Shire Oak: Who do you think I am?

Sally Bavage writes:

James Nash                 Photo by Sally Bavage

Intriguing poems set up puzzles to describe animals that you find in Headingley – and the audience of over 200 including 30+ parents/visitors had to guess which animals 30 youngsters from Mr Martin's Class 3 were talking about.

Ears were sharp, flat, pointy, small. Tails were long, bushy, short, beautiful. Eyes were dark, large, mischievous, beady. Teeth were sharp enough to crunch acorns. Homes were in trees, under grass, in holes, in drays, under rocks, in hollow trees. Grass was bitter to the taste.

Other words used by these seven-year-olds include nocturnal, kittenish, forage and scavenger. Yes, seven years old and confident enough with both their writing and their delivery to the whole school. Strong voices reading with such brio - priceless.

The early work on exploration of the worlds of the many animals of Headingley was later taken up by Ms Bennet after Mr Martin took (paternity) leave to be with his own tiny creature. And once again LitFest volunteer Rachel Harkess supported James Nash, local writer and poet, with the work in the classroom.

Headteacher Jane Devane commented: “Working with real writers makes our children understand that their writing is important. They have an audience for it now – and it could even be something they could do as an adult. And the whole school loves working with James!”

Parents' comments included:

Cracking job – works so well with the children.

Fantastic! Really impressed by the children's use of interesting similes. Lots of fantastic descriptive poetry and crystal diction.

Well, you can't say fairer than that, clearly.

Or perhaps you can, as one young girl summed it up in her answer to the question about why it is good to share your work with other children in the school “So you can try and make them feel like writing their own poem.”

And one young man said simply “I was well nervous, but it was great!”

Other audience comments included:

Well done kids, lovely poems.

Excellent work by the children.

Lovely event – fantastic!

It seemed the children really enjoyed the poems and were comfortable sharing their work- a sign that they were proud of what they had done.

Fantastic work by all!

Great! What a fantastic opportunity for the children.

Very good. Well written pieces of work.

It was a lovely event. It gave the children an opportunity to perform to an audience. We had the chance to hear their poems and that of the group. A very good idea.

Excellent poetry read so well by all the pupils.

Four Big Splashes

This is one of a series of previews for the LitFest which begins soon, on 29 February. Printed brochures now available.

Thursday 3 March

FOUR BIG SPLASHES

Becky Cherriman, Ian Harker, Tom Kelly and Tom Weir

BECKY CHERRIMAN is a commissioned writer, workshop leader and performer based in Leeds.  Published on umbrellas, by Mslexia, New Walk, Envoi, Mother’s Milk, Bloodaxe, Well Versed and in Poets For Corbyn, she was resident poet for Morley Literature Festival in 2013.  Her work has been translated into opera, film, art and into Italian for the socialist magazine Internazionale.  Becky's poetry has won prizes in the Yorkshire Open 2013, The Speakeasy Open 2012 and the Ilkley Literature Open Mic 2011.  Echolocation was published by Mother’s Milk Books in February 2016 and is her first pamphlet.  Her first full collection is due out late in 2016 with Cinnamon Press www.beckycherriman.com

IAN HARKER has been shortlisted for the Bridport, Troubadour and Guernsey International poetry prizes, and was Highly Commended for the Bridport Prize in 2015. His work has appeared in a number of magazines, including The North, Stand, Other Poetry, and Agenda. His debut pamphlet The End of the Sky was published in November last year.

TOM KELLY is from Nottingham, but spent the last few years at the University of Leeds researching Amazonian wetlands whilst also assembling his first collection of poetry.
His poems deal with love, loss, grief, and the relationship between people and the natural world – always aiming to bring fresh imagery into the small pocket inhabited by poet and reader. His work has been published in several literary magazines, and has recently been included in The Garden Anthology (Otley Word Feast Press, 2014).

TOM WEIR'S poetry has featured in various magazines and anthologies, including Lung Jazz; Young British Poets for Oxfam, the 2014 National Poetry Competition winners’ anthology, and this year’s Forward Prize anthology. His pamphlet, ‘The Outsider,’ was one of the two winners of the 2014 Templar IOTA shots competition and his first full collection, All That Falling, was brought out by Templar earlier this year, a poem from which was Highly Commended in the 2015 Forward Prize.

Ian Harker, Tom Kelly and Tom Weir are published by Templar Poetry.

7.15pm Headingley Library North Lane Free Event

Becky Cherriman

Ian Harker

Tom Weir

Tom Kelly

Marooned! Weetwood School Poetry Sharing - 4 February

Sheila Chapman writes:

The children in year 5 at Weetwood School wrote poems inspired by the book they have been reading in class. The book, ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ by Michael Morpurgo tells the story of a young boy who is marooned on an island in the South Pacific along with his dog, Stella Artois, and judging by the poems it inspired it is well worth reading.

The children read confidently, and clearly immersed themselves not only in the process of writing and performing poetry but also in the whole idea of being abandoned and alone.

Some memorable lines were

Seagulls screech like a knife

I see a kind of nothing

Still I remember the taste of the brine

I can taste the salty sand

I wake up confused, feel heat from blazing sun

Rocks dangerous and steep

I am excited it’s new

I smell the fresh air

The footprint not mine

My body is not working

Hidden streams, juicy cherries

Sand clutching my hand

I want to go home

Someone waiting for me, heartbroken

Gail Alvarez adds:

The pupils from Mr Annis-Brown's class were really so very confident they took your breath away.  You could hear every word, even from the back of the packed hall.  The teacher was really pleased at the response to James Nash's coaching to perform, and the collaboration was heartwarming:  one youngster got so nervous they dried up but the boy next in line just took the poem and read it out.  Marvellous.

Audience Comments

A large thanks to James and Rachel, we've learned so much and gained confidence speaking to an audience. The poetry was fantastic. (class teacher)

super poems and snippets of poems. It was clear a lot of hard work has gone on behind the scenes. A lovely idea to base the poems on the book the children are reading in class - the children were clearly vey inspired.

Amazing how the quality of the children's work is boosted so much by the leadership of an inspiring professional writer who believes in their abilities and consequently allows them to believe in themselves. Thank you.

My win granddaughters enjoyed the development and writing of the poems and I very much enjoyed the performance by the class.

Great event - my girls really enjoyed the process of creating their poems and working with the poet

Fantastic event to spark children's interest in poetry and to share it.

The children really enjoyed and benefited from the help and input they received. The end result an reading was fabulous.

Language evolves both spoken and written. Good to hear youngsters working with poetry.

Really nice to hear the poems the children had worked hard on.

I am so pleased we came. How wonderful the children could write such good poems. Congratulations to all concerned for the excellent work

Next year let's try and get elders involved again - OWLS now has more capacity so we may be better placed to get involved. Would be good to hear James Nash read out a poem so we could hear a real life poet speaking.

Some children’s comments

The children were asked what they had learnt, why it was good to share their work with others and what they would remember about the project.

What they had learnt

Finding that my quick jottings can be turned into a good and finished poem.

A small poem can be a good poem.

Only using the best parts of your first try will make it the best it can be

How it changed from each lesson It got better and better!

How to present a poem

How to write poetry and how James Nash writes poetry.

Learning how to write a really good poem

When you wright (sic) a poem it doesn’t have to rhyme and that when you wright a poem you have to wright it like whats(sic) happening now.

I have learnt how to be a proper poet.

Writing poems is fun and I’m good at it.

How to write poems professionally.

That nothing is wrong in poems

Learning how to edit and write a poem.

Writing different drafts

That poems take a lot of crossing outs.

I have learned that your poems can be anything

To do more descriptive writing

That poems don’t always have to rhyme.

That you need to take time and don’t rush.

Making the story into a poem.

It doesn’t matter what the poems(sic) about

Why it is good to share

Because you can hear other ways of doing it and get inspiration from them

It is good because you could give them inspiration

Because it makes you happy and really good and you can be a super star and wizard.

It builds your confidence and other people can hear everyone else’s work.

It makes you feel more confinc(sic).

To maybe give them more ideas and give them ispration(sic).

Because they will know what it’s like to write a poem.

Because they can get inspiration and start writing poems themselves.

I think it is but I don’t like reading my work in front of other people.

For advise (sic)

To boost your confidence.

So they can experience what where (sic) learning

So you’re confident in reading.

It is good because they can have ideas for their work.

Because it helps build up your confidence.

To inspire them to write poems.

To boost your confidence. And to show everyone that you are Amazing at writing poems.

So they can learn not just in their classrooms

What will you remember

I will remember working with a proper poet

I will remember every think(sic) about this project.

I will remember meeting a professional poet.

... It was amazing 

Everything because it was brilliant

Everything. James and Rachel are really nice.

That I wrote a poem

My poem

John Spurling - Thursday 10 March

This is one of a series of previews for the forthcoming LitFest, which begins on 29 February at Salvo's Salumeria and ends on 22 March at Lawnswood School. Online version of the brochure is now here.

John Spurling

Novelist, playwright and critic John Spurling’s book The Ten Thousand Things won the 2015 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. The novel, set in Imperial China, is the story of Wang Meng, one of the fourteenth century’s great painters, and was acclaimed by the chair of the judging panel as “a book which deserves enormous credit”.

In his presentation and reading, which he titles with a metaphorical reference to croquet, John will talk about the difficulties of writing The Ten Thousand Things and of getting it published.

John Spurling has written some thirty-five plays, twenty-nine of which have been produced on stage, radio or TV.  He has published three other novels, The Ragged End , After Zenda , A Book of Liszts and also a retelling of Greek myths in Arcadian Nights: Greek Myths Reimagined.  He has written two critical books: on Samuel Beckett’s plays (with John Fletcher) and Graham Greene’s novels and is a former art critic of the New Statesman.  

7.15pm  Headingley Library

£6

A Pair of Sandles Plus

This event, hosted by Doug Sandle and organised in partnership with Beck Arts, took place in the Meanwood Institute, Green road, Meanwood on the afternoon of Sunday 31 February. Songs were sung, poems and extracts from novels were read and cakes were consumed.

Audience comments:

1. Dear folks – thank you so much for your singing, poetry and beautiful guitar music – it was very moving and also lots of fun + the wonderful tea and cakes.
   
2. Great variety of song and words. A thoroughly entertaining afternoon with a mix of humour and sadness. Really memorable stuff! Please hold more events like this.
   
3. A real treat for Sunday afternoon (wet outside but ‘warm’ inside with interesting people). Enjoyed the variety and different talents. Perhaps a little too long - but wouldn’t know who to cut time with!
   
4. Very enjoyable, casual atmosphere with plenty of talent for a wet Sunday afternoon.
   
5. A lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon. A wonderful mix of songs, poetry and socializing. Tea and
   cakes in the interval – a perfect addition.
   
6. A wonderful assortment of song ’n’ rhyme with a jovial chorus at the end to make it a fitting finale.
   Time to go with a smile ...
   
7. A nice pleasant and warm Sunday afternoon for community and friends with music, poetry and
   lovely tea and cakes. Cheerful indeed. Thanks.
   
8. Very good mix of poetry and music, wonderful cake and refreshments. An enjoyable Sunday
   afternoon.
   
9. Funny, moving, talented, generous, friendly, heartfelt ... a thoroughly great event.
   
10. An excellent way to spend a wet Sunday afternoon. Such good local talent and a fine audience.
    
11. Very good event thoroughly enjoyable.
    
12. Enhanced by the music. A couple of ‘acts’ went on too long. On balance – great!
    
13. An eclectic mix of poetry and song. A very pleasant afternoon. I really enjoyed it. Thank you.
    
14. A splendidly eclectic mixture of poetry, song and story. An excellent, entertaining performance.
    
15. A great way to spend Sunday. Thank you for the wonderful entertainment.
    
16. Really excellent. Lovely combination of poetry and song.
    
17. Loved the singing and the poetry.
    
18. Wonderful to hear all this local talent.
    
19. That was great today -thank you-brilliant as usual
    
20. I really enjoyed that afternoon. Good mix of entertainment and I thought the final singalong was great 
    

Eat With Adonis

Adonis

This is one of a series of previews for the forthcoming LitFest, which begins on 29 February and ends on 22 March. The printed brochure is on its way.

Ali Ahmad Said Esber, also known by the pen-name Adonis or Adunis (Arabic: أدونيس), is a Syrian poet, essayist and translator considered one of the most influential and dominant Arab poets of the modern era. He led a modernist revolution in the second half of the twentieth century, exerting a great influence on Arabic poetry comparable to T.S. Eliot's in the anglophone world. His dozen books of translation include the first complete Arabic version of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (2002). He lives in Paris, aged 86.

Hear some of his poems (in English), listen to music from the Arab world and  and sit down for a Lebanese meal. Mint's shawarmas are exceptionally good!

Listen to the poems in Arabic - http://tinyurl.com/j4lrslt -  الاستماع إلى قصائد بالعربية

£10 Mint Café, North Lane
7.15pm   

Adonis wall poem in Leiden, Netherlands