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March 2024

POETRY

SPEAKING OF STONES

David Selzer By David Selzer6 Comments2 min read2.9K views

‘For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up.’ ZEPHANIAH 2.4

‘Marco Polo describes a bridge, stone by stone. “But which is the stone that supports the bridge?” Kublai Khan asks. “The bridge is not supported by one stone or another,” Marco answers, “but by the line of the arch that they form.” Kublai Khan remains silent, reflecting. Then he adds: “Why do you speak to me of the stones? It is only the arch that matters to me.'” Polo answers: “Without stones there is no arch.”’ INVISIBLE CITIES, Italo Calvini

 

When they were shown the abandoned houses,

with the half-eaten food on the table,

and the children’s toys scattered as if in haste,

the upended chair, broken glass, blood smeared,

they immediately remembered their parents’ tales

of what it was like at times in the old country,

and then, it seems, immediately forgot.

 

***

 

After many, many decades he returned,

to his village in the forest, expecting

to find all the houses razed, and the ruins

blackened with fire, instead they seemed pristine,

and each of them inhabited, including

his family’s. When he explained haltingly

to a passer-by – the language returning

the more he spoke – who he was, and why

he had returned, the villager went quickly

from house to house, rousing the inhabitants.

They chased him into the forest, throwing clods,

shouting abuse he remembered so well.

 

***

 

She pretended to be a stranger, strolling

past the gates to the courtyard of the house,

studying a tourist map. The wrought iron gates

had had metal sheets welded to them

to hide the courtyard – and the bougainvillea

had been ripped from the top of the high wall

and replaced with razor wire. There was CCTV

at each vantage point of the property.

A little girl suddenly appeared

at a window on the third floor, where

the bedrooms used to be, and waved. She waved back,

and whispered, “You are standing where I once stood”.

 

***

 

The apartment block next to the beach road

is only partially collapsed. Perhaps

the next bombardment will finish the job.

Its leaning white walls and glassless windows

are like a dystopian cenotaph.

A flat-bed cart – its many passengers

huddled as if in rain – passes, pulled

by a blinkered donkey. The Phoenician sea

breaks on the crowded beach. The sand between

the road and the water line is covered

by a disparate community

of trampled plastic tents.

 

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POETRY

THE GLASS OCARINA

David Selzer By David Selzer1 Comment1 min read1.6K views

Long before the fall of the House of Habsburg,

there were certain reports from all parts

of the Empire, from Dubrovnik

to Linz, from Bratislava to Trieste,

that became so frequent, were so consistent

the Emperor had to be informed.

The usual stories of naked, dancing

alchemists in Sarajevo or Yiddish

speaking brown bears playing klezmer in Prague

could be ignored, but he needed to know

that so many of his subjects were claiming

to be musical instruments made of glass –

grand pianos, even whole wind sections.

Chancellor Von Taaffe reported to him

in the privacy of the map-lined study

at the Hofburg. Franz Josef nodded, sighed,

and was silent. Eventually he spoke.

“Shall the concert be in Salzburg – or here

in Vienna?”‘, and smiled so that Von Taaffe

would know it had been a witz. The Chancellor

smiled too, bowed, then asked for instructions.

“Meisterliche Inaktivität!”

 

After the massacre in St Petersburg,

so close to Nicholas’ Winter Palace,

and the failed revolution that followed,

Franz Josef had a recurring nightmare.

It always opened with the frontier post

at the edge of the Hungarian steppe,

and always on the Jewish Sabbath.

Approaching on the white road from the east

would be a bear and its keeper – the latter

naked and dancing, the former calling out

to the guard: ‘”Shalom! Gutes shabbes! Ikh bin

a glaz okarina”.

 

 

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POETRY

KAFKA IN BERLIN

David Selzer By David Selzer1 Comment1 min read2K views

The tubercular Franz Kafka, escaping

the domestic confines of Prague, spent

most of the months before he died in Berlin

with his lover, Dora Diament.

 

Some of the time he studied the Talmud

in the free library of the long established

Higher Institute for Jewish Studies

with its eclectic and diverse collection

of more than fifty five thousand books.

 

The Weimar Republic’s ‘wild und wollig’

creative freedoms, he wrote, whirled about

outside the groves of academe, and inside

his head. For a long time he had admired –

from Mitteleuropa’s bourgeois distance –

the Hassidim for their pious excesses

in the shetls in the east, among

the unceasing forests the goyim owned,

a dybbuk behind every birch tree.

 

But among the Talmudic scrolls, he would dream

of the dry heat of Palestine; the rustle

of date palms; the sparse hills, and tinkling flocks

of goats and sheep; the valleys of infinite

groves of ancient olive trees, with their rough bark

and silvery leaves; of being well, and safe.

 

 

 

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POETRY

BONANZA

David Selzer By David Selzer2 Comments1 min read2.2K views

When the village – which is set in the foothills

of Mount Carmel, in the hinterland

between the coastal cities of Acer

and Haifa, and blessed with seven springs –

had been ethnically cleansed, its villagers

exiled or unaccounted for, its name changed,

it became an artists’ colony,

attracting painters, sculptors, musicians,

composers, poets, playwrights, novelists,

film makers from all over the nascent state.

The pristine forests of native pine, oak,

alder, laurel, it was surrounded by,

were replaced with stands of European trees.

The stone houses were refurbished or razed;

the school became an exhibition centre;

the mosque a café called ‘Bonanza’.

 

The original village was founded,

it is said, by one of Saladin’s

commanders. Its abundant harvests

of wheat, sesame, carob – sheltered

from the prevailing north westerly winds

by the surrounding woodland, watered

by the perpetual seven springs – were sold

for centuries in the ancient markets

of Haifa and Acer.

 

 

 

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POETRY

WINTERING IN VENICE

David Selzer By David Selzer3 Comments2 min read2.6K views

The exiled Russian poet, Josef Brodsky,

winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature,

whom the Soviet authorities

had forced to ’emigrate’ permanently,

taught at various colleges in the States,

and usually spent his Christmas/New Year

vacations in Venice, a city

that reminded him of his native

Leningrad – previously and now

St Petersburg. Tzar Peter the Great

had canalised the Ladoga marshes

to build a northern city emulating,

perhaps outdoing, La Serenissima.

 

The American poet, Ezra Pound –

self-exiled to Venice, claiming he feared

the electric chair if he had returned

after the war to the States – was buried

in the Protestant Cemetery

on the island of San Michele, along

with consuls and admirals, and, in time,

Brodsky himself, a descendant of revered

rabbis become a Christian convert.

 

One winter’s night, Brodsky, with his then lover,

the American Jewish polymath

Susan Sontag – who, years later, would stage

‘Waiting for Godot’ in a candle-lit

theatre in besieged Sarajevo –

visited Olga Rudge, Ezra Pound’s widow,

in her apartment near La Salute,

a church built as a votive offering

for the city’s once more surviving the plague.

With Gaudier-Brzeka’s hieratic

bust of the poet standing a yard tall

in a far corner of the room, they listened,

for two hours, as patiently as they

were able, to the widow’s rehearsed defence

of her late husband – “He had a Jewish name…

and Jewish friends…” – declined more tea, and left.

 

A few years after this encounter Brodsky

had open heart surgery in New York,

and later, two bypass operations.

He remained a heavy smoker, and died,

aged 55, from a heart attack

in his Brooklyn Height’s apartment.

The coffin was flown in the cargo-hold to Venice –

‘A drowning city, where suddenly the dry

light of reason dissolves in the moisture

of the eye’ – and, from Marco Polo airport,

taken by water-hearse to San Michele.

 

Homesick for his family and city

this unselfpitying, bilingual

genius in his writings about Venice,

poetry and prose, frequently mentions

the wintry fogs that rise on the lagoon,

and drift along the canals, and soften

the pillars of arcades, and baffle

the echoing sounds of distant footfalls…

…’A tin can launched skyward

with the tip of a shoe goes sailing

out of sight, and a minute later

there is still no sound of it falling on

wet sand. Or, for that matter, a splash’.

 

 

Note: see also EZRA POUND IN VENICE.

 

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OTHER PEOPLES' FLOWERS

OTHER PEOPLE’S FLOWERS: ‘THE PROCESS OF POETRY’ ROSANNA MCGLONE

David Selzer By David Selzer7 Comments10 min read3.9K views

INTRODUCTION: DAVID SELZER

 I set up this section of my website to celebrate and promote creative work by people I like and admire. However, unusually for this OTHER PEOPLE’S FLOWERS posting, I have chosen a particular book – ‘THE PROCESS OF POETRY’ – rather than a person, though, as you will see below, the editor of the book, Rosanna McGlone, has kindly agreed to make the major contribution to the post.

‘THE PROCESS OF POETRY’, published by Fly On The Wall Press –https://www.flyonthewallpress.co.uk/product-page/the-process-of-poetry-edited-by-rosanna-mcglone – at £10.99, comprises interviews with fifteen contemporary and award winning UK poets, focussing on how each of them makes a poem. The poets include George Szirtes, Liz Lochhead, Don Paterson, Pascale Petit, Hannah Lowe, Gillian Clarke, Regi Claire, Joelle Taylor, and Victoria Kennefick.

I have chosen to showcase the book because it is a fascinating, unique, impressive and very important piece of research – which is already appearing in Creative Writing MA reading lists – into the creative process, a process which is one of the characteristics that makes us human, and whose fostering ought to be central to all forms of education at all stages. The best of research is creative in conception and execution, and ‘THE PROCESS OF POETRY’ is no exception. It seems appropriate therefore that the researcher tells us about the process that created the book.

 

‘THE PROCESS OF POETRY’: ROSANNA MCGLONE

A chance meeting between two World War 1 soldiers lies at the heart of my latest work. Sometimes ideas simmer, don’t they? It is possible that the concept for The Process of Poetry first developed several decades ago, during my brief spell as a secondary school Head of English. I recall employing a book, The Forms of Poetry, and being captivated by the drafts exchanged between Wilfred Owen and his mentor, Seigfried Sassoon, whilst they were in Craiglockhart Hospital, in Edinburgh. Sassoon provided feedback on a number of versions and, on each occasion, Owen had the choice as to whether to incorporate these suggestions into his poem which ultimately became the sonnet, Anthem for Doomed Youth. As a working-class girl this was my first exposure to the type of drafts ordinarily kept in hallowed university archives, and I was hooked.

It struck me that it would have been marvellous to have known the rationale behind those decisions. Wouldn’t it be incredible to ask living poets to share their working methods and to focus on the editorial decisions they made in developing a single poem?

Years later, whilst running poetry classes for adults, I became aware that ‘my’ poets were sometimes overwhelmed by the stunning execution of the poems we study during our workshops, and not a little disheartened that their own efforts, dashed off in the final 20 minutes, bore little resemblance to the accomplished pieces of others.

The idea for The Process of Poetry was reinforced further by my attendance at a workshop run by the poet, John McCullough, where John both shared early drafts, and discussed the journey, of several of his poems.

One never quite knows how past skills set will coalesce, however this project perfectly synthesised my experience as a journalist with my current work as a poetry tutor.

However, the idea was the easy part. Next, I needed to secure a publisher. I was fortunate to find Isabelle Kenyon at the feisty Fly on the Wall Press. My excitement knew no bounds, until I realised that the understandably tiny advance for what was likely to be at least a year’s work made the book unfeasible.

The situation was exacerbated when it was pointed out that I would need to negotiate, and pay for, permissions to use the published versions of the 15 poems selected.

Thus far, I had been very fortunate in securing Arts Council funding, achieving success with 3 out of 3 applications. But would my luck hold? And would my publisher wait?

At this point, the project extended beyond the book to offer several community workshops in Lincolnshire, several local school sixth forms, as well as a series of online workshops open to emerging poets across the country. This led to the formation of numerous invaluable partnerships within my local community including with arts organisation, Transported Arts, and various schools and workshop venues.

I approached the late Benjamin Zephaniah whom I had first met more than 30 years ago when I interviewed him for The Weekend Australian. Benjamin was amazingly generous with his support of other artists and promptly wrote a letter for me to submit with my application, strongly endorsing the aim of providing a unique insight, thereby supporting emerging and intermediate poets.

 

Why these particular poets?

My selection was partly based on personal preference, with a desire to include some of my favourite poets, however it was important to me that the book represented a diverse group of poets, thereby reflecting the society in which we live.

I knew none of the participants personally, and I believe it highlights the importance of this project that at least 90 percent of the poets whom I approached, not only immediately agreed to take part, but shared a real enthusiastic for the concept and a genuine desire to impart working processes.

A noticeable omission is the poet, Tony Harrison, who very sadly did not have the mental capacity to take part. Tony’s daughter, to whom I spoke, said that it was something her father would have loved, driven as he was to broaden the appeal of poetry.

There are many other poets whom I would love to have included, and would do, should an opportunity to develop the project further arise.

 

And these particular poems?

The selection of poems, as you can imagine, took some time. Each poet was asked to share 3 poems with me, in order to provide sufficient variety, both of approach, and of end product. Sonnets were all the go! But where was my range? Towards the end, I began to suggest poetic forms. ‘Does anyone have a poem written in tercets?’ ‘George, you wouldn’t happen to have a villanelle, would you?’ and so on. In fact, whilst George Szirtes didn’t have an early draft of the villanelle I had in mind, I was delighted when he generously offered to write one specifically for the book.

The selection criteria was quite strict. The poems needed to be dissimilar, but not too dissimilar, the poet needed to remember the rationale for the decisions that they had made and, ideally, the pieces needed to be relatively short, in order to sit on facing pages of the book.

I enjoyed the mental stimulation of poring over drafts and composing questions, from which I was nevertheless always happy to deviate, should circumstances demand it. In the case of Joelle Taylor, they certainly did. We had agreed the extract from C+nto that we would be exploring, however on the morning of her interview, Joelle arrived very excited. Why? She had recently been asked by The University of East Anglia for all of her early drafts of C+nto, however that morning she had unearthed a striking phone note which she brought to our meeting. This was fantastic, however it was on a completely different part of the poem to the one I had prepped. It was an absolute pleasure to interview Joelle for a second time.

As the project advanced, it broadened beyond a sole focus on a single poem. Interviewees had such a wealth of experience that it seemed remiss not to explore it, to ask what they sought as editors, judges and how the essence of a poem could be retained in translation.

I enjoyed, too, learning which poets had provided my interviewees with their first encounters with poetry. Sylvia Plath, Tennyson and Joolz Denby were all mentioned, but which poet chose which as their formative inspiration?

It was fascinating, and illuminating, interviewing poets in their home environments, particularly meeting Gillian Clarke in the tranquillity of her remote Welsh smallholding and conversely visiting Liz Lochhead in her beautiful Glasgow flat overlooking a bustling main road. Listening to both Gillian and Liz reading their work to me in their own homes was a real privilege.

If I have one regret it is in not being able to meet more of the poets in person, but time, logistics and funding constraints made this impossible on this occasion. However, I am hoping that there will be interest in developing the concept further. So, next time, perhaps?

 

REVIEWS, MENTIONS, SALES, SEQUELS, AND LINKS

REVIEWS

 The Process of Poetry first appeared, the day after its release into the wild, on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row. This was quite a nerve-wracking experience as it was live, and I had no prior warning of the questions. It was, therefore, rather like sitting an examination on my own book!

Another radio presenter, Ian McMillan from The Verb, described it on twitter as, ‘… a really good poetry manual… it illuminates and clarifies the art of making poems.”

Its first review came from the Forward prize-winning poet, Malika Booker, who wrote, ‘The Process of Poetry is a fantastic idea. Beautifully executed, this book will prove invaluable to poets, creative writing students, and anyone interested in the creative process.’

Buzz Magazine described The Process of Poetry as ‘…a wonder, and a must-buy for anyone who loves verse or who wishes to gain insights and ideas on how to create it.’

Further reviews came from Roger Caldwell, in London Grip, ‘… there is much to relish and ponder on, and The Culture Boar Pod who will be featuring it on a future podcast commented, ‘This is a really exceptional book. It’s wonderful.’

Write Out Loud commented that, ‘These are poets at the top of their game generously sharing their creative tips and thoughts. These insights only scratch the surface of the revelations, perceptions, and observations contained in The Process of Poetry… Many congratulations to journalist, writer and poetry tutor Rosanna McGlone for having the vision for this book, and for pinning down an impressive array of poets to deliver such insights about their craft…. It will undoubtedly also feature on many universities’ set books list, if it isn’t on them already, and is highly recommended to any students and writers of poetry.’

It has, indeed, been added to several Poetry MA reading lists including those at Edinburgh University, Lincoln University and Nottingham Trent University.

 

MENTIONS

The aim of The Process of Poetry was to offer a unique insight into the practice of some of the country’s leading poets, in order to provide advice, guidance and approaches to developing a poem from an embryonic idea to a published poem. (Although, of course, not all poets seek the validation of publication.)

The book has received some kind mentions from members of the public through social media and review sites, including:

‘I’ve decided to start my editing for the evening with a poem that I was always quite happy with. I suppose I thought it was strong because it has a decent sense of metre, powerful imagery, and a lot of pleasant rhyme. I see now that there’s massive scope for improvement. I’ll be recommending the book to my friends, clients, and fellow poets here in Ireland.’ Tomas O’Coileain

‘Wonderful. I’ve just bought your book! So love the first chapter – so amazing, such insight. I’ve won poetry awards and placed in others, but want to be better, more concise and articulate. I really think your book will help. Thank you so much.’ Peter Devonald

‘This is simply one of the best books on the craft of writing poetry I have ever read. The selected poets really show how multi-faceted and subjective the creative process of poetry is so there is plenty to inspire a budding writer here as well as help affirm to a would-be poet the importance of finding one’s own way.’ Inbr1ghtestday

Waterstones, Amazon and Good Reads, also have generous praise for the book.

 

SALES

Whilst for me, the most important metric is whether the work has achieved what it set out to do, and, if possible, is of some lasting significance, it is difficult not to reflect on sales. The Process of Poetry was number 1 on Amazon UK, number 12 on Amazon Australia and the Kindle version was number 30 on Amazon in America. Inpress, which represents 50 independent publishers, announced that The Process of Poetry was its second highest seller in December. I suspect that much of this was driven by my appearance, with Don Paterson, on Front Row.

 

SEQUELS

Reviews will also be appearing in The Morning Star, The Yorkshire Times, Orbis volume 108, Lincolnshire Life Magazine, Dreich Magazine, Lincs Online and The Friday Poem . There was a Final Draft launch on Zoom on 29th February.

However, this may not be the final chapter. Watch this space, as they say.

 

LINKS

Tom Sutcliffe, BBC Front Row Presenter at the 15 minute mark BBC Radio 4 – Front Row, Movie stars Adam Driver and Bill Nighy, author AL Kennedy, and the Process of Poetry

Roger Caldwell, London Grip’… there is much to relish and ponder on.’ THE PROCESS OF POETRY – londongrip.co.uk

https://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=133371

Buzz Magazine ‘ New poetry for January: towers, tolls, tarot cards, teenagers & a title raising money for Gazan children

Waterstones Reviews, including Waterstone’s staff reviews here: The Process of Poetry by Rosanna McGlone | Waterstones

 

 BIOGRAPHY

Rosanna McGlone is a writer and journalist. She has written more than a 100 features for both national, and international, publications including The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald, Salon.com, The Guardian and The Independent. Her most recent book is The Process of Poetry a series of interviews with some of the country’s leading poets including Don Paterson, Joelle Taylor, Liz Lochhead and Pascale Petit, exploring the development of an early poem into a final draft. Her first radio play was shortlisted for the BBC’s Alfred Bradley Bursary Award. Her work has been supported by, amongst others, Arts Council England, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Hull Truck Theatre, Vault Festival and The Old Vic New Voices Programme. Writing residencies include Capricorn Hill, NSW, Australia and The Hosking Houses Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, England.

Rosanna runs Zoom poetry classes on a Tuesday evening and a Thursday morning. She is also available to write biographies, a perfect retirement gift, or simply a treat for oneself: mcglonehealey@yahoo.com or please call for more details, 07570 480802 or contact via Twitter @RosannaMcGlone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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