Category: 2022 Content

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The Sealey Challenge: DAY 9

Counting Down the Days: 20 more Poems for the Planet (ed. Joy Howard)

I have never heard of you, small lives / that seem to belong to the land of Lear. Still / the loss of you accuses.

We’re back to another anthology today, but there’s no social media handles attached. I discovered Grey Hen Press during my time at the Kendal Poetry Festival back in June. This is one pamphlet from their considerable, rich and varied output, filled with poets over the age of 60.

I now wish I’d bought more of these tiny, delightful books than the handful that came back with me from The Lake District. Counting Down the Days is a tiny piece of magic; 20 poems, 20 different authors, and an object lesson on how solid environmental poetry can do an extraordinary amount of heavy lifting.

Lessons from the Text

There’s an incredible breadth and depth of ability and skill on show over only 35 pages: from Barbara Hickson’s brutal Loss Adjustment, the terror of bushfires in Requiem for a Sunburnt Country by Many Macdonald to the very real consequence of nature being removed to accommodate human greed in Char March’s There will only be a loss of 352. Honestly, there’s not a duff poem here: Joy Howard’s curation is superb.

I am a great believer in poetry without restrictions or boundaries, and was initially a bit sceptical of why Grey Hen sat where it does: however, having done my homework via their website, their history and this approach makes perfect sense. The press is a piece of history in itself, and their tiny books pack a powerful, lasting punch. It does make me smile though, knowing I can’t submit anything to them for the next four years…

We need to support small presses, as I said at the weekend, especially those who choose not to cater to conventional tastes. This is well worth both your time and effort, and considering how cheap the wee books are, maybe you could go pick up a handful to finish your own Sealey reading this month. There’s a vast range of subjects and interests catered for on their website (see below)

Will you read it again? I’m currently working on my own Environmental poetry, and it is hugely useful to have other people’s ideas and benchmarks available as a way of seeing what’s not only popular, but powerful. This will be sitting by my computer for the foreseeable future.

Would you recommend it for me to read? Don’t just read this one, go and buy some more too.

Go Buy this Collection from Grey Hen’s Website

What are your Fave Poems?

A Kind of Madness for the imagery
Blindness for the inference
If you are reading this I am no longer here for the impact

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The Sealey Challenge: DAY 8

Split Twist Apocalypse by Nina Parmenter

due to my chest / no longer keeping time / I assume / it’s mine

Nina Parmenter lives in the Wiltshire countryside where she splits her time between writing, work and motherhood. She’s been published in numerous journals, anthologies and websites, and she has been nominated for the Forward Prize.

I should be honest and state up from that I was already looking forward to Split Twist Apocalypse before it arrived, having been treated to Nina’s poetry in an online course I finished at the end of July. I described her work back then as ‘existential angst’ and wondered if this would be borne out by the collection…

Lessons from the Text

Nina doesn’t disappoint, you know. Reading her work, at least for me, is that feeling of knowing you’re in a safe space with ideas and experiences often lived until… everything just expands… and the Universe crashes your party. Everything is writ large and magnificent, and there you are, floating within it. These poems are the sense of one amongst the whole, and every one holds brilliant, incisive moments of awareness.

From working awkwardness in Meanwhile, in the Grasmere Conference Suite to an environmental warning, under a microscope in The Sociopathic Goddess Gives the Earth a Gift, there is something in here for everyone. From introversion to extravagance, from the real made into surreality and pretty much all points in-between. Nina does great titles too…

This is a poet whose voice is strong, distinctive and humorous… though I sometimes suspect the laughs hide a deeper, more disquieting viewpoint. We all question ourselves like this, the existential angst is never one person’s to carry unaided. Show Nina some support and buy this collection and learn from her about yourself in the process.

Will you read it again? I am wondering when I will be getting time to reread all these poets, to be honest. Have I set myself up to an impossible task? Not with Nina’s work. So much fun, so very enjoyable. A distinct and enjoyable voice.

Would you recommend it for me to read? Why are you not reading this collection already?

Go Buy this Collection from Nina’s own Website!

What are your Fave Poems?

Night Rails for the imagery
Dropping to the Right for the inference
The Quantum Fox for the impact

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The Sealey Challenge: DAY 7

Swapping the Present for a Future: The VERVE Anthology of Beginnings (ed. Caroline Bird)

She had a scar on her temple – / it belonged to a fairy story she couldn’t remember…

If you live in Birmingham, you’ll know about Verve, both Festival and Press, both of which are dedicated to promoting the city and its vibrant spoken-word scene. Verve was co-founded by Stuart Bartholomew and Amerah Salah, and also promises to find homes for voices that struggle to fit or be heard.

The Anthology was published earlier this year and contains 24 poems: every one is a unique, stunning piece of work. Full credit to Caroline Bird not simply for staggering curation, but an eye to pieces that don’t just complement each other, but lift a whole as a result.

Lessons from the Text

Anthologies are tricky beasts: it can be hard to pick out favourites in a sea of difference, especially if dozens of poets are involved. However, having a favourite poet of mine doing the curation is a massive plus: this work is both a testament to her skill and to how much top quality work is being produced by poets right now. Of course, there was never going to be a duff poem here… but honestly, the range of work is immense.

I’ve listed my favourites below, but there’s a better than average chance that those favourites will change on subsequent readings. Anthologies are great in that regard, especially if you’re trying to write a poem for a submission that has a specific brief. Understanding how another poet approached a subject is, after all, a proven teaching method. We learn from each other, and all move forward as a result.

If you’re stuck for gift ideas as a poet, I reckon asking for specific anthologies is a great idea. You have a mini encyclopedia of ‘how other people craft’ and can use it as reference material for yourself going forward. All the courses I take will make me read poems I’ve never seen before, and it is a realization that however well-read you think you are? You aren’t. This group of 24 are a quick, easy gateway experience. Go buy it.

Will you read it again? It will, over time, have Post it Notes inserted into it with ‘Poem on X here’ written on them, as I find works I want to refer back to when I’m working on different projects myself. There’s a lot of white space to admire in this anthology too, which can often be scary but actually is a whole second tier of poetry proficiency.

Would you recommend it for me to read? YES. Read more anthologies. Read more poets, and if you can’t afford to do it as much as you like? Anthologies allow you to know work by lots of people and talk about it with confidence. It’s a win/win for everybody.

Here’s the Link to Verve’s Website

What are your Fave Poems?

Lara Croft is on fire by James Trevelyan for the imagery
The waiting room was purple by Maria Ferguson for the inference
Primigravida by Estelle Price for the impact

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The Sealey Challenge: DAY 6

Stephen the Phlebotomist by Nadia Lines

small poem / heart luggage/ small poem / for under / your pillow

Nadia Lines was a top 15 winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award 2019, first-prize winner in the 11-15 age category in the Turn Up the Volume challenge on Young Poets Network, and first-prize winner in the 2019 poetry translation challenge with Modern Poetry in Translation.

Stephen the Phlebotomist is, in Nadia’s own words, is a debut pamphlet ‘about vampires, Jesus, and a year spent locked indoors.’ I chose to crowdfund her publisher, Nine Pens in 2021 and so her work appeared on my doorstep earlier this year. I am exceedingly glad that it did.

Lessons from the Text

I must admit, I’d read Nadia’s pamphlet a few times already before this overview. It’s previously been difficult for me to take in, because pretty much all of my experiences at her age have been lost, making it REALLY hard for me to align myself with it. However, the more I immersed myself, the larger my window of comprehension became. This time around, I experienced something of an epiphany.

The best poetry for me is time travel, without a doubt, transporting a reader directly into the past where the words were originally created. Nadia’s time machine is beautiful and fragile and simultaneously brimming with youth, expectation and possibility. It is like arriving in a fresh life with no expectations, and only these poems as your narrative accompaniment.

Like the dedication tells us, this book is the people within it: Stephen, the inhabitants of the Danger Bath, Beatrice… possibilities that might have been, that I am grateful that Nadia chooses to share with me, and us. This is the most joyous journey, into a space where anything seems possible and everything shines with love and unexpected depth.

Will you read it again? Yes, I will. There’s a lot to learn here from how Nadia uses form and white space, as important I think as her words.

Would you recommend it for me to read? Yes, I would, and I’d urge you to support small presses such as Nine Pens. Without them and others, there are a multitude of poets whose work would never see the light of day.

Here’s the Link to Nine Pens’ Website

What are your Fave Poems?

Epithalamion for the imagery
An Abundance of Cucumbers for the inference
Danger Bath for the impact

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The Sealey Challenge: DAY 5

Fool’s Paradise by Zoe Brooks

we are all fools here / we do not speak his language…

Zoe Brooks published a collection of poetry in 2020 called Owl, Unbound, which remains in my top twenty favourite poetry books of all time. This piece however began its life back in 2013, where it won the Electronic Publishing Industry Coalition’s award for best poetry ebook.

Fool’s Paradise isn’t a selection of poems. It is a massive, 66 page ‘poem for voices’ which was first performed in London, back in 1992. I wonder how many of these words were inspired by Hannah Kodicek, whose monoprint is the main cover’s striking illustration.

Lessons from the Text

In the last few days, I’ve picked out favourite poems from my previous selections, but Zoe’s work is not built like that. It is a fascinating, dense and dark narrative that takes you on a journey: of the Fool, and the three Travellers that accompany him. It brings to mind not just narrative poetry from my past, but the works of Brecht and Beckett in its telling.

If you are not aware of the events of the Velvet Revolution or indeed of the political complexities that existed in Europe during and after the fall of Communism in so many countries, it is very much worth your time investigating these before you read Zoe’s work. It can be occasionally confusing with four different voices, but I absolutely encourage you to persist.

Zoe’s story is of unexplained loss, of violence and fear, and how close we live to death whilst still moving forward with our lives. The Travellers tell stories of places and events that could be real, or imagined… or are they simply reminding us that Hell is often a place where other people hide themselves, to allow a measure of control of their lives and others?

Will you read it again? I have not yet done this work justice, and I’m on my third read. Each time I’ve seen something different in the text, it’s opened up new and fresh questions and queries. Do I need to know the real truth about it in order to enjoy what I’m reading? I didn’t think so.

Would you recommend it for me to read? Absolutely. I’d like to see someone do this justice one day as a radio event, or at least pick four people to read the parts with a proper aural accompaniment. I think it could be a great gateway experience to explain what went on and how it was created by Zoe.

Here’s the Link to Zoe’s Website 😀

What are your Fave Poems?

No individual favourites to be found here: every page is part of the experience. Take an evening, turn out the lights, stick on some Symphony No.3, Op.36 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs) by Henryk Gorecki and lose yourself in the moment.

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The Sealey Challenge: DAY 4

Totally Cultured by Dan Simpson

flip-flops / and a tuxedo / does not mean / smart casual

I didn’t realize this until I read his blurb, but Dan Simpson is a lecturer at my old college (as was) in Canterbury. He has also been Poet-in-Residence at Glastonbury Festival, Waterloo Station, National Trust Stowe, Imperial College London, and St Albans Cathedral and this book is a selection from his solo shows, which toured extensively.

Totally Cultured is as an accomplished a work as you are likely to find, it must be said, and it is apparent why Dan has been as successful as is clearly the case. There’s really not a duff poem in any of this. I picked My Mistress’s Eyes as the Sealey Poem as it’s a perfect encapsulation of Dan’s strengths and impact.

Lessons from the Text

I needed to read this book twice, as I’d never done so at all: it was recommended to me by someone because of the first poem, They Should have Sent a Poet, because one of my favourite movies is Contact which it directly borrows from. It is practically perfect both as a work of fiction and on the rumination of how, as poets, there’s a lot of pressure to deliver the goods.

There are so many strong, well-presented pieces here too: Not Cricket, Love Drunk and Oh Wow Country stick out for me. However, having read this twice and taken some time to consider what I’d read, I felt there was something missing. This is undoubtedly an intelligent, articulate and cultured collection. In those regards, it cannot be faulted… but emotionally, undoubtedly, I walked away feeling that I wanted more.

This isn’t a criticism, far from it, but the realization that I come to poetry not to be educated or entertained. The poetry that moves me most is the stuff that immediately connects with my peculiar and intrinsically individual core. I crave more poems like Negotiation and Stairs. I wonder what a collection would be like with that kind of basis…

Will you read it again? This is a fantastic book of poetry to stare at and learn from. I have picked up a few clever tricks from it already. Don’t tell Dan, or he’ll be after me for royalties.

Would you recommend it for me to read? YES, very much so. The reason for that is two-fold: you may not be the odd creature I am, and this could be the game changing collection for you. Also, really, ridiculously clever, in a great many places.

Here’s the Link to the Burning Eye Books Website

What are your Fave Poems?

Stairs for the imagery
Negotiation for the inference
They Should have Sent a Poet for the impact

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The Sealey Challenge: DAY 3

Love Makes a Mess of Dying by Greg Gilbert

no one mourns their breath in winter / though you watch the essence of you / escaping…

When this book was published in 2019, Greg Gilbert was in the middle of treatment for Stage 4 bowel cancer with secondary lung cancer. He was a writer, artist and musician, and the father of two young girls. He was known to me as the lead singer of the band Delays.

I’ve avoided this pamphlet for a while, because I knew how the story ended: Greg passed away in September 2021, aged 44. The subject within, therefore, has never been something I’d wanted to explore, but having lost more than one friend unexpectedly in the last few years… It was time. Love Makes a Mess of Dying, therefore, is the poem that will stick with me forever.

Lessons from the Text

I’m not gonna lie: this was a REALLY tough read, especially Blue Draped Cube and ‘Parent’ is a Petrol Blue Word. Listening to someone else grappling with their mortality is not what I think a lot of us would consider enjoyable, but it is both essential and inescapable. Only by listening to the stories of others do we fully learn the nuances of our own existence.

However, this is a really uplifting and significant set of poems: it takes you through chemo, the stories in and out of hospital, and how life still goes on regardless of the personal trauma around us. It helps a lot, too, that Greg’s musical and artistic sensibilities are ingrained in every word of the pamphlet. As an epitaph for Gilbert’s superlative talent, it provides on every single page.

The point of Sealey is to challenge yourself, to step away from what we’d normally read and reassess our mindset. This is a tiny pamphlet, but packs such a massive, irrefutable punch. I wish I was as capable of this in trauma, to write with such eloquence and urgency. I never got why that word gets thrown around in pamphlet blurbs before… now I do. When you know time is short, the rules change forever.

Will you read it again? Not only will I read it, I’ll very strongly suggest everyone else does so too. Death is a part of life. Nobody escapes the call. As writers, we hope to be remembered past it, and Greg’s work has done that for me, and more.

Would you recommend it for me to read? Be warned, this is a difficult ask in places. However, I REALLY suggest persisting. I can see myself coming back to this a lot in the future, especially for support and remembrance.

Here’s the Link to The Poetry Business Website

What are your Fave Poems?

Holy River (Last Poem written before Diagnosis) for the imagery
Settled Within for the inference
Blue Draped Cube for the impact

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The Sealey Challenge: DAY 2

Honey Dew by Darren J Beaney

i want to write / you a love song / a poem of affection / and pure adoration

Darren J Beaney is based near the Sussex coast, where he lives with his wife and two children. He completed an MA in Creative Writing with the University of Brighton and now co-hosts Flight of the Dragonfly open mic events in real life and on Zoom.

Darren currently has three pamphlets in circulation: I chose to go back to his first, Honey Dew, as without it, I would never have found my way to Dragonflies in the first place. I picked Still Falling in Love as a perfect example of this collection’s strengths.

Lessons from the Text

Occasionally, you’ll pick up a pamphlet or collection and immediately sense that you and the poet are approaching their task in the same way. This happens a lot with women poets, for obvious reasons. It is still rare to pick up a book of poems written by a man and get an initial connection. Darren was different, and so is this body of work.

From the multicoloured descriptive phrasing of Surfin’ Girl to the clever Now it Makes Sense to the gentle joy of Finding the Fit of Each Other this is a body of work I truly connected with both on an intellectual and spiritual level. It doesn’t pretend to be anything it isn’t either: love is apparent in every word and choice of poetic arrangement.

I’ve read a lot of collections where the poet is lost, or their authentic voice gets diluted by a publisher’s need to show an understanding of the craft. Not with Darren, who I hear, loud and clear, in every stanza presented. You know what you are getting, and I, for one, LOVE this dedication, genuine joy and absolute commitment to the task of entertainment.

Will you read it again? I dip into and out of this pamphlet a fair bit. It’s a great way of making me feel happy on days when loving myself is hard work. This work is massively affirming when you’re struggling mentally.

Would you recommend it for me to read? All three of Darren’s works are unique, brilliant pieces of poetry. Each has its own path to tread, and all of them are strong, absorbing works in their own rights. This is a perfect introduction to his output.

Here’s the Link to Darren’s Website 😀

What are your Fave Poems?

Surfin’ Girl for the imagery
You and Me, Us Two for the inference
Evening In for the impact

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The Sealey Challenge: DAY 1

Space Baby by Suzannah Evans

sliding smaller and smaller / to a speck / beyond the edge / of the magnetosphere

Suzannah Evans is a poet, creative writing tutor and editor based in Sheffield, which is a city I love and a place that needs to be visited again sooner rather than later.

I picked Space Baby as my first title because of it’s title, which might seem a bit odd until you know how important science and science fiction are in my life. Then it makes a lot more sense. The poem I chose to highlight for social media as a result was Supermassive Black Hole.

Is Suzannah also a Muse fan, like me?

Lessons from the Text

Wow, is this an accomplished body of work, from start to finish. You can feel the time and thought stitched into every piece, plus the obvious care and consideration over both form and content. I also LOVE that the more obscure references are explained. I wish more poets did this, so that I can be reassured of what spawned certain poems into existence.

There’d been a hope for more sci-fi (I always want more sci-fi) but that initial desire was quickly put to one side, and a great deal of respect has formed having read this now through more than the specified single pass that Sealey asks of you. It was when I got the meaning of How We Miss Them that the true power of this collection really hit home.

Suzannah’s work is both conventional and startling, and gave me as a reader viewpoints of events and ideas that I had never considered before. The best poetry challenges you to look away from your own life and to experience how it feels to be on a different side of the same concepts. This collection has given me a great deal to think about as a result.

Will you read it again? Absolutely I will. This is rich, smart and makes me feel both comfortable and unsettled reading it. It’s a clever writer that keeps challenging you on each new viewing.

Would you recommend it for me to read? Absolutely I would. Make sure you have a decent cuppa to go with it. Mine went cold whilst I was note-taking, which is ALWAYS a good sign.

Here’s the Link to the Nine Arches Press Website.

What are your Fave Poems?

Supermassive Black Hole for the imagery
How We Miss Them for the inference
In Nova Scotia for the impact

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Video Output: Golden Mile

For the last couple of months there’s been a project on that I’ve not talked about that much, because it has taken most of my ability and brainpower to ensure it gets made. Now that a routine has been established, it’s time to relax a bit and step back. Welcome to the World of Me, finally establishing myself as a YouTube Creative.

I’d played around with poetry for a while using imagery: this included a couple of poems for Dreich TV, which have yet to see the proper light of day but are likely to do so as one-off specials over the Summer. Everything is currently available on YouTube, and the plan going forward is to use more of my back catalogue, where items have appeared in anthologies or elsewhere, as a basis to create new canvases. There’s a lot to work from now, which is lovely.

Therefore, we’ll be double-teaming online hashtag prompts and video on the site across the summer… but August is also the Sealey Challenge, which asks people to read a poetry book a day. I have a lot of work to pile through and am already planning the read list… it will be a pleasant change from worrying about my own output!

We’ll also do some blogging on this next month too. See you there 😀

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