W/C Sunday 27th Jan

Had a very enjoyable couple of hours at the Sunday Matinee at Firstsite Colchester on the 27th which saw a wide variety of talent on display. I was first up and did the same set as the recent Open Mike as studying and a loss of I.T. for a few days mitigated against putting a new set together. However on the plus side not everyone had heard it before! The "Circles" project is progressing well and there will be some new material to share soon. This will be a quick in and out sort of post as I really ought to have my head buried in a book right now. However, I can't resist sharing an Emily Dickinson poem in the Gothic style number "410" from the year 1862.....

The first Day's Night had come -
And grateful that a thing
So terrible - had been endured -
I told my soul to sing -

She said her strings were snapt -
Her Bow - to atoms blown -
And so to mend her - gave me work
Until another morn

And then - A day as huge
As yesterdays in pairs,
Unrolled its horror in my face -
Until it blocked my eyes -

My Brain - begun to laugh
I mumbled - like a fool
And tho' tis years ago - that Day -
My brain keeps giggling - still.

And somthing's odd - within -
That person that I was -
And this One - do not feel the same -
Could it be Madness - this?

---------------------------------

I love the enigmatic quality of Emily's work, a great influence on me

Well that's the mini update over, hope to see you at a Poetry meet soon.

W/C 13th January 2013

Welcome to the first post of 2013 and it's been a busy week. Firstly there was the January meeting of Colchester Poetry on Tuesday the 8th and very enjoyable it was too. The themes of 'Berbatov' and 'Scavenger' brought forth some interesting work from all concerned. My own submission on the 'scavenger' theme will follow shortly.

Last night, 12th January, saw Colchester Poetry's first open mike of the year including poetry performances from Jonathan King, Jason McLean, Belinda Colaianni-Federl, SteveOvel, Steve Lawton and the 'Wingless Heron' ensemble of Tess Gardner, Phil Mill and Joe Elliot-Purtell, plus music from Alex Yandle, and performances from Modal Roberts and Mouth amongst others. Colchester has wealth of acts out there, so if you weren't there that's a flavour of what you missed, don't miss the next one! Follow via my Facebook friends for links to Colchester Poetry and the various performers and acts concerned to know more about them.

I've added a new page 'Minutiae' with extracts from the first collection of poems dating from early 2010. The collection is subtitled "the poetry of the first half of  a life" and tackles many thorny issues close to my heart. As ever I hope you like the poems.....

Now its time for the scavenging submission from Tuesday.....

Hyena

I pick the bones of my elysian fields

As clock hands work their way around

A sad face marking passing hours

Spent scavenging your memory

From pictures that besotted me

I pull ragged little bits of love

All night through my longing plays

Like an insular game of lone charades

A dark sarcophagus held your heart

I tried to crack its outer shell

And win your shining x-ray smile

With futile hopes that lie exposed

You left in such indecent haste

Now burning questions sting my lips

As I lick this poisoned chalice clean

Savouring its strange metallic taste

At the end of the path that leads nowhere

All the answers to the riddle writhe 

Within me, myself and I, like a splendid carrion

Served nightly in a thin membrane of dreams

Mark Harris has asserted his right under

Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

To be identified as the author of this work.

End of year week commencing 30/12/12

Well its been a busy year! I'd like firstly to thank Mr James Sarek for giving poetry in Colchester such a boost. The group aptly named Colchester Poetry only kicked off in February of this year when the town seemed very quiet on the poetical front. What a difference a year makes! There has been much organised to give local performers a platform to share their work, the most recent being December 15th when an end of year get together took place at Colchester Slack Space hosted by none other than Father Christmas himself! I'd like to thank his mince pie and sherry eminence for taking time off from more pressing duties in Lapland.
I'm certainly looking forwards to 2013, no doubt there will be more poems to be dreamt up and completed.

Meanwhile I'll share one of the poems that made it onto the Dec 15th set. Very much a "Winters Tale" of sorts. The poem is taken from "Germination" and you can find more from the same on the relevant page.....

 The Dance of Shadows

As darkness falls and the wild wind speaks

Like a moaning wraith in death bereaved

Making tortured scraping sounds

It whips across the frozen ground

A wise owl hoots his warning word

Not to enter this night time world

Of leafless trees, clawing like hands

They rise, yet tortured, from the land

Winter’s breath berates the trees

That dance in moonlight revelries

Ghastly forms spring from darkening holes

And grimly dance their shadows

The wind is rising, stronger still

Pregnant with night time’s eerie chill

Branches beaten into frenzy

Shadows dancing, faster, chanting 

The spirit of deep winter’s God

Blackens the land, with his cloak outspread

All light is masked, the land it shouts

For even the shadows are blotted out

I've also added a new page "Venus Veins" with some poems from my project of the same title which I hope you enjoy. The work comes from the high summer of 2010 and is very much part of a "journey through the soul".

Well, that's just about it for 2012, see you next year!

Mark Harris has asserted his right under

Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

To be identified as the author of this work.

Week commencing 09/12/12

Well, it's been a couple of quieter weeks on the poetical front as studies have taken priority but inevitably there's things, ideas, for new work swirling around the backwaters of my mind for the latest project I've given the working title of "Circles" to. However, there's also plenty of archive material to draw upon.

2010 really was a busy year on the writing front and I've added a new page from a project completed towards the very end of that year, 'The Body Curio'. The work was done on the re-bound of material I'd written for 'Testimony' which was completed in the autumn of the same year. Indeed, it was like 'The Body Curio' was a child of 'Testimony' and every bit as intense in places.

The subject material ranged far and wide and took the form of three distinct 'movements' of which I've only given a taster here, many of the pieces having been performed live in recent months. As always I hope you enjoy the new page and post.

I'll hopefully be back soon for another update!

Kind regards
Mark

Week commencing 25/11/12

It's time to add a new page, albeit somewhat unusual.....

In late 2011 I completed a project called "Germination" (A teenage resurrection).

Rummaging around in the detritus of life I came across a long lost book of poems actually intended in the first instance as song lyrics back in the days when I thought I was going to be in a band, typical teenage stuff.

The lyrics had long outlived the very short-lived band but I was struck by their often very bleak alienated content and wondered if they would make a sort of half way house between song lyrics and poems "pongs" without losing the original "feel" they had for me.

I got totally absorbed in the process like I was translating an old papyrus and ended up with over seventy "pongs" in a short but very intense period of work of which I have added a sample here. The overall piece has an almost Gothic horror quality about it,  I wondered who the person was who had written them some thirty years before.....

Plus ca change, plus la meme chose?

Anyway I hope you like the taster.....

Mark

24/11/12

Well, it's time for an update and I must begin by saying that I have discovered a new "holy grail" poetry wise to add to the Leonard Cohen holy grail that I've nurtured for a while now. The new discovery is Emily Dickinson a nineteenth century American poetess who wrote such perfect work and in such profusion that my head is in a whorl. What to do when you encounter true genius? Be inspired, be very inspired so I write a piece as an ode to all I have learned this past week: -

Awe

Alone on the shore of eternity’s sequind hem

And all that it enfolds

Endless realms stretch beyond my mind

And all that it can hold

Yet creation’s womb was smaller than a grain of sand

So tonight I playfully mask heavens glory

Cover everything that ever was

With my mortal hand

________________

Well, I hope you liked my attempt, I feel awed by Emily, I have discovered a universe in her work.....

Mark Harris has asserted his right under

Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

To be identified as the author of this work.

Week commencing Sunday 11th November 2012

Latest News:

Welcome back to Ariadne's Thread, it's been quite a week on the poetical front!

Firstly the Colchester Poetry Open Mike on Saturday featuring strong performances from all concerned was a very enjoyable experience and took place at Colchester Firstsite on Saturday 10th November. I'm certainly looking forwards to the next one. Having completed rather more urgent assignments, I'm back in writing mode and making some progress with the latest project "Circles". 

As I continue to add extracts from some of my completed projects, I thought it might be useful to give    some sort of chronology to what I've done so here goes:

Completed

Minutiae - The poetry of the first half of a life (2010)

Venus Veins - (2010)

Testimony - (2011)

The Body Curio - (The diary of an intimate wounding) - (2011)

Rumpspringa - (Letters from the sea of longing) - (2011)

Teenage Resurrection - (2011)

Apocrypha - (Exploring aspects of the void) (2012)

Still writing

Circles - (A ring cycle)

I do realise that's quite a lot of "stuff" and the initial torrent has slowed to a more considered pace now. Each work has a macro theme which explains the sub-titles given to some of the pieces. I firmly believe that writing things down, giving experiences, particularly the difficult ones, some sort of tangible form is very therapeutic. When asked I have always said I'd have written all this anyway just for myself. People have generally responded positively to what I've written hence the decision to share some of it. I've added extracts from 'Rumpspringa' as a new page today, hope you like them.    

To close for today, I'm currently reading about the life and times of Emily Dickinson, a particularly prolific 19th century American writer. Some of her pieces are really beautiful and enigmatic. I think it's healthy to have something to aspire to if at all possible.

Until next time..... 

Mark Harris has asserted his right under

Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

To be identified as the author of this work.