Sheer Zed’s Glossolalic Evocations

One of the lovely things about this year has been meeting and working with some wonderful, talented people. Sheer Zed and I met on Twitter a few years back and so it was a major treat to finally meet him. Especially as the first time we met ‘IRL’ was at the Hesterglock Press launch of my pamphlet clew in April this year, and he was providing ambient soundtracks to my, Sarer Scotthorne and Paul Hawkins’s readings.

He also sampled my reading of a long poem A Summoning, and turned it into a sweeping soundscape- one of my highlights of the year to have someone use my words in their music. We hope to work together at some point again in the future- which is a very happy-making thought!

This track is available as part of Sheer Zed’s new release Glossolalic Evocations, which is released today. More information on how to get it here.

I was very lucky to receive this as a gift from Sheer Zed and have been enjoying listening to it- it is mind-bending – body- moving – immersive electronic music in all the best possible ways, and is an utter pleasure to soak up. I recommend it.

Sheer Zed has described Glossolalic Evocations as:

“…engorged with various sonic elements such as Bristolized bass, noise, glossolalic utterances, recorded ambience, rugged mechanized beats and a garnish of just a slither of acid.

Here are my, in places, vaguely glossolalic responses to some of the tracks…

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Hevvy hypnotic metallic phasing iconoclastic future beats pummelling drop dub sound of dead London stretched out time blip dance loops held in glistening spectral sheets of sonic dance macabre
Clockwork ticking cog turning melodic organic mechanic blocks of reverberating dissonant rhythmic spaces gripped by claws of cubic creaking dub bird swooping through pines surveying silence time breeze on and on and on on on on strike
Deep house depth charge techno funk > Lost in Brixton in the 90s, Derrick May, Carl Craig and dancing next to a tank draped in khaki camo for four quid when Brixton was still like that move your hands in robot blip shapes and no chill out shroom shaking space robot bez haunts loose lose losing your ..it
………………………………….1.27 drop and accumulate repetitive beats Load your quiver……………………..
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Watch the Skies. 3.36
Dark mornings in Bristol walking the cut captured by rust, decay trees. Disappearing tube train to the underworld. Pennies on eyes for the journey.
tell it like Stri ell of sulp hur un der a brid ke mat ches ge sul phur dr it is c o n j u r e a d e v i l hur str ike mat ches un der a brid aw a cir cle ge sm ell of sul phur und er a brid ge sm str ike mat ches sm ell of echo drip

TODAY! The News Agents, Resonance FM, with Judge Cowan Montague

I’m really excited to be on Jude Cowan Montague’s radio show, The News Agents, at 2.30pm this afternoon, on Resonance FM. I will be reading poems and chatting with fellow poet Susie Campbell, whose excellent blog post on this is here. You can tune in here or listen to the show via MixCloud later… more information on the Facebook event.

Eve Ensler on Adrienne Rich

“She taught me that the lives of women existed in the future. And that language was the pathway to that future. She taught me women were living lives inside constructs of lives and that poetic grace and surprise could reveal shatter those constructs.”

From last Saturday’s MY HERO section in The Guardian

A Thousand Reasons (To be a Feminist)

Last Thursday, International Womens’ Day, Linda Grant found herself trending on Twitter. This was after tweeting about the fact that feminists fought hard for the things women take for granted now.  Her timeline became an avalanche of retweets from other women telling their own stories of sexist behaviour, way back when and even now. Read more about it here, on the Guardian website.  Today the archive of theses tweets goes live here, at http://athousandreasons.com/

Alice Oswald withdraws from TS Eliot Poetry Prize

Alice Oswald has withdrawn her name from this year’s shortlist for the TS Eliot prize for poetry.

After losing its Arts Council funding this year, the Poetry Book Society, which manages the prestigious prize, announced a three year sponsorship from Aurum Funds, a private investment company, to cover the costs.

Oswald told The Bookseller: “I’m uncomfortable about the fact that Aurum Funds, an investment company which exclusively manages funds of hedge funds, is sponsoring the administration of the Eliot Prize; I think poetry should be questioning not endorsing such institutions and for that reason I’m withdrawing from the shortlist.”

See the article in today’s Independent here for more information. It will be interesting to see if anyone else withdraws- I have a feeling they might…

Poetry in the News

Here are two stories in yesterday’s G2 section of the Guardian newspaper.

The first is an interview with the remarkable Alice Oswald, whose obsession with Homer’s Iliad she has now rewritten as  ‘Memorial’,  and is published by Faber. Read the full interview here.

Sam Leith’s piece on Winning Words,   a poetry project connected to next year’s Olympics is here.

On the Winning Words web site, under the ‘Simple Suggesions’ tab, it suggests you can “bring poetry to life in your day to day life with very little trouble at all.. and maximum results!

Why not try one of the following….

• Bake a poetry cake! Create your own words in icing
• Write a poem in the sand next time you’re at the beach – see how long it lasts before the waves wash it away
• Create a poetry trail in the forest – use twigs and rocks to spell out the words of your favourite poem, or write your own •Make your very own poetry t-shirt with fabric pens or iron-on transfers.”

There are many other suggestions and interesting ideas and projects to experience and be involved in.

I will be going back at regular intervals to see what’s going on and will report back.