Barbara Hepworth 2011 visit
I visited Barbara Hepworths’s garden in St Ives this summer and was very inspired. Even though there were crowds of people, the seclusion and beauty of the setting was very moving. I loved the way she matched the landscape and scale of her work together. My favourite piece lay at the front of a small lawn and contained a small pool of water in an oxidised bronze hollow. Ripples were reflected on the surface if you dipped your fingers into the water when the sun was shining. Perfect! I hate to say this but I think sometimes words can get in the way of an experience. Barabara Hepworth seemed to capture the complex relationship between self and landscape, the natural and human worlds within her work and space was as important as a solid form.
On another note, I am still touring my Some Girls’ Mothers event and project with my fellow writers in Yorkshire this autumn so please feel free to drop in any of the following dates:
MORLEY –LIT-FEST
11 October2010
Workshop (Char March ) 2.30-4.30pm: Bees Knees, 27 High Street, Morley, Leeds LS27 9AL
Performance - Char March, Clare Shaw, Anne Caldwell, Suzanne Batty
Morley Library – 7.30pm
Event location Morley Library, Commercial Street, Morley, Leeds, LS27 8HZ (The Baker Room)
Morley Litfest
Jenny-harris@blueyonder.co.uk (07505 127631)
www.morleyliteraturefestival.co.uk
Calderdale Libraries
12 October 2011
Northgate
Halifax
HX1 1UN
Contact:
Anna Turner - annaturner@calderdale.gov.uk
Wakefield Libraries- 19 October – 1.30-3.30pm
Workshop – Anne Caldwell and Char March
Stanley Library
Lake Lock Road
Stanley
Wakefield
WF3 4HU
Phone: 01924 303130
Email: stanleylibrary@wakefield.gov.uk
Tickets will be free.They will be available from Stanley Library and Drury Lane Library from 18th September.
21 October – 7.30pm
Performance – Anne Caldwell, River Wolton, Nell Farrell, Char March
Wakefield Drury Lane Library
Drury Lane
Wakefield
WF1 2TD
Phone: 01924 305376
Email: drurylanelibrary@wakefield.gov.uk
Two events coming up this summer
I have just had a poem published in Magma no.44 and I am delighted as I think it is such a good magazine. I am going to its launch event at The Troubadour in London 8pm on the 22nd June. Please come and join me if you are around that evening. I will post up the poem once the magazine is in production.
I am also doing an event with Nell Farrell, Char March and others at the Lowdon Literature Festival on Saturday 20th June at 6.30pm. We are reading from ‘Some Girls’ Mothers.
I have been following quite a lot of material in the papers about the Poet Laureate and want to congratulate Carol Ann - this seems a very important step forward for women and poetry in particular and I am really pleased to see the raised profile the art form has. I just hope the actual Laureate post does not have a detrimental affect on her work. I wonder if there is a better way of celebrating poetry in this country? It seems such an archaic institution. I would prefer something that did not focus on one person and had a wider spread. I would be interested to hear what other people think.
New 2009 poetry
The River Ure in Spate, January 2009
I have just been on an amazing visit up Wharf dale in search of waterfalls. I had not done that trip in winter and the landscape was very bare, beautiful and most of the rivers were near to flooding point. I do not think this photograph does the scene justice!
I seem to have had a dry period over the festive season when it comes to writing, but here is something that I have managed to finish. I began this poem in a workshop run by the fabulous Ann Sansom at a National Association for Writers in Education’s retreat last year. Ann asked the group to write in the first person from the point of view of a baby about to be born, and read us a poem by Sharon Olds. I hope this is not too derivative of Sharon Olds (who does this kind of intimate poem so well it is difficult to know where you start yourself after reading her work, I think!). Please leave me a comment if you have a view on this topic.
Worcester Park General Hospital
I’m kept in a box. I blink.
Smell hot plastic. Stretch out my hand
to watch a pattern of light redden.
I’m a glow-in-the-dark; half-fish
with slithery lungs in a ribcage supple as a slipper.
My skull’s pointed, yet to harden.
My hold on life is lax.
Mother’s face rises like a full moon
and her eyes cloud over with green.
I’ve lost her metronome heartbeat.
I’ve no idea of the comfort of her milk-tipped
nipple, nor the crook of her arm,
nor the rhythm of a walk in the park
with sycamore leaves to soften the sun’s stare.
Anne Caldwell
‘Some Girls’ Mothers’ Tour
I am half way through a pre-view tour of the book, ‘Some Girls’ Mothers’ will my fellow writers, Char March, Clare Shaw, River Wolton, Nell Farrell and Suzanne Batty. We have been to libraries and venues in the North West so far, and audience response has been great. Lots of discussion about the book, and feedback from people. We have sold quite a few too! Here is a link to a fantastic short video that Ian Daley from Route made of the first gig:
It has been a challenge for me to think about performing with a group of people, instead of by myself. We have used props, a plinth, and had coaching from radio/drama director Polly Thomas. All this has really helped the shape and structure of the piece. I think I enjoyed performing in Oldham the most so far, because I was confident, didn’t fluff any lines, and people laughed! I could not quite believe that. We are hoping to do a much larger tour next year in 2009. Route have published the book, and we have also had support from a great group of librarians and Jane Mathieson from Time to Read. I have also run workshops as part of this project and people have written some cracking material. The workshop punters have been very diverse and had a great deal to say about family relationships. It has been a careful path to tread through peoples’ memories, and one that has delighted and saddened me at the same time. How do we all get through being parented, and then being parents ourselves?!
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About
Anne Caldwell is a poet and literature consultant. She works for NAWE and the Open University, Bolton University and runs workshops in schools and community settings.
Contact Tel. 07818 052108
email a.caldwell@nawe.co.uk
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Read This
'A Wilder Vein' edited by Linda Cracknell
