The Beginning of Autumn

Autumn always gives me that going back to school feeling. Even though this golden prelude to the winter is more about harvesting than growth, for me it’s about new beginnings too. It seems fitting for my residency to finally finish at this time of year. It’s been a real education about both the limits and possibilities of a writing residency and I feel a more creatively confident than I did a year ago.

Evolution of a poem – ‘The Bench’

I met up with Katrina Naomi at my residency yesterday and we did some freewriting together. Here’s a first draft from a suggestion of mine that we write a personification poem about something in our immediate vision.

Below I have shared the journey from this draft of the poem to the final draft.

The Cherokee Trail of Tears

Today I sat in the dappled sun of the garden and talked to Scarlett, Culpeper’s dynamic gardener who runs Urban Food Growing sessions once a week.

What exactly is urban food growing ?
Most people in London don’t have an outside space. They might only have a balcony, a walkway or a window sill. Urban food growing is all about growing in a small space. It’s about using vertical space and it’s all about empowering yourself which is all food growing is.

A Poet’s Response

Poet, Pauline Sewards, was so inspired by her visit to see fellow writers perform at Poetry Gazebo she wrote the following  poem.

Garden

Drifts of iceberg roses scent the summer air
Poetry gazebo on a fine June day
Posses of poets primed and aware
that stories must be told the ancient way
narratives, rhythmic rapping, epic lyrics,
and rhymes resonate our own joy and pain
Words that heal like the herbal physics
grown in this garden where abundance blooms again
Today in midsummer the bees procrastinate
to pollinate in the creamy efflorescence
Photographers pick images to relate
the arc of the day back to our senses.
A smorgasbord of petals tops my wholemeal
sandwich, I take it all in. Taste, see, hear and feel.

Orange

Orange, originally uploaded by Naomi Woddis.

I am overjoyed by the wealth of colour in the garden. Nothing pleases me more than taking a walk and seeing the changes in what’s been growing each week.

A Poem for Scarlett

Scarlett is a close friend of mine and also a dedicated and awe-inspiring gardener and allotment owner. She runs the Urban Food Growing project once a week at the garden. I decided to construct a Found Poem for the project taking my words from ‘Square Foot Gardening’.

A Complete Garden

One of the secrets is to simplify
it. Sign up for lots of shouting
and laughing, raking, digging
and planting. A complete garden
of nothing but the crisp crunchiness
of Black-Seeded Simpson will be
everything you ever want. Treat
each vegetable as if it were an egg.
The effort’s always worthwhile,
all you need is a place with strong
sunlight and all your squares
will be filled.

© Copyright Naomi Woddis 2010

Where do words go ?

Another great one to one session with Annette at the garden. The poem below serves as a companion piece to This Poem

Where Do Words Go

when we discard them,
what shall we do
when they run out ?

Are there too many -
a glut of letters and concepts,
too many poems, too much fiction ?

Last night I heard
words echo in the dark,
and didn’t sleep much.

I dreamed
words embraced
and sustained me,
as we travelled through galaxies,
settled among the stars.

© Copyright Annette Trickette 2010

Poetry Gazebo – a summertime success !

On Sunday we held a wonderful event at the garden – Poetry Gazebo was a mini Spoken Word and Fiction festival. The weather held out for us and performers and audience alike loved listening to great work in beautiful surroundings. You can click on the names of the artists below to find out a little more about their work.

Raymond Antrobus
Dean Atta
Dzifa Benson
Denrele
Cath Drake
Aisling Fahey
Abe Gibson
Miriam Halahmy
Sabrina Mahfouz
Karen McCarthy
Katrina Naomi
Courttia Newland
Esther Poyer
Baden Prince
Deanna Rodger
Jacqueline Saphra
Heather Taylor

We were also lucky enough to have not one but two great photographers with us on the day. These pics should give you a taste of the camaraderie felt by all of us.

Copyright © 2010 Craig Thomas. All rights reserved.

Copyright © Kim-Leng Hills 2010. All rights reserved.

One to One sessions at Culpeper

I am now running one to one sessions with local Islington writers and members of the garden. What a treat it has been.

Annette Trickette is originally a South Londoner and is now settled in the Barnsbury area. She is non plot-holding member of Culpeper.

I have been overwhelmed by the relaxed and confident skill displayed in Annette’s poetry. Here’s her first poem for this blog and I am sure you will enjoy it.

This Poem
is not just about words
and the journeys they make
from author to library,
across seas and continents.

Words travel
and transform lives,
morph into stories, poems, ideas
reminding us of our humanity.

Words are more than words;
they are live and vibrant songs
we can all sing,
and make music with
in our different ways.

© Copyright Annette Trickette 2010

Rose

Rose, originally uploaded by Naomi Woddis.

I had my first one to one session at the garden today. I was knocked sideways by Annette’s stunning poetry. It was such a pleasure to listen to her read. We chatted about brevity in poetry, less being more. After I walked around the garden in the welcome heat and took some photographs. It struck me how much I love taking pictures of flowers, especially close-ups. I hope that this simple close up of a freshly budded rose can echo the sentiments of less being more that Annette and I talked about.