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mock read superbly and i m very much enjoying his book sentinel species his work is disarmingly funny you re so busy enjoying the wit and humour that the emotional heft catches you off balance i ll write more about it once i ve read further i just wanted to thank anna saunders and everyone else at cheltenham poetry festival and the excellent open mic readers who contributed so much to the evening if you want to find out more about what s on at cpf have a look here and if you d like to read most of the poems i read on monday they re available in the above e pamphlet on sale here or in my nine arches press collections hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica available on kindle and the elephant tests available here posted by matt merritt at 13 09 no comments labels chase dimock cheltenham hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica nine arches press poetry readings the elephant tests wednesday 11 may 2022 new e book out now i have an e chapbook magnetite and other poems out now from wild art publishing it collects bird themed poems from my three full collections along with a couple of newer poems and matches each piece with superb bird photography from rob read the man behind wild art david tipling and others most of the poems that i ll be reading at my cheltenham poetry festival reading next monday will be from the book so come along to the online event and get a taste of the book then if you d like to buy it s available in epub and pdf formats from the wild art shop here priced 7 99 there are some other goodies in the shop too so have a good look posted by matt merritt at 09 35 no comments labels cheltenham david tipling magnetite poetry poetry festival rob read wild art publishing tuesday 10 may 2022 the vanishing earth reading and open mic at cheltenham poetry festival just a reminder that next monday may 16th at 7pm i m reading with american poet chase dimock as part of the cheltenham poetry festival it s an online event and as you ll see from the festival website it s themed around the interactions between the personal and natural worlds and the many and increasing threats faced by the latter there are open mic slots available too and you can book at the page linked to above it ll be the first reading i ve done for quite a while but i ve really enjoyed preparing for it and i m looking forward to the day itself posted by matt merritt at 12 30 no comments labels chase dimock cheltenham poetry festival poetry saturday 7 may 2022 the first person in poetry the other day poet matthew stewart tweeted this sparking off a very interesting discussion about the use of the first person in poetry and the frequent assumption by readers and matthew was talking specifically about critics that this is the poet themselves i don t have a great deal to add to it but i do find it odd that this assumption gets made with poetry by people who have no difficulty in accepting that a first person narrator in a novel is not necessarily the writer themselves that said i wonder whether it s also a question of degrees for poetry readers if the poem is written in say the voice of a historical character or an animal the reader has no trouble knowing that the i is not the poet does the problem occur mainly when the i is not the poet as such but a character not that far away from them posted by matt merritt at 11 04 no comments labels matthew stewart poetry saturday 23 april 2022 world curlew day april 21st thursday just gone was world curlew day curlews or eurasian curlews to give them their full name are one of my favourite species but sadly are in steep decline in the last few years they ve disappeared from a couple of areas where they previously bred on my old local patch and the news isn t generally good elsewhere related species such as whimbrel also face pressures and of course the slender billed curlew has effectively gone extinct within the last 20 years all of which means world curlew day is a thoroughly good thing one thing i learned on thursday was that the date was chosen according to the welsh ornithological society as it s the feast day of the 6th century welsh saint beuno who blessed the birds and said that they should always be protected that sort of thing is a bit of a recurring theme with dark ages saints st cuthbert for example was supposed to have protected eiders and was also tended to by ravens and otters among others among other things st beuno is supposed to have been to have been so appalled to hear the english language being spoken that he went as far west as he could the llyn peninsula to found a monastery and get away from the uncouth germanic invaders i wrote a poem about it that appeared in my second collection hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica ps i ll try to post the poem some time soon but i ve mislaid my copy of the book posted by matt merritt at 11 51 no comments labels birds hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica nine arches press welsh ornithological society world curlew day thursday 21 april 2022 the death of frank o hara this is probably the first time and will probably be the last too that i ll link to a vanity fair article on polyolbion but this is well worth a read frank o hara s influence on english language poetry on both sides of the atlantic over the last half century can t be underestimated but i d never really read anything much about the circumstances of his tragic death before it s all here and ken ruzicka s dignity in dealing with such awful events is only to be admired posted by matt merritt at 14 41 no comments labels frank o hara ken ruzicka poetry thursday 14 april 2022 blue eyes a bit of a change of tack this article was flagged up on twitter today i found it fascinating partly because of the recent family history research that i ve been doing i think and partly because i m unscientific enough to be staggered by it i suspect someone with more of a grounding in the subject would be considerably less surprised just as they are generally less surprised by somebody finding out that they re descended from edward iii or similar posted by matt merritt at 07 19 no comments labels history science wednesday 13 april 2022 lovecraftian horror my old friend and former boss he was a good one mark howard jones has a new book out for all those of you who enjoy a few eldritch horrors as i do star spawned lovecraftian horrors strange stories is available here and brings together his lovecraftian and weird fiction from the last decade or so there s a foreword by lovecraft expert s t joshi too so what are you waiting for posted by matt merritt at 09 00 no comments labels fiction hp lovecraft mark howard jones tuesday 12 april 2022 the vanishing earth a reminder just a reminder that i m reading with chase dimock as part of the cheltenham poetry festival on monday may 16th the event the vanishing earth is themed around extinction and the threats that the natural world currently faces you can book tickets here and there are several other events still available throughout the summer posted by matt merritt at 08 00 no comments labels chase dimock cheltenham poetry festival poetry thursday 7 april 2022 scotland in spring i ve taken a break from posting for 10 days or so because i was up in scotland co leading a readers holiday preceded by a couple of days of family history research around portsoy where my great grandmother on my dad s dad s side grew up i had some success with the latter i ve found three leads which should take me a fair time to follow up and as always up around strathspey the cairngorms the moray coast and the black isle the birding was excellent golden and white tailed eagles were great to see as always as were lekking black grouse lots of snow buntings slavonian grebes in their glorious breeding plumage and black throated divers in their finery but the highlights were two white billed divers off burghead and roseisle it s a new species for me and it s really pretty hard to see in the uk small numbers winter off the coast mainly off scotland and in recent years it s emerged that many of them gather in the moray firth mainly off portsoy and cullen as they start to head back north posted by matt merritt at 15 25 no comments labels birds scotland monday 28 march 2022 skylines skylines a festival of poetry and spoken word events organised by nine arches press and writing west midlands will take place in coventry on july 15 17 keep an eye on the website for further developments with the full line up to be announced by the end of may posted by matt merritt at 17 17 no comments labels nine arches press poetry skylines writing west midlands wild art photographer of the year just a reminder about wild art photographer of the year the 2022 competition is now open for entries it s a competition that puts the emphasis firmly on the more creative artistic side of wildlife photography and you a superb book of last year s winners and outstanding entries is available if you want to get an idea of exactly what i m talking about posted by matt merritt at 07 35 no comments labels birds photography wild art saturday 26 march 2022 what s new at nine arches press shaun hill s warm blooded things is the latest publication from nine arches press and looks terrific based on the poems i ve seen so far nine arches also have plenty of other books coming out this year as you ll see here and i don t need to remind you but i m going to anyway about under the radar magazine and the primers mentoring and publication scheme i am admittedly rather biased but i heartily recommend that you have a browse of the whole site posted by matt merritt at 12 17 no comments labels nine arches press poetry shaun hill under the radar wednesday 23 march 2022 coming soon last year i reviewed robert selby s the coming down time shoestring press for magma i loved it it was pretty much my favourite collection of the year combining as it did the highly personal with the historical and the subtly political by way of close attention to family history he has a new collection the kentish rebellion forthcoming from shoestring in july and will be reading poems from it at the poetry london launch this week you can find full details here posted by matt merritt at 16 09 no comments labels magma poetry poetry london robert selby shoestring press tuesday 22 march 2022 pearls by helena nelson over at rogue strands matthew stewart has posted this very well argued review of helena nelson s pearls happenstance press i haven t read it yet but this does what all good reviews do and makes me want to go straight out and do exactly that for those who don t know helena is the driving force behind happenstance and i like like a good many other poets owe her a great deal happenstance published my first chapbook making the most of the light which i remain very proud of without it and more importantly without nell s encouragement and advice i would never have had a full collection published posted by matt merritt at 13 38 no comments labels helena nelson matthew stewart poetry reviews rogue strands monday 21 march 2022 cheltenham festival no not that one it s cheltenham poetry festival i m talking about i m just going to briefly remind you that i m reading as part of it with american poet chase dimock on monday may 16th you can book tickets here but that there s also a great line up of poets and events to browse through here posted by matt merritt at 13 46 no comments labels chase dimock cheltenham poetry festival poetry friday 18 march 2022 have your say and an apology thanks to sue ibrahim i have realised that i have comment approval switched on for this blog not really because there was anything too controversial or abusive or potentially libellous getting posted it was more down to the amount of spam anyway that means that i ve discovered a backlog of unapproved comments dating back to who knows when and which i have now gone through carefully as a consequence you might well find that you get a notification of an old comment of yours being approved apologies to all of you who have wondered why on earth you d been blocked the only other thing to say is that i ll be checking the blog every day now so if you do want to post a comment i promise to say yea or nay quickly posted by matt merritt at 09 03 no comments labels blogs older posts home subscribe to posts atom a sky full of birds available now click on image to see more follow polyolbion available from nine arches press about me matt merritt i live in southam england and write and read lots of poetry my prose memoir a sky full of birds is out now from rider books my poetry collection the elephant tests is available from nine arches press my previous collection hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica was published by nine arches in 2010 my first collection troy town was published in march 2008 by arrowhead press and my chapbook making the most of the light was published in 2005 by happenstance press view my complete profile subscribe to posts atom posts all comments atom all comments hydrodaktulopsychicharmonica to buy a copy click here to find out more click here published march 1 2008 available now from arrowhead press click here to find out more about it about that title poly olbion was a vast poem describing the topography traditions and history of england and wales written by michael drayton a friend of shakespeare it ran to 15 000 lines of iambic hexameter and he intended to extend it to include scotland but never got that far drayton didn t quite pass into obscurity but if he s remembered now it s generally for his much anthologised sonnet the wonderful since there s no help come let us kiss and part anyway i ve always had a soft spot for drayton because he was born and raised about 15 miles from here in polesworth and because of that sonnet and thought his now ignored mega poem might provide a good name for a blog that will range far and wide wittering aimlessly and incessantly about whatever catches my eye i promise not to write it in iambic hexameter though get in touch email me here listen to me read here click here to hear me read four poems at home show don t tell spurn and the memory of water my poems online 1984 arrowhead birdsong peony moon gabble ratchet peony moon happiness peony moon himbeergeist umbrella hummadruz umbrella hutt river province magma kilter litter knots boxcar poetry review leland s new year gift to the king 1546 litter loons umbrella show don t tell umbrella stanislav petrov umbrella sub plot umbrella sunday cricket eastwood blackbox manifold the archaeologist blackbox manifold the ends of the earth peony moon the memory of water raw light the quickening arrowhead the sea at ashby de la zouch peony moon treaty house brittle star 19 uchronie gists piths variations on a theme by j a baker gists piths vocabulary arrowhead wader flock thornham harbour peony moon warning against using these poems as a map with immediate effect arrowhead yellow wagtails shit creek review my blog list rogue strands a poem by ricky monahan brown i m delight...