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‘Half the Story’ by Ian Duhig and a new writing prompt by Ben Rogers
Today’s poem begins by offering a tale about the celebrated writer Franz Kafka cheering up a little girl who has lost her doll in a park, producing a succession of letters for her from the absent doll. The second “half” of the poem then offers an alternative version of events, before trailing off with a…
BenRogers
‘Nomura Haikus’
Iris Goddess of rainbows blue indigo violet mood after rainfall Foxglove Southwark Cathedral bells tinkle in foxglove spires a candle is lit Aquilegia Set in the city columbine from the woodlands the alpine meadows Agapanthus Bridal Bouquet Lily of the Nile beribboned sapphire bloom floats along the aisle Achillea Millefolium Paprika…
CamelliaStafford
‘Instructions to the Lemon Grass Artist’ by Chrissy Williams and a new writing prompt from Ben Rogers
Today’s poem charts the surreal and incredible adventures of some Lemon Grass voyaging into space. Additionally though, the poem in itself is in a kind of transit, being a set of “instructions” for an unseen artist to convert the words into visual form, supplemented by textual captions given in capital letters. At Poetry in Aldeburgh:…
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Poetry in Aldeburgh: Ben Rogers interviews… Chrissy Williams
An Interview with Chrissy Williams
“Play is fundamental, I think, to anyone interested in artistic expression, and communication.”
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‘Accidental Narratives’ by Jack Underwood and a new writing prompt from Ben Rogers
Today’s poem starts as an eclectic list of objects, ranging from a caraway seed to a waxwork head of Chaplin, that all may have “accidental narratives” to tell. This miniature collection of curiosities then segues into a rumination that spills out of the frame of the poem. At Poetry in Aldeburgh: Jack Underwood will read…
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Wayfinders: A Poetry School Reading at Poetry in Aldeburgh
Wayfinders, a Poetry School reading at the Poetry in Aldeburgh Festival, is an example of the Poetry School in action. From our earliest days, we have been a place where poets come to learn from each other, and where they find ways into poetry with the help of a supportive community of fellow writers. Tamar Yoseloff…
Poetry School
‘Two Tannoys (A Noise Annoys)’ by Paul Stephenson and a new writing prompt from Ben Rogers
Today’s poem from Paul Stephenson playfully splices a pair of tannoyed announcements at a train station with homophonic translations of the instructions. Arranged in the shape of the two tannoys, the poem seeks to “fuse” the authoritative voice with a subversive echo. At Poetry in Aldeburgh: Paul Stephenson will read as part of ‘Making Sense…
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Poetry in Aldeburgh: Ben Rogers interviews… Paul Stephenson
An Interview with Paul Stephenson
“In the manner of George Perec’s lipogram novel La Disparition, can you explain, without using the letter E, what you like about poetry in Aldeburgh…?”
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‘On Dunwich Beach’ by Fiona Moore and a new writing prompt from Ben Rogers
Today’s poem from Fiona Moore’s pamphlet The Only Reason for Time is set in Dunwich, a small coastal village located a few miles north of Aldeburgh. The poem’s persistent refrain “for you” develops and builds through the couplets, while echoing the rhythm of the North Sea’s “raids” against the shore. At Poetry in Aldeburgh: Fiona…
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‘The Molecatcher’s Warning’ by Rebecca Watts and a new writing prompt from Ben Rogers
Today’s poem from Rebecca Watts is one of a number of animal poems that feature in her first collection The Met Office Advises Caution, recently released with Carcanet. In gruesome detail, it depicts a scene of strung-up moles in a remote place “Ten miles from the nearest anywhere”, and the futility of the warning that…
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Poetry in Aldeburgh: Ben Rogers interviews… Rebecca Watts
An Interview with Rebecca Watts
A poem should always involve an imaginative act, and pretending to be something other is a good way of triggering one.
BenRogers
‘The Institute’ by Dan Burt and a new writing prompt from Ben Rogers
Today’s poem describes the experience of encountering a whiteboard covered with incomprehensible calculations while being toured around a mathematics faculty. The poet was struck by the symbols and the “unthought, deep belief in the potential value of an idea”, the emphatic instruction DO NOT ERASE beneath them suggesting the possibility of their profound importance. Read…
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Poetry in Aldeburgh: Ben Rogers interviews… Dan Burt
An Interview with Dan Burt
“If a piece has nothing to say, why bother saying it?”
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Poems from the film ‘Paterson’
Love Poem We have plenty of matches in our house We keep them on hand always Currently our favourite brand Is Ohio Blue Tip Though we used to prefer Diamond Brand That was before we discovered Ohio Blue Tip matches They are excellently packaged Sturdy little boxes With dark and light blue and white labels…
Poetry School
Paterson: A New Poetry Film, And A Competition
The Poetry School and Soda Pictures are delighted to announce a new poetry competition to mark the release of Paterson – a new film with poetry at its heart (in cinemas 25 November). Set in Paterson, New Jersey, Adam Driver (Girls / Star Wars) plays a small-town bus driver and poet. Every day, Paterson adheres…
Julia Bird (Poetry School Staff)
‘Going Over’
Only a weary traveller would settle for such lonesome stones but the day we crossed the river we knew we’d found a home. Now I sleep between two waters, dreaming a red rock town where nine kind mothers feed me, none of them my own. And I see my mother coming but she is…
Linda Goulden
‘Just Like A Woman’
Of course I’d been to Paris before, but not without supervision. And if Dylan ever had a dry patch this was it, which meant the club was intimate, tickets cheap and the young among us shoved upfront, thrilled, skin on skin. Electric guitar, him in a lurex suit tootling at the piano a while. So…
Anna Kisby
‘Apple Pie in Pizzaland’ by Maura Dooley and a new writing prompt from Ben Rogers
Today’s poem featured at the very first Aldeburgh Poetry Festival held back in 1989. It describes a meeting in a pizza restaurant where both individuals are painfully “apologising to one another” and fiddling with menus and cutlery, before a sudden flight of imagination sees the restaurant, along with the rest of the country, being magically…
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‘If I lay on my back I saw nothing but naked women’ by Jacqueline Saphra and a new writing prompt from Ben Rogers
Today’s poem is an extract from If I lay on my back I saw nothing but naked women, a sequence of prose poems by Jacqueline Saphra, illustrated with linocut prints by Mark Andrew Webber. Told from a child’s perspective, the poems recount quirky, sometimes unnerving, scenes of family life, featuring a cast of eccentric parents…
Poetry School
Poetry in Aldeburgh Residency: Ben Rogers interviews… Jacqueline Saphra
An Interview with Jacqueline Saphra
“Say whatever you want, invent what you like, use your imagination – that’s what writers do, for god’s sake – if it strengthens the poem.”
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Poetry in Aldeburgh Residency: Ben Rogers interviews… Holly Corfield Carr
An Interview with Holly Corfield Carr
As soon as we talk about ‘chance’ we’ve already stationed part of the writing process outside ourselves. We decide on names for this other part, like ‘found’ or ‘inspiration’ or something else, but we are always just writing back to what we have already recognised, writing back to ourselves, collaborating with the back of our heads.
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Aft by Holly Corfield Carr and a new writing prompt from Ben Rogers
Poem of the Day – AFT by Holly Corfield Carr Today’s poem was a site-specific piece commissioned by Spike Island (a centre for contemporary art and design based in Bristol) with Bristol Ferry. Written while listening to the sea shanties of a Bristol sailor recorded in 1950, Holly Corfield Carr created a poem whose couplets were…
Poetry School
‘Haint’ by Eve Ellis
Last night I heard the dogs again, this side of the crick. This morning another window’s smudged and her bitty footprint’s in the skift. Ma wipes her eyes and the glass, takes the broom out to snow-sweep. Pa’s painting the fence blue like a river she can’t cross. Tonight he’ll throw salt on the…
Eve
An Intimate Dinner with Raised Voices by Anna Selby and a new writing prompt from Ben Rogers
Poetry in Aldeburgh Countdown – An Intimate Dinner with Raised Voices by Anna Selby Today’s poem is a disconcertingly noisy sonnet taken from Anna Selby’s pamphlet ‘The Burning’. In the poem, sounds are amplified in a way that they are not supposed to, the result of a house that “overreacts”, a cacophony from which there is no…
Poetry School
Phone call from… by Susan Utting and a new writing prompt from Ben Rogers
Writing Prompt – Phone Eavesdrop by Ben Rogers There is of course an ethical issue to listening to other people’s conversations in secret. However, with the rise of mobile phones there is an associated increase in the number of conversations (or at least one side of them) that you can hear with little or no effort, sometimes…
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