One Night Stanzas

You’ve seen Amy’s poems… now find out a bit more about her life, work and creative process!

Tell us about your poems.
My poems are about being a hungry animal. I write free verse.

How long have you been writing?
Since I was fifteen. The joke I repeat everywhere (actually true) is that I read some Carol Ann Duffy for my GCSEs and thought it didn’t look at all hard. So basically, I began writing poetry out of spite. Bet you’ve never heard that one before!

Do you have any publications to your name? What’s the next stage for your work?
I’ve been published here and there. I was one of the winners of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year competition in both 2007 and 2008, so I was published in the winners anthologies and the poetry society website. My work has been in Rising, Pomegranate, Iota, Cadaverine and Young Writer magazine.
I’m being published in an anthology by Bloodaxe next year – that’s pretty next-stagey. I suppose I should really be thinking about a pamphlet or a chapbook or something, but I don’t want to rush myself.

What do you think is your biggest poetic achievement to date?
I was well pleased with being chosen for the Bloodaxe anthology. To be honest, though, it was probably writing something, sitting back, and thinking ‘yes, this is good, this has some worth’ for the first time.

What’s the best thing about writing poetry? And the worst?
Damn. The worst thing is the frustration of thinking that no matter how much exposure you get, and no matter how good your work gets, it will always just be poetry, and for this reason you’re audience will probably always be limited. But I think you need to resign yourself to that, and write on. Writers’ block is up there, as well.
The best thing(s) are the people you meet. Mad, erudite people who you will love who write excellent things and help you write better things. You’re keeping something alive together. Then it’s the fact that you’re doing something that’s important. I’m making it sound like being a power ranger. It’s not, but writing poems is good and essential and should be done. It’s good to be part of that. Erm, so, writing poetry is the best part of writing poetry.

Got any suggestions for young, upcoming poets?
The way you write is going to be different from the way everyone else writes, so don’t feel obliged to take advice from other writers. Not that you shouldn’t listen to it, just don’t feel you ought to be doing things the way she does, or he does. That’s my number one suggestion.
After that – always write things down. You think you’ll remember that awesome line that came to you when you were in the bath but you won’t. So carry a notebook. Read - if you feel like it. Find time to watch stupid TV and fall in love and that. Carpe diem. Don’t be too precious about your poems. They’re not a mineral resource. Let them go out and play.
Most importantly, feel free to discount above advice. But not this advice; read, and submit to, magazines and blogs. Enter contests. Don’t stop.

Who/what influences your poetry?
Pop culture, interesting newspaper headlines, natural disasters, violinists, boys, girls, drunks, New Cross, makeup counters, the river Thames and reading other peoples poetry. Specifically Yehuda Amichai, Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, and the vast number of excellent young poets out there.

Death At A Party

I’d never met death before,
only been to two funerals,
(great grandmothers — you deal- - never knew them)
but there he was in that
disordered deck of lethal
somebodies

where the hour-glass and garden
went to bed with japanned spades and aces and the queen
and the priestess dropped acid
with pictures of pikachu on the tabs.

Keeping to himself, in the corner.
Not grim, but without that historical gumless grin
either

and a six-pack of stella later
he was flickering like an admiring eye,
crusted green with photophores

and dancing, dancing, a skull in bug-eye shades with day-glo vertebrae,
flicking like the eye that cautiously admires,
bending hands around my shoulders -

making sure we all knew he was famous.

Be a Featured Poet: send a few poems to [email protected]… that simple!

(Photo by Stuck in Customs)

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List of link love…

Have a great weekend, all! x

(Photo by εïз Butterfly LXT εïз)

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I’ll be back tomorrow to interview Amy, but in the meantime, you can check out one poem and her bio here, and enjoy this little beauty…

Anniversary

Desire:

a bridge that bursts with wanting
the glifting water running under its ribs.

I dreamt about you last night,
damp and insidious
behind my throat.

A mouth aching for the river.

(Photo by Nicolas de Fontenay)

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Well, you’ve all done a marvellous job, putting up with me these past few weeks while I’ve angsted and carped on about my first ever book project, Skin Deep. I’m really proud to say that it’s all paid off — the book came off the presses at Forest today and it is officially amazing, even if I do say so myself.

Every copy is lovingly handmade — the covers are 200gsm cardstock with black endpapers. The contents are printed on high quality 80gsm paper and the whole thing is bound and finished off with a sweet red ribbon bookmark. When you open the book the first thing you get to is the stunning foreword — I was really honoured to have tattooed goddess and internet superstar Ms Gala Darling on board to write it. Sneak preview here…

Once you get inside the book itself, you’ll find brilliant poems from Kim Addonizio (I was overwhelmed when I received a submission from this lady!), Lucy Baker, Kevin Cadwallender, Dave Coates, Morganne Couch, Drew, Eric Hamilton, Aiko Harman, Natalia Herrero, Jason Monios, Roxanne Paris, Lauren Pope, William Soule, Christian Ward, Noel Williams and Juliet M Wilson. There is also a contribution from tattoo expert Marisa DiMattia — another person I was very pleased to hear from!

Basically, the book is fabulous, and I want to thank absolutely everyone who got involved with submissions, suggestions and offers of help — Read This Press loves you, you are part of this very cool book. You don’t have to take my word for it when it comes to the quality and loveliness… there’s more information over at our Etsy store, and you can grab yourselves a copy there if you fancy it.

Alternatively (and this might be better for those of you living in the UK), you can click this huge red button, and follow the instructions!

If you do order a copy, I hope you love reading it as much as I loved making it!

(Photos from my Flickr!)

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Love x List

The Lord of the Rings. Yes, I am officially a secret fangirl, and this past week my fangirlishness was re-awoken at an impromtu Lord of the Rings movie marathon! I first received a copy of the book on my 13th birthday, and read it avidly once a year from then until I was about 20 (by which time I was into my degree honours and reading far too much other stuff to keep it up). My relationship with the films is somewhat difficult (where the HECK is Glorfindel, Jackson?!), but as I sat through the extended editions this past weekend (albeit having to put up with childish “ew, that’s gay” comments and unfair criticisms of Sean Astin’s performance), I realised that for the past three years I have been sadly neglecting my geekishness. I have officially decided that there are far worse things to be obsessively interested in than one of the greatest literary (and linguistic) works of the 20th century (The Boy is into Star Trek, Doctor Who and 1950s pulp sci-fi magazines, for example!), so I intend to reignite this particular obsession with aplomb. I figure that now I’ve spent five years reading the big hitters of literature, I can get away with it. Any other geeks out there? Lets talk LotR… who’s your favourite character? (It’s a tough call but I think mine are Boromir [movie] and Legolas [novel].)

Read This 15. By the time you read this, I will probably be sitting in the Forest, watching Read This Issue 15 come off the printer. I know I always get excited about the new issue coming out, but this one really is pretty good. We’re featuring poems from the incredibly talented Mr Jonathan Hayes, from Skin Deep contributors Noel Williams and Morganne Couch, and from the man behind the magic of The Forest (and Scottish Poetry Library Reader in Residence!) Ryan Van Winkle. We also have artwork from Derek McCrea. Not only is it a great issue… I have also sorted out the shipping on Etsy, so if you want to buy a copy, you’ll be paying the right amount of P&P at last! Check it out!

The Oscars. Sadly, I do not have Sky Movies, so I was unable to watch the (this year) hideously predictable campfest that was the Oscars 2009. However, I have been furiously catching up on everything via the wonders of Perez Hilton and Youtube ever since Monday morning. I was, of course, absolutely thrilled that Kate won — she’s basically my Hollywood heroine and I was really rooting for her. Her acceptance speech was lovely, though I was not totally sold on her dress (which is what it’s all about really. And on that note, my vote for worst dressed undoubtedly goes to the usually awesome Gwen, who looked like she was wearing something made of old mops… and also surprisingly, I reckon one of the best dressed was Miley Cyrus, who seemed to be channelling vibes of Glinda)…
Other highlights: Sean Penn winning best actor, and Hugh Jackman’s song!

The University Challenge final. If you live in the UK you must have heard about this! It was amazing!
OK… another geeky confession: I am a massive University Challenge fangirl, too. Sadly the University of Edinburgh has a history of FAILING MISERABLY whenever they go on, but I always watch it, and usually, I always root for whichever team is from the North, or Scotland. If all else fails, I root for whichever team is not Oxford or Cambridge. This year’s final was Manchester vs Oxford, but Manchester’s captain was just too unbearably smug to even look at for long, let alone support, and Oxford had on their team the now-legendary Gail Trimble, who is amazing. I want her to be my best friend, she is so modest and sweet! I am genuinely shocked at the haters who think they can start blogs and Facebook groups suggesting that she be physically harmed because she is a) very smart and b) not necessarily the most beautiful girl in the world — I mean, what?! Given that I was berated in school for being studious and ugly too, my heart goes out to her… and the UC final was the most blood-pressure-raising piece of TV I’ve seen since the bus stop chicane at Spa in 2008. It’s not on Youtube yet, but it will be… watch out for it!

Honourable mentions: hot cross buns // my lecturing class working incredibly hard and proving to be a bunch of total stars // Amanda’s new blog // this sweet tattoo // Michelle Obama = style icon // my new floor-length kilt-skirt — toasty warm! // rice crispy cakes // small victories // walking through Morningside at midnight // Skin Deep — first proofs off the press and they look HOT // being too busy to blog — sad, but it = excitement and productivity! // being arty and crafty // mooching around in record stores // engaging record store employees in unhealthily animated conversations about Tom Waits // buying far too many secondhand “bargains” in record stores // Aberfeldy — finally a cool song with my name in it! // guacamole // getting stickers in the post

(Image by Kittypinkstars)

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Amy Blakemore first began writing poetry when she was fifteen, after reading some Carol Ann Duffy and thinking it didn’t look that hard. She was named a Foyle Young Poet of the Year in both 2007 and 2008, and was commended in the Torbay Open Poetry Competition in 2008. That same summer she interned at the Poetry Society, and they taught her to photocopy and do other useful things. Her poetry has been published in a variety of magazines and journals, including Pomegranate, Cadaverine, Iota and Rising. She has also had the good fortune to have read her work on BBC London Radio and Radio Europe. She is now 17, and studying for A-Levels in History, Philosophy and English Literature at a funny little school in south-east London.

The virgin of Guadalupe

From the playground to the park,
she tore indiscriminately,

her hair wide behind her like a
flag; dripping with catholica,

purple and gold rosaries
at her snakey body’s every juncture;

velvet ribbon and scraps of lurex,
blue Mary’s and Theresa’s.

Through the city she blazed a trail,
her mouth became a lovely firetrap;

she smelt of men
with motorbikes and vintage ephemera.

They called her The Virgin Of Guadalupe,
for all her nailgunned roses, her weeping messiahs;

though the name was ironic.
You heard she mothered

noisily behind
the bus shelter at dusk.

In the summer her hair would burn
and the shrines she kept behind her ears would melt,

she’d tear through the city in ankle socks
and not much else;

It won’t be long you see,
before she tears no more -

becomes a legend
for the sewer’s glitterati

and perhaps
cleans rooms in a hotel somewhere.

Be a Featured Poet — send a few poems to [email protected]… it’s that easy!

(Photo bt Cinematicsoundtrack)

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The sestina can seem like a bit of a formidable form to the uninitiated — it’s kind of like poetry meets maths. Here’s a rough guide for those of you who fancy having a go…

Sestina is a complex poetic form originally from Italy, and the word “sestina” comes from the Italian “sesto”, which means “six.” That’s basically because the number six is essential to the form of the sestina — it has to have six stanzas, each with six lines.

Sounds easy, right? So far, yes. But there are additional complications. Once you’ve written the sestina’s six six-line stanza, you also have to write a tercet on the end — a final stanza of only three lines, usually called the envoy, as a kind of conclusion. But the most important thing about the sestina is its repetition.

Before you begin a sestina, you need to pick six words. Any six words will do, but think carefully… because these same six words have to be used — in a very specific pattern — to end every single line of the six main stanzas. They must also all be used in the final tercet.

Confused now? If so, I am not surprised. Basically, you can use only the six words you have chosen to end your lines (until the tercet, but we’ll get to that in a minute). This limits your options in terms of where lines can ‘go,’ and depending on what your words are, it may also limit the subject matter of your poem. As you can imagine, it gets pretty repetitive, too.

In order to avoid the repetition, and the risk of boring or limited lines, you should try to pick words that are flexible, or have several meanings. You’re allowed to change the prefix, suffix or tense of the word (so “flame” could become “aflame,” “flaming,” “flames,” “flamed”, “flammable” etc); you can change its spelling in order to give a different meaning (”see” could become “sea”); you can even change the word completely as long as the new word retains some link to the old one (I recently wrote a sestina in which “melon” became “melancholy” for example). Just don’t stray too far or technically it’s no longer a sestina!

When you pick your six words, give each of them a number between one and six — this will help you when writing out your sestina: the pattern you’re required to stick to (123456, 615243, 364125, 532614, 451362, 246531 — remember I said it was like maths?!) is tricky to remember and having the numbers at hand will really help. I recommend bookmarking this sestina creator — it will help you to remember which words need to come at the end of which line and save you memorising the order (it will also provde you with random words if you’re having trouble thinking of some!).

When it comes to the tercet, you need to use all of your six words somewhere in your final three lines. Preferably, you should use two in each line, but the order is not important — plus, this is fairly flexible. Technically, your sestina should also be written entirely in iambic pentameter, too… but frankly, you have heaps to worry about and it’s usually still considered a sestina even if you don’t bother with this strict metre.

I know that after all that the idea of actually writing one of the darned things seems terrifying… but I really would recommend giving it a go. Sestinas are hard to get right first time so give yourself room to play around, and don’t expect miracles — just enjoy messing about with a technique you’ve never used before. As you get more confident, you can try trickier words, or challenge yourself to keep your lines a regular length — this can be surprisingly hard! And once you’ve had a few goes, you can start to play with the rules a little bit and think about creating a subverted sestina of some kind… you can even try a double sestina which has twelve stanzas of twelve lines each, which all end with the same twelve words!

If you need a bit of help, the sestina creator is one of the best things you can use — it does a lot of the mathematical legwork for you. If that feels too much like cheating, Wikipedia has a little how-to… and if all else fails, you just need to copy out the pattern of numbers above and number all the lines on your piece of paper before you start!

If you do write a sestina, I’d love to see it — you can feel free to drop me a line to [email protected], or leave your sestinas for all to see in the comments box!

(Photo by Moonaimee)

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Spiral Notebook, originally uploaded by Poofy.

So far unpublished? Just starting out on the publishing path? Being a published poet can be one of the most rewarding things you’ll ever achieve — but there are also a few things you might need to bear in mind…

1: You will experience rejection.
Even the Poet Laureate still gets rejected sometimes. When it comes to rejection, the quality of your work is not the only deciding factor, so don’t go assuming that being rejected means your work is no good. Because everyone goes through it, it’s something you should learn to accept and embrace early on, so it doesn’t hold you back.

2: People will be mean about you.
It’s sad but true — if you want to put something you’ve created into the public domain, you need to be ready for the fact that people will have opinions on it, and they may not always be nice. Whether it’s an unfavourable review or just someone expressing their distaste in an online forum, you need to learn to let the negativity slide off you and move on. After all, readers of your work will all be different, and you can’t please everyone.

3: You have to work hard.
Being a talented poet undoubtedly opens doors for you, but to get “ahead” in the poetry world, you also need to work hard. You need to write a lot, even when you don’t feel like it, and challenge yourself to be flexible and experiment — you also need to read heaps of published poetry. Depending on how “noticed” you want to be, you also need to be thinking about sending out submissions regularly, entering contests and performing at poetry readings. There’s also the constant editing process: poetry is no walk in the park.

4: It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.
Sadly, a lot of people succeed in the world of poetry because they rub shoulders with the right kinds of people — and, while this technically shouldn’t affect how well you and your work do, it always will to some extent. So you can either sit around moaning about it (as I am wont to do from time to time!) or you can take the “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” route, get out there and make friends and influence people!

5: Opportunity doesn’t knock.
Well, OK… sometimes it does, but usually you need to hunt it down. No one is going to tell you who’s who in the poetry world, when the deadlines for contests are or how you go about getting a gig for your work — you need to find out this stuff by yourself. It doesn’t take much — attend a local workshop every so often, sign up to the odd email newsletter and keep an eye on a few literary blogs. It might seem like a pain but it could bring awesome things your way.

6: Editors are not always nice.
It’s Read This‘ policy to be as friendly as possible at all times, and to provide individual feedback on any submission if it’s requested. Unfortunately, this is more the exception than the rule, so be prepared for the fact that some editors are not even unfriendly… they can be downright nasty. For some reason, some people think that the title of editor entitles them to be unpleasant or snobby… this isn’t true. If they think this is OK, they’re a bad editor, pure and simple… but unfortunately these people are out there and at some point, you’ll probably have to deal with them!

7: You won’t make any money.
Annoyingly, poetry is not lucrative at all — so don’t go into it expecting to make millions. You might make the odd tenner or so from winning contests or getting paid magazine gigs, but mostly, you do it for the love of it. If you’re doing it for any other reason, you might be better off not doing it at all!

8: People will take the mick out of you.
Some people find it hard to understand the mentality of those of us who choose to spend our time writing poems. Although creative writing is a legitimate hobby like any other, the (albeit fairly mild) stigma against it means that at some point you probably will encounter teasing about your “gay” or “emo” activities. For all that this is total garbage, when you’re a young poet and unsure of your abilities, it can really sting. Ignore it, please! Writing poetry is a noble pursuit, no matter what those who’ve never tried it think!

9: You need to know the rules.
You know that old adage “you have to know the rules before you can break them”? That most definitely applies to poetry, like it or not. You can try to sit down and write a poem without ever having read any poems and with no prior knowlede of poetry, but if you reckon you can do this, you might find that you don’t get too far. If you want to write good poetry, you need to read good poetry… end of story! Learn what poetry’s all about… then you can subvert everything if you still want to rebel!

10: Your career options are limited.
If you want a career that directly involves your poetry, you need to look forward to a bleak struggle — there just aren’t all that many “poetry jobs” out there. Many writers do go into literary jobs, but often they end up teaching, working in publishing or doing something that doesn’t actually directly involve their own creative works. Don’t get me wrong, there are options — there just aren’t too many!

Questions? Suggestions? Drop me a line to [email protected]!

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Spiral Notebook, originally uploaded by Poofy.

Richard is the editor of Gloom Cupboard (my write-up here) and you can see his other poems here and here. Now you can also find out a bit more about him…

Tell us about your poems.
My poems are direct and to the point. They offer glimpses into mundane existence, yet like a tempting scab they hide malevolent confessions and fruitless dreamscapes.
I write because I enjoy drifting in and out of consciousness. It’s an escape, which is quite handy because I’m always looking to run away from something.
Right now I’m working on an ambitious collection of one hundred and sixty poems; it’s very much Desperate Housewives meets Revolutionary Road.

How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing for about nine years. I first picked up the knack during an English Literature class where I knocked up a poem about a hedgehog, during that time the only poet I really enjoyed reading was Carol Ann Duffy, she really brought poetry to life for me.

Do you have any publications to your name? What’s the next stage for your work?
Yes, quite a few. I suppose highlights would be getting a poem featured in Aesthetica Magazine and having six chapbooks published by various small presses. It’s always far sweeter when you see your words on paper. I was also perversely proud when I got a poem published by my old University’s paper under a dubious pseudonym.
Like with most poets the ultimate accomplishment would be to get a full book length manuscript published. That’s what I’m going to try and aim to do in the next couple of years. Then I’ll retire at 27.

What do you think is your biggest poetic achievement to date?
Having people (other then friends and family) compliment my writing. That meant a lot to me.

What’s the best thing about writing poetry? And the worst?
Best: Creating something out of nothing. That’s a real buzz. Particularly when I’m struck by the divine hand of inspiration and the ideas just come, like magic.
Worst: When the devil on your shoulder begins to talk during the editing phase. Casting doubt on everything you’ve just written.

Got any suggestions for young, upcoming poets?
Read as much poetry as you can and never take yourself too seriously.
There is no such thing as writer’s block. Only temporary loss of inspiration.
Also when you begin to submit poetry, embrace rejection, don’t take it personally.

Who/what influences your poetry?
Music. I always write with music on in the background.
As far as writers, obviously I’ve mentioned Carol Ann Duffy. I also dig the poetry of Anne Sexton, and appreciate her madness and eccentricity. Haruki Murakami and Lester Bangs are handy wordsmiths and my own personal Jesuses.

Footnote

Sitting
I notice too many toothpaste stains
on the sleeve of my famous blue
dressing gown.
Has it come to
tired eyes and
slow thoughts
to clear a path
and yell
I’ve finally run out
of ideas?

Want to be a Featured Poet? Send a couple of poems and a quick cover letter to [email protected]!

(Photo by Margolove)

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You’ve already seen one of Richard’s poems… here’s another. Check out his blogmag too!

The ne’er-do-well’s who never followed Desiderata

With hands in my pockets
I wear a dead serious expression
when I sign on.
There is doom saying in the Eastern Daily Press
men who read the paper can’t hear
me with those white wires trickling
down the back of their necks.
I tell them I’ve been searching for work
maybe I’m overqualified
maybe I’m fussy
maybe I should swallow my pride
and go back to the factory

Didn’t bother cutting through by the School of Art
on the way back home
because it galls me to watch those
youngsters
full of opportunity
you don’t really want to tell them
that the road is already too crowded and
the footprints well worn.
You don’t want to tell them the alternative footpaths
are all overgrown

Want to be a Featured Poet? Just drop me a line and a few poems to [email protected]!

(Photo by Ronald Hackston)

Don’t forget to visit the One Night Stanzas store & The Read This Store!

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