I’ve gained quite a lot of experience in performance poetry over the years. I’ve had bad gigs - forgetting lines, feeling ill, reading over people talking at badly run events. I’ve also had my triumphs - winning poetry slams, receiving compliments and even drinks from audience members, I’ve been booked for feature slots and had strangers telling me they remember poems they heard weeks or months ago. But there’s always more to learn, especially if you’re being taught by one of the UK’s foremost writers and performers Lemn Sissay.

​Let There Be Voice! was a five-day residential course in performance poetry led by Lemn at the Garsdale Retreat. This fairly new centre in the Yorkshire Dales is based in a splendid Edwardian house walking distance from Garsdale Station and run by Hamish and Rebecca, a couple of former teachers who have thrown their heart and soul into their new venture. They have created a haven for writers where they can develop their craft under the guidance of top tutors and away from the bustle of everyday life. The groups are small. There were six on this course plus Hamish who joined most of the sessions. The homecooked food provided by Rebecca is delicious and plentiful and it’s a good thing there is so much countryside around where you can walk it off!

From the moment Lemn arrived it was clear this would be no ordinary poetry course. His energy, enthusiasm and creativity were infectious. Throughout the week he was our tutor, mentor, entertainer and friend. In our first session he directed us to write about our name. “Where does it come from? How do you feel about it? Did you ever want to be called something else? Do you have a nickname?” The directions became a performance as we began to write and he continued pacing the room. “What does your name mean? Which person made you feel special when they said your name? What stories are attached to your name?”
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​I found myself writing about the earliest memories of my name, the origins of my surname, the ways people misspell and mispronounce it. I wrote about how my first name David links me to past generations and the confusion caused by being known by my middle name. There was much more I could have written after the exercise finished and later in the week those notes grew into a poem I didn’t know I had in me.

That evening Lemn gave a reading. The Retreat has a good room for such events but he chose to go al fresco. We took chairs into the field across the road and as night fell he regaled us with poems, digressing into anecdotes, jokes and off the cuff observations. He made use of the space available running into the distance and bellowing poems back at us and coming in close to address us softly. He sometimes changed position two or three times in the same poem. Being present and in the moment is key to performing poetry he told us throughout the week and his well rehearsed poems combined with improvised wit and drama kept us captivated. 

Lemn has performed at prestigious venues around the world but this must have been quite a unique performance and it was a privilege to be part of the exclusive audience. Highlights included perhaps his most famous poem Invisible Kisses and The Man on The Moon. As he performed the sun set behind us and the moon rose above the crest of the hill behind him. It was the most atmospheric reading I’ve attended even if part of the atmosphere was flying in my face and crawling in my hair. It was a relief to get inside and escape the cold and midges.

The following day, Lemn got us all to explore the idea of taking poetry off the stage by getting us each to perform a couple of poems in a location of our choice. We were encouraged to look at our poems and consider where we might pause, where we might shout or whisper a line, where there was emotion. We then took it in turns to lead the group to our chosen locations and read our work. Poets read behind buildings, sat on the grass, leaning against trees. One woman led us upstairs, indicated that we should remove our shoes then led us into her room where we sat on the floor as she curled up on the bed and read a couple of dreamy, romantic pieces.
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As the week progressed Lemn got us to write more and hone our performances. I wrote three new poems during the week and a fourth which hasn’t quite come to fruition but produced a lot of great material. In one session we wrote poems following the structure of Lemn’s poem Let There Be Peace. My poem Let There Be Fire unleashed raw emotion and spirit that my work doesn’t usually contain and was a great vehicle for pushing my performances to new heights.

We practised performing individual lines of poems concentrating on giving a strong delivery and trying new ways to perform them whether that was how we spoke or how we moved or positioned ourselves on stage. It was useful to focus on giving my all to one line rather than trying to give powerful delivery to a whole poem. It was impressive to hear how the exercise transformed other members of the group who took on different postures, changed the tone of their voices and delivered lines with such impact that many felt like complete poems. The exercise provided a strong foundation for when we moved onto performing full poems later in the day. Lemn was as much of a pleasure to perform to as he was to watch. His face cracked open into a broad smile regularly when I was reading and he said he’d like to hear me do a full set. 

We had the opportunity to hear another performance poet Ben Mellor, who showed great lyrical wit and vocal range. He has also explored different ways of performing through collaborating with musicians. He used a loop station on several poems to create loops of his vocals to accompany his readings. 
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 After a couple of days of workshops and performances we were immersed in poetry drawing inspiration from Lemn and each other to enrich our writing and performances. The exercises Lemn set were quite simple yet they got me looking at my writing and the stage in a new way. One day we started by writing a prayer which didn’t have to be religious. I don’t know what inspired me to write a prayer for super heroes but I soon had pages full of notes and was buzzing from the thrill of writing something new and unexpected.

 It is easy to start drifting from one open mic to the next reading new poems off the page or doing old poems the same old way. Just following the old rhythms and not really being present. One of the most powerful techniques Lemn shared was to pause before reading and look the audience in the eye. It helps focus, get the audience’s attention and give a confident and unique delivery of each poem. He also encouraged pausing during poems. I was doing this already but thinking about where to pause and really holding it made the pauses become silent words within the poems.

Lemn also offered advice on doing gigs. He stressed the importance of getting to know venues before you perform and being aware of the lighting, the microphone, where the audience is, finding out if there are any issues that might affect your performance and getting them fixed or working round them. He emphasised that it is always the poet’s responsibility to deliver a good performance even if the PA’s dodgy or the MC is in it for self-promotion.

Before long it was the last day. We submitted poems written during the week and Hamish produced booklets for us to take away. It was wonderful to read other participants’ work. I had heard a lot of it during the week and it was a treat to read it back and absorb it fully. One participant who was back for the second time wrote a poem about the retreat which captured the week perfectly.

There was a blood moon and total lunar eclipse set to occur on Friday night so we decided to combine it with the end of course reading. We drove uphill to find a good viewing spot and performance space. We pulled up at the side of the road but alas there was thick cloud overhead. As we searched in vain for a chink in the clouds a thunderstorm began rumbling in the distance. Light rain started to fall and lightning flashed across the valley. An owl swooped across fields and one by one we stepped forward and spoke to the wind, rain and our companions huddled by the roadside.  It was a perfect setting to exploit everything we had learnt. We could choose where to stand and move around. It was intimate enough to whisper poems and so remote you could shout them from the hillside at full volume. It was a finale to the week beyond anything I could have imagined. 

I left with new friends, new poems and a greater confidence and passion for performance which I look forward to bringing to the stage. The rare opportunity to work with a poet of Lemn Sissay’s calibre and the hospitality of the Garsdale Retreat was a dream experience for any writer.

www.thegarsdaleretreat.co.uk
www.lemnsissay.com

Last month I started a new writing group Read Write Chat. I was inspired to start it after running a couple of poetry workshops for Slow Theatre Company earlier this year. It was the first time I had run any workshops for a while and it was rewarding to see the incredible writing participants produced in a short time with a little guidance and encouragement.
I was also inspired by a group I used to attend in Cardiff called Roath Writers. Each session would begin with reading a short piece of literature and discussing it followed by a writing exercise based on what we had read. We would then have time to share and discuss what we had written before heading to the pub.
The sessions were run by brilliant poet and tutor Christina Thatcher and what I really liked about the format was that it combined what I consider three daily essentials for writers: reading, writing and conversation. ​

    During the first session, a small but enthusiastic group gathered upstairs at Aroma Cafe in Norwich. We studied poems by Rob Auton and Christina Thatcher looking at how every day objects can be used creatively. We then wrote stories and poems about objects and places including a stapler, coffee and a bus stop. You can read the poem participant Avouleance Aaq wrote about a guitar here.
    The next session will be on April 21st from 4-6pm, upstairs at Aroma Cafe and it is planned to run monthly. For more details get in touch or see the links below.

Facebook
Meetup

    This week-long course was devoted to poetry. The ten participants were all experienced and accomplished poets looking to take their work to the next level with the help of tutors Colette Bryce and John McAuliffe. Over the next five days I was immersed in reading, writing and enjoying the simple pleasures of country life and home cooking away. Here are my top 10 Arvon highlights:

1. One-to-one tuition. The opportunity to discuss my poetry with the tutors was invaluable. With a few pencil strokes John and Colette showed how to fix the weak parts of my poems whether it was a stanza, line or single word. They could also recommend off the top of their heads poems I should read to get a better idea of how to improve my work. After my first session with John he sent me away with a heavy stack of books from the centre’s well stocked library.

2. Classes that pushed us to the next level. During morning sessions we focused on imagery, creative uses of form, the many different forms of the sonnet and picked apart the works of great poets including Sylvia Plath, Seamus Heaney, Elizabeth Bishop, Paul Muldoon and many more. We also did regular writing exercises many of which proved fruitful and it was interesting to hear what other participants came up with.

3. Food! From a well stocked buffet at lunchtime to scrumptious home-cooked dinners the week was a non-stop banquet. Evening meals were cooked by people on the course. Everyone took it in turns to cook in a team of two or three. My team managed to produce a decent chicken curry and apricot crumble on the Wednesday night. Far from being an unwanted chore it was a great opportunity to get to know other participants and seeing the rest of the group tucking into a meal I had helped cook was extremely satisfying. There was also a plentiful supply of wine which we ordered in at the start of the week.
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4. Country walks. With so much food being served it was good to be surrounded by hills and woodland over which to walk it off. Much of my time in the afternoon was spent exploring the area and working up an appetite for the next meal. On Friday we began our last morning session with a walk in the woods. Back at the centre Colette set us a task in which we wrote sentences about the walk beginning I notice… . Afterwards we picked our best ones and went around taking it in turns to read them out, forming a collaborative poem. A couple of my best lines were: I notice the way you look a little further than usual, let nature coax you out of your armour, and I notice the politeness of houses sitting still so as not to disturb the foxgloves.​​

5. Guest poet. In addition to readings and a week’s tuition from John and Colette we had a guest reading from rising star Zaffar Kunnial. His inventive use of language was a great demonstration of all we had been learning about. It was particularly interesting to hear poems he had been commissioned to write including one about the overture on The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper. The song was a recurring motif but he wove in many other themes and personal experiences. We stayed up late, feasting on cheese and wine as Zaffar regaled us with stories of his former job writing card greetings for Hallmark. 

6. Pub quiz. With no programmed activity on Thursday evening we went to the quiz night at the pub in Heptonstall. After an easy start (What does the T S stand for in the name T. S. Eliot?) the questions got harder and while both teams gained respectable scores we couldn’t beat the local champions. 

7. No news. TV and internet are standard amenities at most places these days but their absence at Lumb Bank was something I soon came to appreciate as I spent my time reading, writing and walking without having to think about the outside world. Basic details of the Grenfell Tower disaster and Donald Trump being investigated by the FBI filtered through but we were cushioned from the deluge of news and analysis that dominates the modern world. 

8. Quality writing time. I put my desk to good use as I worked on writing exercises set in the classes and revised earlier work. I came away with a satisfying collection of new and improved poems.

9. Wildlife. The air was full of birdsong, bees thronged around the flowerbeds in the garden and we even encountered a hedgehog on our way back from the pub. There was also an unofficial resident at the centre, a cat that has learnt that there are always plenty of animal loving writers around to make a fuss of him. 

10. A week with a wonderful poets. The other participants were great company and a huge inspiration throughout the week. On the final evening we all gave a short reading. There were experienced readers and first timers in the group but the quality of work was of a consistently high standard. At the end of the reading John shared his favourite parts of each poets work. It was nice to hear what parts of my work had made an impression and to be reminded of the many great lines from the other poets. There was much to talk about afterwards and plenty of wine to finish up during the rest of the night.

My week at Arvon has certainly made me a better poet equipping me with new ideas and techniques to develop in the future. A few lessons I took away were:

• Write better titles - many of mine just repeat what's in the poem.
• Keep reading.
• Create powerful images. A good technique for appreciating the images in other poets poems is to draw them.
• Keep reading.
• There are many effective ways to play with language and form. The subtle ways the best poets do this requires careful scrutiny.
• The world won't end if you switch off for a while and work on your writing.
• Keep reading.

​www.arvon.org

I know it's been out for a few months but I've finally got round to producing some hard copies so you can read Poetry Non-Stop as a good old fashioned book. I've also organised a little poetry shindig to celebrate on Sunday 18, 2pm at Octavo's Book Cafe and Wine Bar in Cardiff Bay. Octavo's is a great place to buy books, read them and listen to authors read their work too. I'll be reading of course and I've invited a talented bunch of poets to join me. Local poets Adele Cordner, Ann Drysdale and Angela Platt will be reading and Rychard Carrington is coming over from Borth. Rychard is a one-of-a-kind performance poet who is sure to take the Cardiff poetry scene quite unawares.
Don't worry if you are not in Cardiff as I will be streaming the whole thing live on Periscope. Check Twitter for the link at around 2:30pm and enjoy a great afternoon of poetry. More details here.

I haven't updated this for a while. It's been a busy summer with the opportunity to perform at Kaya Festival along with the likes of Craig Charles, Asian Dub Foundation, The Selecter and Judge Jules a real highlight. This weekend I'm at the Hub Festival in Cardiff. I'm looking forward to joining the Megaverse programme of poets and spoken word acts hosted by Will Ford between 3 and 7pm on Saturday at the Urban Taphouse. 
Among the other poets performing is Des Mannay who joined me at Kaya Festival at the start of the month. We performed in an atmospheric room in a mansion which was probably haunted before enjoying the rest of the festival. As Des later said: "We smashed it! Then we spent the rest of the day drinking, meeting other artiists and DJ's, drinking, watching bands, drinking, meeting old friends, drinking, making new friends, drinking, eating festival food, drinking.... and erm - did I mention drinking?"

​Here are some photos from Phunked up Photography.

We even made the South Wales Argus:

It's been an interesting NaPoWriMo so far. I've been using a few sources for prompts and often find the poems I write come from a combination of two or more prompts. On the first day the NaPoWriMo site prompt was to write a lune – a form similar to haiku with a 5-3-5 syllable count. Turning to Robert Lee Brewer's Poetic Asides the prompt was to write a foolish poem. These prompts resulted in:

Their words seem foolish
because we 
never taught them ours.

On the Found Poetry site Collier Nogues set a prompt that involved creating a poem from a few sources by taking a document adding lines of poetry, yours or other peoples and turning the whole thing into a poem. I took a letter from the tax office, some lines from poem's in Simon Armitage's collection Zoom and some of my own to produce this:

Acknowledgement

Thank you for the crumbs, staples and eyes of potatoes you have supplied. We have sniffed, chewed, dissected and incinerated them and can confirm we will not be asking for anything more as you head into perfect darkness in boxer shorts and bare feet.

I've also engaged in some completely new forms like Woody Leslie's wordblock poems. I had an interesting time piecing this together:

Other poems have come from simply being out and about, such as this one that I wrote on a coach trip:

Long distance coach trip

Not long after we depart the woman sat next to me yawns, lets her head sink onto my shoulder and clutches my arm murmuring 'Frank.' I haven't the heart to tell her I'm not Frank. The man in front reaches for the armrest. He grabs my leg and pulls it up next to him. Instead of realising his error he digs his elbow in as he continues watching Lethal Weapon on his laptop. It's late when we reach the next stop and no lights come on when the door opens and more passengers embark. The last is a fat man peering through thick glasses. He stops at my seat and flops down on top of me. He pulls my right arm across his chest and inserts my slender fingers in the seatbelt lock. As the coach drives on I fall asleep to the slow muffled beat of his heart.

If you need some inspiration for your poetry check out my book Poetry Non-stop available now on Amazon.

I was honoured to be featured in this piece about World Poetry Day in The South Wales Argus along with a couple of other local poets. There are a couple of my poems along with some nice photos. My colleague Mike at Newsquest did a good job with the headline too. Read it here.

My new book Poetry Non-stop is coming out on March 17th. It's a guide for poets of all levels to writing a poem a day for 30 days coming out ahead of National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) in April. I'm really excited about this book. I know it will inspire whoever reads it to write some fantastic and original poems. I hope I get to read them. Grab the book early while the price is low and get set for NaPoWriMo. 

I am taking part in an exhibition on Friars Walk, Newport's new shopping centre, at the Cwtsh community and arts centre. The exhibition features a huge lineup of writers and visual artists. I produced a written piece based on observing the people in the area and it will be accompanied by a photo taken by organiser and talented photographer John Briggs, who also took my photo on the homepage. The area, people, architecture and history of the place is sure to inspire a variety of responses which I look forward to seeing.

The exhibition opening event is on Saturday 7th February at the Cwtsh, Stow Hill, Handpost, Newport, NP20 4HA from 2-5pm. Full details here.