ring of Brodgar, Orkney.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">An inspiring week at the iconic Ring of Brodgar, researching for our poetry/sound project, absorbing the atmosphere, listening to birdsong and other sounds: water, wind and boy was it windy! </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> Sonja (Heyer) took hundreds of recordings (water and inevitably wind) and we decided the route our poetry/sound walk would take - starting at the Ring but then down a side path across the RSPB reserve with the wildflower meadow either side full of the sound of bees down to the loch of Stenness and then back to the Ring - about 25 mins. Of course, if participants want to pause between poems/sounds they can, there's even a bench at the loch, or perhaps some will continue alongside the loch then return by the circular route via the Comet Stone back to the Ring - about an hour's walk.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> The wonderful, enthusiastic and helpful Sarah Money of the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) kindly agreed to meet us at the Reserve to chat to us about their work, in particular, their success in attracting the curlew back to the area - they now have 10 pairs since 2001. This doesn't sound much but is a lot for the land area, the narrow isthmus between two lochs. The curlew is on the Red List, as an endangered species, as is the lapwing which the Brodgar site also attracts. A delicate balance of wetland and grassland is needed plus cattle to keep the grass in check - liasion with local farmers has been paramount. Sarah was thrilled that the rare Great Yellow Bumblee Bee is present in the wild flower meadow and the seeds are later a source of food for many birds in the autumn and winter months. It isn't only birds they protect but all nature.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglcbl-BehP7obkOcCFJdDoeFMv6tZ6d2m8gPpzBjoEKZh6hLCQl2Fm6TF6mLsBmjBNfYcDDkjJo14ai_h8kKoTUJGx-7jxQiJ2_t3VFxibRw8s1W5FQTTHGPlHYxXneYtSI3mfMX32icmW4R757WrdN6PvPSlis4-R9rsCIDRE7Slm2XFYcDkBL3lz/s4000/IMG_20220727_132020.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2992" data-original-width="4000" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglcbl-BehP7obkOcCFJdDoeFMv6tZ6d2m8gPpzBjoEKZh6hLCQl2Fm6TF6mLsBmjBNfYcDDkjJo14ai_h8kKoTUJGx-7jxQiJ2_t3VFxibRw8s1W5FQTTHGPlHYxXneYtSI3mfMX32icmW4R757WrdN6PvPSlis4-R9rsCIDRE7Slm2XFYcDkBL3lz/s320/IMG_20220727_132020.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">View of Ward Hill and Culags across the Loch of Stenness.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCkxo9IgBUyDc9Sj6DG_RRxh5lwLDT9ATG-Rw17XmYgE_CHNZd4gVVtEiE2JsV8VPXcKtTKT3KHa5MCloTrrPWJwkFiq6Ng7L81Ui0KDzz_OOSFfCfulEhWprn59gLjFrIko7_0XcMODoxLeEhumnSIUSNTYEpWn0IEzaIaCsb3Nx-2NJzR1kXVFOb/s4000/IMG_20220729_144736.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2992" data-original-width="4000" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCkxo9IgBUyDc9Sj6DG_RRxh5lwLDT9ATG-Rw17XmYgE_CHNZd4gVVtEiE2JsV8VPXcKtTKT3KHa5MCloTrrPWJwkFiq6Ng7L81Ui0KDzz_OOSFfCfulEhWprn59gLjFrIko7_0XcMODoxLeEhumnSIUSNTYEpWn0IEzaIaCsb3Nx-2NJzR1kXVFOb/s320/IMG_20220729_144736.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Wind in the Reeds</div></div><br /><span style="text-align: center;">I also interviewed the wonderful Sandra Miller of HES (Historic Environment Scotland) who was hugely entertaining about all the theories as to why the Neolithic Ring was built (No one knows) and why Neolithic people came here (No one knows), what was its spiritual or cultural significance (No one knows), were ceremonies, if any, held here (No one knows). OK, you get the picture, but she spoke as someone with an archaeological perspective. She was extremely moving about the Ring's power and why it still draws so many people today. </span><br /> <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmlQQ79tTS9nXbeHf9qfYrnpqA9ClkBB-VaFzwfI44AoSNGaNfetLi7-JXY3fOoZyvx7Mf8ocxhIHii2wvFx5wmhtFyhs615lvwoi6bbOrRREix5vkgUu1XX_YcVdQMM5fPamBbXlpxfy8ROMLts5tfesAaqgmJcWdvrIVr6dLKWGcwYuQ_aawEgPc/s3264/IMG_20220727_132507.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1472" data-original-width="3264" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmlQQ79tTS9nXbeHf9qfYrnpqA9ClkBB-VaFzwfI44AoSNGaNfetLi7-JXY3fOoZyvx7Mf8ocxhIHii2wvFx5wmhtFyhs615lvwoi6bbOrRREix5vkgUu1XX_YcVdQMM5fPamBbXlpxfy8ROMLts5tfesAaqgmJcWdvrIVr6dLKWGcwYuQ_aawEgPc/s320/IMG_20220727_132507.jpg" width="320" /></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div></div> <span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Me and Sonja Heyer <div> at Loch Stenness, Brodgar Reserve.<p></p></div><div><br /></div><div>Next post: more on night sound recordings at Brodgar, and the Listening Wall at the Loons.</div>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-85035724315574293472022-07-02T19:49:00.004+01:002022-07-02T19:54:59.758+01:00Brodgar Poetry/Sound project<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAWt4GTVo-DecSL1nNnC_NZGaNwCk10fo-5JkQ7kgS9eCDironfqLypSqs6v2CbKlu3EOnBhGnbk-IHQJlY4vE0OFB8WGOe13ere9jjDbot-_5QN9RF-1bzCpYfeVkywgcEUYLrb6VAwLmR0b_jq4zbXhoO6nL9s45ks9A2pwtkN5NMIYQJEEhr2rY/s1600/IMG_6290.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAWt4GTVo-DecSL1nNnC_NZGaNwCk10fo-5JkQ7kgS9eCDironfqLypSqs6v2CbKlu3EOnBhGnbk-IHQJlY4vE0OFB8WGOe13ere9jjDbot-_5QN9RF-1bzCpYfeVkywgcEUYLrb6VAwLmR0b_jq4zbXhoO6nL9s45ks9A2pwtkN5NMIYQJEEhr2rY/w640-h480/IMG_6290.JPG" width="640" /></a></div> The Ring of Brodgar, Orkney<p></p><div><br /></div><div>Delighted that Creative Scotland (the arts council) have awarded my collaborator, Sound Artist, Sonja Heyer, and myself a grant to create another poetry/sound aural work, which will be site-specific around the Ring of Brodgar and the nearby RSPB Brodgr nature reserve. Recordings of my poetry to Sonja's natural sound recordings will be designed to be listened to through tiny loudspeakers within transparent umbrellas on a self-directed walk.</div><div><br /></div><div>This follows on from our previous collaboration, 'Berlin Umbrella' the poetry/sound aural walk which launched in Berlin back in 2018 and which also appeared at StAnza in 2020.</div><div><br /></div><div>So we're off mid-July for a week, packing walking boots, binoculars and unfortunately Deet anti-midge spray - though as midges don't like open spaces and wind, we may be safe.</div><div><br /></div><div>We've already had interest from our previous producer in Berlin and several other festivals... watch this space.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiZnJR6HXsNvEn-pEeoCB8b_Z0tXk8M_91uQk6un2nUy5TmVQiyyjTcopItRlI4r96xkAfLw_6HwH5q12MN3HktU4SG04_Pdvzh-xNDBqm3QreBM1B_Nm5M9jeTpLhWMn-CsZd2nRCeZbnS5OsRBMNBQgVZR1_RcxsRvcfT10zisNNuid8ktCWglrsx" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="427" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiZnJR6HXsNvEn-pEeoCB8b_Z0tXk8M_91uQk6un2nUy5TmVQiyyjTcopItRlI4r96xkAfLw_6HwH5q12MN3HktU4SG04_Pdvzh-xNDBqm3QreBM1B_Nm5M9jeTpLhWMn-CsZd2nRCeZbnS5OsRBMNBQgVZR1_RcxsRvcfT10zisNNuid8ktCWglrsx=w266-h400" width="266" /></a></div> Sonja Heyer and myself, Stephanie Green</div><div> with 'Berlin Umbrella' at StAnza, 2020.<br /><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-1524651878709615812022-03-30T13:39:00.000+01:002022-03-30T13:39:32.522+01:00'How I wrote 'To a Humpback Whale'. Poetry Wales interview.<p> <span style="color: #212121; font-family: Lato; font-size: 30px; text-align: center;">Stephanie Green: How I Wrote ‘To a Humpback Whale’</span></p><header class="entry-header" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial; font-size: 16px;"><div class="entry-meta" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; font-size: 17px; margin: auto auto 5px; padding: 0px 20px; text-align: center; width: 1750.78px;"><div class="blog-data-wrapper" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; margin-bottom: 10px; min-height: 24px; position: relative; width: 1710.78px;"><div class="post-data-divider" style="box-sizing: inherit;"></div><div class="post-data-positioning" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="post-data-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; margin: auto auto 5px; padding: 0px 20px;"><span class="posted-on" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #afafaf; font-size: 15px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;">Posted on <a href="https://poetrywales.co.uk/stephanie-green-how-i-wrote-to-a-humpback-whale/" rel="bookmark" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #afafaf; font-family: Alata, sans-serif; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear 0s;"><time class="entry-date published" datetime="2022-03-30T08:13:00+01:00" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 0px;">March 30, 2022</time></a></span><span class="byline" style="box-sizing: inherit; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); color: #afafaf; font-size: 15px; height: 1px; margin-top: 0px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; text-align: left; width: 1px;"></span></div></div></div></div></header><div class="entry-content" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;"><h5 style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial; line-height: 18.592px; margin-bottom: 15px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Interview by Zoë Brigley</h5><h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial; line-height: 26.208px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">So the first few stanzas grew to a joyous Hallelujah, a dramatic climax describing the breach. And then things went horribly wrong.</em></h3><div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; height: 50px;"></div><h3 style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; font-family: Lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial; line-height: 26.208px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">To a Humpback Whale</h3><pre class="wp-block-verse has-text-align-left" style="background: rgb(238, 238, 238); box-sizing: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: 0.9375rem; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 1.6em; max-width: 100%; overflow: auto; padding: 1.6em; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Húsavík, Iceland)</em>
After Cal Freeman
Dear blubber, glorious obesity,
your tubercles like hairy warts.
Dear blur on the sea’s surface
and downward curve of your dorsal fin,
the devil-may-care of your fluke.
Dear breach, stars streaming.
You turn in your slow wave sleep.
Blood warm, breast-feeding,
seraphic flippers, shelter your calf who is
motionless
hanging</pre><div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; height: 50px;"></div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Alata; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word;">It has taken me years to be able to write a poem about whales: not pitting myself against a monster as in Melville’s <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Moby Dick </em>but some sort of encounter expressing awe. However, somehow everything about whales was too vast, too overwhelming to grasp. </p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Alata; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word;">I’d been to Nantucket (off which Moby Dick was hunted) on our honeymoon in 1989 but we did not go on a whale-watching boat trip as we were broke and people said it wasn’t guaranteed to see a whale. My obsession with whales really started when I visited Shetland in 2010 and on many visits thereafter. Everyone seemed to have seen a whale, but not me. (I’ve written in my poem ‘Unst’ (in <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Flout)</em> about not seeing them, but still believing, knowing they were there.) </p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Alata; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word;">I read everything I could find – nonfiction books, the most interesting being ‘Among Whales’ by Roger Payne and Kathleen Jamie’s essay in ‘Sightlines’ but I wanted the experience not just the information. I watched videos online by whale researchers, including the pilot whale massacres on the Faroes, the waters turning red and documentaries about the whale gutting stations in Antarctica. The horror, the gore, the cruelty, all necessary for us to face up to, is not what I wanted to say. Many others have written about this. In Assynt I saw a dead fin whale washed up on the shore. We had to approach upwind as the stench was so revolting. All attempts to describe that experience seemed OTT. No, I had to see a live whale in all its glory.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Alata; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Determined to finally achieve this, a few years ago (before covid) I went to Iceland’s Húsavík, the northern ‘capital’ of whale-watching with its many tourist ships. The experience was mega exciting and I did see several flukes flipping up and smacking the water, and ‘blows’ which were surprisingly not like the fountains one sees in pictures, but rather disappointing like brief vapour trails. The nearest I got to seeing a breach was on a video a couple showed me they’d taken the day before. Some of the tourist boats encircling the whales and closing in on them made me feel uneasy. It seemed too much like harassment, and another form of hunting.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Alata; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word;">But strangely, it was in the atmospheric Húsavík<em style="box-sizing: inherit;"> </em>Whale Museum, which I highly recommend, that I really began to feel I was getting close to whales and understanding them. A large corrugated iron warehouse-like building on the outside, but inside dim lighting and cetacean skeletons suspended from the ceiling made me feel I was walking on the floor of the ocean looking up at these shadowy creatures. Throughout the museum came a haunting cry, the ‘echolocation’ and I followed it to its source – an underwater video of a whale swimming vertically upwards with its calf swimming by its side. It was the adult whale’s eye, still bright though sunk in rings, that transfixed me. It seemed so sorrowful, appealing to me as a mother too, rather than judgmental for all the evil and cruelty humankind has done (and continues) to do to whales. I know this is all my imagination. All non-human animals are ‘other’ and unknowable (who can read a cat’s eyes?) but with whales, their huge size, the depths they can sink to, the gulf is almost but not quite impassable. Being mammals, they seem very much like us, almost cousins.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Alata; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word;">The catalyst for writing my ‘To a Humpback Whale’ was reading Cal Freeman’s poem ‘Epistle to a Dray Horse’ (<em style="box-sizing: inherit;">The Moth</em>, Issue 27, Winter, 2016) in which there’s a ritualistic chant of ‘Dear…’ repeated several times addressed to a part of his subject’s anatomy or other aspect. Hence my ‘Dear blubber..’ and so on. Earlier drafts had more ‘dears’ in. My crit group thought I was overdoing it but I wanted the feeling of a prayer of praise. I did not copy his title word ‘Epistle’ as I wanted to be more intimate. The word ’blubber’ is so hilarious it led to my ‘glorious obesity’. I wanted to be playful – thanks to workshops with Jen Hadfield where she’d overcome the self-doubt I had been experiencing by encouraging us to just have fun and play with words. Seeing a whale breaching is a joyous, playful experience. Also I’d heard Gillian Clarke say all poems should have a ‘Howl or a Hallelujah’.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Alata; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word;">So the first few stanzas grew to a joyous Hallelujah, a dramatic climax describing the breach. And then things went horribly wrong. Determined to cram in everything I knew about whales: their immensity, the depths they can go down to, the annual trawl between Atlantic to the Antarctic or Pacific and back again, the sound of their echolocation travelling for hundreds of miles…and even their extraordinary evolution from land animal with hooves like a sheep or deer, to transformation into the sea-mammal we know. The poem was dead. Poems are not Wiki info dumps my husband, my first reader, so rightly said. So all of that came out again. (Some of it for other poems?)</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Alata; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word;">I needed to focus. I wanted a Howl as well as a Hallelujah. At last I decided on the main issue concerning whales: their imminent extinction if humankind continues its reckless treatment of the ocean. So the celebration should be followed by a lament, not a rant. </p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Alata; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word;">This last verse took the longest to write, many drafts over 2-3 years. I did not want to spell it out, but leave the reader to work out why the calf was motionless and I hope the realisation that it is dead comes as a shock. But at the Seamus Heaney Summer School I attended, some students wanted to know precisely what had killed it. So I spelt it out. But in a subsequent workshop with Jen Hadfield she convinced me that the info should be omitted: poems should not explain themselves, corroborated by yet a further workshop with Genevieve Stevens. So in this final version, I hope it is intriguing enough to throw up many ideas in the reader’s imagination so that the poem and the fate of whale calves resonates long after the poem has been read and perhaps will inspire readers to do their own research on whale calf deaths. </p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Alata; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word;">The word ‘hanging’ I left surrounded by white space so that the verse structure visually echoes the meaning. I also omitted a full-stop at the end of the last verse intentionally so the poem too is left hanging.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Alata; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word;">I once saw a video of Picasso ‘drawing’ with light – the creature suggested in one sweep, no going back or corrections. This is the effect I hope I have achieved: a dramatic sweep from joyous start to devastating end, as if all written in a spontaneous outburst, no hint of the years of thought, work and rewrites that actually went into it.</p><div aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-spacer" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; height: 50px;"></div><hr class="wp-block-separator" style="background-color: #cccccc; border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-image: initial; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top-color: initial; border-top-style: solid; box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin-bottom: 1.5em;" /><h6 style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Lato, lato, "helvetica neue", helvetica, arial; line-height: 15.008px; margin-bottom: 15px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Stephanie Green’s poetry pamphlets are ‘Glass Works’ short-listed for the Callum McDonald Award, 2005 and ‘Flout’ (HappenStance, 2015). ‘Berlin Umbrella’ a poetry/sound collaboration with Sonja Heyer launched in Berlin, 2018 and at StAnza in 2020. She lived in Powys for 13 years before moving in 2000 to Edinburgh where she is also a Dance critic. <a href="http://www.stephaniegreen.org.uk/" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: black; font-family: Alata, sans-serif; transition: all 0.1s linear 0s;" target="_blank">www.stephaniegreen.org.uk/</a></h6></div>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-12639496459810262812022-03-06T17:30:00.000+00:002022-03-06T17:30:31.133+00:00Ziphius in the Honest Ulsterman <p> <a href="http://theverbal.co/" id="verbal-logo-link" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; content: " "; display: inline !important; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; height: 50px; left: 0px; 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line-height: 20px; text-shadow: none;">Ziphius or Xiphius</li></ul></div><div class="span9" style="float: left; margin-left: 20px; min-height: 1px; width: 538px;"><div class="poem-wrapper" style="background-color: white; padding: 20px;"><div class="row-fluid" style="width: 498px;"><div class="span2" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 30px; width: 71.5312px;"><img alt="Stephanie Green" src="https://humag.co/assets/uploads/images/authors/author_1044_62137c3792941-120x120.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></div><div class="span10" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; margin-left: 13.75px; min-height: 30px; width: 412.703px;"><h3 style="color: black; font-family: inherit; font-size: 24.5px; line-height: 1; margin: 10px 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Ziphius or Xiphius</h3></div><div class="span10 offset2" style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; margin-left: 99.0469px; min-height: 30px; 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line-height: initial; margin-bottom: 5px; padding: 0px 2px; text-decoration-line: none; width: auto;" title="Facebook"><span class="at-icon-wrapper" style="background-color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 16px; line-height: 16px; overflow: hidden; width: 16px;"><svg alt="Facebook" aria-labelledby="at-svg-facebook-6" class="at-icon at-icon-facebook" role="img" style="height: 16px; width: 16px;" title="Facebook" version="1.1" viewbox="0 0 32 32" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><g><path d="M22 5.16c-.406-.054-1.806-.16-3.43-.16-3.4 0-5.733 1.825-5.733 5.17v2.882H9v3.913h3.837V27h4.604V16.965h3.823l.587-3.913h-4.41v-2.5c0-1.123.347-1.903 2.198-1.903H22V5.16z" fill-rule="evenodd"></path></g></svg></span></a><div class="atclear" style="clear: both;"></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="poem-content"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"> </p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;">(Inspired by a mythological sea-monster on the Map of Ortelius,1590, </p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"> Akureyri Museum, Iceland.)</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;">An ectoplasmic blob morphs</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;">into a white wimple and black veil</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;">haunting the dark waters of the dormitory.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Head a beaked orca, telling</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;">her beads, teeth clacking on bones,</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;">as she rocks back and forth.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Behind her back, we snigger at the hairs</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;">on her chin, her Irish accent, the way</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;">the teaching nuns <i>parlent Français</i></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;">because she doesn’t understand.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Only fit for laundry and night-time supervision,</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;">she glides down the rows of our beds.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Caught talking after lights-out, I’m hauled</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;">to the corridor to stand shivering and sweating.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Her face in mine. Eyes bore into me.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><br /></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;">She swipes my head with the back of a hairbrush</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;">as if scouring the bristles off a hog</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;">and it’s all my fault.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><br /></p></div><div class="share-this" style="margin-top: 60px;">Share Via: <div class="poem-share addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style " style="display: inline-block; margin-left: 5px;"><a class="addthis_button_compact at300m" href="https://humag.co/#" style="color: black; cursor: pointer; float: right; line-height: initial; margin-bottom: 5px; padding: 0px 2px; text-decoration-line: none; width: auto;"><span class="at-icon-wrapper" style="background-color: #ff6550; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 16px; line-height: 16px; overflow: hidden; width: 16px;"><svg alt="More" aria-labelledby="at-svg-addthis-2" class="at-icon at-icon-addthis" role="img" style="height: 16px; 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float: left; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 30px; width: 242.117px;"><img src="https://humag.co/assets/uploads/images/authors/author_1044_62137c3792941-450x450.jpg" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></div><div class="span6" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: white; float: left; margin-left: 13.75px; min-height: 30px; padding: 20px 10px; width: 242.117px;"><h4 class="author-box" style="background-color: black; display: inline-block; font-family: Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic; line-height: 1; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 4px 5px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; width: auto;">Stephanie Green</h4><br /><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;">Stephanie Green is English/Irish, with a BA in English from Trinity College Dublin (1970) and MPhil in C/W from Glasgow University (2004). Her poetry pamphlets are ‘Glass Works’ (Cat’s Pyjamas Publications, 2005) shortlisted for the Callum McDonald Award and ‘Flout’ (HappenStance, 2015) launched at StAnza. ‘Berlin Umbrella’ poetry/sound walk, a collaboration with Sound Artist, Sonja Heyer launched in Berlin in 2018 and at StAnza, 2020. In 2020 she participated online in the Seamus Heaney Centre Summer School. She lives in Edinburgh and also reviews Dance. <a href="http://www.stephaniegreen.org.uk/" style="color: black; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">www.stephaniegreen.org.uk/</a></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px;"><br /></p></div></div></div></div><div class="span3" style="float: left; margin-left: 20px; min-height: 1px; width: 166px;"><div class="row" style="margin-left: -20px;"><div class="span3 sidebar-feature" style="float: left; margin-left: 20px; min-height: 1px; width: 166px;"><a class="section-header" href="https://humag.co/features" style="background-color: black; color: white; display: block; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, "Lucida Sans Typewriter", "Lucida Typewriter", monospace; font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 35px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="Feature" src="https://humag.co/assets/img/design/features_normal.png" style="border: 0px; height: auto; margin-left: 10px; max-width: 100%; padding-top: 2px; 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height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /> company<br /><span class="copy-text" style="font-style: italic;">Copyright © 2022 <strong style="font-style: normal;">Honest Ulsterman</strong></span></div><div class="contact span4" style="float: left; margin-left: 20px; min-height: 1px; width: 228px;"><address style="line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px;">Verbal Arts Centre<br />Stable Lane and Mall Wall, Bishop<br />Street Within, Londonderry, BT48 6PU</address></div><div class="contact span4" style="float: left; margin-left: 20px; min-height: 1px; width: 228px;">Tel: <a href="tel:02871266946" style="color: white; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank" title="">028 7126 6946</a><br />Email: <a href="mailto:hueditor@theverbal.co" style="color: white; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" title="">hueditor@theverbal.co</a></div></div></div></footer>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-19227641427841673512021-11-28T19:46:00.004+00:002021-11-28T19:58:49.426+00:00The Great Auk on Papa Westray plus COP 26<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bqeeT-10Vnw/YaPcdmHg0tI/AAAAAAAAmWU/0yLBhwSY_kU0MxQMrLX0TJ5Kvx65bFPJQCPcBGAsYHg/s4000/IMG_20210922_161029.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="2992" height="449" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bqeeT-10Vnw/YaPcdmHg0tI/AAAAAAAAmWU/0yLBhwSY_kU0MxQMrLX0TJ5Kvx65bFPJQCPcBGAsYHg/w335-h449/IMG_20210922_161029.jpg" width="335" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p>During my last visit to Papa Westray I also saw in the Kelp Store a papier mache sculpture of the Great Auk, the last one killed on Papay in the 19th c so that it's now extinct. One was killed on St Kildan sea stack in 1840. I've written a poem 'Stac an Armin' about the St Kildan killing published first some time ago, and I'm very pleased it was also chosen to be performed at Dove Tales latest online event 'Mourning our Planet?' (which took place during Glasgow's COP 26). The pamphlet will be published shortly.</p><div><br /></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-e32b97fe-7fff-a4b5-091e-4f2131292b2d"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stac an Armin (July, 1840) </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On its lower rocks, a strange creature,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">a little taller than our knees,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">awaited us, her nose like a grooved beak,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">her arms, draped in black, by her sides.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">She dived and flew underwater,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">elegant and sleek. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hauling herself out, she shuffled </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">skliff, sklaff</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A curiosity. We'd show her off</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">back home. It was easy.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lassooed, we thrust her,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">squawking into a stone cleit. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A witch-storm blew up,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">sea and sky lost in one</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">howling blackness </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">as she cursed us from her cell. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One man picked up a stone </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and squeezed inside. From outside, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">we listened to the cries and thumps.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As the screaming rose, we stopped our ears.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">He crawled out, bleeding and torn.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A second man entered with another stone</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and crawled out bleeding and torn.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And a third man entered with another stone.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And a fourth man entered with another stone.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And so it went on until all seven,</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">apart from me, had entered the cell</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and crawled back, bleeding and torn. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The witch grew quiet, her cries plaintive. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Entering her cell, I held her down</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and felt her warm, feathery breast</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">flutter, as I raised the last stone.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Stephanie Green</span></p><br /><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Highly commended in the Poetry on the lake competition, 2012; First published by Orbis, 2013.</span></p><br /></span></div><div><br /></div>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-6676730301321169382021-09-22T19:12:00.006+01:002021-11-28T19:53:40.712+00:00Papa Westray (Papay)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v3pIpkANvcU/YaPSaJ7FaZI/AAAAAAAAmVc/Q-a3DHCU8bUbFPIazdwvqBSKiGiKZVh0ACPcBGAsYHg/s4000/IMG_20210921_154325.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2992" data-original-width="4000" height="239" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v3pIpkANvcU/YaPSaJ7FaZI/AAAAAAAAmVc/Q-a3DHCU8bUbFPIazdwvqBSKiGiKZVh0ACPcBGAsYHg/s320/IMG_20210921_154325.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /> The Maes Howe dragon painted on a green slurry bin,<div> Papa Westray<p></p><p><br /></p><p>My 4th visit to Papay as the locals call it. Mist and rain. But in one clear spell I managed to pay my respects to the 'sights': the dragon on Holland Farm's slurry bin, of course; </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wa2rF6kKRFg/YaPUcR49L9I/AAAAAAAAmVw/KpcbtSCb8GcFJDVQFdm4o-DFNqU4bwXhACPcBGAsYHg/s4000/IMG_20210921_155634.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2992" data-original-width="4000" height="239" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wa2rF6kKRFg/YaPUcR49L9I/AAAAAAAAmVw/KpcbtSCb8GcFJDVQFdm4o-DFNqU4bwXhACPcBGAsYHg/s320/IMG_20210921_155634.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Knap of Howe</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">also a walk to the Neolithc Knap Howe, the oldest extant house in Europe, older than Scara Brae on Orkney mainland and without the hordes of tourists. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RTbEAzyLpRI/YaPUMlHJ-OI/AAAAAAAAmVo/80qgWFTmS-g0H1AGQtfh-a280kfYIJYvwCPcBGAsYHg/s4000/IMG_20210920_165220.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="2992" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RTbEAzyLpRI/YaPUMlHJ-OI/AAAAAAAAmVo/80qgWFTmS-g0H1AGQtfh-a280kfYIJYvwCPcBGAsYHg/s320/IMG_20210920_165220.jpg" width="239" /></a></div> Mobile by Kerrianne Flett,<div> exhibition in the Kelp Store, Papa Westray.</div><div><br /></div><div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Also walked to the Kelp Store, now a Heritage Centre, and found an inspiring art exhibition by young art graduates from all over Orkney. My favourite was a mobile hanging from the ceiling, with tiny porcelain hands on fishing wire. Made during lockdown, I found it very poignant, and that the artist was maybe thinking of the sense of touch, which we were not allowed to do, to so many loved ones.</span></div><br /></div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div><br /><p> </p></div></div>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-74114827967506804702021-09-17T20:08:00.002+01:002021-11-28T19:25:49.269+00:00Stir Crazy and Trip to North Ronaldsay, Orkney<p> Going stir crazy, hearing about other people's 'staycations' (What a ghastly word). <span face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Got away at last - staying within Scotland much safer than chancing trains where no one wears masks the English side of the border (Are they mad?!). </span></p><p><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">So off to North Ronaldsay, Orkney's northernmost isle, staying at the Obs (Bird Observatory). V. excited twitchers here announcing what they've seen - vagrant rarities (migration from Scandinavia, Russia and Greenland in progress. Two hen harriers and, <br />most excitingly not birds but a pod of 6 orcas (killer whales). Sadly I did not see latter. But I did learn how to sing to the seals. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CiqUoU_ktHc/YaFA4yz2SbI/AAAAAAAAmVE/wo2oaRKipHw6yzBiX9Gg6-i3nAVqs_jBwCPcBGAsYHg/s4000/IMG_20210916_164317.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2992" data-original-width="4000" height="239" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CiqUoU_ktHc/YaFA4yz2SbI/AAAAAAAAmVE/wo2oaRKipHw6yzBiX9Gg6-i3nAVqs_jBwCPcBGAsYHg/s320/IMG_20210916_164317.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The Obs. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HI5X7XS1RMs/YaFBgEydcXI/AAAAAAAAmVM/-1mkSYrF-Codd5WXwiVgT3TzT5Af-V50QCPcBGAsYHg/s4000/IMG_20210918_143652.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="2992" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HI5X7XS1RMs/YaFBgEydcXI/AAAAAAAAmVM/-1mkSYrF-Codd5WXwiVgT3TzT5Af-V50QCPcBGAsYHg/s320/IMG_20210918_143652.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>N. Ronaldsay lighthouse (with red and white stripes) built by, you guessed it, Robert Louis Stevenson's uncle. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">It rained apart from one day when I did walk the entire length of the island and back (6 miles) to reach the lighthouse. But I was there to write as much as to walk so lucky to have a wee alcove off my bedroom where they let me set up a table (borrowed from the outdoor bar) and desk lamp. Perfect. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uTi9YWPoVc0/YaPXg1XOJaI/AAAAAAAAmV8/-_Haar-7F-kyCwsxTUAMSsQ3-MzV11EdwCPcBGAsYHg/s4000/IMG_20210918_100922.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="2992" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uTi9YWPoVc0/YaPXg1XOJaI/AAAAAAAAmV8/-_Haar-7F-kyCwsxTUAMSsQ3-MzV11EdwCPcBGAsYHg/s320/IMG_20210918_100922.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;">And below is a photo of the famous N. Ronaldsay sheep who feed off kelp on the sea shore, kept on the beach by a stone dyke (wall). It's supposed to have a distinctive taste so I couldn't resist the temptation when mutton was on the menu. Hmm. Very strong, and game-like and quite chewy but delicious. </span><br /><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NiCwWj2A-fc/YaFAHJT6f5I/AAAAAAAAmU8/5Ff0s2cYguc230OzguV4BxH9iHanSxIfQCPcBGAsYHg/s4000/IMG_20210916_172636.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2992" data-original-width="4000" height="239" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NiCwWj2A-fc/YaFAHJT6f5I/AAAAAAAAmU8/5Ff0s2cYguc230OzguV4BxH9iHanSxIfQCPcBGAsYHg/s320/IMG_20210916_172636.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-29278858479524433312021-09-04T19:19:00.003+01:002021-11-28T21:04:08.559+00:00PoetryLit Anniversary<p><br /></p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pWul9Dc6DVc/YaPui0-V1cI/AAAAAAAAmWo/BJahUu-du_objHRcT_2D8-wTPVhAC1OlACLcBGAsYHQ/s500/117238518_611314519526059_4871667991116564286_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="500" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pWul9Dc6DVc/YaPui0-V1cI/AAAAAAAAmWo/BJahUu-du_objHRcT_2D8-wTPVhAC1OlACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/117238518_611314519526059_4871667991116564286_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><br />And here we are, our first Anniversary! In September, 2020, partly to counteract lockdown blues, I became involved with POETRYLIT, an online monthly poetry reading event (first Friday of every month). <br /><div>POETRYLIT has two Featured Poets - the criteria is the poet must have at least one pamphlet published - many have a collection or more published by reputable publisher (not self-published). The Featured Poets have 10 mins each. These are followed by 5-6 Open Mic spots (5 mins each). The founder and M.C., Milla Van Der Have, creates a wonderfully welcoming atmosphere. </div><div><br /></div><div>Milla and I met at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland (a writers' and artists' centre). She is Dutch but writes poetry in English. I liked Milla's warm and enthusiastic personality, so mainly to support her, when I heard about her plans for PoetryLit I started off doing an open mic, then got invited to be a Featured Poet. A request for suggestions for writers led to me offering so many that Milla asked me to be co-curator. This might explain why so many of the poets are Scotland-based (where I am) but also we have many from Ireland, the UK and USA, and occasionally poets (English-speaking) from other countries such as Spain, and to come, Italy and Norway. It has proved immensely popular and our open micers and audience are global, spanning UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Alaska, the Philippines, India and South Africa. <p> So to celebrate our first anniversary we had a special extended event with 3 instead of the usual two Featured Poets, starring the extraordinary MacGillivray (aka Kirsten Norris). Milla and I as hosts also read one poem each and there was an extended number of open mics.</p><p>Do register to watch online. It's fun, stimulating, inspiring and at times, moving. See https://www.facebook.com/PoetryLit to see who the up and coming poets will be. Then you must register on Eventbrite to get sent the Zoom link. </p><p>NB It starts at 7pm GMT. ( Don't be confused by Eventbrite listing 8pm CEST. That is the Netherlands time where Milla is based.)</p><p> And you can scroll down the FB page to see the fantastic line-ups we've had so far.</p><p><br /></p></div>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-50901712382394532602021-02-03T13:25:00.000+00:002021-02-03T13:25:22.521+00:00Grimsey Island video at Channel launch<p> Delighted to have my poem 'Grimsey Island' accepted in the ecopoetry magazine Channel, Issue 3. The poem is about global warming and the effect on the bird-life on Grimsey Island, on the edge of the Arctic Circle.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>For more info and to watch the whole Issue 3 launch, click on: </p><p><a href="https://channelmag.org/">Channel Magazine </a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-74703825320831390332020-08-31T17:08:00.001+01:002020-11-07T17:13:47.837+00:00<p> Podcast of Seamus Heaney Centre Summer School Students, 2020</p><p><br /></p><div class="mbl" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0e2c2c; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 2rem;"><span class="js-time" data-epochtime="1598905372" style="box-sizing: border-box;">31 Aug, 21:22</span></div><div class="left-column" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0e2c2c; float: left; font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; padding-right: 1em; width: 580.797px;"><div class="detail-page-image--clip-with-image" data-detail-page-advert-width-sizing-element="1" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div data-auto-play-primary-item="1" data-new-clip-store="{"clips":[{"clipURLPriorToLoading":"https://audioboom.com/posts/7671653-showcase-episode-poetry-summer-school-2020.mp3","clipId":7671653,"image":{"id":36964881,"averageColor":"#aae2fa","format":"jpg"},"waveUrl":"https://images.theabcdn.com/i/w/8721193","staticLink":"https://audioboom.com/posts/7671653-showcase-episode-poetry-summer-school-2020","downloadURL":null,"title":"Showcase Episode: Poetry Summer School 2020","formattedDescription":"<p>In this episode, we hear some of the new poems made during our annual Poetry Summer School, which is led by Nick Laird. The Summer School ran online for the first time this year, and so instead of reading their work to an audience in Belfast, participants in this year’s summer school have each recorded a poem or two in their own homes, for a virtual Summer School Showcase.</p>\n<div>Featuring new work by Genevieve Stevens, Steven Blythe, Alanna Offield, Kevin O'Farrell, Grace Tower, Lorraine Carey, Tim Dwyer, Rebecca Farmer, Sinead Nolan, Iain Whiteley, Rachel Donati, Julia Wieting, Tom Day, Dide, Stephanie Green, and Erin Vance. With a personal note from Nick Laird. <br><br>The Seamus Heaney Poetry Summer School is an annual intensive week of study for emerging poets, hosted by the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s, and led by Professor Nick Laird. </div><div><br></div><div>The Seamus Heaney Centre Podcast is created in a small back room by Ian Sansom, Stephen Sexton, and Rachel Brown. This episode was produced by Conor McCafferty. Thanks as always to our writers, and to Nick Boyle for his music.</div>","author":"The Seamus Heaney Centre Podcast","embedDisabled":false,"duration":2642.49,"recordedAtTs":1598905372}],"playlistURL":null,"shareTemplates":{"twitter":{"popup":{"popup":"twitter;width=550,height=420","name":"twitter"},"url":"https://twitter.com/share?lang=en&text=%3CCLIPTITLE%3E&url=%3CCLIPURL%3E%3Futm_campaign%3Ddetailpage%26utm_content%3Dretweet%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dtwitter"},"facebook":{"popup":{"popup":"facebook;width=626,height=436","name":"facebook"},"url":"https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=%3CCLIPURL%3E%3Futm_campaign%3Ddetailpage%26utm_content%3Dretweet%26utm_medium%3Dsocial%26utm_source%3Dfacebook"}},"pageId":"detail_page_7671653"}" id="detail-page-player-react-container" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="pos-rel" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><div class="pos-rel" data-ad-container="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative;"><div class="pb-square pos-rel of-hid" style="background-color: #aae2fa; 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margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 13px; position: relative; word-break: break-word;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;">In this episode, we hear some of the new poems made during our annual Poetry Summer School, which is led by Nick Laird. The Summer School ran online for the first time this year, and so instead of reading their work to an audience in Belfast, participants in this year’s summer school have each recorded a poem or two in their own homes, for a virtual Summer School Showcase.</p><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">Featuring new work by Genevieve Stevens, Steven Blythe, Alanna Offield, Kevin O'Farrell, Grace Tower, Lorraine Carey, Tim Dwyer, Rebecca Farmer, Sinead Nolan, Iain Whiteley, Rachel Donati, Julia Wieting, Tom Day, Dide, Stephanie Green, and Erin Vance. With a personal note from Nick Laird. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The Seamus Heaney Poetry Summer School is an annual intensive week of study for emerging poets, hosted by the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s, and led by Professor Nick Laird. </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Seamus Heaney Centre Podcast is created in a small back room by Ian Sansom, Stephen Sexton, and Rachel Brown. This episode was produced by Conor McCafferty. Thanks as always to our writers, and to Nick Boyle for his music.</div></div></div><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://audioboom.com/posts/7671653-showcase-episode-poetry-summer-school-2020" target="_blank">SHSC podcast 2020</a><br /></p>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-77928537015137655512020-08-20T16:34:00.005+01:002020-08-20T16:39:34.079+01:00Writers' Rooms, Seamus Heaney Summer School participants<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fSsgHRyH-LQ/Xz6W5-ISnWI/AAAAAAAAkXc/b2TRc4VcPMEEqfeSIa88baIOCQv6om8hgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_6926%2BSteph%2BGreen%2527s%2Bwork%2Bspace.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fSsgHRyH-LQ/Xz6W5-ISnWI/AAAAAAAAkXc/b2TRc4VcPMEEqfeSIa88baIOCQv6om8hgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/IMG_6926%2BSteph%2BGreen%2527s%2Bwork%2Bspace.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><h2 class="alt" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #d6000d; font-family: brandontext, helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.75rem; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 0.75rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Writers' Rooms(Seamus Heaney Summer School)</h2><h2 class="alt" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #d6000d; font-family: brandontext, helvetica, roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.75rem; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 0.75rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">Stephanie Green</h2><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #2f2f2f; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px 0px 1.111rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">"I began to appreciate the qualities of a wide range of poetry styles, and also to see that I should stop trying to write like other people but to write like myself." </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #2f2f2f; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px 0px 1.111rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">We're dancing in the kitchen with Steph, as she tells us about her writing plans and memories of the Summer School. </p><div class="tm_image-text-expander__content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; color: #2f2f2f; font-family: "open sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px 0px 1.111rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit;">Where are we? <span class="Apple-converted-space" style="box-sizing: inherit;"> <br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></span></span>In a corner of our kitchen in Edinburgh. This is where I type up on the computer or have Zoom/Teams calls. The danger is my husband coming in and asking if I’d like a cuppa - the man from Porlock, so I use our son’s former bedroom for concentrated writing where I am undisturbed and there is no wifi link to tempt me. This bedroom has become a junk room since our son left home. I’m far too ashamed to show you a photo of the piles of old chairs, towers of books and files on the floor and the tiny walk-way I squeeze through to get to my desk-space, an old table. I thought I would get to grips with it during lockdown but one day of it was so depressing I gave up. I kept thinking I could be writing a poem instead.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px 0px 1.111rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit;">What are you working on?<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></span>I am editing/rewriting poems that were discussed in the Summer School workshops or in 1-1s. I am polishing poems that will go in my first collection ‘The Further North’ (working title), poems inspired by landscape, history, folklore and myth of Shetland, Orkney, St Kilda and Iceland. I also have a completely different second collection about half way there: ekphrastic poems, colour (as in paintings), and women reclaiming herstory or the male gaze. I usually work on several collections at once (like Monet, though mine are worked on over several months not in the same day.)</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px 0px 1.111rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit;">What’s that over there?<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></span>That is a Balanese shadow puppet, Tuban, a comedy character which I bought in Bali whilst researching <em style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit;">wayang kulit </em>(shadow puppetry) and sacred dance. Tuban’s jaw can be manipulated to open and shut.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px 0px 1.111rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit;">What’s that sound?<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></span>It could be the fridge, my husband munching toast, or the cacophony of seagulls, and magpies from the garden. I don’t mind the pigeons and pretend their cooing is doves.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px 0px 1.111rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit;">Time for a break…?<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></span>Sitting on the bench in the sun (if any) in my tiny garden with a cuppa or weeding (a meditative activity) - aware I’m so lucky to have this Hortus Conclusis. After lunch, I go for a walk in the nearby grounds of a former lunatic asylum, (appropriate as we all feel a little mad now). I used to wade through a lake of buttercups during lockdown but now sadly mown as council workers return. If gales (which we seem to have more of this summer) I might do Tai Chi or just dance around the kitchen open space to something inspiring. At the moment, it’s Jamie Callum or ‘María de Buenos Aires’, Piazzolla’s tango operetta. I used to go to Contemporary Dance classes at Dancebase in the Grassmarket, Edinburgh but since lockdown, the kitchen has had to do. I don’t write in the eves as that way lies insomnia. Instead we watch telly/Netflix/Google Play together - the brilliant ‘My Brilliant Friend’ at the moment.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px 0px 1.111rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit;">Was there a particularly striking moment during the Summer School?<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></span>Fellow students in the group workshop critiques were both incisive and uplifting and I was grateful for the time they must have spent preparing. I began to appreciate the qualities of a wide range of poetry styles and also to see that I should stop trying to write like other people but to write like myself - I don’t mean stop reading and learning from others - and also how to push my own writing to be more arresting.</p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px 0px 1.111rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit;">What's next for your writing?<br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></span>I hope to get my first collection published. </p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px 0px 1.111rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><br /></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px 0px 1.111rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">To see other Writers' Rooms click on <a href="https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/seamus-heaney-centre/study/poetry-summer-school/SummerSchool2020/?fbclid=IwAR1WWD09qvDDJoBp0pEezTv9Q7Z4fxcXjnCNsrflERFd6a8lEgidXTbH9KQ#d.en.984130">Writers'Rooms</a></p></div>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-86077847333681667392020-08-09T16:49:00.009+01:002020-08-20T16:59:36.745+01:00New Boots and Pantisocracies<header class="entry-header" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: "gentium basic", georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 20px;"><h1 class="entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #283d4b; font-family: "open sans", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 0.67em;">New Boots and Pantisocracies website:</h1><h1 class="entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #283d4b; font-family: "open sans", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 0.67em;">Postcards From Malthusia DAY ONE HUNDRED – Stephanie Green</h1><div class="entry-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "open sans", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><span class="posted-on" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="https://newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2020/08/07/postcards-from-malthusia-day-one-hundred-stephanie-green/" rel="bookmark" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;"><time class="entry-date published" datetime="2020-08-07T14:00:28+01:00" style="box-sizing: border-box;">August 7, 2020</time></a></span> <span class="byline" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; margin-right: 10px;"><span class="author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><a class="url fn n" href="https://newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/author/azjackson/" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">azjackson</a></span></span> <span class="entry-categories" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-right: 10px;"><a href="https://newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/" rel="category tag" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #3d3d3d; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out 0s;">Uncategorized</a></span></div></header><div class="entry-content" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: "gentium basic", georgia, "times new roman", times, serif; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px 0px 30px;"><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #283d4b; font-family: "open sans", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; margin: 1em 0px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Desire Paths</span></h3><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">(Craighouse, Edinburgh, June 2020)</em></p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;"> </p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;">Few people used to come here – the grounds</p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;">of the former lunatic asylum: joggers, the elderly</p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;">but they kept to the tarmac round the edge.</p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;"> </p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;">But now, as May turns into June, buttercups</p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;">like a bright lake darken with currents, trails</p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;">criss-crossing the expanse of unmown grass.</p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;"> </p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;">Let out for their allotted hour, small kids burst</p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;">into the open space – whooping and screaming,</p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;">running wild – their parents indulgent.</p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;"> </p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;">We tread our separate desires: the lonely,</p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;">longing for touch, keeping their distance as they pound</p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;">their griefs into the grass to the soil beneath</p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;"> </p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;">or let the eyes relax at the long views,</p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;">a respite from crouching over screens,</p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;">to the views of Arthur’s Seat or the Firth of Forth</p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;"> </p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;">where we cannot go, or even on the distant horizon,</p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;">when the haze clears, to the triangle of Berwick’s Law</p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;">where I have never desired to go, until now.</p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;"><br /></p><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;">To see more poems chosen for this project, see Bill Herbert and Andy Jackson's <a href="https://newbootsandpantisocracies.wordpress.com/2020/08/07/postcards-from-malthusia-day-one-hundred-stephanie-green/?fbclid=IwAR0ASX34_YADjos9xFat18OOys-3xn0YO8BUPDphTr1i1N8ydCLWFlDtRRo">New Boots and Pantisocracies</a></p><header class="entry-header" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h1 class="entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #283d4b; font-family: "open sans", helvetica, arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px 0px 0.67em;"><br /></h1></header><p data-adtags-visited="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px;"> </p></div>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-40055468826914973172020-07-25T19:22:00.000+01:002021-11-28T22:17:45.276+00:00Lockdown Blues from dark to light<p><br /> At the start of the first lockdown (end March, 2020) I did not write about the pandemic or lockdown; I found it hard to write at all. It was all too vast a subject and I was too ignorant. I was also filled with fury - at the unnecessary deaths of care-workers and their patients in care homes, and staff in hospitals all because they did not have the proper PPE. </p><p></p><p>But eventually here is how I coped and I hope some ideas that will help others:</p><p>Tips for keeping your poetic flow going:</p><p>keeping your spirits up</p><p>but also cheering occupations outwith your usual:</p><p>For me, in July it was an eco-poetry course with Jen Hadfield (online via Moniack Mhor, Scotland's writing centre) - a new way of looking and writing poetry - slow poetry, writing about your back garden, or your window box if that's all you have;</p><p>this echoed nicely the practice of Tai Chi and then Yoga (tutored online by my friend, and fellow poet, Trish (Patricia) Ace. A way to keep flexible, calm and meditative.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div> I also studied Chinese art history and culture online via the City Lit and British Museum, picking up a bit of Mandarin, pinyin (spoken) and characters (traditional and Mao's simplified); one of the benefits of the internet, to 'go' to places I could never manage in life - the cost of a whole term in London out of the question. The tutor also offered a one off workshop online in calligraphy which got me hooked; I wanted to do a full course but it made sense to find one in Edinburgh where I live, albeit still online so that when we can go live again I can meet everyone - impossible with a London class. So I took further classes in calligraphy but also Chinese ink and wash painting with Chi Zhang at the Confucius Centre, Edinburgh. <p></p><p> This is also a calm and meditative practice and I had had no idea of how difficult it would be to paint a line, whether in calligraphy or painting, that is from the heart, perfect the first time (like the proverbial arrow straight to its target.) I have treated myself to a wooden brush holder with carved dragon heads either side of the frame, many brushes in wolf (though Chi says it's more likely weasel) and goat hair. I gather a new-born baby's hair is for the finest work, but I'm a few years off that standard. Essential to have the right rice paper and Chinese inks. </p><p><br /><br /></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZgJxgjXwF2s/YaE1SjSWEiI/AAAAAAAAmUo/S9ZvyTG9xwsYCulrsWbUrANyiJpY2bR7QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1140/il_1140xN.2774906423_3rar.jpg%2BChinese%2Bbrush%2Bholder.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1140" data-original-width="1140" height="355" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZgJxgjXwF2s/YaE1SjSWEiI/AAAAAAAAmUo/S9ZvyTG9xwsYCulrsWbUrANyiJpY2bR7QCLcBGAsYHQ/w355-h355/il_1140xN.2774906423_3rar.jpg%2BChinese%2Bbrush%2Bholder.jpg" width="355" /></a></div><p></p><p>But poetry-writing returned, as I guess it was bound to. Some influenced by Daoist paintings. </p>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-28876516104390381152020-07-10T21:38:00.000+01:002020-07-10T21:45:58.060+01:00Pestilence series: Poems from the Back Room: Hugh McMillan's BlogWith thanks to Hugh McMillan for featuring me on his Blog. You can read more of the Poets chosen for this series on <a href="https://pestilencepoems.blogspot.com/2020/07/poems-from-backroom">https://pestilencepoems.blogspot.com/2020/07/poems-from-backroom</a><br />
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<a href="https://pestilencepoems.blogspot.com/?m=0" style="color: #4d469c; display: block; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="A Plague of Poetry" height="240px; " id="Header1_headerimg" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E6SqRZALuw0/XnDe29tOQMI/AAAAAAAAHBY/ypzQPRCR9TAhhSpMIbdGbQ00LDeYaXlIgCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/OIPUGPM0PS9.jpg" style="border: none; display: block; position: relative;" width="172px; " /></a><br />
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A Plague of Poetry: 50 days of Poems</div>
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Thursday, 9 July 2020</h2>
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Poems from the Backroom 115: Stephanie Green</h3>
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Hugh Bryden is a ghost now and then in these pages, illustrating a book here, facilitating a project there. He nearly appeared earlier on the series talking about his latest collaboration with Donald S Murray but the pamphlet was coronavirused at the printers at the time and he wanted to show us the finished product. As he is coming up to a very important birthday soon I hope someone is putting together a chapbook of appreciation given that he has worked with some of the best poets around and is an international class artist and print maker in his own right.<br />
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One of Hugh’s great ideas was the 'Burns Windows' project. As you probably know Burns used to carry a diamond tipped pen around (the accessory of choice for all ploughboy poets) with which he would inscribe folks' windows with comments in verse about his experiences in the locality, a kind of 18th century Trip Advisor. I don’t know how he got away with it given when I wrote a pejorative essay on the toilet wall of the Globe Inn about another poet I was threatened with arrest. Anyway Shug’s idea was to cover all the windows of the Globe, Burns fave pub, with acetates bearing words from poets all over the world. He did this marvellous project several times in Dumfries and once in Dunfries’ twin town in Germany, Gifhorn. It was a marvellous effect, a glistening sea of words.<br />
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I think 'Burns Windows' is where I would have first come across Stephanie Green’s poetry although she was also involved in several projects in Dumfries including, as she is an expert in dance, the Dumfries troupe Oceanallover who can always be relied to come to arts events dressed as prawns. She's also the first poet we've had in the #plague who is a trained puppeteer. But it is her poetry we are concerned about here, and it is glorious indeed.<br />
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Steph is another Irish/Welsh meld, a Welsh speaker with an Irish parent though she now lives in Scotland. Her first poetry pamphlet, 'Glass Works' from Cat's Pyjamas Publications in 2005 was short-listed for the Callum McDonald Award and her latest pamphlet 'Flout' was published by HappenStance and launched at StAnza in 2015. She has read at many poetry festivals in this country and beyond. Stephanie's poetry is often born from history and in her hands it is not only a thing of beauty but work that holds a mirror to our contemporary hearts and souls. </div>
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Here Stephanie is reading 'Hanmer's Agate', a poem about a tulip brought home from exile to a country torn by war, a symbol of peace and beauty born out of carnage, the kind of gift of/from nature we’re looking for to inspire and guide us out of all our current messes. Originally it was written as a counter to Brexit, a catastrophe still looming. It is transcribed below, along with the haunting 'I tell my husband I am pregnant and he sets out to make a tiny coffin (1891)', a poem inspired by the tetanus epidemic on St Kilda in the 19th century which is almost unbearable in its understated sadness.<br />
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Stephanie's Website:<br />
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<a href="http://www.stephaniegreen.org.uk/" style="color: #4d469c; text-decoration-line: none;">http://www.stephaniegreen.org.uk/</a><br />
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Poetry Library Profile plus two poems:<br />
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<a href="https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poet/stephanie-green/" style="color: #4d469c; text-decoration-line: none;">https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poet/stephanie-green/</a></div>
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Two Poems from 'And Other Poems':</div>
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<a href="https://andotherpoems.com/2015/09/11/two-poems-by-stephanie-green/" style="color: #4d469c; text-decoration-line: none;">https://andotherpoems.com/2015/09/11/two-poems-by-stephanie-green/</a></div>
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Hanmer’s Agate: Experiments of a Tulip Fancier,<br />
Sir Thomas Hanmer (1612-1678)<br />
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Returned from exile, he stands in a muddy field,<br />
once his garden of formal parterres;<br />
the trees are war-torn, storm-slashed; fireweed<br />
rages through the grounds and the unhinged door<br />
<br />
into the great hall; mice rampage,<br />
bird shit weeps on the lace and lovelock<br />
of his portrait as a young man; dung in the chapel<br />
requisitioned for Parliamentarian horses.<br />
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Far from the Commonwealth’s courts, Sir Thomas<br />
tends his garden, remembering the promise packed<br />
in papery brown bulbs brought back from France<br />
in the ship’s hold, his first wife left behind in her grave.<br />
<br />
He plants the knot-garden they’d planned together: auriculas,<br />
ranunculas, anemone and above all, tulips:<br />
Belle Isabelle, Belle Susanne and Agates.<br />
They rot in the wet Flintshire soil.<br />
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Should he sprinkle wine on the earth with incantations<br />
to the moon? No. But after much experiment,<br />
he shares his success with a fellow tulip-fancier,<br />
Cromwell’s second-in-command.<br />
<br />
To Major-General John Lambert,<br />
From Sir Thomas Hanmer, Bart.<br />
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Plant them about the full moon in September,<br />
in soil taken from mould from the fields or woodstacks<br />
and mix with a 4th part or more of sand.<br />
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A gift of beauty, beyond faction: the mother-root<br />
of the most exquisite and gallant, a tulip agotted<br />
with scarlet, and gris de lin on pure white,<br />
well parted, its base and stamens blue.<br />
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(First published in Magma: the European edition, April, 2018.)<br />
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I tell my husband I am pregnant and he sets out to make a tiny coffin (1891)<br />
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I choose a name: Mhairi or Callum.<br />
He searches the tide-wrack daily for driftwood.<br />
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He forbids me to make clothes<br />
But I make sheets for the coffin-crib.<br />
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There will be clean linen until the last<br />
while I will rock and croon to my babe<br />
<br />
for the few blessed days of its life.<br />
It is God’s will. I shut out imaginings:<br />
<br />
the fourth or fifth night,<br />
when the babe gives up sucking;<br />
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the seventh, clenched gums,<br />
even for my finger dipped in water.<br />
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I am knitting a shawl of such intricacy,<br />
nothing so beautiful will have been seen before.<br />
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(Published in ‘Northwords Now.’)<br />
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Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-71114091974673740142020-07-03T21:58:00.001+01:002020-07-03T22:04:47.690+01:00Seamus Heaney Centre Summer School, Belfast<br />
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So delighted to have been accepted on the prestigious Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Summer School.<br />
A week long of poetry critique, discussions and readings - but this year, due to Covid - all online. A fantastic way to hear and 'meet' poets of such talent and different approaches. A bit of craic too, even though through the internet. Our tutors were all brilliant: Nick Laird, Leontia Flynn, Simon Sexton.<br />
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<a href="https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/seamus-heaney-centre/about/TheBlackbird/">TheBlackbird</a> is the emblem of the centre, named after a beautiful early Irish poem, translated by Seamus Heaney and many others. 'The Yellow Nib' is the SH Centre's poetry magazine.<br />
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A shame not to have been able to go to Belfast itself but certainly in the future I'll go in the flesh next time.<br />
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<br />Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4199456783901161965.post-81963048864940530462020-04-19T13:21:00.004+01:002021-11-28T21:43:54.404+00:00Berlin Umbrella post StAnza vimeoBerlin Umbrella and Berlin Water post-StAnza Festival.<div><br /></div><div>We were so lucky for StAnza to go ahead. We just got in before lockdown declared. People were greeting eachother elbow to elbow but that was it. A friend of mine caught covid on the train back to Wales (crammed standing room only with a crowd of football supporters).</div><div>
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But here is a reminder of happier times at StAnza: <div>
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Sonja has made a vimeo giving a taster of our StAnza experience plus extracts from our 'Meet the Artists' talk: Sonja Heyer (Sound Artist), Valerie Coffin Price (Artist) and myself (Poet).<br />
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Valerie's artwork is inspired by the poetry and sounds of 'Berlin Umbrella' but she also included her own experiences of walking along the river Spree and Landwehr canal and so her exhibition is entitled 'Berlin Water.'</div>
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<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://vimeo.com/409219528&source=gmail&ust=1587384430999000&usg=AFQjCNEWMHpAeP43AG9v21nTq4xMcrh9Bg" href="https://vimeo.com/409219528" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px;" target="_blank">https://vimeo.com/409219528</a><br />
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</div>Stephanie Greenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15407799411075936058noreply@blogger.com0