FLY CATCHER PRESS: A Walk Down the Rift

Not far from Coleridge Cottage lies the tiny hamlet of Shurton and just down to the sea from here is where ST Coleridge walked and sat on Shurton Bars to write 'Ode to Sara' for his wife to-be in 1795.

And hark, my love! The sea-breeze moans
Thro' yon reft house! O'er rolling stones,
With broad impetuous sweep,
The fast encroaching tides supply
The silence of the cloudless sky
With mimic thunders deep.

extract from Ode to Sara -  ST Coleridge 

 

Shurton Bars - Somerset

Along this same path from Shurton to the sea the Poetry Pin project has been journeying for a full year writing new poetry and digitally posting it to this trail through the Poetry Pin Engine. Over twelve workshop walks tarriedthis way, revealing and writing poetry with the former done just by opening the website on a mobile phone.

In March 2015 the ability to add new works came to an end and the Poetry Pin team began the next phase, compiling and curating 'A Walk Down the Rift' to be published by Fly Catcher Press this coming Autumn.

Past the bat house, and the Tacky-shade collector,
Past the laminate maps, part eaten by nature.
Down to the geo with the clints and the grikes,
Boulders smashing by little tykes,
Paddling free in the murky brine,
Beneath scoured stone Bars slumbers Serpentine.
All change, all change, as we scatter to scribe,
scratching in the sand, drawing words from this tide.
Over the wash and across the Bars it comes,
And we mop up its moods like kitchen crumbs.

extract from Kitchen Crumbs - C Jelley 

More details can be found on the Poetry Pin Portal where you can still walk the trail and trigger the poetry.

Enquiries and orders of the publication 'A Walk Down the Rift' (Fly Catcher Press) can be made at Number Seven Dulverton. Purchases can also be made from Amazon (£10 hard back) and documents a year walking, reading and writing poetry in the shadow of Hinkley C, the UK’s first new nuclear build in decades.

Plans are Afoot!

This year has been a great one for new works and new directions with the Coleridge Way, and as we head towards the darker months, it's a time of reflection and planning the way forward for 2014.

So what's in store? Well some of it is tightly under wraps, and will be rolled out and celebrated in due course, (so no spoilers here, sorry) other parts like the QR code poetry and the story boxes which were such a success are to be built upon, made stronger and more diverse. 

Along the trail of the Coleridge Way

The story box project went really well, we had a great deal of input from a diverse range of walkers, some just added a drawing, others just their name, but lots of people picked up the gauntlet of adding to the tale and then leaving for the next.

Here are a few sound cloud links from text written by multiple authors, it's really interesting how the thread runs through them all, and when a single voice reads them out they begin to flow and meld as one.

The new story boxes are due to go live in June again 2014, (with funding approval in January, fingers crossed) which will be fantastic. The boxes will again be started ready for your discovery and input, last year we had Jackie Morris, (Author Illustrator) and Taffy Thomas (the first UK Storyteller Laureate) There will again be opportunities for established authors to be involved - so please do get in touch it would be great to hear from you.

Here is a little film made in June 2013 about the story boxes, as they were being installed along the Coleridge Way trail.

There will also be more of the QR code poetry as we hope to engage with another three schools in Coleridge Country, and re install these back along the trail. Also a sample of the QR code poetry is being published in an anthology of Exmoor poetry which will be available in time for Christmas.

So what of the stone image higher up the page? Well this is a secret of the Coleridge Way, for those who walk it discover hidden gems and surprises along it's path. Some are marked on maps, others are more esoteric, a carved well head, a tree root which looks like a monks hood. The story boxes and the QR code poetry engage with these personal histories, these individual imaginative elements, or as Samuel Taylor Coleridge once said.

A poet ought not to pick nature's pocket. Let him borrow, and so borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing. Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection, and trust more to the imagination than the memory.

So let us trust to the imagination.

Romantic events on Exmoor

Here are three dates for your calendar to drink in the Coleridge Culture. Firstly Ralph Hoyte, who has been working on his Coleridge Conversations App, will be reading his poem Christabel Released at Binham Grange during their annual Gallery4art exhibition. This is how they describe this year's summer exhibition -

Imagine art as a box of chocolates, some highly coloured and decorated, some plain and elegant, some are your favourites, others provoke new experiences and sensations. For the contemporary Summer Exhibition at Binham Grange this year Gallery4Art will present a spacious barn full of art to engage and intrigue the visitor. Each artist will have space to tell a story, to add a fresh dimension to the exhibition where they can display new work and old favourites for people to enjoy. There will be a range of work to suit all budgets from small prints to wall size artworks, delicate ceramics to large animal sculptures. 

Ralph Hoyte in Watchet testing his audio ghost

Tickets are priced at £8/£6, bring a picnic or order from the Binham restaurant. Ralph's epic poem will be performed by him on the evening of 28th August, the art and artists will also be open for you to view and meet during the evening. If you are unable to attend on the night snippets of Ralph's sound installation ‘Romantic Litscape’ will be accessible throughout the exhibition duration.

Christopher Jelley - Frances Harrison - Ralhp Hoyte

During Somerset Art Week in Dulverton Frances Harrision has an Illustrated Talk -  'the Sublime and the Beautiful' which is about art, literature, Romanticism and it's influences. The event is to be held at Dulverton All Saints Church, on September 27th starting at 7pm, with tickets £5 purchased from SAW or on the door. Wine and refreshments will be available. Frances is also Venue 24 for Somerset Art Week, so have a look here for more details.

And finally also in Dulverton at Somerset Art Week's Venue 23 is Christopher Jelley's Coleridge works, much of which has been blogged about here so do enjoy reading previous posts to get a feel for the work that will be on show - Number Seven will be hosting this event.

Christopher's Storywalk in Dulverton
asks you to make clock faces as part of the story line
and leave them for other walkers to find.

'Behind the gaol door, in the room beyond, Christopher Jelley will have a curious mix of work that defies simple classification'

Amidst these projects will be his Coleridge Way QR Code Poetry Slates, many of which now installed along the Coleridge Way, and also the story boxes which have been out along the trail throughout the summer. Other pieces of his including the site specific Storywalk 'The Watching Way' which starts in the town and finishes out in the hills somewhere! The exhibition is a mix of high and low tech, with an interactive twist so do pop along and step behind the gaol door...

I am sure I will be reporting on these events, so if you don't get a chance to attend then check back here later on.

Calling all Romantics!

Ignite Somerset along with ARTlife had invited Somerset artist's working on projects associated with the Romantic poets to talk in front of a green screen at the Engine Room Bridgwater. The premise was simple, Richard Thomlinson (of Ignite Somerset pictured above with Lynn Mowat) had prepped the Engine Rooms studio with a floor to ceiling green screen, camera, microphone, lights etc and artist's were asked to book a slot and then talk about their projects straight to camera.

Amongst other artists attending were Alice Crane, pictured above amidst filming, she was talking and sewing at the same time, a task which was harder than expected - even after years of practice. Ralph Hoyte (geolocated sound-scapes, Satsymph - pictured below) and Frances Harrison (storyteller and visual artist also below) have major projects in respect to the Coleridge Way. In many ways Frances, Ralph and myself are the three corners of the current Coleridge Way projects and the meeting was for me an essential piece of networking. Touching base and choreographing (in the loosest sense) how our works fit together in a wider scheme.

Christopher Jelley, Frances Harrison, Ralph Hoyte
The Colridgeons!

At lunch time Richard screened three short films to the Artists present, one about each of The Colridgeons (I know, there is no such word) which we had made with Richard in the last few months. I always feel very self conscious about this kind of thing even in good company, but there was nothing to worry about, and it was brilliant to catch up with others, many of which are working in parallel towards the ever present yearly event of Somerset Art Week.

The Engine Room is a stunning facility and in this age of media where we are surrounded by screens at every turn, it makes the essential bridge between the artist and the technology, something which always seems to be shifting, never solid and simple like a canvas or a book. I have always tried to embrace the new but there is a point where you try to take stock and ask simple fundamental questions like, does this effort actually add to my creative practice, is it worth the hassle, toil and energy? What is the life span, who am I connecting to, will it be gone in a moment like twitter, or around for decades? and am I happy with that, is there another way?

Gordon Field

These are impossible questions to answer, and only in hindsight will we know truly the longevity of energies spent and where possible economies were to be had. In the mean time we have to embrace every opportunity on offer, give a little of our time and enjoy the simple things like chatting over coffee, and connecting to others who have climbed a different tree of craft to your own. Build connections, collaborations, try and be at the centre, and catch those opportunities right now whilst the camera's are running.

These works will be posted through the Ignite Somerset site.

Word Harvesting along the Coleridge Way

Mrs Mash with her harvested words from the children,
but written on the wooden board as the paper got so soggy in the rain.

I've been desperate to write about this day just before Easter, a day whose weather was so caustic that it felt endless, and all the stranger now sitting here with the sun shining! So just to re cap, I have worked with three First Schools in West Somerset, all are in the curtilage of the Coleridge Way. Nether Stowey at the head, Porlock at the tail, and Dunster, well a little off mid way, but the concept was simple, take a group out into the landscape and write words which reflect that experience in much the same manner as Coleridge and Wordsworth.

Watching the Exmoor foal disappear into the woods at the Jubilee Hut.

In some ways, the extreme weather, (and yes it was mad for all three separate days and schools!) was just the ticket, they needed something to write about and Cold, Icy, Fresh, Tingly, Breezy, are all in the mix.

These images here are from Porlock First St Dubricus School, who braved the weather up Webbers Post (Beneath Dunkery Beacon) This path is great, and a regular destination for St Dubricus, but as I drove over that morning I thought it was surly going to be cancelled, the rain was deep, the hills shrouded in mist, puddles right across the road. But no, the head master Mr Blazey was adamant that it would all pan out fine, and then he added that this was the walk they did when the weather was too bad at Pinkery Pond up on the Moors! When it comes down to it, the school know the limitations of their pupils far better than I do which is rightly so, and I am so pleased that we could go, as the old adage goes, 'there's no such thing as bad weather, just poor clothing.'

We tried to keep the paper dry by writing inside bags, but it was no use.

So the van dropped off the first party who thought that there was not enough water in the air so did some puddle jumping, and proper splashing. With that out of their system we were straight into word harvesting, what do you hear, feel, smell, what can you taste on the rain? And the kids were even more prolific than the clouds, for they poured forth endless phrases for us to jot down, faster than we could write.

One of the sculptures along the Coleridge Way trail at Webbers Post

Well we did have paper to write on but that soon turned to pulp, but by chance the clip boards were wooden, and not wanting to halt the kids flow, we just started to write on them, which oddly enough got better in the wet rather than worse. It reminded me about the great space race of the 60's, (before my time I know) where the Americans spent a huge budget in developing a biro style pen which would work in zero gravity, but the Russians just used a pencil! Doesn't rain in space though! 

Wet!

So the day went well, the first session harvesting out in the wilds, the afternoon writing up and working on their phrases. Jenny had a good structure for this, building in metaphor and simile into the structure of their writing, taking the ordinary and making it more, building, improving.

A great session.

So many thanks Jenny (Mrs Mash) for leading all the sessions, and thank you to all three schools for letting us loose in the wilds of Exmoor with their precious pupils. The poetry is all complete and I am just spell checking and proof reading to make sure that it's perfect before I etch the poetry into slate for re installation along the Coleridge Way. But you'll have to read other blogs for those details as I think that's plenty for one blog.

Calling all Artist's

Ignite on a story walk in Dunster with Christopher Jelley

As a practising artist are you passionate about landscape and the environment? Are you inspired by the Romantic poets that trod the Somerset landscape, do you share their vision of the sublime in nature? If so you are invited to join fellow artists who too are inspired by this rich heritage and who also wish to keep the spirit of these visionaries very much alive. 

Somerset Film and ARTlife are hosting a green screen film shoot for artists. This event is your opportunity to create a short film about your work, your inspiration and your ideas. Supported by Arts Council England and delivered by Somerset Film, the event is free. 

Participating artists are invited to a light lunch and networking session between 12pm and 1pm at The Engine Room Cafe in Bridgwater. During lunch there will be a screening of three short films recently made by Ignite Somerset, featuring three artists currently working in West Somerset and inspired by the Romantic Poets: 

Frances Harrison

Christopher Jelley

Ralph Hoyte

If you wish to attend you must book your twenty minute slot beforehand, so preparation is the key. You will then be filmed in front of the green screen, describing or performing your work - the green screen will then be replaced with an image sequence or video of your choice. Each artist will then be provided with a DVD and a link to their film on line. 

This is a fantastic opportunity which will help promote your individual practice, a great resource for sharing your identity on line whether it be via your blog, Face Book page or Twitter feed. It may also come in handy when applying for future those all important funding streams.

For bookings and further information contact:

richard@somersetfilm.com

For all you true romantics, some you may also be interested in a very special outdoor screening of Pandemonium at Fyne Court this summer on the 6th July. 

Pandaemonium, tells the turbulent tale of Samuel Coleridge and William Wordsworth's friendship, an addiction and a devastating betrayal during the French Revolution.

Julien Temple will be speaking about the film, his life as a film director and answering questions before the screening, you can then watch this fantastic film, spotting all the locations in the Quantocks where filming took place.