Saturday 30 July 2011

A Way to Help The Poetry Society?

In 2005 when Ruth Padel was chair (of the Board of Trustees of the Poetry Society?) an EGM passed a resolution to replace the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Poetry Society with a new, updated version. If the members now were to requisition another EGM might it be possible to make another change in the constitution now? It is clear that there is no shortage of strength to mobilise for such a requisition. The Poetry Society has many many stalwart members who are not at all put off by the hard work of joining in with the action and debate we are currently in the middle of. In fact as Kate Clanchy says - it is a source of optimism to see such unflagging support from everyone.
I was reading the Poetry Society's constitution and Under heading 4,  'Powers',  the constitution states:
'To further its objects the Society may.....
and then  4.16 says: '...subject to any consent required by law, dispose of or deal with all or any of its property with or without payment and subject to such conditions as the Trustees think fit;'

Presumably the building is its property and so is the magazine and yet if instead of ending : '...as the Trustees think fit;' it added: '...provided that the majority of the membership has had the opportunity to express its wishes and votes in agreement with the change.'
Then that would avoid a situation like the one we have now wouldn't it? Or at least it might make it less likely. It would be democratic wouldn't it?

I'm sure a more legally minded person than me would be better at thinking up a new wording...
But if Ruth Padel in her day could get a new constitution instated then whoever the new Chair is come September could do the same.
The question of the editorship needn't be a stumbling block after that. No-one wants the editor to resign, she is very very good at her job and one or two editors in the past have held long tenures. What matters is having a solid constitution and when at some point a new editor does take over the post, their contract would be renewed under terms decided according to the new constitution.

Friday 29 July 2011

'Flannelgraphs' by Joan McGavin

This is Joan's debut collection, available from bookshops published by Oversteps Books . Titles beguiled me from the list of contents  - 'My Career as a Musical Instrument', 'Living with the Water-table', 'Shantung' - like a menu when I'm hungry. To quote Julian Stannard on the back cover: '...These are beautifully made poems which slip into our consciousness without fanfare or swagger and, again and again, they make their mark'. While Matthew Francis promises: 'These poems are full of subtle surprises, a word askew, a line ajar. When you put them down you'll find that the world is not quite where you left it.'  Indeed. There are ghosts in the collection as naturally as there are people, cars and animals. It's no good being startled - Joan brings them to your attention. They're there all right, They've brought their landscapes with them as we have our jackets... ('Dining With the Dead'). They speak to us clearly...Re-wind the videos I took of good men tipped over balconies. Re-build their unpieced bodies... ('A Corpse Leaves Instructions for a Working Funeral') and ...It was necessary to deaprt. The hiss of the fire on the flag of the hearth, as they were drowning it, reached my heart... ('The Wrens' House').
I've been reading about the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer on the Bloodaxe blog and was struck by the description there of how: ...'Many of his poems use compressed description and concentrate on a single distinct image as a catalyst for psychological insight and metaphysical interpretation. This acts as a meeting-point or threshold between conflicting elements or forces: sea and land, man and nature, freedom and control....' It seems to me that in some of Joan's poems too there are such meeting points. I'm not sure they are conflicting elements but humans meet swollen rivers ('Flood Warning, River Almond') and earthquakes ('Biography')  and are jolted into a close encounter with their own mortality. We see a hare: ...he stared ahead, as if to memorise the spot in the air in front of him he intended to punch... then find ourselevs face to face with the passing of time.
The deceptively gentle language can convey profoundest pain; as in the grief of 'Soft', the grim fortitude of  'Scullery' or the agony of 'One Use of a Painting' all the while retaining a seductive ability to find the true path that allows you, as a reader, to encounter these truths without flinching.  And the book is brimming with enchanting images: ...the names of places we may never visit move through the air like butterflies in the folds of clothing carried along the Great Wall from fort to fort.
It's a wonderful first collection and another thing I love about it is the way that Scotland appears in it. Huzza, Joan -  Thank you!

Saturday 23 July 2011

Poor Poetry Society

After the extraordinary general meeting held at the Royal College of Surgeons yesterday I'm depressed at finding out that people appointed to positions of responsibility on the grounds that they were judged capable of discharging such a duty were in fact unqualified to do so at a practical level. One remark in particular jarred (and characterised the weird bravado the Board displayed) it was a retort '...perhaps you don't go to the right parties...' made to a perfectly legitimate question put in good faith by a polite member. Talk about misjudge what would be the appropriate tone for a session where you are gradually being revealed as culpably incompetent!
What might be the appropriate manner to adopt when approximately 400 members of a respectable and august organisation of many years standing come to you; many of them from far flung parts of the UK; to ask you to account for serious irregularities in your conduct? I can only say what I would have felt like. And as the revelations became ever more alarming - financial irregularity, no adherence to basic HR protocols, little KNOWLEDGE of basic HR procedures and practices and only the skimpiest grasp, it appeared, of employment law (they knew of the law that allows that an employee whose temporary contracts are renewed beyond four years  be entitled to a permanent contract) I, if that had been me, would have been terrified. Employment law is law isn't it? If you break it (e.g. by not following grievance procedures or conciliation procedures to resolve disputes - and they claim that a dispute 'caused' the situation) can you be charged with something? It would have scared me. I wouldn't have been able to chat and laugh with my fellow board members sitting either side of me as if we were all bravely doing our duty. I would have been mortified. Still, maybe they were mortified but just not showing it.
A motion for a vote of no confidence in the Board was carried by a massive majority. Four stalwart members were put forward as co-optees to this lamentable board - I don't envy the three that the board now has to choose but I take my hat off to them. Somehow this all has to result in a new Board being elected. The current board has resigned with effect from September (the 1st I think it was was it?) - - but that still leaves rather a lot of scope for them to DO things. Maybe they won't excercise this option.

Monday 18 July 2011

No-one Expects The Poetry Requisition....

I received this message by email yesterday (Sunday) from Anne-Marie Fyfe, Organiser of coffee-house poetry at the troubadour www.coffeehousepoetry.org
It reads -
Dear Poetry Supporters

Something of a one-off - but a necessary response to all those who've written to this address or via the website asking for more info on the present Poetry Society crisis, and asking particularly what members and others can do.

For those who haven't seen the press reports, the present Board (my term as Chair ended in 2010, I'm afraid, though I'm still a member as I've been for twenty-something years) introduced significant structural changes with the result that the Director, President and Finance Officer resigned.

Since the dispute attracted media attention, the Board's Chair, one Trustee, and an Honorary Vice-President have also resigned and, baffled by mismanagement, lack of consultation and total secrecy on the changes, a group of 500-ish members have petitioned for (or requisitioned) an Extraordinary General Meeting (to which they're legally entitled, being more than 10 per-cent of the membership) at which to ask the Board for an account of events: this has been agreed and scheduled for 22nd July in London, but is being misrepresented in some quarters.

I can tell you all that it isn't about a dispute between the Society's Director and its magazine editor, or about how the latest, increased, Arts Council grant is to be allocated. It is simply about Board mismanagement and lack of consultation with the membership.

So I really would encourage anyone who's interested in supporting the widest possible range of poetry, both in the Society's flagship 'Poetry Review' and/or in live readings, who values the Society's 'educational' activities as much as 'promotion' and 'enjoyment' of poetry, who reads famous and not-so-famous poets, from both large and small publishers, who wants to ensure that ordinary members aren't sidelined - to join, if you haven't already done so, the requisitioners (who include Poet Laureate, Carol-Ann Duffy) by e-mailing organiser Kate Clanchy (kateclanchy@gmail.com) and she'll give you details and if you can't be with us in person on 22nd, how to organise a proxy before Tuesday evening.

If you're not already a member, and you care about poetry, this is the time to join, so e-mail Kate Clanchy and she'll advise.

Wednesday 13 July 2011

Liars' League Events are Fun

This is the venue - downstairs at The Phoenix, Cavendish Square and here the audience members are beginning to to filter in and take their seats There was a delicious aroma of food as people arrived and ordered their supper - maybe they had come straight from work. I had. But I ordered a pint of Peroni.

The audience was remarkably literary and well-read. I didn't get a look-in at the book quiz, while I ransacked my brain for the answer, hands were shooting up and I didn't even know the answer to most of the questions. Must do Better.

The Liars' League website promised
                                                                            '..... swingers and assassins, curry in New York and sexy pants in suburbia, not to mention a burning building or two ... plus our infamous literary quiz, the chance to win some steamy FREE books, and bargain wine all night - all for a measly fiver...'


and that was all true. It was great. Last night the theme was 'Hot and Bothered' and the steamy stories sweltered to their sticky ends in a most satisfactory manner provoking laughter and appreciation, concentration and applause. The actors were superb, the stories came to life and if that isn't fun what is?

Thursday 7 July 2011

Come and See Me at Liars' League!

What could be more fun than listening to some excellent actors performing stories for you while you sit in comfort, surrounded by friends, sipping wine (or a manly ale)? Nothing could. So here is the opportunity. Tell all your friends and come along to 'Hot and Bothered'
It's the next Liars' League event at:
The Phoenix, 37 Cavendish Square, London
and it's on Tuesday July 12th, 7.30 pm.

Here's the line-up - with ME in it! (order of reading may differ):

- Underneath by Erinna Mettler NEW AUTHOR
- Brothers' Eyes and Curtain Rods by Robert Long NEW AUTHOR
- This Isn't Heat by Richard Smyth
- Pampas Grass by James Holden NEW AUTHOR
- Kenny by Frances Clarke NEW AUTHOR

Monday 4 July 2011

Liars' League and White Rabbit

I found out about these spoken word events at a workshop back in March and had my story Resting and Sighing in Between selected for White Rabbit's  June edition of  'Are You Sitting Comfortably' in Brighton. How fab is that venue? I did take my coat off in the end and maybe you can't make them out but those are cakes and jelly babies on the table. (There is more about the event on the 'work in progress' page) and I have just heard that my story Kenny has been picked for the July event of Liars' League so I am beside myself with excitement. That too is mentioned on the other page and I will report back after on how it goes.