One Night Stanzas

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How many stories and ideas aren’t being told - or aren’t being shared with the depth, clarity, or complexity they could be - because their creators don’t have the time or funds to make them? Who gets to have that “room of their own” where they can peace out and write at the end of the day? Who gets to not worry about paying the rent for three or twelve or thirty-six months… or in the most extreme cases, forever?

Who Gets To Be An Artist? is really excellent.

Useful truisms that might help people remember you… and your writing.

Feeling a bit crap? Unable to write? Try asking yourself these few useful questions.

If no one hates you, no one is paying attention. If attention is what you want for vanity, confidence, or, hell — to make a decent living — then know that it’s not instantaneous. Every single person that you’re currently paying attention to, at some point in their lives, was in your exact position. They kept at it and worked enough so that others started listening.
Also know that if no one is watching, you can experience true freedom. Dance in your underwear. Write entirely for yourself.

This is long, but you really should read it.

Advice for creatives from the creator of Mad Men.

Here are some cool poems by Jess Schouela, who edits Hot Tub Astronaut!

The lovely Harry Giles wrote a really interesting post about code-switching in and out of dialect, which you should definitely read

So, London has loads of bars that are in libraries!

I’m black, gay, and 29 years old. I had just published my first book of poetry. In retrospect, standing there with champagne in hand, I wish I’d felt proud rather than grateful — intensely, almost exhaustingly grateful to just be there. It’s the kind of gratitude that, I suspect, is very familiar to those whom our culture has a habit of reminding they should be happy “to just be here.”

This piece by Saeed Jones is totally necessary reading.

ICYMI: Frida Kahlo’s wardrobe was and is stunning.

#bookishhomedecorgoals

Want to read a lovely short story? Shirley Muir’s ‘Out of the Blackness,’ submitted to Scottish Book Trust’s Journeys project, is pretty great!

Piracy as subterfuge, as an especially legitimate way to create art for the Caribbean —I could just about stretch my mind to accommodate that, but Mack’s plagiarism is not so thoughtful or intellectualized; it requires no such stretching of the mind. In her own words, it is just ‘carelessness’. Mack uses her poetic skills for euphemism. She apologizes for the work she has ‘unintentionally appropriated’. The whole apology… I’m afraid is worth a hearty guffaw. As one Facebook poster said in a conversation happening amongst West African poets, ‘Isn’t this what we know as mere stealing in Nigeria?’

The best response I have read to the recent Sheree Mack story is this one by the great Kei Miller.

Another ICYMI: Charlize Theron’s stunt double Dayna Grant posted some amazing photos from the filming of Mad Max!

Cakes that are delicious, vegan and works of art? Yes please!

I loved these photos of vintage drag queens!

Here’s a happy customer of Edinburgh Vintage who bought some books from me… and then wrote about it! Thanks, Beth!

Warsan Shire, just… gobsmacking.

Deleted Scenes of Women in Disaster Movies Written by Men. Watch it, it’s horribly true (and funny).

I so want to see this… and plan to have all the feels about it.

Have a great weekend!

Like shiny things? Check out Edinburgh Vintage, a totally unrelated ’sister site’ full of jewels, treasures and trinkets. If you want to get in touch you can follow OneNightStanzas on Twitter, or email claire[at]onenightstanzas.com. I reply as swiftly as I can!

I don’t usually post my own poetry on this blog*. To do so would be considered ‘publication,’ and mean that any poem I posted here would be one less for me to send out to magazines, journals or contests. That’s not me being over-protective, I promise: I just write slowly. I need all the material I can get, if I am to successfully follow the Jo Bell Method!

However, I have been aware that new folks coming to this blog will easily get a sense of things like how much I love cake, what kind of books I read and how often my writing time is interrupted by procrastination… but they might not get a sense of the sort of poet I am. I ought to give people at least a few hints. Also, this weekend I wrote something I thought might especially suit this blog, which often acts as a place to recap my adventures. This poem is partly about a recent adventure, so… here it is!

This weekend I visited Millom for the first time. Cumbria is one of the places I call ‘home,’ yet I’ve spent very little time exploring anything west of Coniston Water (partly because I often rely on public transport). But West Cumbria — although geologically very different to the lake country, and much more industrial — has many charms, and I have been particularly keen to visit Millom as a pilgrimage to one of my now-favourite poets, Norman Nicholson. Norman was a self-identified ‘provincial poet,’ who fought his entire life to be recognised by a literary establishment that scoffed at him for staying in his little Cumbrian town and writing about the concerns of the working class people — mostly iron miners — who lived there. I find his life story, as well as his poetry, extremely inspiring, so went looking for him, and wrote this. Bear in mind… it’s still new!

*

A day’s work
for Norman Nicholson

I drive through villages
called The Hill and The Green,
by the prison, follow
the sandbagged, tidal river

and arrive in Millom.
From owert top in a hot
May, Black Combe was not
the Mordor you’d described.

The estuary lopped off the land
in a big V. My mother had warned,
it’s still a bit spit
and sawdust out that way.

My ancestors, the not-all-that-
long-ago Coles, lived locally
for the ironworks your poem
dismantled famously.

From the pavement, I see
the brickwork in your window’s
shot; the cafe now living
in your shopfront is shut;

your blue plaque a bit gubbed
with rust and gull shit;
the library’s Norman Nicholson Room
one shelf and a sign.

This is Cumbria, like you
always said: keep your daffs,
your Windermere, your slim
white boats and Londoners,

this is it. The women
in the churchyard say
he never did a day’s
work in his life, when I

mention your name, their town’s
most famous son. I looked
for your grave so I could say
Norman, nothing’s changed —

the Coles all died young,
and pattern this hillside
like earthworks, stubborn
old roots — but the women

don’t know exactly where
you are. Just that you’re off
up the top somewhere,
in a plain spot, looking out.

*

Some of the Nicholson-related things I saw on my Millom trip…

As well as being ill-received by some in the literary establishment, Norman also pissed off council officials and local hob-nobbers by writing candidly about things like the Windscale disaster and the closing of the Millom ironworks. As a result, a posthumous campaign to name the Millom Reading Rooms after him was repeatedly denied… but a compromise was reached in the form of the Norman Nicholson Room, which is inside.

Iron mining was hard, horrible work that killed a lot of people. This monument in Millom’s town square recognises this fact… and includes a plaque to Norman Nicholson, too, though the townspeople do (or at least, did) think he was a layabout who needed to do a day’s work! (Probably true of most poets, right?)

I really did fail to find Norman’s grave, in spite of the vague directions given to me by a gaggle of local ladies who were manning a flower display in the churchyard! However, I did get to see his memorial window, which is absolutely stunning and includes lines from his poems.

Here’s the house Norman lived in from his birth until his death. He wrote all his poems in the little stick-up room at the top. The blue plaque describes him as ‘a man of Millom.’

*you can see a list of my poems in other places, though, by clicking here.

Like shiny things? Check out Edinburgh Vintage, a totally unrelated ’sister site’ full of jewels, treasures and trinkets. If you want to get in touch you can follow OneNightStanzas on Twitter, or email claire[at]onenightstanzas.com. I reply as swiftly as I can!

Remember my massive ‘before I turn 30 to-do list’? I’ve been doing particularly well on no. 21 — eating a ton of delicious vegan food! Here are just some of my recent edible discoveries (NB: they’re mostly cake)…

OK fine, not a new discovery, but this is my favourite thing to eat ever. Lovely Boyfriend’s own vegan thai cashew and peanut satay.

Also cooked by Lovely Boyfriend — aka my personal chef — were these Tibetan momos, or vegan dumplings. So good… and so pretty!

I tried a brand new banana bread recipe. Went pretty well!

Another new recipe for me was this East Coast Coffee Cake from the PPK. Crumbly!

This is Earthy’s vegan rhubarb and almond loaf. A m a z i n g with a nice cup of tea… something I want to try and recreate!

My first effort at vegan cookies (double chocolate), kind of half-made-up from an old non-vegan recipe. Pretty good but they need some more tinkering! (Like my Aynsley porcelain tea plate? Got it for 20p in a rummage box!)

I found out that Peter’s Yard do vegan pecan pie and I can’t believe I didn’t know that before!

Remember I was promised vegan options ‘coming soon’ when I went to the Secret Herb Garden last year? They delivered! This is vegan lemon tart… that’s a lone clove on the top, not a bug!

Vegan chocolate and almond cake at Henderson’s at St John’s… this fuelled me through a stint doing the door takings at Shore Poets!

Lastly, I’ve done a few versions of these chocolate and double-peanut-butter vegan cupcakes, as they’ve proved pretty popular…

…they’re chocolate sponge with molten peanut butter in the middle and peanut frosting. This is the ‘fluffy’ frosting…

…this is the smooth frosting.

Lovely Boyfriend’s reaction says it all!

Not bad for a year of eating…!

Like shiny things? Check out Edinburgh Vintage, a totally unrelated ’sister site’ full of jewels, treasures and trinkets. If you want to get in touch you can follow OneNightStanzas on Twitter, or email claire[at]onenightstanzas.com. I reply as swiftly as I can!

Hi Spring! Last time it was York… here’s what I’ve been up to in Edinburgh lately.

The Botanics

Is there a better day out on a fine day in spring in Edinburgh than a stroll around the Royal Botanic Gardens? I am pretty sure there isn’t, and I am super lucky to live less than five minutes away from the Botanics’ East Gate. My sister and I went on the perfect day… within a week, the rhododendrons in pic one had already started to drop their flowers. The Kazakh pear, which is the frothy white blossomed tree in pic three, has since had all its flowers blown off and its now focussed on fruiting. And the big tree with the white buds in the last pic is in full leaf! I love wandering the same paths throughout spring and seeing the rapid growth.

The Secret Herb Garden

Yes, I have written about The Secret Herb Garden (one of Edinburgh’s best-kept secrets!) before, but when I went last time it was October, and a lot of the stock was starting to be taken into the polytunnels for the winter. Going back in spring was always on the cards and it really is very different when all the plants are back outside, beginning to grow and stretch and bud and smell amazing!

I don’t know if I mentioned everything last time… like, they sell garden tools and supplies! I really wanted this vintage chair from the greenhouse! And of course, we returned to scratch the ears of their resident pigs!

The best part was finding a comfy, sunny seat in the greenhouse and settling down with Mark Doty’s brand new collection, Deep Lane. It’s his best yet and that’s coming from someone who thought he literally could not get any better. Buy it, buy it, I command you. It’s especially perfect for garden reading, as many of the poems are about Doty’s own garden.

Lovely local adventures

I keep passing the window of Maison de Moggy and spotting the kitties sunning themselves, which always makes me smile (according to the website, the two cute kitties pictured above are brothers, named Marcel and Phillipe!). Speaking of smiling…

There’s someone in my neighbourhood — Inverleith, Canonmills area — who’s been going around chalking positive, inspiring messages all over the place. I love it. My favourite is “ignore the boos, they come from the cheap seats.” I’ve been carrying that phrase with me. Other things they’ve chalked include “Smile!” and “Be kind to strangers.”

I don’t know what you think about graffiti, but I generally love it… and I love that someone has livened up one of the benches in Inverleith Park by scratching a stanza from this anti-war poem into it. The refrain is, “I am a hero, I am a hero.”

…and the last photo is not from Edinburgh, but it’s also wordy and made me smile. I was in Penrith recently, having a cup of tea in the lovely Wordsworth Bookshop and Coffee House. There was an exhibition of calligraphy going on, and this hand-lettered paper plate was one of the exhibits! This is an expression I associate with my gran and her many pearls of wisdom, and I was so impressed by the handwriting I had to get a photo.

What are YOU loving this week?

Like shiny things? Check out Edinburgh Vintage, a totally unrelated ’sister site’ full of jewels, treasures and trinkets. If you want to get in touch you can follow OneNightStanzas on Twitter, or email claire[at]onenightstanzas.com. I reply as swiftly as I can!

Long time no blog, friends! What have I been doing? Well, if you follow my Twitter you’ll know that one of the things I’ve been doing is buying typewriters. I made the mistake of joining the Facebook group Antique Typewriter Collectors not that long ago, and since then have become addicted to looking at the typewriter-related bargains my fellow collectors have scooped on ebay, Gumtree and in thrift stores. I guess it was only a matter of time before I got bitten by the bug and started picking up new machines left, right and centre.

So yeah… my collection is growing, and my house is small, and I am trying to have a one-in, one-out policy. So that means I’m looking for loving homes for a couple of my beloved typewriters. Can you help?

1. THE UNDERWOOD MASTER

This is my Underwood Master. He dates from around 1940 and is famously the model that was massively scaled up into a house-sized version for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. You can find a bit more information about the Master model — and see its typeface — here.

My Master is, admittedly, a bit scruffed up. Because he’s not one of the machines I use all that much, I’ve let him get a bit dusty, which I am rather ashamed of. He also has a bit of a wonky space bar, poor thing… but still types. You just need to get the knack.

At the moment, you’ll see there’s no ribbon fitted (the ribbon that came with this typewriter had long since dried up, and I don’t see the point of passing on a useless old ribbon to the new owner!). Ribbons are easy to come by on ebay and elsewhere, so if you wanted to get this guy typing, I don’t think it’d be difficult.

My favourite thing about this machine is the little drop-down cover on the front, that lets you see the mechanism inside. There’s also a nice ribbon-spooling mechanism, controlled by a small winder on the side of the typewriter… pretty unusual!

All in all, this typewriter is a stunner… if you just want a machine to make your office / living room / shop / cafe space look great, he’s ready to go. If you want a reliable typer, he just needs a bit of TLC to get him back in full working order. Want him? Check out the options below.

Choose shipping

Collect from Edinburgh New Town £50.00 GBP Courier within UK £65.00 GBP

2. THE UNDERWOOD NO. 3

This is my Underwood No. 3. He’s a proper antique, dating from the mid-1920s. I’ve managed to find a serial number on this machine: it’s 688456-14. This is a cousin of the Underwood 5, the typewriter Allen Ginsberg would eventually use to write some of his best known poems. Here’s some more information about the Underwood 3, and some of the sub-models. Mine has a 14 inch carriage, which is a little wider than usual.

How pretty is this typewriter? Sadly — though perhaps not surprisingly, given its age — it’s taken some knocks and so the gilt paint and decals are not quite what they were. There’s also some rust, dammit. In its current condition, this is a display piece, for sure!

I’m told that rust remover, car polish and toothpaste can do wonders to turn a typewriter like this into a going concern once again. I don’t have the time or the mad skills, but I also don’t want to just chuck this guy. Look at those lovely white keys!

If ^this doesn’t outface you, then a) you’re awesome and b) I’d really like you to give my Underwood a good, loving home!

Although the condition isn’t as good as the Master, the price is the same… the No.3 is older, prettier, and more collectable, which is why! Here are the details:

Choose shipping

Collect from Edinburgh New Town £50.00 GBP Courier within UK £65.00 GBP

If you really want to take one of these guys off my hands, but you’re too skint to cross my palm with quite that much silver, I will happily consider an offer. Just drop me a line to claire[at]onenightstanzas.com!

Happy typing!

*

Like shiny things? Check out Edinburgh Vintage, a totally unrelated ’sister site’ full of jewels, treasures and trinkets. If you want to get in touch you can follow OneNightStanzas on Twitter, or email claire[at]onenightstanzas.com. I reply as swiftly as I can!