Poems in Poets Corner

Posted on by barrycoidan1

GrahamYesterday at @OneHoeStreet  Forest Poets held their second Poetry Competition prize giving. The competition theme was “Where I’m From”. And it was a success. Paul and Barry arrived early to set things up: they had the help of two lovely WF employees. After setting out the chairs for 10 people – they didn’t think it would be that popular- they went over to Tesco’s and bought wine for 30!

The competition’s judge @GrahamClifford arrived early. They were expecting a much older man – sort of Walter de la Mare, but no: Graham is a young looking head of a secondary school in Walthamstow. It’s a new job and his hair still has the colour he was born with. King Street Junior immediately sprang to mind.

Slowly, but surely people came, and chairs had to be put out and still they came. This was going to be a success!

The wine (red and white), along with crisps were set out, at a good distance from the main event – next to the loos. The collection box, £2 a glass – a bargain since the glasses kindly provided by the London Borough of Waltham Forest were huge – no doubt designed for Council meetings. But before anyone could uncork the Malbec and Aussie Red the programme started.

There were around 50 people in the audience as Paul introduced Graham. He writes a lot of poetry and he read from a wide selection. (Note: he has at least three published books of poems – if you’re an unpublished poet that hurts.) Graham was the warm up act.

Barry then introduced @kitch_official. Barry and Paul first came across Kitch in January at an opening event of the Borough of Culture. They were blown away by his rap poetry so they had to have him at the event.  He did not disappoint; despite an bad sound system his virtuosity shone thro’. kitch

And then onto the prize giving. Barry and Paul alternated introducing the prize winners and commended poets and Graham handed out the certificates. The poets read their entries. It was quite a range from bus rides thro’ Waltham Forest, houses poets grew up in, to bats.

There were local young poets, local poets and main prize winners along with commended poems. After all that prize giving and poetry reading it was time for a break and the wine went…so Barry scampered across to the local Tesco’s to buy more!

Paul had produced a lovely book of the winning and other poems which were given out at the break after the prize winners had been announced.

After the break poets featured in the book came up and read their work and after that there was an open mic. By that time most of the wine had gone.

The evening ended as people renewed acquaintances or struck up new friendships and Paul and Barry went across to the Bell to sober up.chuckle-brothers

 

 

It’s like a f****** building site

Posted on by barrycoidan1

2c8fa47d86dd464d9f3a0fa53395b2f6That’s not what someone has said: it my comment on beautiful Poets Corner which is now the destination of all the skips in Waltham Forest. You know the scene in “Interstellar” when all the automated combine harvesters gravitate to that worm hole anomoly. That’s what’s happening here.

Everyone who’s anyone is having a loft conversion. Actually that an euphanism for messing up some really nice Victorian/Edwardian properties by installing cheap looking additions because it’s too expensive to move. Unintended consequences that’s what it is. The tax on moving now makes it cheaper to add another floor to your house and a proliferation of rather suspect builders and skips, and design monstrosities.

Talking of unintended consequences and externalities: are you pissed off with the noise and nuisence of all those motor scooters? First, they are noisy, they park up in herds and invariably drive down our road the wrong way. The Council have woken up to the fact that until recently if you owned one you didn’t have to pay for street parking – and they park so that they take up more than one parking space.

It’s all due to those delivery apps making it so easy to order a take away. Your convenience is the community’s inconvenience. The noise, additional traffic and pollution is not costed into the price of that tepid pizza or chicken masala. The unintended consequence is the proliferation of these annoying scooter turning Walthamstow into a run down Italian seaside resort. The externalities is the cost to society not captured by the price of that oh so conveniently delivered pizza. Next time you get nearly run over or simply annoyed by loads of young men buzzing around question whether that f****** pizza is so convenient.

I could go on. I’ll end by commenting on the hellish building developments going on in the borough. Slums of the future and very few for those desparate for a decent home. But then the rate we’re going we’ll have wiped ourselves, loft conversions, skips, scotters and chicken pens off the face of the Earth.

I think “Intersteller” got it right…but there’ll be no friendly alien  to save us.

London Borough of Culture: How it begins

Posted on by barrycoidan1

 

3500Anyone who witnessed the opening of Waltham Forest’s Year of Culture last weekend was not disappointed. The amazing laser display was quite unexpected and totally magical – transforming Lloyd Park into a scene from “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and the pictorial display projected onto the front of the Town Hall reminded me of a light show by Michel Jarre on the banks of the Thames I saw over 20 years ago.

I had the job of hosting one of the two evenings of Storytelling and Poetry at “The Magistrates” on Saturday and Sunday. At 5 o’clock on Saturday evening I presented myself at the YMCA on Forest Road where many of the volunteers, participants and organisers hung out. We were introduced to our volunteer minders and the producer of the events and shepherded across Forest Road and down to the old Court building. That meant we did not have to queue – when we were there it tailed all the way along Forest Road. I understand the Lloyd Park queue was even longer.

We started at 6:45 pm. The acts performed in a small area of the coffee shop there and the place was packed with young kids  to see Lottie Allen and her  “Magic Box” –  a wonderful story-teller who with the use of minimal props transported kids and a few adults too with a tale of pirates, hidden treasure and stormy seas. It was a really raucous half hour. Then a complete change of pace as Angelena Demaria and Tim Scott, prize winners in our Waltham Forest Poetry competition, read a selection of their work. We shifted gear yet again with Mate – a performance poet from Chingford and a young rapper called “Kitch”  – he was born in the kitchen hence his nickname. Both high energy performances and we ended the evening with a series of poems by Aisling Faheyn who was London’s Young Poet Laureate in 2014/15.

My friend and fellow poet Paul McGrane  MC’d on the Sunday. Unfortunately that evening was interrupted by the arrival of the Fire Brigade: smoke from a food stall outside the building setting off the fire alarm. A red hot start to our year of culture.

 

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Prize Giving at the Old Rose and Crown

Posted on by barrycoidan1

On Monday evening we held the award ceremony of our first Waltham Forest (Poets Corner) Poetry Competition. The theme was “A Bright Future”. A number of the prize winners and highly and commended poets attended – two of the three winners of the main prizes were overseas (USA and Novia Scotia). There were four catagories: Overall winners with prizes of £300, £200 and £100: Local Poet and Young Poet each with prizes of £50, £30, £20 and a special award for the Top Local Young Poet £10. Stow Bros sponsored the Local Poet prizes.

We think the competition was a success with over 400 poems from well over 200 poets from across the Globe. We intend to run it again next year as part of the borough of Culture Programme. If you have any idea for its format or competition theme we’d love to hear from you.

More details are here:

https://pctothepowerof2.wordpress.com/winners/

 

Are Friends Electric?

Posted on by barrycoidan1

Have you been contacted by our Council about Electric Vehicle (EV) Charge Points? How do you fancy having an electric plug stuck up your street light? Although only suitable for street lamp columns.

It’s hugely technical…5kWh charging points would be installed with a smart cable to meter the charging (that’s a £200 charge) with an ongoing subscription cost and an additional 16 pence a kWh. Sounds like the future?

There wouldn’t be dedicated EV bays so you’d have to beat up a gas guzzling car owner to get him to move his car so you could charge your Nissan Leaf or BMW icar.

This is all very forward-looking. I’d love to replace my noisy polluting diesal with a purring ecologically sound EV. Except, I’m not sure EVs solve any problem. The problem is simple – we have too many private vehicles on our roads.

Cars are everywhere. On the roads, on the pavements, in what would be attractive front gardens – and they just sit and sit and sit. My car spends 95% of its life stationary – useless, being an eye sore, yet the 5% usage is worth the 95% redundancy.

I’m addicted to car use. It’s an expensive addiction in terms of tax, insurance and running costs but I’m prepared to pay that for the 5%. I’m mad! And  the economy is hooked on car use. The Gov’t always banging on about UK car production and the 2 million new cars on the road. The car production supply chain employs hundreds of thousands, as does the sales, servicing and financing industries. Government doesn’t do too badly – tax on fuel and sales is a good earner. Any shift from private car ownership is going to be resisted.

Yet realistically car ownership is a nonsense. The industry recognise that. Ads show new cars driving on uncluttered roads. Car interiors are now designed to ensure you can endure the deadly car journey. What is it that persuades millions of people to suffer the drive to work?

It’s the same cause that keeps my car on the road – an inadequate alternative; and maybe our unrealistic expectations.

People have come up with alternatives. Park and Ride, Car Free Days, Working from Home. None has dented our obsession with the car. Or our obsession with the car as an extension of our aspirations. And the industry has built from that. The Personal leasing Contract means you can rent (not own) a car you previously never dreamed of owning. Everyone has upgraded. People  living in poor rented accommodation fork out £400 a month to park a brand new SUV outside their run down pad. Kids living at home have Range Rovers parked outside. Madness.

The outcomes I see are these. 1) we choke ourselves to death – too many cars, too much pollution 2) people rebel against 1) 3) we come up with a plan to wean ourselves off car ownership – what this is I don’t know – but I think we should have a Department of Exiting The Car Age to do just that.

Picture Perfect: Poets Corner Street Party 5th August 2018

Posted on by barrycoidan1

7 years of Street Parties: The first in 2012 – innocently celebrating the Olympics. Bands have come, Governments have gone but Milton Road continues as does Poets Corner.

We live in a nice part of London. Those of us who moved here in the recent past have benefitted from  gentrification. More choice, lovely Victorian properties previously unloved now have money and appreciation lavished on them.

We’ve discovered our artistic heart. Lloyd Park, the William Morris Museum, The Vestry Museum, St Mary’s and the Greek Theatre at Walthamstow Girls. There are now so many start-ups, creative businesses and go getters that it’s difficult to keep up.

EList – glue that knits the community together. The Council buying the Tramworks keeping it safe from property speculators and allowing local businesses to get established. The Mirth, the Rose and Crown, the Bell and the pubs in the Village – when local pubs in other parts of the country and London are disappearing – here they have become an essential part of life.

The Mill, the Walthamstow Wetlands and Forest Poets the list goes on…with businesses who really like helping their customers and the community.

There is a down side. Walthamstow has really bad rented accommodation. Too many people live in shit places and pay obscene rents. There’s a divide. Us, mainly white, university educated middle class home owners and the rest – immigrant, poorly educated, low waged and struggling.                                                              

Walthamstow is booming – flats going up everywhere. On every horizon cranes and more and more storeys. Great if you can afford to buy. Useless if you can’t.

Walthamstow reflects the wider change in our nation. Many of us getting richer, a few very much so, many more get poorer. At the same time that safety net which our parents and grand parents saw established is being eroded – leaving the many less able subject to the currents and winds of a thoughtless ideology.

Street Parties aren’t the answer, but they do suggest that we have a commonality that market forces do not capture. They say that having friends, a settled neighbourhood and a sense of belonging is as good as, if not better than, a new Merc or better, larger TV this commoditized world is trying to dull us with.

Not a Street Party for ages: then 2 in as many weeks

Posted on by barrycoidan1

Yes it’s that time of year and it’s the Poets’ Corner Street Party organised by Dom and Patrick and sponsored by The Stow Brothers. (By the way do you know that the Brothers are cycling to Paris for our local charity Haven House).

The Street Party is in its 7th year and can be said to have been one of the first in Walthamstow – we like to think it’s one of the best. Anyway, do come along. Bring food, drink and a summery smile and a desire to have fun!

 

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Sprucestock: No Joni Mitchell unfortunately

Posted on by barrycoidan1

Some of you may remember Woodstock – this is the next best thing.

I went last year and it was a lovely party. Spruce Hills Road is next to the college on Forest Road.

If you’re into any of the performing arts and willing to spend time entertaining people on Sunday 2nd September please let them know at beckfishlock@gmail.com.

I will be reading some of my poems (but not drive people away) poems by established writers – such as Shakespeare, Auden and Eliot. I hope other Forest Poets can join us.

 

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The Waltham Forest Poetry Competition (Poets’ Corner)

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My favourite poem, by Kitty Coles

Do you have a favourite poem? If you would like to tell us about it in about 100-200 words we’ll feature it here. Email poetrycompetition@yahoo.com with a brief biog (couple of sentences).

ENTER THE WALTHAM FOREST POETRY COMPETITION

My favourite poem is ‘Edge’ by Sylvia Plath. It opens with…
The woman is perfected.
Her dead
Body wears the smile of accomplishment,
The illusion of a Greek necessity
Flows in the scrolls of her toga,
Her bare
Feet seem to be saying:
We have come so far, it is over…

I first came across Plath’s work at senior school at an age when – although I enjoyed poetry and read it regularly – I’d encountered almost no poetry written by women, or since the First World War. I’d never read anything that caused me to respond so intensely (‘physically as if the top of my head were taken off’), displayed such an alertness to rhythm and the sounds of words and demonstrated such control of often emotive and challenging subject matter. ‘Edge’ is, I think, technically near-perfect, each word chosen and placed with extraordinary precision. I read it not as overwrought or ‘depressing’ (a charge that often seems to be levelled any writing that touches on death or unhappiness) but as a quietly beautiful poem of profound serenity and acceptance which is ultimately comforting.

Kitty Coles’ poems have been widely published in magazines and anthologies. She was joint winner of the Indigo Dreams Pamphlet Prize 2016 and her debut pamphlet, Seal Wife, was published in 2017. www.kittyrcoles.com

 

An evening of delight

Posted on by barrycoidan1

It’s no surprise that for many  actors “As You Like It” is a favourite Shakespearean play. Maggie Smith, Vanessa Redgrave, Helen Mirren to name a few have revelled in the part of Rosalind. And what a part! Courageous, witty, smart and beautiful Rosalind is the heart around this delicious play revolves.

The play is set in a duchy in France. Frederick has usurped the duchy and exiled his older brother, Duke Senior. Duke Senior’s daughter, Rosalind, has been permitted to remain at court because she is the closest friend and cousin of Frederick’s only child, Celia.

Orlando, a young gentleman of the kingdom who at first sight has fallen in love with Rosalind, is forced to flee his home after being persecuted by his older brother, Oliver. Frederick becomes angry and banishes Rosalind from court. Celia and Rosalind decide to flee together accompanied by the court fool, Touchstone, with Rosalind disguised as a young man and Celia disguised as a poor lady.

Rosalind, now disguised as Ganymede and Celia, now disguised as Aliena , arrive in the  Forest of Arden, where the exiled Duke now lives with some supporters, including “the melancholy Jaques,” a malcontent figure, who is introduced weeping over the slaughter of a deer. “Ganymede” and “Aliena” do not immediately encounter the Duke and his companions.

Orlando and his servant Adam, meanwhile, find the Duke and his men and are soon living with them and posting simplistic love poems for Rosalind on the trees. Rosalind, also in love with Orlando, meets him as Ganymede and pretends to counsel him to cure him of being in love. Ganymede says that “he” will take Rosalind’s place and that “he” and Orlando can act out their relationship.

The shepherdess, Phoebe, with whom Silvius is in love, has fallen in love with Ganymede who unsurprisingly is not interested in Phoebe. Touchstone, meanwhile, has fallen in love with the dull-witted shepherdess, Audrey, and tries to woo her, but eventually is forced to be married first. William, another shepherd, attempts to marry Audrey as well, but is stopped by Touchstone, who threatens to kill him.

Finally, Silvius, Phoebe, Ganymede, and Orlando are brought together in an argument with each other over who will get whom. Ganymede says he will solve the problem, having Orlando promise to marry Rosalind, and Phoebe promise to marry Silvius if she cannot marry Ganymede.

Orlando sees Oliver in the forest and rescues him from a lioness, causing Oliver to repent for mistreating Orlando. Oliver meets Aliena (Celia’s false identity) and falls in love with her, and they agree to marry. Orlando and Rosalind, Oliver and Celia, Silvius and Phoebe, and Touchstone and Audrey all are married in the final scene, after which they discover that Frederick also has repented his faults, deciding to restore his legitimate brother to the dukedom and adopt a religious life. Jaques, ever melancholic, declines their invitation to return to the court, preferring to stay in the forest and to adopt a religious life as well. Rosalind speaks an epilogue to the audience, commending the play to both men and women in the audience.

Last night we were treated to an impressive performance by  the Greek Theatre Players at the Greek amphitheatre at Walthamstow School for Girls. The setting couldn’t be bettered. A clear, hot June evening, greying into dusk and ,later, lantern lit night. The theatre was packed, the audience taking every opportunity to refill their glasses or munch on a slice of deli delight while the Players enthralled us with this magical play.

I’m afraid this review cannot be impartial or objective since like Orlando I fell in love with Rosalind the moment I saw her. Ashleigh Cole, in the part, was perfection itself. She imbued the character with wit, heart and not a little beauty, Laura Jane Hickerton as Celia, Rosalind cousin, was the perfect foil and I felt she won over the audience with her clever playing off Rosalind. Touchstone (Simon Billig) the fool has licence to mess with people’s minds and he does that with glee. Shakespeare puts in the mouth of melancholic Jacques one of his most famous speeches “All the world’s a stage…” I thought Spike Marchant carried off the role very well – although I felt he was more malevolent than melancholic for my taste – but a fine performance none the less.

The assemble playing was convincing with many amusing touches. The singing (and singers) were particularly fine. The selection of Tudor and Elizabethan songs before the performance got us into the mood for the treat that was to  unfold.

The play is a gem. The final scene bringing every tread along with every lover together is uplifting. The Greek Theatre Players did the old Bard of Stratford on Avon proud

[Note: the play’s Synopsis is taken from its Wikipedia entry]