Alex Josephy Poet
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Midsummer in the City

22/6/2017

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Hot, hot days and nights, and the city in turmoil with terrorist events and the terrible fire in Kensington have made it impossible to celebrate this midsummer. I hope the Open Garden Squares day in Markham Square offered a small space for reflection, with leaf-poems fluttering in the gazebo and garden-lovers finding verses planted in the borders alongside the delphiniums and philadelphus. After weeks of immersion and writing, I found that the garden had inspired a surprising amount of poems, with more still at the development stage. 

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I felt very privileged to have the opportunity to 'reside', research and write in this secret garden square - thanks to the residents, The Poetry School and Open Garden Squares. I learned a lot more about making the most of a residency. In particular, for me all the most important inspirations came from the people I met there. Chance remarks by François, the gardener, about the small treasures he has dug up in the beds over the years - a marble made of marble, a sea-washed pebble - threw me back into the historic and prehistiric past of the site where now there is a garden, little pieces of people's personal histories attached to the place... a pet bird buried under a tree, a treetop visible from a Heathrow-bound plane.

I'm also continuing work on a poem sequence inspired by the leaves I brought home, pressed and ironed to make poem leaflets. The leaves have given me a light, airy way to write; I'm still chasing them.
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My Leaf-life is Getting Quite Exciting!

14/6/2017

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Getting ready for open garden day at Markham Square, Chelsea 2-5pm next Sunday...
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Poem seedlings in the potting shed

9/6/2017

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Leaf lexicon

6/6/2017

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Markham Square has a wonderful range of plants, shrubs and trees. On Sunday I got lost in leaves.
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Happy to Write in Fits and Starts

4/6/2017

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On Not Going into the Garden

4/6/2017

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A June Journal... writing each day for Mixed Borders

4/6/2017

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On 1st June I started to write journal entries leading up to Sunday 18th June, when I'll be showing my work as Poet in Residence at Markham Square, Chelsea. Already the journal is starting to feel like a friend during the lonely part of the residency... sitting at my desk, pen poised, waiting to find out what it will write, wondering if there will be anything good enough to display in the garden...I guess we'll see!
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    Author

    I like what Franz Kafka said:
    ​'Paths are made by walking'

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Alex Josephy