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Interview
In April 2019, I was interviewed by Leslie Tate about some forthcoming projects, some of the things that inspire me and Marsden. The interview was recently published and you can read it by following the link below.
Between Two Rivers
We are thrilled to announce details of a fairly secret project that we’ve had in the pipeline for several months. Between Two Rivers is a unique collaboration between poet, Nick Allen and artist, Myles Linley that will be published as Maytree 006 in September.
The book features fourteen new poems by Nick together with several colour reproductions of Myles’ wonderful paintings of the East Yorkshire landscape.
Look out for more news and a cover reveal very soon.
Talking about the project, Nick said:
‘The project between two rivers grew out of a long standing friendship between Myles and I that has involved a lot of curry and far too many nights standing at Fall gigs wondering which way the evening was going to go. When Myles moved to Beverley we started visiting places around Hull, especially on the waterfronts of the Humber and the Hull. We found we were talking…
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Shop
via Shop
E.A.M. Harris
Don’t Break the Tea Circle
The room sweeps from front porch to back lawn.
The Chinese carpet grips billowing seats
guarded by gold brocade cushions; curtains
swagger at the windows. We stand, them and us,
a circle round a coffee table.
I arrange a smile, ‘Her end was peaceful.’ My smile
repeats in great-aunt’s lips, her eyes
spy on the carpet, ‘So thoughtful to come this way.
Do have some tea,’
passing the Doulton and silver jug. My feet
are killing; she could say ‘… a seat.’ We go on standing;
even the bump. ‘You could’ve phoned.’ Cousin with bump.
I drink. She sighs. An old quarrel wearies
round the chairs, but cushions and flounces are battlements.
No rest for the past.
Loose covers beckon, my skirt would blend,
but sitting is an armoured declaration. I stand.
There’s refuge in tradition: the weather glossed
with traffic jams and roads. We…
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Rachel Kerr
360 Degree Review
i
I got it verbatim,
what they all thought,
the rush of frustration
only just missing my kidneys.
The times they said nothing –
a growing ball of paperclips,
pay issues and early departures,
winding me with its momentum.
And before I knew it, the ducking
was done and I was floating
in pond weed, being professional.
I can push upstream
like this for a hundred more
meetings, from hare moon
to harvest, making it work.
Watch me. And if it should come,
the baying, the rope, the stake
on the platform, that day I will
step up and, in the fraction
of the second there will be,
I will raise my hand and point
and you will know me.
ii
Afterwards, she picked her sharpest kitchen knife
and sliced a perfect semi-circle, scooped out the contents
and, as if to dine, laid down her best pieces…
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Christopher Hopkins
The Empty Chapel of Your Eyes
With the dying
of the softest light,
the lamp light calls
to the north stars
as the caged bird
closed up
to the swallow-tailed will,
and somewhere
an hour or two in the light dust west,
colours
are compacting,
like a torch light pressed
hard against the pinkest skin.
The infra sounds
are climbing into bed
with us.
You rest our eyes
in your palm of solace,
as a candlelight vigil.
Skin is translucent
in the colour blue,
(here,
but not here).
The marble light reflection
in the chapel of our eyes,
doesn’t burn as bright
as burnt wings
or the jointed bones
of Orion’s frozen copse,
and like my body
powerless.
All of these heavenly bodies
are without spines,
without warmth.
There is no freedom in the cold,
like a star
in the glare
of the Sun’s accomplice,
that spoiling moon.
My love,
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Dick Jones
Morgan, Mulligan and Me
‘My Funny Valentine’
Art Farmer – trumpet
Gerry Mulligan – baritone sax
Bill Crow – bass
Dave Bailey – drums
There was
it seemed
a chance
after all
a chance
that in spite
of the thick
cat curve of
Morgan’s midnight
hair; the
electric green
surveillance of
those Cleopatra
eyes; the
devastating scorn
of that
elevated lip,
she might
just notice me
for all my looks
laughable un-
photographable.
A neutral party
told me late
one Tuesday
after lunch
and with all of
break before us
(this for the price
of my last
French cigarette)
that you had
a thing
a real thing
a kink for a
saxophone.
Where all
the other girls
had things for
a kiss-curl fall
or a hand
drooped limp
at the wrist
or a hip-switch
twist away from
the microphone
you favoured
the blue smoke
of a saxophone.
So it was…
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Hannah Stone
Easter Hail Stones, Hanlith Moor
The sky is surly today,
reluctant to twist the veil
and clothe us in its blue lining.
Spring trees are barely clad,
still stretch out their limbs
in dark longing.
After Gordale Scar refuses us
the moors embrace our feet;
saturated soil clogs our boots.
Then, sudden and brutal,
the weather front drops its pretence,
drapes us with white-out.
Hail stones beat and batter
any flesh exposed to its blows.
Visibility shrinks before our gaze.
This cold pierces Gortex layers,
stabs to the bones.
Cheeks redden from its flail.
Then, it is as if a hand
reaches down and lifts the scourge,
switches on the light.
There is a lane, pointing
in roughly the right direction.
On naked elders, birds start to celebrate.
We breathe new life
into stinging fingers,
raise bruised faces to the sun.
Hannah Stone has been widely anthologized and published…
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Holmfirth
Sheep Caught in Brambles, So Many Sounds
I’m delighted to be exhibiting again at this year’s Holmfirth Artweek which begins on the on the 1 July 2018 in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire. The show has become a firm fixture on the annual events list and attract thousands of visitors from across the country raising thousands of pounds for Macmillan Cancer Care.
‘Sheep…’ and ‘The Valley…’ will both make their debut in the main exhibition whilst a number of new paintings will also be on show for the first time at Enjoy Art, Marsden where I will be a Fringe exhibitor.
‘Sheep…’ – acrylic on board – measures 16 x 14″ and has been beautifully framed by Delph Picture Framing with an off white frame and will be on sale for £450.00. You may need a bigger wall space for ‘The Valley…’ possibly the biggest painting I’ve completed at 138 x 87cm and again framed in off-white. The size of the painting gives a wonderful immersive quality to the landscape. ‘The Valley…’ will retail at £1200.00.
Both paintings are inspired by poems and those who have read The Walk from Flowers by the Road may recognise one of the titles.
The Valley Twitches in its Bed
David Coldwell 