Being Human

'Being Human,' Embrace Arts, Leicester.
Saturday 18th January

I had absolutely no idea what to expect from the stage production of 'Being Human' when I went to see the show in Leicester last Saturday. I knew it was a dramatic production of the ever popular 'Being Human' poetry anthology ed. by Neil Astley and published by Bloodaxe. I did wonder how the show would be structured - would there be a narrative? Would there be some kind of thread weaving the poems together? In a way I don't want to tell you and therefore spoil the sense of anticipation you might have. After all how do you perform a book of poetry?

Before the show itself I was kindly invited to take part in a pre-performance talk and the concept of performing poetry. It was co-hosted with the show's producer Jonathan Davidson and the director Steve Byrne. There was a great deal of lively discussion about the topic and I realised that there's quite a difference between the idea of actors reciting poems and performing them. In terms of performing a poem, why shouldn't it be performed? I know there was some debate at the Forward Prizes about actors reading out poems, but 'Being Human' isn't about reading out poetry, it's about the actors inhabiting the poem, making it real living and breathing through every word. If you know anyone who wants an introduction to contemporary poetry then they should go to this show. If you read a lot of poetry you should still go to this show! You will not have experienced poetry like this. The performances by the actors, Barra Collins, Elinor Middleton and Rochi Rampal, were superb and utterly right for the poems.

The play itself is 90 minutes of poetry and nothing else but poetry. There are a few simple props, but other than that it's the actors who perform the poems and allow us, an an audience, to be part of them. What I found most intriguing was the ordering of the poems in the play. Poems have been selected from the anthology so they tell their own story of what it is to be human, from love, parenthood, death, war, ageing and the adventure of being alive. The performances and the poems are alive and utterly convincing. It is good to be reminded of the creative scope of poetry and of how it can touch a reader and an audience. It's also good to be reminded that poetry is all about the poems themselves and how they act as a little truthful world of their own. Here's a poem which to me does that reminding, and it's from the first poem in the show, 'Ars Poetica #100: I Believe' by Elizabeth Alexander:

Poetry (here I hear myself loudest)
is the human voice,

and are we not of interest to each other?

Poetry, Sex, Penguins, Cake

Hi, thought that title might wake you up! Ok, this is the first blog post of the year and I think we're all beyond resolutions and have returned back to our inevitable selves. Personally, I don't bother with them on New Year's Day, I make them up and give them up all year round. As I said in a previous post, life doesn't adhere to calendars. Things started last year spill into this one. In my case around July last year I received an email saying a poem I'd submitted had been accepted for a Penguin anthology, 'The Poetry of Sex' edited by Sophie Hannah. Didn't quite believe it. There were follow-up emails in the autumn which made me believe a bit more, but the other day this landed on the mat:

Now it's starting to feel real. This book is going to be on shelves in bookshops very soon, at the end of January in fact. Here's something from the book's synopsis:

It's hard to imagine a more fruitful subject for poets than sex, in all its glorious manifestations: from desire and hope, through disappointment and confusion, to conclusion and consequence. And little has changed over the centuries, as Sophie Hannah's anthology vividly demonstrates, from Catullus pleading with Lesbos to Walt Whitman singing the body electric. Moods and attitudes may vary but the drive persists as does the desire to write about it.
Sophie Hannah's selection ranges from ancient Rome to modern New York, from gay to straight, but her principle has been to go low on the sugar and high on the excitement. The result is a raucous, highly enjoyable anthology.
From Shakespeare to Carol Ann Duffy, this book is essential reading for poetry lovers and romantics everywhere.

My own contribution is a slightly eccentric piece. Obviously it's very exciting and rather surreal being in a book with so many well-known poets. I didn't set out to become a sort of poetic Virginia Johnson, but you can never predict what you'll write about next...

Let's think about Cake now. I also have a poem in the long awaited issue 5 of Cake.























Here is a copy of the front cover of the magazine in all its coffee coloured glory. The editors are Martha Sprackland, Andrew McMillan and Fin Jackson and they've done a fine job.

So there you go, January. In the time taken to write this post a rejection letter arrived on the mat. One I didn't want. So there you go, swings and roundabouts. So although I have no new year's resolutions I have some idea what to expect. Let's see what the rest of the year will bring...let's keep going, everyone.

It's hard to imagine a more fruitful subject for poets than sex, in all its glorious manifestations: from desire and hope, through disappointment and confusion, to conclusion and consequence. And little has changed over the centuries, as Sophie Hannah's anthology vividly demonstrates, from Catullus pleading with Lesbos to Walt Whitman singing the body electric. Moods and attitudes may vary but the drive persists as does the desire to write about it.Sophie Hannah's selection ranges from ancient Rome to modern New York, from gay to straight, but her principle has been to go low on the sugar and high on the excitement. The result is a raucous, highly enjoyable anthology.From Shakespeare to Carol Ann Duffy, this book is essential reading for poetry lovers and romantics everywhere. It is a perfect counterpart to the The New Penguin Book of Love Poetry and a wonderful companion to Sophie Hannah's own Selected Poems.

Read more at http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670921836,00.html#swZFeYPRlsLcJiv7.99

It's hard to imagine a more fruitful subject for poets than sex, in all its glorious manifestations: from desire and hope, through disappointment and confusion, to conclusion and consequence. And little has changed over the centuries, as Sophie Hannah's anthology vividly demonstrates, from Catullus pleading with Lesbos to Walt Whitman singing the body electric. Moods and attitudes may vary but the drive persists as does the desire to write about it.Sophie Hannah's selection ranges from ancient Rome to modern New York, from gay to straight, but her principle has been to go low on the sugar and high on the excitement. The result is a raucous, highly enjoyable anthology.From Shakespeare to Carol Ann Duffy, this book is essential reading for poetry lovers and romantics everywhere. It is a perfect counterpart to the The New Penguin Book of Love Poetry and a wonderful companion to Sophie Hannah's own Selected Poems.

Read more at http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670921836,00.html#swZFeYPRlsLcJiv7.99

It's hard to imagine a more fruitful subject for poets than sex, in all its glorious manifestations: from desire and hope, through disappointment and confusion, to conclusion and consequence. And little has changed over the centuries, as Sophie Hannah's anthology vividly demonstrates, from Catullus pleading with Lesbos to Walt Whitman singing the body electric. Moods and attitudes may vary but the drive persists as does the desire to write about it.Sophie Hannah's selection ranges from ancient Rome to modern New York, from gay to straight, but her principle has been to go low on the sugar and high on the excitement. The result is a raucous, highly enjoyable anthology.From Shakespeare to Carol Ann Duffy, this book is essential reading for poetry lovers and romantics everywhere. It is a perfect counterpart to the The New Penguin Book of Love Poetry and a wonderful companion to Sophie Hannah's own Selected Poems.

Read more at http://www.penguin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670921836,00.html#swZFeYPRlsLcJiv7.99