Tag: Norwich

NaPoWriMo Day 28: John Osborne – Supermarkets

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Picture: Katie Pope

In this prompt from the archives Norwich poet and author John Osborne invites us to explore the poetic possibilities in the aisles of the local supermarket. Here are some tips from John:

  • Visit a supermarket you don’t usually go to or go at an unusual time
  • Make a list of words associated with supermarkets
  • Write down memories, observations and other experiences associated with supermarkets
  • Think about how these experiences relate to other parts of your life

You can find the full episode here.

John Osborne writes stories, poems and scripts. His poetry has been broadcast on Radio 1, Radio 3, Radio 4, BBC 6Music, XFM and Soho Radio. You can purchase A Supermarket Love Story here with illustrations by Katie Pope.

www.johnosbornewriter.com

John’s latest show is Norwich: A Love Story

Norwich: A Love Story by John Osborne

For more NaPoWriMo tips and writing prompts check out the book Poetry Non-Stop.

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Books by many of the poets featured on the podcast, are available from the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop here. All books purchased via this link help to raise money to keep this podcast going.

Napowrimo Day 24: Terry Griffiths – Old trait

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Write about a trait that is now less prominent in your personality for today’s NaPoWriMo prompt from Terry Griffiths.

New Exercise Book

My science book is running out of pages —
As lovely as my teacher is,
Needing to put up my twelve-year-old hand
Is spinning around my twelve-year-old head.
Perhaps I shall make my handwriting
Even more shy instead.

Spinning around in my nineteen-year-old head
Is how I just served an American guy at Primark
Who was emphasising his yeehaw accent,
An accent I’m always tryna do at home.
Sadly, I didn’t join in.
The lady he was with said he sounded ridiculous.
Ridiculous it is how in public I have had to psych myself up over the years
And still often plummet
Back down to my Year Seven self,
Yet I want to be famous.

Famous is something I have all my life to become, though,
And being just a tad well-known would be okay, too.
It’s fine that I don’t perform my new-found confidence
In every single thing I do.

Terry Griffiths

For more NaPoWriMo tips and writing prompts check out the book Poetry Non-Stop.

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast please consider showing your support with a donation via ko-fi.com

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Books by many of the poets featured on the podcast, are available from the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop here. All books purchased via this link help to raise money to keep this podcast going.

Day Four: Holly Marie Shakeshaft – Pain

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We welcome a new poet to Poetry Non-Stop for NaPoWriMo day four – Holly Marie Shakeshaft. Holly shares a poem on the theme of pain and discusses how we can write about painful and traumatic experiences. As Holly says, take care of yourself and don’t feel you have to write about anything that’s too recent or painful to dwell on.

Sucker
The pages of the cookbook unfurled
Along with my misplaced infatuation.
I was blind.
I made you spaghetti
With black olives and red wine
Olives glistened like wet leeches, bulging
Sucking me dry.
Wine spattered like blood, spilt
Poured into a recipe
Along with my entire self
(You hollowed me out)
Spaghetti,
Like giant worms.
A parasite
The kind you pick up from
Contaminated water.
A lamb to the slaughter.
I made us spaghetti
But now I can’t eat a thing
(I can’t feel my own bones inside of me)
Something eroded them
Like chalk
My heart, a bruised apple
Blackened and cold
Wrapped in your mould
Abandoned
On the orchard floor
Except for, the wasps –
Who devour it from the core with
Spiky jaws.
There are wasps filling my mouth and
my body.
Abrasive, turning me to ash, and then
the buzzing relents, before
Silence.
But not peace.
Do not buy me soap from hot countries,
Do not lie
Do not steal my skin and expose me to your
elements.
You threw me away.
I threw the soap in the bin.
I cleansed with my own soap
Lathered away the sabotage
And allowed life to drip back
Into my veins
Filtered
Like minerals
Through dirt.
I spring forth.

Holly Marie Shakeshaft

Holly has moved around a lot but finally feels settled in Norwich. She says: “I currently work in the civil service but my time outside of work is important to me, as I have the time to write, read books, immerse myself in live music, visit the beach and be in nature, see my friends, gym and yoga, watch cartoons, horror movies and true crime documentaries, travel whenever I can and work on my new house. I am very spiritual, interested in astrology and witchcraft. I enjoy birdwatching, which I inherited from my Grandma. I am also a huge animal lover – I miss my pet rats and I plan on getting more. And a dog!” 

For more NaPoWriMo tips and writing prompts check out the book Poetry Non-Stop.

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast please consider showing your support with a donation via ko-fi.com

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Books by many of the poets featured on the podcast, are available from the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop here. All books purchased via this link help to raise money to keep this podcast going.

NaPoWriMo Day Two: Cathleen Davies – Films

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We welcome back Norwich writer Cathleen Davies who invites us to explore our favourite and most memorable films for today’s prompt. Here’s their poem inspired by Thelma and Louise which you can hear more about on the podcast.

GOOD, WELL DONE, ALRIGHT, CALM DOWN

Our lecturer told me to write about a heist,
but I wanted to write about
a suicide pact.

I met them in the middle and watched Thelma and Louise,
Focussed on the scene
Straight after the robbery
Where they’re laughing in the Thunderbird,
‘Cause there, they were alive.

You marked the story for me, stapled it professionally,
Scribbled notes in the margin,
And highlighted the text.
I know you never said,
But I could tell you weren’t impressed.
You liked the suicide, though, scribbled
‘Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes’

My darling,
I’m glad you found the words ‘well crafted.’
I never meant for you
To take them
As an instruction manual.

Cathleen Davies

You can find out more about Cathleen here.

For more NaPoWriMo tips and writing prompts check out the book Poetry Non-Stop.

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast please consider showing your support with a donation via ko-fi.com

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Books by many of the poets featured on the podcast, are available from the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop here. All books purchased via this link help to raise money to keep this podcast going.

NaPoWriMo Day One: Patrick Widdess – Good News

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Welcome to NaPoWriMo 2024. I hope you’re all ready for a busy month of writing poetry. Remember, don’t strive for perfection and the prompts are only a starting point. You can go wherever your imagination takes you.

For your first prompt I’d like you to look at the news. This is usually depressing at best and can be terrifying. I’d like you to find a good news story and use this to write a poem in any style you wish.

My poem was based on this story, about a species of golden mole that was believed to be extinct until it was found last year in South Africa.

Good luck with your poems and have a great NaPoWriMo!

Golden mole

They never told me I was missing
and, though I know nothing of fish,
they found me swimming with the
stealth of a dolphin in a balaclava
through an ocean of dunes –
waves of sand undulating over centuries.
They tell me my coat is the colour
of the sun I’ve never seen, in the hour
before it melts over the edge of the world.
But when I dive back into the earth,
I might never return.
There could be others like me,
our unmarked paths waiting
to become entwined
as we live on burrowed time.

For more NaPoWriMo tips and writing prompts check out the book Poetry Non-Stop.

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast please consider showing your support with a donation via ko-fi.com

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Books by many of the poets featured on the podcast, are available from the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop here. All books purchased via this link help to raise money to keep this podcast going.

Norfolk Poets: Jenny Pagdin

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We welcome back Norwich poet, Jenny Pagdin, to share some poems from her debut collection The Snow Globe. On her previous appearance spoke about her experiences of postpartum psychosis which this collection explores. The Snow Globe is published by Nine Arches Press and can be purchased here.

Jenny Pagdin published ‘The Snow Globe’, her first full collection, with Nine Arches Press in February 2024. Her pamphlet Caldbeck was published by Eyewear in 2017 and shortlisted for the Mslexia pamphlet competition. Other competition wins include second prize, Norfolk prize and Commended in the Cafe Writers Competition, Highly Commended and shortlisted in the Bridport, and longlisting for the Rebecca Swift Foundation. Her poetry is widely published including in New Welsh Review, Smoke, Magma, Ambit, Wild Court, The Stand, Finished Creatures, Interpreter’s House, Ink, Sweat & Tears and an Emma Press anthology.

Jenny lives in Norwich with her family, where she works in the voluntary sector. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and a BA in English from Oxford University. 

jennypagdin.co.uk

If you are a Norfolk based poet and would like to feature on the series please send 2-3 poems, a short bio and photo here.

You can also support this podcast with a donation via ko-fi.com

Books by many of the poets featured on the podcast are available from the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop here. All books purchased via this link help to raise money to keep this podcast going.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Norfolk Poets: Martin Figura

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We welcome back one of the first guests on Poetry Non-Stop, Martin Figura. Martin has a new collection coming out, The Remaining Men, and it’s wonderful to have him back to share a couple of the new poems. Martin’s poetry grows line by perfect line until you don’t think it can get any better, then it does. The title poem is a surreal, yet down to earth tale of those who are left behind when times change and in Harold Wilson Rows Towards Bishop’s Rock we see the former prime minister blissfully far from the world of politics. It promises to be an outstanding collection which is available direct from Martin here.

If you are a Norfolk based poet and would like to feature on the series please send 2-3 poems, a short bio and photo here.

You can also support this podcast with a donation via ko-fi.com

Books by many of the poets featured on the podcast are available from the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop here. All books purchased via this link help to raise money to keep this podcast going.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Norfolk Poets: Tony Amis

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Tony Amis is an active performer on both the poetry and improv comedy scenes in and around Norwich. After a lifetime working in IT he has spread his wings later in life. He performing his own poetry in 2010. He recorded an album with his band Spewtum called ‘Mrs Slocombes Pussy’ in 2015.  He started Improv in 2018 and took up Singprov after Covid.  He’s an annual poetry & music turn at Capstock Festival and politically feels he’s a pragmatic Socialist whatever that is.  The bucket list means Tony needs to publish a book of his Poetry before Death gets its gnarly claws on him. Oh! He’s a Lover not a Fighter & his BiPolar doesn’t define him.

If you are a Norfolk based poet and would like to feature on the series please send 2-3 poems, a short bio and photo here.

You can also support this podcast with a donation via ko-fi.com

Books by many of the poets featured on the podcast are available from the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop here. All books purchased via this link help to raise money to keep this podcast going.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Norfolk Poets: Jenny Knight

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Jenny Knight is an active performer and promoter of poetry in Norwich and until recently ran the excellent Poets in The Cellar at The Bike Shop in the city. She says: “I am a concentrate of transexual ambition, Prosecco and middle-class privilege that may contain traces of passion fruit.”

If you are a Norfolk based poet and would like to feature on the series please send 2-3 poems, a short bio and photo here.

You can also support this podcast with a donation via ko-fi.com

Books by many of the poets featured on the podcast are available from the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop here. All books purchased via this link help to raise money to keep this podcast going.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Norfolk Poets: Kevan Taplin

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Kevan performs his poem, It’s where you call home.

Norwich poet and musician Kevan Taplin kicks off 2024 with a Yorkshire lament in the style of  Alan Bennett.

Kevan’s alternative bio reads:

Failed scholar.
Failed ‘alternative’ busker @ Banksy’s Dismalworld!
Failed teacher.
Failed poet.
Failed husband.
Failed father.
Failed lyricist
Failed rugby player.
Failed acoustic guitarist.
Failed novelist.
Remaining ambition : To turn failure into an art form!…

He also adds: “As a working class dyslexic I was encouraged to start writing poetry by Roger Mcgough when he allowed me to put a couple of his to music. I have been invited to play for a Poet Laureate twice. I have also supported poets such as John Hegley and put poem to music for The poetry exchange.”

If you are a Norfolk based poet and would like to feature on the series please send 2-3 poems, a short bio and photo here.

You can also support this podcast with a donation via ko-fi.com

Books by many of the poets featured on the podcast are available from the Poetry Non-Stop bookshop here. All books purchased via this link help to raise money to keep this podcast going.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com