There's always something worth working on

What?

Every teacher knows the look.  Eyes that stare and don’t see.  The look of blank incomprehension.  I know it too, not only from years of experience, but also from last night!

            It is one thing to have a class not know what you are on about, it is quite another to have fellow poets in your Poetry Group look at you in the same way.

            I was, I must say, quietly pleased with my effort from the freewrite, which was on ‘conflict’ and I had taken on board a suggestion from Maria, the group leader that evening, to think about the concept of whether the word or the sword was the more powerful.  This came out as a rather odd scenario in my writing where, in the poem, I burned a copy of Macbeth and then there were a few phrases from the play and . . . OK, I know it sounds a bit odd, but it seemed crystal clear to me when I wrote it.  Not crystal clear to the others and they were experienced poetry readers and writers.

            I brooded on the reception of my piece and I was loath to let it go.  This morning and this afternoon I have been working on it and, eventually I got something which I think is a little clearer than the original.

            A few changes, quite important changes, and I think it reads a little better.  You can read my present draft of the poem, Torture, at: http://smrnewpoems.blogspot.com.es And I would appreciate comments!

Eating out again!

Lunch yesterday was a bit of a disaster, it was frankly awful, and we were not surprised that the restaurant is for sale.  I hope the sale goes through quickly and new management makes the eating experience rather better than it was!  I shall protect the guilty here and not name it, except to say that it is next to a waterfall on a roundabout – which narrows it down a bit!  I hope the owners succeed in their next enterprise because the restaurant trade is not for them.

            So, today we went to a tried and tested restaurant within walking distance of us (and if you know me, that means it is very near) and had an excellent meal.  This was in the restaurant that some friends will be staying in when they come for the United Nations Day Meal in October – The Solifemar.  For €14 each we had an introductory glass of vermouth, a three course meal, coffee and a shot after.  I also had a bottle of wine with Casera thrown in too.  Oh yes, with bread, olives and a few crisps too!  Now that is what I call value for money!

            You can check out a selection of restaurants we have patronized by going to Toni’s blog at: http://catalunyaplacetoeat.blogspot.com.es

Freedom short lived

The brief relaxation which came with the sending in of the pro forma has now officially ended and I am deep in the theoretical justifications and explanations for Conceptual Art.  I will give you a flavour of what we have to read in one of the more approachable comments in our text book: 

But the development of Conceptual Art was in part impelled by a perception that the increasing co-option of art to a modernist culture of spectacle had been achieved at the expense of its critical and subversive content.  

So there!  Disagree if you dare!

            

          To be fair the books that we have to read, if taken in bits and read carefully, guide you fairly clearly through a minefield of pretention.  And you have to keep a firm hold of your sense of reality as you look at some of the art work that we are supposed to be considering.

            For example.  Take a piece by Lawrence Weiner.  The title of the piece is A River Spanned, 1969 and the photograph that we have of it is from the exhibition ‘When Attitudes become Form’ Institute of Contemporary Art, London, September 1969.  The exhibit takes the form of a card with: 116  LAWRENCE WEINER A River Spanned 1969 typed on it.  The curator of the exhibition took the decision, as he was fully entitled to do by the artist, not to realise the work but merely to put the card there as an indication of what might be done.  He could, as he suggested, have fired a line across the Thames attached to an arrow and therefore, spanned the river.  But he decided not to.

            So that is the sort of stuff that we are looking at now.  It makes André’s bricks and Judd’s metal boxes look positively fussy by comparison! 

            And I have to write an essay on things like this as well! 

           

            I’m loving it!

Slipped chains, home thoughts and anticipation

Day 4 of Bike Riding

And the chain came off again!  I think the major problem is the way that I change gears.  I know the major problem is the way that I change the gears.  I do it badly.  Consistently badly.  And the chain comes off.  Something to work on.

            I am now getting used to riding the bike, but I am still not convinced that it is ever going to ‘take’ as far as I am concerned.

March poems

It is only right and proper that some of my poems should reflect the importance of this month to Wales.  And one of them does.  You can read it at: http://smrnewpoems.blogspot.com.es and with this one, more than some of the others, I would appreciate feedback.  But, I have to admit that I am content as long as at least one other human life form has read it!

            I think that the present poem could be the penultimate one to be included in ‘Flesh Can Be Bright’ (to be published in the autumn) and I can now, or at least in a few days time, get down to the onerous task of editing, redrafting and preparing the book for publication.  I have offers of proof reading for which I am very grateful and I only hope that the other aspects of the book which are outside my direct control all come together in the next few months.

            I am very much looking forward to this publishing event!  A small thing, but mine own!

Lunch

Another meal in the restaurant that we still refer to as The Card Place in spite of the fact that the free meal incentive card that they used has long since been discarded.

            More photos were taken to illustrate Toni’s blog and he is now well into double figures in the establishments that he has covered and illustrated.

Out and about

This evening I’m off to Barcelona for a meeting of the poetry group which I joined when I was taking A215 Creative Writing with the Open University.  I have kept on with this group because it is warm, friendly and productive.

            One of my friends there is thinking of taking the University of Iowa’s free on-line course in Creative Writing.  This is the course that I did just after the Open University module and I thoroughly recommend it.  It is the sort of course that I might re-take some time in the future, especially if I need the impetus to write more poetry.  I found it stimulating and supportive.

Hotels

For some reason which I find difficult to understand all the hotels in Barcelona are suddenly more expensive that they were a week ago.  The hotel I usually use is charging more than double the rate I paid two weeks ago!  There are no holidays as far as I can work out; I am at a loss to explain.

            The end result of this hike in prices is that I am going in my car.  Parking in the centre of Barcelona (and our little group meets within a stone’s throw of the Cathedral) is exorbitant, but it is a damn sight cheaper than staying in an inexplicably expensive room.

            As I am driving I am taking fruit juice with me for the ‘meal’ we have half way through the evening.  God alone knows what a totally sober poet produces!