Blog Posts

Festa del Paesaggio - celebrating more than just countryside, more then just landscape

8/10/2019

I'll be reading poems from 'White Roads' at this festa next Saturday, 12th October, in the hilltop church at San'Angelo in Colle.

Dual language event, with help from Lisa Annicchiarico and readings in Italian and extra poems by Matilde Albertin.

The whole weekend looks great - follow the link here to find out more!

Season of Festas and Fruitfulness

8/10/2019

Salaiola Festa in September was really lovely - a jewel of a poetry event in a remote corner of southern Tuscany. Even though I arrived late, the highlight for me was walking up into the steep woods outside the village with organiser Kevin Zweck and assorted Italian poets, to sit in a shady rocky ravine that seemed a million miles for the cares of the world. We just waited to see what words might come...and of course, the world was there anyway, in the rocks and the cascading water and even in the ivy strands hanging down into the ravine, waiting to be noticed or not noticed, needing nothing other than our quiet respect . Why is that so difficult, I wondered.

Later there were readings (and a philosophical talk) from some wonderful poets, including Kalyna Temperley and Kevin Zweck. Not to mention the delicious never-ending buffet prepared by the village Circhio. A real treat.

Poetry Mountain High

31/8/2019

After a long, hot summer, it's the season of storms. In a way, I look forward to it, the way it gathers and unleashes something. I'm sitting writing at our kitchen table, overlooking the green valley between Pianello and Travaglio, as thunder rumbles over the town and the first raindrops start to patter on the terrace.

Looking forward to reading a few poems and hearing many more at the Festa della Poesia tomorrow at Salaiola, a lovely little town on Amiata, our local extinct volcano.

https://festadellapoesia.blogspot.com

A little mid-May madness... Greenwich Meantime poets reading at the lovely West Greenwich Library

4/6/2019

A great evening reading alongside Merrie Williams, Ilias Tsagas (thanks for the photos Ilias!), Danuta Dagair, and other examples of Greenwich talent.

Crazy May

7/5/2019

There is so much concern appearing in the media and elsewhere right now about damage to the environment and the extinction of species; having just read Ali Smith's wonderful 'Winter', I'm struck by her firey critique of the relationship between art and the possibility of real change. I wish that poetry could do more to make a difference. Perhaps at least it can remind people about all that might be lost if we don't make changes now.

Here in Italy I've been enjoying the energy of May as I always do; there's still so much exhuberant life all around at this time of year.

Buds open; out they come

yellow butterfly wings
frilly-skirted wasps
impertinent spotted tongues

fluttering handkerchiefs
jittery space invaders
pollen fusillades

swarms of flying horses
pistil, anther, stamen
flame, keep on flaming,

bold as you like.

Wine and Words in Siena

8/3/2019

One more 'White Roads' post - I can't resist adding a link to Eleanor Shannon's very kind review of our poetry reading and wine tasting in Siena, on her blog, Uncorked in Italy. I've never read such a sensitive poetry review from a wine expert! Thanks, Eleanor, you helped to make it an unforgettable evening!
uncorkedinitaly.com/tuscan-terroir-poetry-sketches-and-wine/

Word Art Workers of the World!

30/1/2019

Here's a date for diaries, anyone on London in February.

I'm Dreaming of 'White Roads' for Christmas!

4/12/2018

After our amazing dual-language launch event in Montalcino (where most of the poems were born), I'll be heading to Siena for a reading there on February 9th at Libreria Beccarelli. Watch this space for more details.

Meanwhile, here's what a recent reader of 'White Roads' has to say:

"If you are drawn to Italy and all things Italian, and if poetry lifts your spirits, you might feel like treating yourself - or a friend - to a copy of this illustrated book, beautifully produced by Paekakariki Press. It would make a lovely and unique Christmas present."

OK, they are biased - but only because they've read the book!
You can go to the link here to order copies direct from Paekakariki

White roads in the Val D'Orcia

22/6/2018

White roads, strade bianche, are everywhere in the part of Italy where I live, and I love to walk on them. They don't always join up like 'normal' roads. Sometimes they just lead to a forgotten shed, or the edge of a wood, or an eroded crevice, and then stop. They are a network of fine detail. In summer, white dust gets into the corners of my life, rather like sand after a visit to the beach. It redecorates my shoes, lines pockets. It creeps into poems too. So my new collection is named in honour of them.

While I was writing the book I met Silvana Biasutti, who lives in a small village near where I live in the Val D'Orcia. Silvana's beautiful drawings celebratre the landscapes and human traces that are everywhere in our part of Italy; I was more than delighted when she agreed to contribute some of her drawings to 'White Roads'.

I'll be reading some of the White Roads poems at the Poetry Café,
Betterton Street, London,
on Wednesday 18th July from 7.30 free entry
alongside two fabulous poets Rebecca Bilkau and Susan Castillo

I hope you'll come along for a free glass of wine and an evening of poetry.

Strade Bianche

They call them the white ways,
half-made roads unmarked on the map
or shown as hollow parallels that bound
across hills, falter to a trail of dots
beside a bare torrent-bed,
white-goods dump or ruined farm.

Everything in the reach of a white road
is white: trees, bushes, grasses wilt
under the weight of white. Wild boar
twitch with dust as they skulk
into the undergrowth. The air
is smoke, long after the tractor.

And dogs. Out of sight. I sense them,
wakeful, chained in midday heat,
passing the news of every traveller,
fortissimo. Signs on the track
define territory, quicken my steps:
a half-gnawed bone, towers of turds;

to walk the white road is to squint
over my shoulder, glance ahead,
to notice fine tracery, cloven tracks
around a hot spring. Mud sprayed milky,
not yet dry. Heart high as summer cloud,
white on white, I’ll follow.

Tree Bumblebee tribute: bee 69, Bombus Hypnorum

1/5/2018

I've been hard at work lately, making a box full of poem cards for Fifty Bees, an exhibition that links art, poetry and ecology, thanks to fifty different kinds of bee which can all be found in the UK. 'My' bee is Bombus Hypnorum, the Tree Bumblebee.

Here is Lydia Needle's gorgeous representation of the bee in wool, readly to fly to Swindon for the Fity Bees exhibition at the Richard Jefferies Museum.

I started by researching the bees' five eyes, how they gather information about colours, shapes and movements through both simple and compound eyes. I made cards with hexagonal windows to mirror the shape of the ommatidia, each one of which contains one of the many lenses of a compound eye,

I have written about the queen bees' winter sleep, and about some of the things the worker bees might look out for as they are born in spring to start a new cycle of life, exploring their surroundings, foraging and responding to the inviting patterns and colours of the plants they visit.

I've used materials in the colours of the bee: black, ginger and white. And I've experimented with hand-made translucent paper to create a sense of seeing differently. Now all i have to do is to get the finished work safely to Swindon, where the Fify Bees exhibition will be open from 2 - 24 June. It will be full of amazing bee-related artworks - do visit if you can.