Graham's blog

Lyrical terrorism comes to the City

Those of you who are attentive watchers of Poet in the City will know that the charity was involved last year in Trees in the City, an exciting collaboration with Lloyd’s of London, the insurance market. This collaboration involved, amongst other things, the commissioning of new poetry about climate change written by three distinguished contemporary poets: Patience Agbabi, Matthew Hollis and John Burnside.

I can honestly say that nothing has given me greater satisfaction over the last year than to be in a position to commission new poetry, and add new and important work to the cultural life of the nation. The poets rose to the challenge magnificently, producing suites of poems of an exceptional range and quality. This poetry rapidly acquired a life of its own, being made into podcasts for the Lloyd’s website, streamed by the Times Online, reproduced in ‘Earth Shattering’ a Bloodaxe anthology of climate change poems, and even translated into Chinese!

The collaboration with Lloyd’s was such a success that Poet in the City has now been asked to commission more new poetry, this time about terrorism and conflict, another of the most important issues of our time. The charity will shortly be instructing three contemporary poets to create suites of new work on this subject, a great opportunity for poets to influence and reflect upon the so-called ‘War on Terror’ and the great social and political changes that have come in its wake.

Poetry is exactly the right medium in which to address these vexing and terrifying symptoms of our time. As Walt Whitman puts it ‘The poet judges not as a judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing’. Poetry is not dogmatic or simplistic but is able to capture feelings of ambivalence, despair, and even hope for the future. It is able to take the temperature of the age and assess its state of health and well-being, and to raise awareness of the nature of other realities, even of the horrifying ‘collateral damage’ of war, or of violent actions and philosophies which may be repugnant to decent people everywhere.

This sort of commission is what Poet in the City exists to encourage. As readers of my blog will know I have long been an advocate of taking poetry to new audiences, and using it to address all of the most important and controversial issues of our time. It is not often that one gets to speak about terrorism and the city in one breath outside of the pages of newspapers or police reports. But poetry has all of the tools it needs to bring the reality of terrorism into the heart of the City in the form of words, emotions and ideas, which will move and uplift us, and also make us think.

Many thanks to Lloyd’s for continuing to support the creation of exciting and ground-breaking poetry through Poet in the City!

Hear this, see this!

Just before Christmas we held the inaugural meeting of Poet in the City’s new Audio-Visual group. This has come together more or less spontaneously and already includes several individuals who have experience of radio and film work.

The British Library Sound Archive already record most Poet in the City events and this is gradually building into a fabulous collection of poetry reading and performance, available for anyone to listen to as part of the Library’s resources. I did so myself just recently, spending a couple of fascinating days in my own personal listening room, with headphones on my head!

The Audio-Visual group, chaired by Melanie Roberts, is not intended to replace this invaluable service but to develop the recorded aspect of the charity’s work by capturing interesting magazine-style items, interviews, snatches of poetry and feedback arising from the charity’s many activities.

Thanks to the involvement of the distinguished film-maker Colin Still we also hope that Poet in the City will shortly be creating video podcasts to enrich and enliven the website with clips of poets reading and of live events. With talented individuals like this involved I think that, in the long run, the sky is the limit!

Hopefully audio files created by the group will shortly be providing mesmerising extracts of poetry and comment on the Poet in the City website, tempting new audiences to enjoy poetry, and building on the great success of the live events. Soon visitors to the website will be able to listen to recordings of poet’s reading their own work, discuss poetry with acclaimed poets in the forum discussion rooms, and buy poetry books from the online bookshop.

When this all starts happening, hopefully during the course of 2008, Poet in the City will really start to feel like an online community.

Books 'R' Us

Do you remember all that stuff back in the year 2000 about internet portals and vortals and the creation of the ‘one-stop shop’ online? Much of this euphoria was blown away when the dot.com boom turned to bust, but many of the ideas promulgated then are slowly finding their way into our lives.

It is clear that the internet is a great way of buying some things, like flight tickets and last minute travel. Buying these online has now become a commonplace. One of the things that does work well on the internet is the sale of books. People are happy to go to a site where they feel that they can get the information and the titles they are interested in.

Which is why it is such a great delight to announce the launch of the Poet in the City online bookshop, which will be opening for business shortly. I think that a lot of people will welcome a place online where they can receive poetry recommendations and can buy collections by amazing contemporary poets, many of whom they might not otherwise have heard of. Already Poet in the City is regularly approached for recommendations of poets. Add this to the fact that people can hear such poets read at Poet in the City’s live poetry events, or on an audio podcast, and it becomes a really useful service.

One of the other lessons of the dot.com revolution is that people want to deal online with trusted brands, brands which also have a terrestrial existence. That’s why the Poet in the City online bookshop is being hosted by Langton’s, a very real bricks and mortar bookshop, situated in Twickenham. Those who visit the shop in person will find a friendly and efficient independent bookseller situated in an attractive 15th Century building, complete with an organic café serving home made cakes and delicious cappucchino.

Not only that, visitors will find a well-stocked Poet in the City poetry section, containing the best contemporary poetry published by the leading poetry publishers including Faber, Picador, Bloodaxe, and Enitharmon, not to mention the series of Poet in the City poetry books being published by Axon Publishers.

What better way to could there be to get into poetry and to know how and where to indulge your new enthusiasm?

Stop all the clocks…

What a great pleasure it was to hear Simon Callow reading WH Auden’s famous poem, Funeral Blues, at Poet in the City’s WH Auden event this week.

Simon Callow is of course famous for playing the role of the ebullient Gareth in the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral, whose premature death results in the eponymous funeral. In an unforgettable scene Gareth’s lover (played by John Hannah) reads the Auden poem in the church. Simon Callow recalls amusingly how often people praise him for his role in the funeral scene!

It is 100 years since the birth of WH Auden. The event, held jointly with the Auden Society, provided a fitting culmination to the centenary year, which has seen many fantastic celebrations of the poet’s life and works. However, I have not myself attended an event which so succinctly summarised the range and brilliance of Auden’s poetry, and his enduring appeal for new generations. As usual with Poet in the City the event was also full of poetry.

We were immensely lucky, of course, to have some of the world’s leading Auden specialists on the panel. Katherine Bucknell, Auden specialist and acclaimed novelist, started by talking about the many different hats worn by Auden, from the wide-brimmed felt hat of a bohemian, to a shop-keeper’s bowler hat and a working man’s flat cap. The hats, she said, could be seen as a metaphor for the chameleon-like character of the poet himself.

Peter Mudford, who was formerly married to Auden’s niece Rita, recalled some of his own personal memories of the poet, including a supper at Simpson’s on the Strand when Wystan spontaneously sang ‘Take back your Mink, take back your pearls…’ to the bemused waiters and clientele. More seriously he commented on how often lines from the poems come back to him in his daily life.

John Fuller, a distinguished Auden specialist, said that newcomers to Auden’s poetry should not worry too much about catching the meaning of every last phrase. They should just let the beauty of the language wash over them. Amongst other things he read the extraordinary poem The Age of Anxiety.

Lachlan Mackinnon, another leading Auden expert, read the fascinating and complicated poem Streams, with its extraordinary, humorous and disturbing images, such as a cream and golden coach drawn by two baby locomotives.

Simon Callow spoke very interestingly about the camp and theatrical side of Auden’s persona and how, unlike his friend Christopher Isherwood, he always seemed to remain slightly uncomfortable with his homosexuality. Although Lachlan also noted that, for much of Auden’s life, being gay had been a criminal offence punishable by imprisonment.

Simon’s wonderful readings of Epitaph on a Tyrant, Night Mail, and Funeral Blues reminded us of Auden’s nearly universal popularity and accessibility. He was almost the last English poet whose publications were public events, with queues forming outside bookshops, and first editions sold out within 24 hours. Without sacrificing any of its complexity or its emotional depth his poetry reached out to large numbers of people.

When John Hannah recited the lines ‘Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone…’ in the movie, the film-makers unintentionally ignited a new passion for WH Auden’s poetry amongst many people who did not regard themselves as poetry fans. It was like that again at the Poet in the City event this week. The audience of 230 people in the Great Room at Christie’s sat in complete silence as the Auden poems were read. I for one had shivers running down my spine all over again!

Families, who needs them?

The Poetry and Family event which took place recently at the National Portrait Gallery, was one of the best Poet in the City events I can remember. Three things struck me very forcibly:

Most obvious was the quality of the poems on this subject read out by Wendy Cope, Jackie Kay and John Siddique. It was a vivid demonstration of the way in which poetry can address difficult and emotionally charged subjects in a subtle, nuanced and non-judgemental way. All three poets had experienced some pain and dysfunction in relation to their families but all discussed the subject in a way that was inspiring, honest and compassionate.

The second striking thing was the way in which the poets displayed how important the family remains even when it is not the conventional family of 1950s mythology. Jackie Kay presented the joy and love of her adopted family and of gay parents bringing up a child. John Siddique talked about the pleasures and challenges of step children. And Wendy read a poem revealing her feelings of solidarity with her sister, both of them survivors of a claustrophobic childhood.

Thirdly, and perhaps most surprisingly, all three poets touched upon religion and the almost entirely negative part that it played in their family lives. In the case of Wendy and John it was religion experienced as a rigid and oppressive regime. In Jackie’s case it was the disconcerting fact that, when she sought out her birth parents, she found that her mum and dad had become a Mormon and an evangelical Christian respectively. Sadly, in both cases, they sought to justify in religious terms their continued refusal to acknowledge their daughter.

It was therefore fitting that the event should be hosted by Anne Atkins, a regular presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Thought for Today, who is known for combining religious faith and family life. Anne’s experience demonstrates that religion which is not fanatical or hypocritical can provide a positive guide. She spoke movingly of her life bringing up 5 children.

It was an evening completely without sentimentality. As Walt Whitman says: ‘The poet judges not as a judge judges but as the sun falling around a helpless thing’. I for one was left with a great sense of both the enormous resilience and the childlike fragility of the human being.

Arnold Circus

Naseem Khan CBE approached me recently and asked if Poet in the City could support a schools placement forming part of the Arnold Circus regeneration scheme in East London. Naseem, an important architect of the UK’s multicultural arts policy, spent seven years as Head of Diversity for Arts Council England. As Chair of the Friends of Arnold Circus she is an active champion of the regeneration scheme.

Arnold Circus is a small park with a Victorian bandstand, situated in the London borough of Hackney. After years of neglect the bandstand had fallen into dilapidation and become associated with drug use and antisocial behaviour. Two years ago a campaign was launched to reclaim the park for the community and to regenerate the area. Thanks to a financial support from Tower Hamlets and others the bandstand has been restored and is once again featuring music and other live performance.

Virginia Primary School is close to Arnold Circus, in an area of social and economic deprivation. 94% of the pupils are of Bangladeshi origin, and many of them do not have English as a first language. Naseem was very keen to introduce the children to the park and to teach them something about the history of the area.

Enter Poet in the City. Thanks to the support of Lloyd’s of London and Arts & Business we have been able to fund visits to Virginia Primary School over 7 weeks, commencing in November. The work is being delivered by Poet in the City through its partner Learning Through The Arts (LTTA). The placement will feature the poet Coral Rumble, with guest appearances by Shamim Azad, a well-known local poet and storyteller, originally from Bangladesh, who writes in both English and Bengali.

We are delighted to be able to support this enormously worthwhile project. What better way than poetry to bring Arnold Circus back to life at the heart at the local community.

Postcard from Marrakesh

After a busy week with Poet in the City I suddenly find myself sipping sweet mint tea in the heart of the Souk in Marrakesh. Bright shafts of sunlight, visible in beams, cut between the awnings of the shops, which are hunched around narrow lanes. The shops are cornucopias of silver teapots, carpets, spices and Arabic-style lamps. From the roof of a café we can see the hazy outline of the Atlas mountains to the south, with snow on their peaks.

It is not my first time in Marrakesh (I came here on a walking holiday in the 1980s), but a lot has changed. Back then I remember watching from the roof of my hotel as tourists left the building and were mobbed by would-be guides, carpet salesmen and taxi drivers. Quite a few got no more than 50 yards before scurrying back to the refuge of the hotel. This time we have walked the streets of Marrakesh for 3 days without anyone bothering us. Without exception the locals have been charming and helpful.

On the street Moroccans wander by with mobile phones glued to their ears, or surf the web in one of the many cyber cafes. I am not sure if my memory is deceiving me but 20 years ago the Souk felt like a medieval market, but now it feels a little bit more like a heritage zone. Were so many Moroccan women wearing full veils back then? This also feels like something new.

Outside the walls of old Marrakesh the foundations of a new city are being laid, to house the many thousands of Moroccans who, like people all over the world, have moved from the country to the city. The boulevards are lined with flags and crowds today because President Sarkozy of France is in town to sign a trade deal. Bored soldiers play with the safety catches on their sub-machine guns.

The hotel room has BBC World and a mini-bar. And the water from the tap is safe to drink. Morocco is going global, just like everywhere else. Sometimes I guess you need to go away to realise just how much things have changed at home.

A place for poetry at Rimbaud's house

Poet in the City has recently been involved in a campaign to ensure that the house at 8 Royal College Street in Camden, once occupied by the French poets Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine, should become a venue for poetry and culture.

In 1873 the two poets lived for a year in the house near Kings Cross and St Pancras stations. The poets had scandalized French literary society by running away together to the grubby streets of Victorian London, where they were astounded and fascinated by the uninhibited advance of industrialisation and urbanization. Their period living in Camden gave birth to some of their most important and influential poetry, as well as to the some of the most fascinating anecdotes about their lives. Most famously the poets eventually fell out over a herring, purchased by Verlaine from Camden Market!

Rimbaud in particular, the original enfant terrible, revolutionized French poetry and served as a harbinger for the modern age. Behaving rather like a Rock Star, long before such musical prodigies appeared, Rimbaud took drugs, trashed rooms and went out of his way to scandalize those in authority. As a result he has not only been celebrated by poets and writers but also by musicians like Jim Morrison and Patti Smith. My friend at Christie’s tells me that Rimbaud manuscripts, on the rare occasions on which they come up for sale, reach very high process at auction.

For a number of years Gerry Harrison, a former Camden councillor, has been championing the idea of turning the house, which retains many of its original features, into a cultural centre. Starting with the modest proposal of a blue plaque (approved by Camden Council in 2003) the campaign later attracted the support of many actors and writers, including Simon Callow and Julian Barnes. At one point it even looked as though a purchase of the house might be possible. More recently the poets Aidan Dun and Niall McDevitt have been active in organising public manifestations and a new round of press coverage about the house. Gerry Harrison, in particular, deserves enormous praise for his superb efforts.

It is possible that all these efforts may be about to bear fruit at last. The house was purchased recently by a freeholder who combines business pragmatism with a long-standing commitment to the arts. Poet in the City is actively involved in the search for a development plan for the property that will meet both the legitimate business requirements of the new owner and realise the potential of the property as a centre for the promotion and study of poetry.

In the meantime the modern map of London is changing. 8 Royal College Street, a reminder of two of France’s greatest poets, is situated a mere 500 yards from the new Eurostar terminal at St Pancras, which will shortly be disgorging millions of French visitors onto the streets of the capital. It would be great if – in the future - a small metal sign could draw some of these visitors to the house where two of their compatriots once transformed the poetic landscape, and helped to give birth to the modern age.

Making flowers grow

I had lunch with the famous actress the other day, who used to be on the TV and a household name. I like actors because they practice their craft with great commitment to the effects they produce. They are, in other words, very professional. They know that their job is to persuade. They know that they must make the best of even unpromising material. And they know that, come what may, the show must go on. There is no danger of disappearing up a cul-de-sac of their own making because audiences are so unforgiving. To paraphrase my actress friend, their job is to make flowers grow, even on the plains of Armageddon.

I rather like it when poets adopt this attitude too, submitting themselves to public scrutiny, not just the skewed appraisal of their peers, and squeezing meaning even from unpromising material. Actually, for the bold and the talented, this is not as difficult as you would think. Not all those who wear suits are philistines. Passionate artists lurk even in offices and on trading floors. Poet in the City exists to bridge the gap between poetry and these other communities. The poets we work with regularly demonstrate that poetry has the ability to burst out of the narrow confines of the poetry ‘club’ on to a much larger stage.

The best recent example was the commissioning of new poems by Poet in the City as part of a sponsorship by Lloyd’s of London, the insurance market. This involved the poets Patience Agbabi, Matthew Hollis and John Burnside. Lloyd’s asked for poems that would help to raise awareness of climate change. Rather than regard this as a corporate brief the poets involved treated this as what it was, an artistic opportunity. After all, the constraints were hardly tight. In the event all of the poets produced excellent work. Indeed the poems from the commission appear in ‘Earth Shattering’, a new anthology of eco-poems published by Bloodaxe, are being read at poetry readings, and have even being translated into Chinese. In other words they have effortlessly entered into the literary mainstream.

In fact the commission raised the question of why more contemporary poets are not writing, even in an oblique way, about subjects like climate change. Is this not an urgent requirement for poetry in the 21st Century? Poetry can address any subject, and is perhaps uniquely suited to stepping back from such subjects and communicating important insights and unorthodox perspectives. So let’s see poets satirising our politicians when they are caught with their trousers down, challenging the assumptions underlying modern life, or protesting at failed military adventures. Let’s see poetry bursting into the zones of modern life that they rarely visit.

In the next twelve months Poet in the City is planning such forays into areas as varied as medicine, the built environment and dance. The charity very much hopes that some or all of these forays may involve the commissioning of new poetry from a range of exciting contemporary poets. Poetry has a lot to contribute to all these subject areas.

But can poets really write poetry to order? Is not poetry essentially about the individual expressive voice saying what it likes, in defiance of political power, corporate dominance, and social or economic gain? Yes, of course it is all those things. But sometimes the artistic integrity argument is used as an excuse not to engage with a wider world and a wider audience. And does a commission from a corporate patron really involve a sell-out? If Caravaggio could paint masterpieces when his subject matter was limited to Biblical themes and portraits of Cardinals, modern poets can certainly produce masterpieces within the far less onerous constraints of enlightened corporate sponsorship.

Poetry is a living art form, and one that needs to elbow its way back into the forefront or cultural relevance. It should regard such commissions as a challenge, and make flowers grow in the world of business and elsewhere. There are plenty of corporate sponsors and City workers who welcome such work with open arms!

Postcard from Alsace

August is the only month when Poet in the City takes a break. Even then it is rapidly becoming the time for those important but not urgent jobs like reviewing the database and up-dating the web site. And then there is the much anticipated holiday!

This year, for me, this meant a week of cycling amongst the vineyards of Alsace. This was very much a case of the agony and the ecstasy. Nothing compares to the the pure delight of free-wheeling downhill through endless rows of vines, heavily laden with Pinot, Sylvaner or Riesling grapes. On the other hand the slow climbs in low gear up the unforgiving slopes of the Vosges occasionally led one to question whether this was a holiday or an experience of forced labour.

Needless to say thoughts of poetry were not always at the forefront of my mind during these exertions. Nevertheless there is a certain poetry in viticulture, a marvellous combination of technique and mysticism that arguably shares some of the qualities of poetry composition. In the cool interior of a wine tasting cave, as we savoured the subtle differences between different grape and soil types, there was also a sort of Zen-like calm. I think that – in another life – I would be quite content to be a small wine producer, jealously guarding my terroir.

Rattling homewards on Eurostar we felt rather satisfied with the 355 km we had covered on our bicycles, particularly our 70 km detour into Germany, largely motivated by a desire to visit a recommended beer garden overlooking the Rhine. Our smugness was only slightly dented by the discovery that – despite all this furious peddling – we had still managed to put on several pounds. The food and wine of Alsace just proved too tempting. Still, that’s what holidays are for isn’t it?