Not Finished Yet

The writing, performing and storytelling continues. I just don't take time to report it here, which is a pity as so much is going on that is good in Rochdale and its environs.
I'm currently rehearsing with Pulling Threads, the performance wing of Touchstones Creative Writing Group, in poetry, prose, song, drama and costume we attempt to give out tribute to the fallen and forgotten of WWI, currently concentrating on The Battle of Jutland and The Battle of the Somme.

End Of Life Care

Words are powerful. They contain power, they are the ultimate power. That is why we must be careful with the words we choose. Ultimately, the wrong words could bring about the destruction of the planet.
So I shouldn't have been surprised yesterday when the power of words caused me to cry out loud, in public. I was at our monthly Touchstones Creative Writing Group, this month's guest facilitator was the wonderful James Nash. We had written a few short pieces, what object would you rescue from your childhood house if it was burning down, what photograph brings back memories, what smell evokes childhood.
I decided to write a piece about photographs, in particular the photographs currently hanging in my mother-in-law's room in her care home. She is not very well at the moment, in fact she is under end of life care. The writing of the words was business as usual. When, as usual, we were asked to share our work the floodgates opened. I finished, stunned, the room was stunned, James was stunned.
The power of words can destroy you.

Roald Dahl meets William Shakespeare

This year marks at least two significant anniversaries, the death of William Shakespeare 400 years ago and the birth of Roald Dahl 100 years ago. These events are being celebrated nationwide and here in Rochdale we also want to mark the moment. Shakespeare is thought to have been born on 23rd September, though many sources state that this is uncertain. What is known is that he died on that date, so if we have his birth date right he is one of that rare breed that was born and died on the same day of the year.
Plans for both celebrations are well under way here. Roald Dahl will be celebrated in the Summer Reading Challenge, this year called The Big Friendly Read. Children who take part read six books, they do not have to be written by Roald Dahl, any book counts and here in Rochdale that includes the Ebooks we have available. The Dahl theme will carry on to this year's Rochdale Literature and Ideas Festival, where the children and families events will be under the umbrella title of The Big Friendly Festival.
Shakespeare celebrations have already taken place, with more marked for April 23rd and a week in May, so watch this space.

We Are Swailing

As I crossed the Pennines above Littleborough this morning the mist hung in the air like the steam from a pot of lapsang souchong tea. There was the aroma  of smoke in the air and when I dropped down Blackstone Edge I could see the moors alight below me.
Now, this is the season for swailing the moors, burning off the old dry, dead grass to encourage new growth. However, with no human being in attendance I suspected that it was a discarded cigarette that had caused the fire. One particular corner was well alight with nobody about with flails to put it out.
Which took me back to the last two years, around Easter time, when I had seen three black men, in gleaming white robes, walking down the very same road above the moors. It was around Easter and I know a wooden cross is erected in the hills here, so was it a Christian sect performing their Easter rites, or druids? I have never found out, but the combination of shadowy figures in flowing white robes and uncontained fire is a great start for a story!

2016, A Spaced Oddity

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a married man in possession of a good blog, must be willing to update it.”


I've not been blogging but I have been working hard, is the amount of blog proportional to the amount of work that you are committed to?
The longest project that I have been involved with in many a year is coming to it's climax soon. Steve Cooke, the man behind All Across the Arts here in Rochdale, is responsible for getting us all together. Along with a talented bunch of poets, artists, photographers, songwriters and storytellers (why they wanted me on board I shall never know) I have been working with a group comprising asylum seekers children, young adults with mental health problems and looked after young adults. The project is called "The Stories We Could Tell" and the great thing is, they are telling their stories.
Many strike deep in the heart, they can make you feel angry or sad, or both at the same time. The good thing is that in each story, in each individual, there is hope. Sometimes that glimmer of hope is smaller than I might want it to be but it survives, as do these young people. In the eight weeks of the project we have laughed and cried, and that's just the facilitators.
We are almost at the moment where those who want to will tell their stories to an invited audience. They can present their story live if they want to, or by film. I can't wait to see the finished work. I don't think there will be a dry eye in the house.
we are all hoping that this will be the first of many more projects like this, so watch this space!

Quick Catch Up

I've been doing a lot of sessions connected to the opening of the River Roch in Rochdale, facilitating  creative writing in the form of poetry with Key Stage One and Two children from schools round the borough at Touchstones, Rochdale. The stuffed animals with their sounds available at the touch of a button has helped.

Forgotten - but not gone!

I can't believe I've ignored my blog for so long,
Last week I was at Bowlee Primary, Langley, in the borough of Rochdale for some Festive Poetry Fun with year four.
Each of the three year four groups wrote a Kenning, with children working in pairs. The riddle form of the poem suits itself well to Christmas presents - can you guess what the present is? As the groups had been working hard on simile and metaphor we also wrote a class poem on either - a donkey; Rudolf or Santa.
My long-ago-learned Native American chant "Fly like an eagle" seemed to fit - as it contains both simile and metaphor
Fly like an eagle
Fly so high
All around the universe
On wings of pure light

I'm back!

Well, I've moved my base and ignored blogging for too long. Now I work out of Heywood Library, the attic.
Just to say I'm back. Class visits this week brought out a top comment from an excited year one from Heybrook School.
"When I come to the library I look at every single book, but Not all of them!"

Heywood Fire Station Spooktacular

I had a great time at the fire station - and Ian Tracey sent me this afterwards

Good Morning Ray.

 

I would just like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks in dedicating your time to support the first Heywood Spooktacular Event.

 

As you know we hosted well over 1000 community guests of which I know you entertained a significant number with your stories. It would be very remiss of me not to let you know that I have had so much positive feedback about Story Time; despite the station being overwhelmed with guests to such a point we had to turn people away.

 

There are children within the community who may never explore the wonderful imaginative world that lies within a book, so for them to be exposed to a story teller who can bring a story to life is a great opportunity. An opportunity that is far removed from X-Boxes and Play-Stations. May be I am just from the Jackanory era?

Ian Tracey LLB (Hons), M I Fire E, Station Commander, E32 Heywood Fire Station

Light Installation Strikes Gold

There is a fantastic light fitting in the children's library at Number One Riverside. Designed and installed by Pete King, the spiralling white-cloud-blue-sky books look down upon us.
This has inspired me to create poems with visiting classes of children. After some warm up excercises, I post up on a flip chart any words or phrases or whole lines they think of. My task is then to arrange them into a poem. So far the results have been stunning. I'm hoping for many more yet.

Glodwick Nursery and Infants' Celebration of World Book Day

I told stories to 360 children at Glodwick Infants last week. They had held over their celebration of World Book Day and staff and children were all in fancy dress. I've never seen a school blessed with so many princesses and superheroes - and one scientist!
Staff costumes were equally good, Cruella de'Ville, Old Macdonald and Little Red Riding Hood to name but a few. Twenty minute "blitz" sessions with each class worked really well I thought, with plenty of water for me to drink. The voice was not too shot on saturday morning.
Thanks for the tasty lunch too, Glodwick!

Donald Maxwell

I've added another Donald Maxwell to my list, Excursions in Colour. Chris and I visited Haworth again and I couldn't resist another look around Hatchard and Daughter. I enquired about one Maxwell we had seen last time, this couldn't be found but Excursions in Colour leapt out at me.
It had to be joined by a folio edition of Siegfried Sassoon's Memoirs of an Infantry Officer. A good days browsing.

Goodbye To All That

 I was delighted to find a copy of Robert Graves "Goodbye to All That" in a charity shop in York at the weekend, especially with the centenary commemorations for the outbreak of WWI coming next year, I think it would have disappeared much more quickly had it been on display in a few months time.
This is a 1929 edition, the first year of publication, but my copy is already a fifth impression such was its popularity. There are three things about it that make it special for me, the first is the postcard, used as a bookmark and postmarked 1954. The postal address is Dover, a town in my home county if not my home town. Secondly a previous owner has cut out Robert Graves' obituary from The Times newspaper and folded it carefully so it fits in the book. Thirdly the endpaper has a line "Robert Graves 1929" I must try and find out if that is Robert Graves signature or not.

Kennings

Kennings are alive and well and living in Rochdale.
I  quickly put together a Canny Kennings competition to celebrate the launch of the new Rochdale Central Library at Number One Riverside.
here are some of the entries.
Hollie won with this incredibly imaginative Kenning
play together
nasty never
growing stronger
something sweeter
never better
friends forever

what am I?

friendship

I've never seen a Kenning that has used emotion for its theme. Usually we have objects, people or animals. What a brilliant twist.

Libby contibuted one about  my favourite amphibian
big jumper
loud croaker
green hopper
pond swimmer
fly eater
non drinker

what am I?

a frog!

Anum gave us

eye sighter
blue tweeter
game keeper
name signer
large facer
time holder

what am I?

a computer

Zak's Kenning goes like this

green monster
fire breather
tail swisher
loud roarer
scaly eater
terrible man muncher
sharp scratcher

what am I?

a dragon

Rochdale has very talented young people who enjoy playing with words

Rochdale Central Library Is Open - Official!

Saturday 27th April will stick in my memory for a long, long time.
For all the right reasons.
Rochdale Central Library planned the day to mark the official opening in the brand new building of Number One Riverside. Nick Oldham, Tommy Donbavand and Craig Bradley provided the "headline acts" in terms of authors and in Craig's case "PERFORMANCE" poet - and anyone who has seen Craig in action will know why I put that in capitals. Nick is a crimewriting novelist and spoke admirably of his craft. Tommy is the author of Scream Street - and more, a notable more being Doctor Who. I'd recommend any school to book him.
Norman Warwick acted as Master of Ceremonies for us and did his usual brilliant job. Norman was also commissioned to write a poem for the library, which he did and performed with aplomb. Norman was ably assisted by yours truly as the second voice and members of Touchstones Creative Writing Group displaying the words of the middle section of the poem as it was read. I have to say when I first read the poem it brought a lump to my throat as it hit the spot so well and so eloquently.
There were many opportunities for families to get involved in creative writing on the day, prizes were offered for the best Book Spine Poem and the best Kenning. The Where's Wally Treasure Hunt proved very popular with over 70 entries. Younger children were not forgotten with a colouring competition to try out their skills and Irene Peachey was on hand to sign them up for Bookstart Bear Club. The Reverend Margaret Smith was a star, volunteering to help make sure the children knew exactly what was going on and her routine for "Is poetry cool or does it leave you in a spin?" has to be seen to be believed. Vickke did us proud with her face painting, a riot of colour and character in every face.
Jason Grimshaw aka Ryan Thomas opened Bean coffee shop, much to the delight of many teenage girls.
 The whole place was really buzzing, I look forward to keeping the feel good factor going for a long time yet.

World Book Night 2013

On the 23rd April 2013 on the 18:36 Northern Rail from Rochdale to Sowerby Bridge, eight valiant (well it is also St. George's Day) book lovers gifted over a hundred volumes to travellers. We hope it added a pleasant touch to their journey and indeed the rest of their evening. Staff from Rochdale Borough Libraries volunteered to gift the books in their own time.
Our journey was made pleasant by the friendly Northern Rail Staff, the conductor, guard or whatever the job title is these days, announced World Book Night over the tannoy and explained that we would be making our way along the train. William Shakespeare himself, I am certain, would have been proud of us celebrating his birthday in this fashion.

Donald Maxwell

I was delighted to see a Donald Maxwell in the window of a bookshop in Howarth, even more so when I stepped through the portal of the establishment of Hatchard and Daughter. Failing in my mission here to copy the style of a writer and artist at the turn of the 20th Century. Donald Maxwell (1877-1936) lived in the village of my birth, Borstal, near Rochester, Kent.
I was even more delighted when the well read bookshop owner, who I took to be "And Daughter" produced another Maxwell to accompany "Travels With a Sketch Book." Until that moment I had not realised that Maxwell was a renowned war artist as well as a, shall I call him, travel writer. I left the establishment two volumes of Maxwell richer and a credit card transaction poorer, failing again to ape the style of my hero and his writing. My dear lady wife brought my attention to a volume in the window of said "Hatchard and Daughter" and, after a breakfast repast, I returned to that esteemed establishement to enquire about "Perambulations with a Parson." To my delight "And Daughter" produced a third Maxwell, but I declined, failing only in my third attempt at the style of the era, as I felt my constitution could take no more excitement that day, my reading would absorb all the rest of my time that week and my bank account would suffer.

Who Knows Where the Time Goes

So much to do, so little time. I've been so busy doing I've had no time for reporting. I've discovered Book Spine Poetry, so many of my sessions with classes of children have been devoted to that. So much so that I'm currently judging a competition we ran in Rochdale for schools to submit their Book Spine poems. The winner gets a days storytelling from me.

Can of worms

Can of worms

Diamonds and Rust

Some days are diamonds, some days are rust.
This Friday looked like rust. It had been raining all night and wasn’t ready to stop, at least that was a little better than the snow which had forced the cancellation of the storytime session the first time round, no one had turned up!
So the rust continued, I made my way to All Angels. High Glen Children’s Centre were holding the session there but I hadn’t been able to confirm it was still on.
Rust when I was talking to the school secretary
“I’m here from the library to share some stories with Jo's group from High Glen.”
“Oh are you now.” Was the reply, in the tone that implies, without the need for words “I know nothing about this, the group you mention, or High Glen if it comes to that.”
What she did say was
“Take a seat please.”
Rust, rust, rust.
I looked at the goldfish in the octagonal, tall tank. I knew just how they felt.
A mum came through from school
“Jo sent me through; I’m wanting to be a volunteer.”
“Oh are you now,” said the secretary, “Take a seat please.”
Rust, rust.

The mum sized me up.
“Hello! My girls loved your scary story, they keep retelling it between themselves, and they don’t stop.”
The rust starts to lift.
“Oh, that’s good, that sounds like Scary Sid; I’ve brought him with me today.”
With that the secretary leads me through to the music room, a small group of mums and their pre school children are playing, surrounded by drums. Three children from the school, aged about ten, are using the computers in the corner.
“Oh, hello again,” says one of the mums, “We saw you at Ringmoor on Monday.”
“You’ll be used to the stories then, some of them are the same today.”
“Oh that’s good, we really enjoyed them, didn’t we, Jack?”
The rust is lifting, a glitter of diamond can be seen.
So we sit down for stories, five mums in their saris, three in their jogging pants, two workers in their official embroidered sweatshirts and eight children, all slightly soggy with rain.
“Muddlewitch Does Magic Tricks” is first and I can see the baby who is no more than a few weeks old keeping time with the beat as we all say Abracadabra. Ab wave bra wave cad wave ab wave bra wave.
Next it’s “You’re Not So Scary Sid” and the mums lead the roars as we all scare Sid and make him cry. Everyone laughs as Sid blows his nose on my hand and I have to wipe that on my trousers (it’s only make believe, no tissues were harmed in the telling of this story)
“The Wide-Mouthed Frog” follows. “Frog” says one of the youngest boys, who doesn’t have English as his first language. I can see the three ten year olds at the back have given up on the computers and are joining in with us, putting their fingers in their mouths to make wide-mouthed frogs. The range of wide-mouthed frogs in front of me is fantastic
The final story is “Stone Soup” I use an old saucepan, plastic vegetables and my Red Hen and Big Bad Wolf puppets for that. Everyone joins in with the stirring of the soup, except for the boy who is frightened of the Big Bad Wolf, once the story is over, the Surestart worker borrows the Wolf puppet and soon the child is friends with the wolf, stroking his fur and giving him a kiss. The other children carry on stirring the soup and taste it at regular intervals.
While this is happening one mum is asking
“Is this form for the Town Library?”
“Yes, if you want books for your children it’s best to let them have their own ticket – you don’t pay fines if they are overdue then. You want to join too? Great, do you have internet access at home? We can set you up with a pin number when you join – that’s another way of renewing your books. You can also reserve books online once you have that.”
“So I can get Scary Sid put by for me at The Town Library from home? That’s good”
The Big Bad Wolf and Red Hen go back in their bag, the soup is all finished, and the books are packed away. The session is over. It is still raining outside.
Some days are rust but some days are diamonds