Poetry Scotland: Webitorial


Hello and welcome to the chatty bit of Poetry Scotland’s website. It is not ‘just’ a website:
it is the other half of your Poetry Scotland magazine. The broadsheet, distributed widely
to the general public in Scotland, and to our subscribers world-wide, still holds the main
contents: good new poems by a variety of Scottish and international poets. This website
provides the extra information, news, discussion, book information and features so essential
to the poets and contributors, subscribers and onlookers who want to go deeper into Poetry
Scotland; literally behind the scenes. And this page is specifically intended to be interactive.

Contributions of letters, articles, comments, news, photos to illustrate poems in Poetry
Scotland, any poems offered specifically for the website, and any other suggestions, may
be sent by post or email. Correspondence to Poetry Scotland, 91-93 Main Street, Callander,
FK17 8BQ. 'How to subscribe' information is on the Home page.

 


Colin's Bit -

Excellent feedback now coming in on the Open Mouse poems. Do please respond to
these poems - let me have your comments by email.

On the subject of Open Mouse, I need to point out that posting on the PS website
constitutes publication. Most printed magazines stipulate that submissions must
be previously unpublished, and previous appearance of a poem on the website may
disqualify them from meeting this condition. Of course, authors retain their copyright,
and does not preclude subsequent publication in any form, but editors should be
notified.


 

Seasonal Poem

Edward Thomas (1878 - 1917)

Adlestrop

Yes, I remember Adlestrop -
The name, because one afternoon
Of heat the express-train drew up there
Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat,
No one left and no one came
On the bare platform. What I saw
Was Adlestrop - only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,
And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,
No whit less still and lonely fair
Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang
Close by, and round him, mistier,
Farther and farther, all the birds
Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.



StAnza 2008

Every year I'm delighted by all the nice things that happen in St Andrews at StAnza -
the accidental, the amusing, the heartening little incidents. Meeting Brian Turner, for
example, and finding out he comes from Fresno, a place I had written a poem about;
talking to Kenneth White on stage in the Byre during the interval, and realising how
much we have in common; discovering that August Kleinzahler had been taught poetry
by Basil Bunting in Victoria BC, the same place where one of my poems is going to be
read later this year. Coincidences, I've come to believe, are things which you can depend
on happening.

My own specific contribution to the Festival, chairing the Past and Present sessions, was,
as always, an absolute joy. My thanks to August Kleinzahler, Chris Jones, Janice Galloway,
Annie Freud, Adrian Mitchell, Penny Shuttle, Tom Leonard and Tess Gallagher. It was
really special.


A Skein of Geese

Those who attended StAnza 2007 will remember the 100 Poets Gathering, when a huge assemblage of poets (what's the collective noun?) read a poem each over the course of an afternoon, culminating in Alastair Reid's very last reading of his poem Scotland, and its ceremonial burning. Now, thanks to Eleanor Livingstone, the poems have been collected and published in a wonderful anthology, available for only £5 from Eleanor.

 


 

A poetry doctor writes:

On catching the eye of the Mouse

Editing a magazine or a web page like Poetry Scotland's Open Mouse is a subjective
business. Ultimately, what goes in is what I like. Some editors publish their preferences,
or do's and don'ts, on their websites. Look at the Ambit and HappenStance sites for
a couple of examples - there are many more. So, inspired by Sally's new Advice page,
I thought I'd do the same. Here then are some of the reasons for choosing your poems
for inclusion rather than someone else's.

That's about all I want to say at the moment, apart from the fact that we are truly Open geographically
and by subject. The internet is a universal medium.

Colin Will



Anyone who wants to hear about updates should email me, and I'll add them to the mailshot list.



 

Colin Will
Photo courtesy of Jayne Wilding.

 

Page last updated: June 23, 2008

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