The Poetree

Object Project - theatrical version

2012-01-22T12:29:00.002Z

After a year slowly accelerating ( can something slowly accelerate ? ) the poet in residency at Hall for Cornwall has finally taken off ! We will be doing lots of exciting projects including a Poetree Cafe featuring all manner of poetic installations including a range of ' I'll Eat My Words ' edible poetry cakes - but to begin with a theatrical version of the Object Project has just begun ( thank you FEAST funding ! ) . To find out what the Object Project is , click on the Mrs Potato head on the Poetree above . If you have an object that is precious to you and that has a story to tell and you would like to get involved , wherever you live , even if it is as far away as Peru ( especially if it is as far away as Peru ! ) get in touch ! I will be letting you know how the project goes and what weird and wonderful things we discover . We will use the objects to inspire new songs , stories , poems and animations and these will be featured in a travelling cabinet of curiosities . Here's a picture of the Dame from HFC's xmas panto showing me his tin of treasures that he takes with him on tour - we are hoping to pop into the dressing room of all the visiting artists and find out what they carry with them ... he said I could borrow his boobs on his day off !

2010-11-23T11:08:00.002Z

I am posting up a poem about Time , in honour of the hours I have wasted this morning doing the wrong thing ! ( And hoping that time doesn't really exist so that it doesn't matter anyway ! )

And I thought I'd put this picture up from Lovers' Day in Barcelona - it's their equivalent of Valentine's Day I suppose and the men give women roses and the women give men books - how cool is that ? This old man gave me a rose and from my Poetree he picked the love birds in a cage and so I sang him a love song .. Talking of songs and talking of time , I have been recording some stuff to put up on MySpace - it takes hours but is such fun - the time just dissolves away like sweetness on the tongue ! Today I can feel the day trickling like sand through my fingers but perhaps I should just lie back and soak up the sun - metaphorically speaking of course ....

Here's to love songs and endless time x

Time

Time like a river

Forever moving on

Forever in one place

2010-11-16T17:59:00.012Z

Thought I'd show you a few photos from Word M'art ( which is hoping to go on tour soon ! ) The idea is to offer a little food for the soul to consumers in the form of Poems in a Tin ( and other poetic delights including the edible poetry cakes and biscuits , pic n mix poetry , a story aisle , shopping list lotto , singing shelf stackers with their the shopping bag boogie ) It first originated in the Co-Op for National Poetry Day - then it was an installation in a converted empty shop - now it's going back to the real supermarket settings where it will be performed during literary festivals . You can see a spoof advert for it on the website ( www.thepoetree.net )

Walked through the wind today by the sea - and spent the morning trying to write a novel ( well obviously not write the whole thing in one morning ! ) Hoping to get back to the abstract simplicity of this story I wrote when I was 5 ( click on the pic below ).

2010-11-15T17:33:00.005Z

If all else fails as a poet , I could do performance art and be like this lady I saw in Havana ( I was there for the International Poetry Festival in May - wow ! What a place ! What people - I have fallen in love with it ... I met taxi drivers, barmen , ordinary people who adore poetry . It was heaven and I'm going back in December to work on my Pimp My poetry idea - hoping to use a Cuban car and will be working with some Cuban musicians and poets !

Been to Berlin for the Poetry film festival where I had a short film showing ( I did the poem/music and Mark Jenkin did the film - you can see it by going onto his website www.markjenkin.co.uk and clicking onto ' Wake to a Dream ' . I found Berlin a bit strict - I was obviously hitting the wrong bars although this one was pretty cool ! I'm just not trendy enough ! But the festival was fabulous and really inspiring.

Was on BB Radio 4's Woman's Hour which was great and now working out how I can juggle being a mum with being a poet who can get out and tour stuff - I think I may have to wait a while until the kids are bigger ! Having teenagers is easier than toddlers in one way because your brain is a bit less of a blancmange but cor blimey , the stress ! ( Not to mention the smells - Lynx especially - it's an insult to the senses ! )

Anyway , poem of the day is this one - What is Poetry ?

People ask me what is poetry ?

It's a whisper in a disco

But sometimes there is someone there

Who can read lips

And they mouth back

Would you like to dance ?

( If I'm performing this poem the last line is mouthed but I ususally have to do it a couple of times ' cos no-one knows what the bloody hell I'm on about ! ) Anyway , enough for now ! X

Had a great day at the Co-Op today

2010-03-09T15:07:00.003Z

Had a great day at the Co-Op today doing a spoof advert for Word M'art ( coming soon ! ) Got to sit behind the till and scan - found that quite exciting . The tabards of lime green were truly hideous but surprising pleasing to wear - maybe I've got a supermarket fetish ! Managed to sing the jingle sitting in a trolley - I've always fancied doing that so feel delightedly fulfilled although rather knackered as I had to get up at 5 am to finish the tabards ..

Off to London next to show some ideas to a children's publisher which involves pulling from your bag idea after idea .. and you can tell on the publishers' faces within the first 5 seconds whether or not they're interested . It's quite nerve wracking. Once I took along my guitar and sang a song which did end up as ' The Magic Train Ride ' picture book. Wondering whether to try that tactic this time - got a song about catching silly things in a sea that kids seem to like - especially the SPLASH bit where you throw it back. But I'm not sure I'm in the right mood. You have to feel confidently mad to sit in front of publishers and do that - we'll see. I'll let you know how I get on. Been working hard with Dave ( of Buggy Buddy fame ) to come up with some new winning concepts. He wasn't convinced by my edible book idea but I might still pitch it - people seem to like the edible poetry so it's only a step further ! Trying to write a bit more for slightly older children ( 7 yr olds ) too although I think in my heart of hearts , picture books are what I like best because they're closest to a poem - trying to get an idea across in very few words.

Was in a school on World book day and telling the children how The Higgeldy Piggeldy Pigs was inspired by the fact that I live in a pigsty. Keep trying to tidy up but it's no use. And when I tell people they say " Oh my house is a mess " but I know it's not. In fact I think I shall go and take a photo of it now and then I can keep a progress report on how bad it is . Some people are colour blind - I think I'm mess blind. But what's great is that I don't care now about what other people think. My shame has got buried beneath the squalor.

Cornwall is having another one of it's glory days. Blue skies and sparkling seas . On Friday I went to meet Alban , the film maker who is in charge of the Word M'art advert and I took the train from Penzance . It was like being in Greece. Like a gift . In fact bought to mind Czeslaw Milosz's poem Gift - a favourite.