chain coral Chorus
It's been a busy few weeks for the Chain Coral Chorus. I've been going about my deep time drifts in the Black Country Geopark, working up poems, ideas and adding to this building poetics. I see this as a psychogeographical exercise - going out and aimlessly drifting, searching out the overlooked edgelands or interzones. I've mentioned in previous posts about my view of the Black Country's liminality, especially when considering the off-kilter meetings of green and grey, industrial and natural, and this is in-keeping with some the traditions of this experimental method for place-writers. I suppose the difference in this project is that I'm moving away from the urban centricity of psychogeography, and rather than being totally aimless - it is a drift with a Geopoetic purpose and lens. It needs to be loose in this sense, and likewise needs to have a grounding or lens to the wo/andering. Through this, I harness the idiosyncratic perspective of psychogeography, but focus it with geological observations. I'd be keen to hear from others who meander with focus, or who're interested in these sorts of Geosites. I've also been running a series of workshops based on my work. So far, these have been well attended and I've received some really wonderful feedback. On the 3rd November I ran a talk and workshop for the University of Wolverhampton in Stafford, called Geopoetic Landscapes. You can view it here: And on the 14th November I ran a Geopoetic virtual tour of Wren's Nest Nature Reserve - one of the most significant Geosites in the wider Geopark, as well as nationally. This was part of the Being Human Festival - the only national festival of the Humanities. It runs free events across the UK every November, with a focus on making Humanities Research more accessible and tactile. We had a lot of fun working through various writing prompts and delving into the fossil and mineral rich muck of Dudley. Again, I'm really touched by how enthusiastic and warm participants to this event have been. It seems, no matter where they come from and how practiced they might be in these ideas, Black Country Geopoetics strikes a deep chord with people.
With this in mind, I'd like to share some of the writing from three poets who came along. I had them writing Cinquains - an American Imagist form of poetry - designed to get them digging into the earth, and into an idea. I'm going to dedicate my next blog post to how formalist verse works with these geopoetics in the coming weeks. Until then, let me leave you with these poems. Lovely, amusing and playful, but always retaining the sense of deep-time topological presence, I give you Daisy Black, Isobel Malcolm and Alison Raybould - who sent me two Cinquains and an extra bit (10 housepoints, Alison). Alison Raybould sparkle kingfisher hogweed clear-path stepping-stones acorns freedom in bigsky birdsong magic a potholed network of loops and squirtholes it’s dusty surface belies the clag beneath imprints track and trace epochs of unheard witness damplight menacing elves drag acorned sphagnum cloaks re(-)covering juts – lost voiced tales fossilled Daisy Black dogshit softness eroding heathered youth adventure worlds still to open nutrients Isobel Malcolm Wind, Pebbles, shells, Timber, rope, boulders Freedom envelopes my being, Spirituality. |
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January 2022
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