New Season: Pen to Paper 2019/20!

Just before the summer, we were delighted to be told that BMAG would continue to host and support Pen to Paper into 2020. Therefore, a new season of 2019/20 sessions have been planned - the agreed dates are listed below:

• 26 October
• 23 November

• 18 January
• 29 February
• 28 March

• 23 May
• 20 June
• 18 July

The session schedule will remain the same - monthly meetings, on Saturdays, from 11am to 4pm - and will continue to be held in either the Arts or History Classrooms on the museum's Learning Floor. All the sessions will include a mixture of free writing prompts, extended writing activities, engagement with the museum's collections and exhibitions, pair and group work, and a chance for peer review and feedback.

As you can see from the above list of dates, the season is split into three terms, with a two months' break between each term. Sessions within each term will be tailored around slightly different topics, taken from the feedback you gave following last season's sessions.

Everyone should by now have received an email from me about this new season; if you know of anyone who might be interested in joining Pen to Paper, do feel free to forward this email to them!

'Birmingham Is...'

by Jood, Luke, Bev, Fred, and Sallyanne

 

a gothic spire modern-towered over,

still fighting for air.

where you can take a lift to the top of a cube, 

lose landmarks, but spend a fortune on a glass of champagne,

a spaghetti-junction between north and south,

east and west, struggling to breath. 

where a man once tried to circumnavigate 11 times

on a No 11 bus on 11/11/2011. He failed. 

home to the largest Primark in the UK.

was once the Capital of manufacturing,

has a super hospital,

but paupers line the city streets. 

regenerated, beautiful and busy

but no longer a city of a thousand trades.

forever the tired mule pulling the wheel,

keeping the country turning;

forever the beating heart that pushes the steel and iron

around the country's harsh brick veins. 

a land-locked treasure chest of culture
bursting open its brass lock,

where the voices of every nationality
strike a sonic harmony.



Wonderful work, guys. It was interesting to see how seamlessly all your ideas and perspectives came together, and I think the order you decided on for the stanzas works really well. 

Those who didn't attend the session - it would be interesting to see what lines you would choose to right, and where you think they would fit. Post them below or email them to me, giving an indication of where you would slot them, and I'll publish an edited version!

An Ode and a Malediction

by Jood Gough

This is absolutely wonderful! Exactly what I imagined when I set the task of doing the 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 poem - and more! I love how you have reversed the form, to reflect Birmingham's growing reputation in the ode, mirrored by a worker's declining health in the malediction. The use of colour really works to charge the imagery of your words - 'oyster shell lustre', 'diamond' and 'pearl' on a bright white surface, while 'noxious fumes' and 'windowless rooms' are drowned by a dark blackdrop. Two fantastic pieces, which show the two sides of one of Birmingham's most outwardly-glamorous, but truly bleak, industries. 

If anyone would like to share their pieces on the blog, do email them to me at nellie.cole@sky.com.

Session 8 resources

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the delay, but I can now say that the page for the eighth and final session, held at BMAG on the 13 July, is up! Go to the 'Sessions' tab above to see a run-down of the exercises, and links to the resources used, in our exploration of odes and maledictions.

Thank you so much to those who attended the final session - it was a lovely meeting, as always. Following this post, I will upload the 'Birmingham Is...' poem we created collaboratively in the session, and the couple of poems you've sent me via email to be shared here. If anyone else would like to share their pieces, do send them to me at nellie.cole@sky.com.

Shortly, I'll be emailing everyone to give you the confirmed dates for the 2019/20 terms, the details about re-enrolment, how the future sessions will build upon the feedback you gave, and anything else about moving forward. You can still submit your feedback/suggestions, just shoot me an email.

Have a lovely summer everybody, and keep getting that pen to paper!

Nellie x

Session 7 resources and EVALUATION

Last month, I was apologising for bringing you in from the glorious sunshine into the BMAG basement; this month, I'm apologising for bringing you out into the rain to attend the seventh session of Pen to Paper! Thank you to those of you who came along. 

This session, we turned our attentions to villanelles and sestinas, two forms pioneered by French poets. These forms are both quite difficult to master, and are restrictive in their form, repetition, and rhyme scheme. I hope the session offered some fun activities to help you get your teeth into these forms! As always, a summary of the activities and links to resources can be found here, or on the 'Sessions' tab above. 

The session ended with a small discussion into the future of Pen to Paper: a chance to air opinions and suggestions of how the sessions could be altered to better suit your needs. I'm really open to your thoughts here - I want you to be getting all you can from these sessions, and to continue to enjoy them. 

If you didn't attend the session, please do get into contact with me via email (or commenting below) with answers to any of the following:

• are you interested in future Pen to Paper events?
• do you still think the spaces at BMAG, and the spaces available, are suitable for our needs? 
• which of the following arrangements are still something that works for you? if not, what might you suggest as an alteration?

1. five hour sessions
2. Saturday afternoons
3. monthly
4. group size

• where would you like to see the sessions going in the future? (different venues, external trips, guest lecturers, publications, ect.)?
• please rank the following topics from those you are most interested in (1) to those you are least interested in (5)

a) movements/schools (eg: Beat, Imagism)

b) forms (eg: sonnets, sestinas)

c) poets (eg: female poets, LGBT poets, BAME poets, disabled poets)

d) features (eg: punctuation, layout, metaphor)

e) advice for poets (eg: competition entry, magazine submission, manuscript submission)

• of the above (especially those you ranked 1 and 2), what specifics would you like covered?

It would be great to get this feedback so I can plan future sessions with these things in mind! 

Session 6 resources

Thanks to all those who came along to the May session of Pen to Paper, coming in from the first bit of sunshine in days to spend an afternoon in the basement of BMAG..! I hope you found the session on Japanese forms - tanka, haiku, and haibun - a little bit different, interesting, and inspiring. For those of you who missed this session, the decision to focus on Japanese poetry was to hopefully generate some material for the Offa's Press call for submissions to their new anthology (see the post below for full details). You can find the recap of exercises, and the resources we looked at in the session, by going to the 'Sessions' tab above, or follow the link here.

As always, do feel free to send me any pieces - either for publication here on the blog, or pieces you're thinking of submitting, that you'd like me to take a glance over. I happy to see anything, even works in progress or early drafts! My email is nellie.cole@sky.com.

***

Finally, I got confirmation from BMAG today that we can continue to run Pen to Paper sessions at the museum if we so wish. We just need to confirm dates with them as soon as possible to ensure we get the spaces we want on the days we need. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this -

• are you interested in future Pen to Paper events?
• do you still think the spaces at BMAG, and the spaces available, are suitable for our needs? 
• is the arrangement still something that works for you (five hour sessions, Saturdays, monthly, ect.)?
• where would you like to see the sessions going in the future (different venues, external trips, guest lecturers, publications, ect.)?

Thank you everyone for your continued support, attendance, enthusiasm, and generosity in your donations. I feel we have nurtured a really lovely group here, and I hope you find the sessions, exercise, and discussions as useful and inspiring as I do.

Nellie x

Offa's Press Call for Submissions

Japanese anthology
Anthology of haiku, tanka and haibun touching on life in the West Midlands’ region.

Editors: David Bingham and Simon Fletcher

Publication Date: October 2019

Workshops
A series of workshops will be arranged to generate interest by introducing writers to the three basic Japanese poetry forms: haiku, tanka and haibun. They will be held at various venues around the region. Keep an eye on the website for details.

Submissions
Each writer may submit up to 10 haiku, 3 haibun and 5 tanka. The content of the haiku, tanka and haibun submitted should be inspired by the everyday world of the West Midlands.

All submissions should be the original work of the writer who is submitting the work. We are looking for fresh exciting poetry. However, work that has been published previously will be considered as long as full publishing details are provided.

The window for submissions to the anthology is from June 1st to July 19th. Submissions should be sent by post to David Bingham at 20, Hodge Bower, Ironbridge, Telford, TF8 7QG or via email to david.hodgebower@tiscali.co.uk

The author’s name/contact details must appear on each page.

***

The Poetry of Worcestershire

Anthology of contemporary poetry that reflects the many aspects of life in Worcestershire from Kidderminster carpets to the Malvern Hills, plum orchards and asparagus festivals, Worcester sauce, Elgar and Vesta Tilley.

Editors: Simon Fletcher and Michael W. Thomas

Publication Date: November 2019

Who will be in the anthology?

Poets living in or who have strong connections to Worcestershire.

Workshops

Workshops to help focus minds will be held throughout the county during the spring of 2019. Details will appear on the Offa’s Press website. Some workshops will have tickets attached.

Submissions

Submissions are free and should be sent by post (include an SAE if you want your work returned) to Offa’s Press, 2, Ferndale, Pant, Oswestry, Shropshire, SY10 9QD. Please include your name, address and/or other contact details. Send your work in from June 1st – July 31st. Please do not send before.

A maximum of 4 pages of poetry may be sent. Suitable poetry that’s previously been published will be considered so please give details with the submission. The author’s name/ contact details must appear on each page.

For further information or to book workshop tickets contact Offa’s Press on 01691 831463 or email info@offaspress.co.uk.

Two poems

by Jood Gough

Thanks for sending us these poems, Jood! They both respond to the exercise, and the picture of M87, so well, and in such starkly different ways. 'Black Hole M87' is fantastic for your use of text and its space on the page - there are so many little moments which are so clever and meaningful, such as the line break of 'shoreline', and the spreading of words when you talk of 'dense/ and deep/ and powerful'. The haiku, I think achieves a similar effect, but the concise nature of it frames it entirely differently. Together, I think they work really well as a pair - showing both the huge expanse of the unknown and the tiny amount we know about it. 

As always, if you would like to share your pieces created from the session's activities, do email them to me at nellie.cole@sky.com.

Two poems

by Lucretia Luke

Thanks for sending these across, Luke! The poem, 'Past', is phenomenal. I remember loving your ideas about your chosen painting ('The Last of England', by Ford Madox Brown) as you explained it in the session, and I think this finished piece really does it justice. Your use of space on the page is pitch-perfect for the concept and the story you're telling - the lines shifting right to left, and the white text on black, gives a sense of stretching the mind back into the past to catch snippets of fast-fading memories. I love it. 'Future' is a wonderful accompanying poem, switching the colours of black and white so the text represents the 'light at the end of tunnel', as it were. 

As always, if you would like to share your pieces created from the session's activities, do email them to me at nellie.cole@sky.com.

Session 5 resources

Hi all! The outline of the fifth session of Pen to Paper, where the focus was on light and dark, whiteness and blackness, and mark-making on the page, is up! Follow this link or see the 'Sessions' tab above.

Some really wonderful work was created during this session. If anyone would like to send scans, photos, or PDFs of their work, please do - send to nellie.cole@sky.com and I'll post them up here in due course. This is open to people who didn't attend the session too!

See you for our next session on 11 May!

Genesis

by Jood Gough

Thanks so much for sending across this poem, Jood! I loved your explanation during the session, of how you went about choosing the artwork from the Women, Power, and Protest exhibition: the pieces by Dickson exploring her pregnancy are etchings, a very physical, rough craftsmanship process, and something that stands at an interesting opposition to 'soft' processes that one might stereotypically associate with pregnancy and womanhood, such as textiles. The resulting poem is both tender and visceral, and your use of the page is adeptly done. 

As always, if you would like to share your pieces created from the session's activities, do email them to me at nellie.cole@sky.com.

Session 4 resources

Thank you so much to those of you who came along to Saturday's session - and thank you for accommodating the unexpected change to the started time...! Despite being shorter, I think the session was very productive, with lots of good discussion and the beginnings of what sounded like really interesting pieces.

As always, the recap of the session's activites, and the relevant resources, links and pictures, can be found on the 'Sessions' tab above.

Following group consensus, I'll be planning a session that explores one or two poetic forms for our next meeting, on Saturday 13 April. See you all then!

Two poems

by Nigel Hutchinson


JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN CONDUCTS A TOUR OF MEMORABILIA IN BIRMINGHAM MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY & VISITS BISSET'S MUSEUM WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO SURREALISM

I have seen fairy loaves,
myself rise from a loaf of bread,
unexpectedly,
years before Breton's Surrealist fish.

What I have said, I have said,
I withdraw nothing,
though stars and thunderbolts fall to earth,
though saint turn snakes to stone,
though stones give birth to animals,
though fish are stranded after the great flood,

I have said what I have said,
nothing I withdraw,
though earth fall through stars and thunderbolts,
though stones turn saints to snakes,
though animals give birth to stones,
though after the flood great fish are stranded.

Loaves of fairies I have seen,
unexpectedly
myself a loaf of bread rise,
fish before Breton's Surrealist years.

I WANT TO BE THE ENGINE DRIVER

I wanted to be,
the trailer for a film I'll never watch,
that silence when all the noise has stopped,
the smell of willow in Autumn,
a drawer full of maps,
the owner of slow ears,
always wrapping parcels with brown paper,
waking up in summer before everyone else,

I want to be alone (with Greta Garbo of course),
running effortlessly,
the jam that squirts out of the doughnut,
crumbs after the party,
knee-deep in a mountain stream,
grit in an oyster,
sitting with a book,
a pen writing on paper,

I want to be grateful,
the cherry on top,
pebbles on a beach,
a climate change,
as patient as a heron,
younger than springtime,
drinking in Rick's bar,
the wheels on the bus,

I want to be as warm as hot chocolate,
as cool as lager,
the writing on the wall,
a man with answers,
better than that,
down the road a piece,
joining in the chorus,
wine at the bottom of your glass.

Thanks for sending these across, Nigel! These are great poems: I love the way you've manipulated the palindrome form in your first piece, it really works to present the topsy-turvy nature of Bisset's museum! The second poem is fantastic too - I love the line, 'the owner of slow ears'! The list form of this poem works really well, giving us relentless imagery from start to end. 

As always, if you have poems or pieces of work you'd like shared on the blog, do email them to me at nellie.cole@sky.com.