Poetry Advent Calendar: Day 17 – ‘Let Winter Come’ by Nick Jarvis

It was my birthday a couple of weeks back and I got some new notebooks and pens as presents, and I must say, my belief in the power of the right tools for the job has been fully restored as from the moment of opening it I started 4 new poems. One of which I finished quickly and, within a week, had accepted for publication on the Poetry Advent Calendar. If only it always went this smoothly!

‘Let Winter Come’ probably represents the furthest point on the other end of the spectrum of the type of poetry I write, to the poem I wrote before it, the lewd and comical ’12 (Urban Dictionary) Days of Christmas’. If I ever put out a collection of winter poems, it looks set to be a rather varied publication!

Read ‘Let Winter Come’ on The Poetry Advent Calendar here.

15th December – Falmouth – Finn McCouls

This is going to be the first in a series of ‘gigs with musicians’ at which I will be performing poetry to unsuspecting pub audiences. When I say unsuspecting, we are of course advertising the events, but still I can guarantee that there will be people who are very surprised to have somebody talking at them instead of playing them sweet soulful music. I only hope they like it… and if they don’t, that they either keep their disappointment to themselves or express it with nice soft things like rotten tomatoes,  rather than hard things, like root vegetables!

We’ve given our new collective a name that manages to evoke some kind of generic inbreeding having occurred between the cult of Twee and Death Metal. We are, of course, neither very twee nor very metal but are employing the name in an ironic way, yikr! Also, it was written in magnetic words on my fridge and we thought it sounded epic.*

So, come to Finn McCouls on Thursday and witness the first evening hosted by Massive Dragon Solace, featuring: Elliott Sutcliffe - playing his newer material which brings out a much softer and  more wistful side in his songwriting; Will Rothwell – with his beautiful finger-picking guitar style; and myself, performing amongst other things, a new poem called The 12 (Urban Dictionary) Days of Christmas, in which I find 12 different ways of mentioning teabagging.

Incidentally,  I’m going to post this poem onto my facebook page a verse at a time over the 12 days of crimbo, so head over there now to ‘like‘ it if you want to receive these updates.

*can you tell I’ve been reading the urban dictionary of late?!

8th December – Falmouth – Yuletide Cabaret Dinner

Fear not, this is no ordinary Christmas dinner; the early yuletide treats in the offering here will whet your appetite for the feasts to come. Rather than overload you with turkey and little piggies in blankets, the Courtyard Deli is presenting a fine fare of alternative, but still traditional, seasonal delights. To include: Ham Hock Terrine, Baked Cornish Organic Brie, Roast Baby Pumpkin with Melted Gruyere Filling and Roast Cornish Vegetables, and Boozy Christmas Tarts with their own Quince Mincemeat and Clotted Cream. I cannot wait!

Placed tastefully on the side of that amazing feast will be entertainment led by your most congenial host by Mac Dunlop, who will bring to the stage in ‘a bit of this then a bit of that’ cheeseboard kind of fashion,  the fantastic songwriter and composer Seamas Carey, famous for being half of the revolutionary “Underdog”, selling out his Silent Movie nights at the Poly, while still finding time to release his first EP, “Dean Quarry”; the renowned Bard of Bodmin, Rob Barratt; and myself, performing some poetry that might make you think that I’m really a private investigator following The Case of Christmas, or it might not.

Come along, eat some fabulous food, drink some booze, be entertained. What more could you want really? All this can be yours for just £20 a head. Contact the Courtyard Deli for tickets on 01326 319526 or info@courtyarddeli.co

29th November – Falmouth – Telltales Parabola II Launch Night

For the last few months, the Telltales team have been working hard on putting together their second publication, ‘Parabola II: Quickening‘. Using a Wefund Campaign, they have managed to raise a whopping £2120 to go towards the budget raised from Parabola I, which will now enable them to include 11 extra writers in the anthology (making it 20 in total), print more copies, get stockists onboard from further a field, and to generally raise Parabola’s profile that crucial bit more.

I feel that projects like this are extremely valuable as they contribute to the buzz that surrounds any writing scene, and my hopes are that this publication, featuring nationally recognised writers such as Molly Naylor along side local talent, will really start to turn some heads in Falmouth’s direction and increase our status as a place that has a rich, varied, excellent and abundant collection of wordsmiths.

The other thing that I love about the writing scene in Falmouth at the moment is the audience, gathering at events such as Telltales, the fantastic Neutral Norway and, judging by the interest on their Facebook page, the newly launched Jam. At any of these events there are writers sitting in the audience getting excited about other writers, sometimes musicians waiting in the wings to take to the stage when the writers break for drinks, and even people in the audience who aren’t poets or writers or musicians but actually come along because they like hearing words live and alive. I know, who would’ve thought!

So, on the 29th November 2011 at 7.30pm, come down to The Rum Bar above Nancy’s in Falmouth to witness another milestone in this small town’s growing world of words. There will be readings/performances from some of the writers featured in Parabola II alongside other local talent, confirmed names so far are Chelsey Flood, Chris Brown, and myself.

3rd November – Penryn – The Independent School of Art

Find out more:

The Independent School of Art: tumblr, facebook
Caravanserai: website
Seamus Carey: bandcamp
Danielle Allen: blogspot

2nd September – Newport University – QwesT Conference 2011

Back in September I was invited to run a workshop and perform some poetry at ‘QwesT 2011‘, a biennial conference held in order to raise awareness and share information and support about the particular issues faced by trans men.

On a personal level, I was delighted to have the opportunity to share the research I had done for my BA dissertation in 2010, to see it come alive amongst real people, and to see if others would get as excited about, what I think, are some ingenious and beautiful ways of writing about the experiences of trans people.

In time I will upload full details of the workshop to this blog with information about how to either run it yourself or invite me to lead it for you, but for now, here is the blurb that advertised it, feedback from one of the participants, and a few lines of one of my favourite poems on this subject:

Different ways of writing about feelings and experiences can either open up, or limit, the ways we think about ourselves. This workshop will begin with a look at excerpts from a range of different styles of writing by transmen and a chat about the different impressions they make.

Drawing ideas and inspiration from this, there will then be the chance for participants to do some writing themselves using writing exercises that can be fun or serious, personal or impersonal, depending on your preference.

Don’t worry if you’ve never written before, this workshop is suitable for beginners and experts alike.

————————————————

“Thanks again for the workshop – it was a lovely mix of interesting readings, good discussion and creative writing! I hope you get the chance to run more workshops like that in the future.”

————————————————

If Nancy Were A Boy

‘If Nancy were a boy
he would arrive at my door
Unannounced at 3 a.m.
with a cock in his coat pocket
and a bulge in his jeans…’

…to read the rest of the poem, buy this book:
- Captain Snowdon, ‘If Nancy Were a Boy’ in From the Inside Out: Radical Gender Transformation, FTM and Beyond, Ed. by Morty Diamond, (San Francisco: Manic D Press, 2004), p.110

22nd July – Cornwall – Port Eliot Festival

Thanks to the hundreds and hundreds of you who voted for me in the recent Telltales competition, I am humbled and delighted to announce that I’ll be performing at this year’s Port Eliot Festival!

As if that’s not enough by itself, we get to perform in the incredibly surreal, ‘Round Room’ (see image above) inside the Port Eliot House. The room was painted by the intriguing Southwest artist Robert Lenkiewicz over a period of 30yrs (left still unfinished at his death). The work was referred to as the ‘Riddle Mural’ and Wikipedia informs me that “half of the mural in the 12m diameter room shows death, destruction, insanity, unrequited love, and the apocalyptic end of the world. The other half reflects love and affection, friendships, harmony, proportion and consensus. Hidden in the work are various references to family skeletons, art history and cabalistic mysteries, hence the name – the Riddle Mural.” I can only hope to conjure up a set of poetry worthy of such an environment and in a mission to do so will spend the next two weeks twisting my brain around, inside out, and back again to see if I can produce something… fitting.

If you’re there, do come find us in the Round Room – Port Eliot Festival – 12.15pm, Fri 22nd July.

And if you haven’t got tickets yet, there are still some available, starting at £35 for a Friday day ticket. Click here to buy.