Poetry with James Nash at Ireland Wood Primary School

Evacuees

Sally Bavage writes:

Two year six classes (ages 10 to 11) are studying War, and our commissioned poet James Nash – pictured with class teachers Ms Bilioni and Mr Crossley – took up the theme of Evacuees for this poetry project. As deputy head Mrs Green said when introducing the work to the thirty or so parents and visitors who were able to attend the mid-morning final presentations, “Every year we are astounded by the writing, the creativity and the trust that James produces from this transformational project.  You are in for a treat.”  We were.

 

Sixty youngsters read to us from their work, drafted, shared, edited and honed.  A dozen read their whole poem, other just their favourite selection. Think of the logistics of that! Fortunately, school teaching and support staff are hugely supportive of what this project does for these young people and help with achieving order and calm.  Yes, some rattling pieces of paper held in hands shaking with nerves but also some voices raised confidently and proudly even without the use of the microphone.   

 

As one parent confided before the start: “She has absolutely loved it.  She even read out some other poems to me at breakfast this morning.”  Another confessed that his “son was so proud of his poem and was looking forward to performing it.”

 

The deeply empathetic writing started off in a busy city station with young children being evacuated to safety but leaving families and friends.  The youngsters wrote heartfelt descriptions of what they sensed and felt as children from almost a century ago, with fresh and sophisticated vocabulary that made you forget their youth and focus on their engagement. Behaviour or learning difficulties entirely forgotten, they were immersed in the place their writing took them.

 

“I can taste the salty tears in my mouth.”

 

“I feel the embrace of my little sister.”

 

My dad is in a gloomy graveyard, Lying in his deathbed.”

 

My life story now turns another page.”

 

“Sometimes, I want to go to the past.”

 

Confusion, fury, worry and hope; Nothing was perfect anymore.”

 

I can hear my heart beating: thump, thump, thump.”

 

“I can still taste my last meal with mother.”

 

“My life is a new chapter, somewhere I've never been.”

 

I could go on for pages with extracts from the children's work that demonstrate just how closely they entered into the world of these Evacuees.  Ideas spilled out in sharing sessions and were refined into work of which the children were so proud.  As Ms Bilioni said, “We've now got Confidence with a capital C.  My class has been asking me every morning if we are doing poetry. This work makes creative writing accessible to all; James wrote his own exemplar poem at a range of levels to encourage them all that they too could join in.”  And Mr Crossley said, “I'm really looking forward to next year!”

 

And the children?  One girl had enjoyed the sharing of ideas and planning her poem carefully, another young chap had looked forward to performing his work and a third had absolutely exploded with ideas he could see in his mind's eye.  “I'll remember the fun we had” and “It was good to see a poem grown from our first ideas”, as well as finding that poems don't have to rhyme but they have rhythm.  Just where will these young people go with insights like that?

 

November 2023

 

Thanks are given to Leeds City Council's Inner North West area management committee for funding this work once again.

Linda Marshall's new collection

Sometimes described as Headingley's poet laureate, Linda Marshall is launching HEADINGLEY HULLABALOO on SATURDAY 4 NOVEMBER at HEART in Bennett Road, Leeds 6.

The book is a new collection of poems celebrating the delights and quirks of Headingley past and present. It will be in the Shire Oak Room, arranged café style. You are invited to arrive from 3pm, with the performance beginning at 3.30pm. It's free entry, but donations are welcome to pay for the room.

 

Performers are Maggie Mash and Jane Oakshott (from Trio Literati), with Peter Spafford providing music.

 

 

Restless Souls by Ronnie Brown - Review

Sally Bavage writes:

Art is in the eye of the beholder, they say. Or in the view of the forensic scientist called in to investigate a puzzling death. Add in an art history lecturer who is under something of a cloud and some complex fraud. Oh, and death threats. You have an interesting debut novel by Ronnie Brown.

Restless Souls follows the fortunes, if his adventures can be so described, of jaded art history lecturer R I Penny, whose witty exploration of the 'painter'  Hertz van Rental didn't amuse management and put him under observation. Add in a mysterious file detailing complex financial transactions he doesn't quite grasp left anonymously in his pigeonhole. Season this mix with some dodgy acquaintances, quite a bit of psychological analysis of painting and its messages, a police investigation that isn't all it seems and an embittered former student who may be stalking our hero. You have a complex narrative that moves along with a cracking pace and some surprising turns of events.

 

The writing style has echoes of Terry Darlington's Narrow Dog to Carcassonne, or Raymond Chandler's Marlowe. Short sentences, elliptical asides and rapid developments move the story along in short chapters that, rather like Dickens, leave you with frequent cliffhangers.

 

References to his colleagues at Beckett polyversity are rarely flattering and in a serving member of staff would begin to look like a long letter of resignation. There are one or two plot holes - why blow up a church? Is the love interest to be followed up? And the psychobabble can be a bit overwhelming towards the finale.

 

However, it is clear that Ronnie Brown knows and loves his artworks, and is a master raconteur. A discussion of this book could lead in many directions!

To buy the book from Waterstones, click here:

 https://www.waterstones.com/book/restless-souls/ronnie-brown/9781803780559

Good Luck, Malika!

 Good luck to Malika Booker, whose poem Libation has been shortlisted for this year's Forward Prize for a single poem! Malika has been part of our Poetry in Schools project for seven years, running sessions at Brudenell Primary School. See the write-ups on this blog. Here's the poem:

https://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/forward-prizes-for-poetry/malika-booker-libation/

Memories in a Suitcase at Brudenell Primary School

 Richard Wilcocks writes:

At the start of the first of three sessions on identity and memories, poet #MalikaBooker spoke about family memories with an enthusiastic class made up of a mixture of nine, ten and eleven year-olds, with their teacher Tom Nutman. Most of them recognised the situation when she read her poem about shopping in Brixton market with her grandma as a child. She followed with another of her poems – ‘Letting Go’ – about a cat that had to be given away when she was born. So did she always write about her early life?

 

“It’s not all about my life,’ she said. “Sometimes it’s about things which haven’t happened and sometimes it’s about a very short moment. Or another person’s whole life! Whatever you’re writing about you’ll have to think about details and imagery.” 

She asked the children what they could see from a window at home. There was a shower of responses – people walking past, cats and dogs, houses, the mosque. “Now try making it easier for people to imagine what you saw. Give more details. Houses built with red bricks? A large, brown, hairy dog? A mosque with a dome? Try using metaphors? Using your five senses?”

 

The rest of the session was devoted to painting pictures in someone’s mind, using descriptive words and comparisons. A scruffy dog? A green dome? Happy, smiling people? A child thin as a pencil? And what about abstractions? What does jealousy taste like? What does love look like?

 

A few days later, during the second session, Malika asked the class to consider the idea that if you had to leave home and couldn’t go back, which five things would you take in a suitcase? ‘Suitcase’ , the lead poem in a collection with the same name by #RogerRobinson * was distributed and read out. The children made lists. Food and entertainment were important practical considerations at first – sandwiches, chocolate bars, bags of lentils, board games – but after Malika’s prompting, the importance of significant memories began to be appreciated. Books of photos. Special friends. Specific moments of happiness with parents, brothers and sisters which are fixed in the brain. Loving relationships.

 

Tom Nutman stepped in to explain that this was going to have a lot to do with work next term on metaphors and that he would follow up the work started with Malika in the next few days. Malika said she was really looking forward to hearing the class’s ‘list poems’ or 'suitcase poems' when she came in for the third and final session, because she had been delighted with the imaginative efforts made so far. She warned the class they would have to be brave. All four adults present - Malika, Tom, myself and Learning Support Assistant Nasira Mirza echoed the warning, following it with reassurances.

Suitcase (poetry), Flipped Eye Publishing, 2005. ISBN 978-0954224776

The finale came a week later. It took place in the gym. Malika knows a few things about nerves before a performance, so she spent the first fifteen minutes of the rehearsal putting into practice a few of the techniques she has learned over the years. The fledgeling poets had to become spoken word artists. They stood up to plant their feet firmly and take a really deep breath, stepped out front to deliver the first line of their poem in a loud voice to Mr Nutman standing at the far end of the gym and played a hilarious circle game involving throwing an imaginary ball to be caught be a friend.

The show was like a happy dream. Several children who had said that they just could not go through with it the day before were transformed into confident performers. Nasira explained to me that she had been concerned about one boy who had been flushed and trembling twenty-four hours previously but who had read his poem out with no apparent problems. And the smiling faces proved that the whole business was really enjoyable. Camera phones were in evidence too, pointed by mothers at sons and daughters, by children at friends and by Mr Nutman himself, who operated the school's video camera. This was an experience not to be forgotten in a hurry.

Tom Nutman, Jill Harland and Nasira Mirza with Malika

Comments from those present included:

It is vital for us as educators that we create as many opportunities as possible for our young people to be inspired by and to produce poetry. and to express themselves creatively. Thankyou, Malika! (Headteacher Jill Harland)

I am so proud of you. The poetry was great and your confidence in speaking in public has grown. (Tom Nutman)

Young poets' dream! This will be the making of them! (Nasira Mirza)

They need it for high school confidence. It's huge for them, a massive achievement! (Shaza, parent)

Thanks are given to Leeds City Council's Inner North West area management committee for funding this work once again.

A Journey - at Quarry Mount Primary School

 Sarah Andrews writes:

 

#James Nash, the poet commissioned by Headingley LitFest to work with youngsters in local primary schools, has been visiting Quarry Mount primary school for about a decade.  Each time he visits is different:  different year group, teacher, class or topic  This time it was the Second World War and the theme of a journey, leaving family in a targeted city for the safety of a place with no bombs.

 

As headteacher Rebecca Pettman confided, for some of the pupils this was a reality they have already experienced: a number of her pupils come from the middle East.  A sobering thought.

 

Evacuees was a theme that brought out “some brilliant creative writing, a lot of empathy and imagination, as well as some extraordinary lines of prose poetry.”   Class 5 teacher Kirsty Moleele (pictured with James) was just so impressed with the work that James had drawn out of the pupils with his work on setting a scene, getting her class to draft and edit, and sharing with first themselves and then with a whole school assembly which included a dozen or so parents. 

 

Personal journeys in courage for the youngsters too. We were warned that “Some lines are heart-breaking, get the tissues ready.”  The class was complimented on the bravery involved in sharing their work with each other and then the whole school, trying to find their 'playground voices' despite nerves.

 

Hopes, fears, terrors, and longing were evident in every poem. Lines like:

'I want peace to begin and the war to end'

'I miss my old life'

'Why does war even exist?'

'Freedom has gone away'

‘It was time to say goodbye to my life before, My happy memories of the past'

'I'm worried my dad will be hurt or killed'

'I can taste bitter depression in my freezing mouth as the sky is lit by the fires of the German bombs'

'I hug my mum as it may be the last hug I will get from her'

'Pain is all I know, children parted from their family'

 

These children are only nine or ten years old and some of the writing is clearly born out of experience. Writing poetry about difficult experiences in a collaborative 'safe space' like school can be healing.

 

 Every member of the class read out some or all of the lines they had crafted, with various degrees of growing confidence as shyness gave way to pride in achievement.  One boy, who finds reading a challenge, was supported by the trainee teacher and almost burst with pride as he read out his whole poem. While one girl, for whom English is her second language, glowed with pleasure as she contributed along with her classmates. Would the school want to do this again?  Loud sound of cheers and shouts of 'Yes!'

Thanks are given to Leeds City Council's Inner North West area management committee for funding this work once again.