Blog - Literature
Dyslexic artist reporting from lockdown
July 9, 2020 - by Michelle BaharierHere's Michelle's first blog in a while, reflecting on Covid, and life with dyslexia, her first vlog. https://youtu.be/-4jDxGNFkSc The video is captioned (you have to turn them on in YouTube's settings), but a transcript is also available below. Hello, my name is Michelle Baharier. I'm a visual artist and I'm also a poet so ...
Disconnected
July 7, 2020 - by GiniCan I be semi-shielding? Like a semi-fledged bird, I'm not actually ready to leave my shelter. I've had a trial run leading up to this - a healthcare check that sees me approach the edges of town. Town is not reassuring. It is busier than I’d anticipated. I wear a mask ...
A birthday, a funeral and a Tesco Delivery Man
June 30, 2020 - by Liz BentleyLast week I performed an 'Artist Presentation' for DAO. Here is the link if you weren’t able to join me live. Thank you to all who were there and asked questions. If there are any unanswered questions, please do comment below and I will answer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axBZxIuYBIQ On my birthday, the following day after ...
Going out
June 29, 2020 - by GiniThe moment arrived. I'd charged my power wheels overnight. Washed my face mask, cleaned my eye protectors. And practiced mindful relaxation. I was ready. It occurred to me to postpone. I had not actually left my property for 102 days. There was no urgent reason to set out on this particular ...
The Rules of the Realm
June 25, 2020 - by Richard DownesThe Realm is turning into a landscape that we make for ourselves. Yesterday I recorded some key words for me as if a poem. The words were instruction words. We were thinking about an entrance to the Realm. Involving viewers in an action that needed to be taken during the ...
Bubbles
June 22, 2020 - by GiniI've long suspected that I live in a yoyocracy. A place where the people governing/pretending they know what they’re doing, recycle their directives so that the up/down, back/forth juggling movement gives an approximation of an attempt at progress - which may, or may not, be synonymous with improvement. They change up ...
Acorn; Of Snow And Ice
June 21, 2020 - by Richard DownesYoko Ono’s Earth Piece II shows concern for the planet yet finds optimism in our power to find a solution. She finishes with the instruction; ‘melt the icebergs and snow in your life’. I feel a new duet coming onAcorn; Of Snow and Ice(She) I am snow(He) I am ice(She) ...
Hope
June 15, 2020 - by GiniI've been floating in the space named isolation. Floating with no breeze, no current, to inspire resistance. Nothing to motivate vague tentacles of curiosity to drop anchor. To stay. My words withdraw in protective whorls of introspection, become individual letters, fonts, images. My images dissolve into atoms of ink, flavours of ...
Words On A Post Card; From the Birds
June 11, 2020 - by Richard DownesFound this on a facebook memory, adapted it for a post card. Protect the notes you throw away. Make something with them. Learn you are a poet.Words On A Post Card; From the BirdsRecent readingsFirst a crow flew fastlyThen a nightingale 12 months on Then you wrote your flight of ...
It’s not the end of the world, you know
June 11, 2020 - by Nick LewisThis poem is related to the Polish poet Milosz's poem Song on the End of the World and the Shakers dance on the same subject. It’s not the end of the world, you know It’s not the end of the world, you know said my mother as she stuck a plaster on my ...