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!

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

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.

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