OK so people are always asking me questions about poetry.
So here is your chance ask me anything you like and I will answer.
About anything you like . Go on.
Posts
Self I Sing
3 months ago
Sunday, 17 January 2010
Thursday, 24 December 2009
In the Bleak
In the bleak mid winter frosty Kev made moan
queues as long as giraffes traffic 's slushy groan
Snow had fallen, Snow on Snow
In the Bleak mid winter circa Easter Road.
What can I buy her
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would get free lamb.
But I'm a vegetarian
my finances all forlorn
What then can I buy her?
the cheapest bet is quorn.
Christmasina Roastetti
queues as long as giraffes traffic 's slushy groan
Snow had fallen, Snow on Snow
In the Bleak mid winter circa Easter Road.
What can I buy her
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would get free lamb.
But I'm a vegetarian
my finances all forlorn
What then can I buy her?
the cheapest bet is quorn.
Christmasina Roastetti
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
Hardly Literature
HARDLY LITERATURE
by The Hardly Boys
John Wesley, Slim Jr, Ginger & The Captain
a.k.a.
Bob Shields, Mike Dillon, John McCaughie & Kevin Cadwallender
6pm Blackwells, South Bridge, Edinburgh , Weds 16th December.
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Polyglot
The Transylvanian girl
On the crepe stall in the grassmarket
Is singing along to Rumania’s answer
To Madonna,
She speaks Italian as well as English
I am an Englishman in Auld Reekie
Ordering a French dish from a polyglot.
I tell her my daughter speaks French
and Ancient Greek
And once spoke Klingon,
She smiles and says
Ah! A linguist’s love.
Do you like Edinburgh? I ask
Aye, she says
A lilt of Scots
At the keen of her mouth,
Like chocolate sauce.
I eat my crepe
Feel truly international
Wish her Good Luck
As I get in my Korean car.
Language all around
Me like a storm, like love
In that song by
the wrong Presley…
On the crepe stall in the grassmarket
Is singing along to Rumania’s answer
To Madonna,
She speaks Italian as well as English
I am an Englishman in Auld Reekie
Ordering a French dish from a polyglot.
I tell her my daughter speaks French
and Ancient Greek
And once spoke Klingon,
She smiles and says
Ah! A linguist’s love.
Do you like Edinburgh? I ask
Aye, she says
A lilt of Scots
At the keen of her mouth,
Like chocolate sauce.
I eat my crepe
Feel truly international
Wish her Good Luck
As I get in my Korean car.
Language all around
Me like a storm, like love
In that song by
the wrong Presley…
Vox box : Half Century Slam
Meadow Bar 7.30pm A slam for over 50's
Still a couple of places left.
email anitagovan@googlemail.com
or kevincadwallender@btinternet.com
Friday, 21 August 2009
FREE FRINGE UNDERWORD
Gary Death and Kevin Cadwallender
7.50pm Fingers Piano Bar Frederick Street Sat 22nd August.
'cadwallender meets death and they get on fine'
It's FREE and FUN and at FINGERS in fact all the F's including FUCK
7.50pm Fingers Piano Bar Frederick Street Sat 22nd August.
'cadwallender meets death and they get on fine'
It's FREE and FUN and at FINGERS in fact all the F's including FUCK
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Andrew Philip's virtual Tour
Ten Questions to the poet Andrew Philip
1) Adrian Mitchell said, ‘Most people ignore poetry because most poetry ignores most people’ Where do you stand on this?
Poetry is about life, so I don’t see how we can say that most of it ignores most people. Look at the effect of the BBC’s poetry season. Sales of books by TS Eliot — not exactly the epitome of accessibility — have gone up 222%. Sales of The Collected Poems of George Mackay Brown have increased by 844.4%. Perhaps Mackay Brown is stylistically the less challenging of those two but he hardly wrote about the everyday life of the average 21st century reader, whatever that may be. It just goes to show that if poetry of all kinds is promoted and if people are given an engaging way into it through a medium they can readily access, it will find a wider readership.
2) In terms of the media, press, TV and radio. How do you react to the expectation from them that poetry can be ‘knocked off’ on demand.
Little of lasting value is knocked off on demand. That’s not to disparage poetry that arises out of the news or reacts to it. Such work has a long and distinguished pedigree, but poetry has no responsibility to fit into the news agenda. It ain’t headline writing and nor is it soundbites. Soundbites may be memorable, but they don’t carry the resonance of poetic lines.
3) Which poets have you not read but would like to?
For starters, John Ashberry, WS Graham, Tomas Tranströmer, David Jones and Elizabeth Bishop. I’ve read or heard bits and pieces by them all, but not read any of them properly. There’s a whole lifetime’s worth of names already on my to-read list and it just keeps growing.
4) If poetry was ever banned as it has been in other countries how would you respond?
By writing poems, I suspect.
5) If you were to choose an Editor for an ultimate ‘Scottish’ anthology who would it be and why?
I’m not convinced any anthology can ever be ultimate, but I’d be fascinated to see what William Dunbar would make of today’s diversity of style and language. He was a versatile poet and “Lament for the Makaris” shows he had a good knowledge of who was writing in his day and age.
6) Poetry Slams are said to be divisive and encourage bad poetry. What is your opinion on that?
Slams can’t be any more divisive than literary prizes and awards, which have become important for getting a book widely noticed. I’m not entirely comfortable with that culture because, inevitably, worthy contenders and fine books miss out. On the other hand, I certainly wouldn’t sniff if The Ambulance Box http://www.facebook.com/l/; was shortlisted for one of the larger poetry prizes!
I’ve heard an awful lot of dull, poorly written and derivative verse at non-slam readings. My experience of the slam scene is limited, but little of what I’ve heard in it has really impressed me. It seems slam audiences are more willing to accept weaknesses in the writing if the performance skills are strong. I suspect that any writer who got the bulk of their input from slam poetry wouldn’t have their poetic ear, craft or imagination developed to the full. We all need model ourselves on the best, whatever part of the poetry world we’re in. There are some excellent performance poets to learn from, but they’ve probably all learned from a broad range of writers.
7) Where would you place your poetry in the canon? Romantic, modernist, post-modernist etc and why?
I’d be hppiest describing it as post-mainstream. There seems to be a growing body of poets in Britain who don’t entirely fit the mainstream label but aren’t avant-gardists either. Increasingly, I see that as being where I belong. Ultimately, it’s for critics to place me in the schemas if they so desire. The Ambulance Box certainly presents a variety of approaches to the task of writing a poem — some formal and others more oblique, experimental — but I hope it’s bound together by a sense of music and the view of life it presents.
8) On the question of the poet laureate, if you were offered would you accept or decline and why?
I’m insufficiently monarchist for that job! Makar of Scotland would be a different proposition, though.
9) What question would you most like to be asked and answer?
I honestly can’t think of an answer to that!
10) Finally, What do you believe that ‘Scottish’ poetry has to offer the world?
What are its strengths and weaknesses?
It strikes me that our linguistic situation offers distinct advantages in the globalised world: we can show how different languages can interact within a single identity because we’ve been at it for ages. That also helps to tune our lugs and enrich the sound of our verse.
I talked above about post-mainstream poets. There’s a lineage for them in Scottish poetry already. Edwin Morgan, Gael Turnbull and Ian Hamilton Finlay are three prominent names that come to mind in that regard. Of the generation above mine, Informationists such as WN Herbert, David Kinloch or Richard Price have picked that up in their writing in different ways. That strand to our tradition is certainly a strength because it criss-crosses literary boundaries in productive and interesting ways.
Weakness at the moment are largely infrastructural. Polygon is the only Scottish press with a sizeable UK presence publishing poetry, and even that seems precarious. There are a number of excellent small presses, but Scotland lacks any other largish press with the profile and clout to make an impact on UK poetry. HappenStance has shown that a Scottish pamphlet press can have UK clout. Luath has done some good work, but its presence outside Scotland is virtually nil. There is an enormous amount of goodwill towards Scotland internationally and we could use that to our advantage if we had presses with greater reach. As Salt http://www.facebook.com/l/; has shown, you don’t need to be part of a huge conglomerate to build an international profile. We need something more for poets who are committed to Scotland but whose ambition is larger than our borders.
On top of that, we could do with more opportunities for poets to learn their craft outside the university creative writing departments. The latter are good, certainly, but they’re not the place for everybody. We need a stronger infrastructure of encouragement. There have been talks about taking steps to make that a reality, and I hope it comes into being.
The Ambulance Box: http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/smp/9781844714919.htm
Salt: http://www.saltpublishing.com/
--------------------
1) Adrian Mitchell said, ‘Most people ignore poetry because most poetry ignores most people’ Where do you stand on this?
Poetry is about life, so I don’t see how we can say that most of it ignores most people. Look at the effect of the BBC’s poetry season. Sales of books by TS Eliot — not exactly the epitome of accessibility — have gone up 222%. Sales of The Collected Poems of George Mackay Brown have increased by 844.4%. Perhaps Mackay Brown is stylistically the less challenging of those two but he hardly wrote about the everyday life of the average 21st century reader, whatever that may be. It just goes to show that if poetry of all kinds is promoted and if people are given an engaging way into it through a medium they can readily access, it will find a wider readership.
2) In terms of the media, press, TV and radio. How do you react to the expectation from them that poetry can be ‘knocked off’ on demand.
Little of lasting value is knocked off on demand. That’s not to disparage poetry that arises out of the news or reacts to it. Such work has a long and distinguished pedigree, but poetry has no responsibility to fit into the news agenda. It ain’t headline writing and nor is it soundbites. Soundbites may be memorable, but they don’t carry the resonance of poetic lines.
3) Which poets have you not read but would like to?
For starters, John Ashberry, WS Graham, Tomas Tranströmer, David Jones and Elizabeth Bishop. I’ve read or heard bits and pieces by them all, but not read any of them properly. There’s a whole lifetime’s worth of names already on my to-read list and it just keeps growing.
4) If poetry was ever banned as it has been in other countries how would you respond?
By writing poems, I suspect.
5) If you were to choose an Editor for an ultimate ‘Scottish’ anthology who would it be and why?
I’m not convinced any anthology can ever be ultimate, but I’d be fascinated to see what William Dunbar would make of today’s diversity of style and language. He was a versatile poet and “Lament for the Makaris” shows he had a good knowledge of who was writing in his day and age.
6) Poetry Slams are said to be divisive and encourage bad poetry. What is your opinion on that?
Slams can’t be any more divisive than literary prizes and awards, which have become important for getting a book widely noticed. I’m not entirely comfortable with that culture because, inevitably, worthy contenders and fine books miss out. On the other hand, I certainly wouldn’t sniff if The Ambulance Box http://www.facebook.com/l/;
I’ve heard an awful lot of dull, poorly written and derivative verse at non-slam readings. My experience of the slam scene is limited, but little of what I’ve heard in it has really impressed me. It seems slam audiences are more willing to accept weaknesses in the writing if the performance skills are strong. I suspect that any writer who got the bulk of their input from slam poetry wouldn’t have their poetic ear, craft or imagination developed to the full. We all need model ourselves on the best, whatever part of the poetry world we’re in. There are some excellent performance poets to learn from, but they’ve probably all learned from a broad range of writers.
7) Where would you place your poetry in the canon? Romantic, modernist, post-modernist etc and why?
I’d be hppiest describing it as post-mainstream. There seems to be a growing body of poets in Britain who don’t entirely fit the mainstream label but aren’t avant-gardists either. Increasingly, I see that as being where I belong. Ultimately, it’s for critics to place me in the schemas if they so desire. The Ambulance Box certainly presents a variety of approaches to the task of writing a poem — some formal and others more oblique, experimental — but I hope it’s bound together by a sense of music and the view of life it presents.
8) On the question of the poet laureate, if you were offered would you accept or decline and why?
I’m insufficiently monarchist for that job! Makar of Scotland would be a different proposition, though.
9) What question would you most like to be asked and answer?
I honestly can’t think of an answer to that!
10) Finally, What do you believe that ‘Scottish’ poetry has to offer the world?
What are its strengths and weaknesses?
It strikes me that our linguistic situation offers distinct advantages in the globalised world: we can show how different languages can interact within a single identity because we’ve been at it for ages. That also helps to tune our lugs and enrich the sound of our verse.
I talked above about post-mainstream poets. There’s a lineage for them in Scottish poetry already. Edwin Morgan, Gael Turnbull and Ian Hamilton Finlay are three prominent names that come to mind in that regard. Of the generation above mine, Informationists such as WN Herbert, David Kinloch or Richard Price have picked that up in their writing in different ways. That strand to our tradition is certainly a strength because it criss-crosses literary boundaries in productive and interesting ways.
Weakness at the moment are largely infrastructural. Polygon is the only Scottish press with a sizeable UK presence publishing poetry, and even that seems precarious. There are a number of excellent small presses, but Scotland lacks any other largish press with the profile and clout to make an impact on UK poetry. HappenStance has shown that a Scottish pamphlet press can have UK clout. Luath has done some good work, but its presence outside Scotland is virtually nil. There is an enormous amount of goodwill towards Scotland internationally and we could use that to our advantage if we had presses with greater reach. As Salt http://www.facebook.com/l/;
On top of that, we could do with more opportunities for poets to learn their craft outside the university creative writing departments. The latter are good, certainly, but they’re not the place for everybody. We need a stronger infrastructure of encouragement. There have been talks about taking steps to make that a reality, and I hope it comes into being.
The Ambulance Box: http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/smp/9781844714919.htm
Salt: http://www.saltpublishing.com/
--------------------
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