How could I not put loads of Dobby’s on here with this wonderful poem?!
Dear friend and wonderful poet, Trisha Broomfield gave me this lovely book Ten Poems about Cats. A real treasure and a big part of my Cat Book collection.
There are some beautiful poems about felines in there and this one by William Cowper was particularly true and touching. You can imagine I had a field day with these illustrations. Thank you so much, Trisha.
Read on for a delight
The Retired Cat
A poet’s cat, sedate and grave
As poet well could wish to have,
Was much addicted to inquire
For nooks to which she might retire,
And where, secure as mouse in chink,
She might repose, or sit and think.
A drawer, it chanced, at the bottom lined,
With linen of the softest kind,
With such as merchants introduce
From India, for the ladies’ use;
A drawer, impending o’er the rest,
Half open in the topmost chest,
Of depth enough and none to spare,
Invited her to slumber there;
Puss with delight beyond expression,
Surveyed the scene and took possession.
William Cowper (1731 – 1800)
Wasn’t that so touching and true?! Watch this space for many other cat pieces.
Thanks for tuning in, PL’s. We’ll be back with more poetry adventures real soon…..
Welcome back to the talk show studio for talented poets! (Frenzied cheering from the audience)
Now, settle down PL’s because we’re welcoming Steve Tasane….(Ecstatic applauseas our guest glides elegantly down the lit staircase)
Welcome to the show, Steve and thank you so much for coming along. And what a cool hat!
Why don’t you fill us in on your background?
Pleasure, Heather. Well, we never really grow up do we? At least, we poets don’t!
I threw myself into a life of writing and political activism to try and make sense of, and make amends for, a messy childhood – one of poverty, brutality and alienation, growing up in Rishi Sunak’s Yorkshire constituency back in the 1970s, one of four boys, sons of a refugee, raised by a single mother on a council estate.
None of my brothers made it into early old age, and the drawn-out self-harming elements of their deaths was immensely hurtful to their children.
Decades ago, I’d vasectomised myself (well, a doctor did it) in part because I didn’t want to pass on the damage of our childhood to my children. Instead, I wrote poems. You can metaphorically give birth to a poem, but you can’t hurt it – no matter how hard you try.
Oh Steve, that’s devastating about your family. They make and shape us, don’t they.
Initially, as an adult I was less creative, part of the 1980s anarchist and anti-fascist network and spent more time in cells than I did in libraries.
But I was always a poet, right from my school days when I’d write punk-inspired rants against the head teacher; and at some point I realised my skills were more appropriate to being a writer than they were to having running battles with the National Front – and more likely to be effective at creating a more positive world.
So here I am, still a struggling poet. But I’ve had more poetic success and adventures than most individuals could hope for in one life; and my writing extended itself to children’s novels. My last, Child I, was published by Faber and translated into 11 languages, and told the tale of unaccompanied child refugees in a camp. So, my change of tactics around challenging injustice proved to be a good choice.
Gosh, what an era that was. It’s made you a strong person and brought your talent out. Your children’s novels sound fascinating
As a poet, I’m still an outsider, despite amazing residencies (Dickens Bicentennial Celebrations, Battersea Dogs’ Home, D-Day Story Museum etc) and having visited hundreds of schools, libraries and literary festivals.
Why is that? Because political poetry should tell uncomfortable truths and, if it’s successful, poetry should piss people off, as well as uplift and inspire; it should make enemies as well as create unity; give a voice to the voiceless and downtrodden. The kind of stuff that’s frowned upon by the status quo. Stuff that unnerves the careerists and bullies.
It’s fair to say that I’ve been a roaring success on my own terms – and I know that I made my long-lost family proud.
I couldn’t agree with you more. And those are impressive residencies. What an experience.
Who were your biggest influences?
When I was very little, the first poems that really engaged me were Spike Milligan’s, mainly because they were daft and simple, playing with words in Milligan’s distinct way.
But what was a deeper influence at that time – I realised much later – were The Two Ronnies, who delighted in word-trickery that was mind-boggling and utterly inventive, almost as if they were using words to perform magic tricks.
I had ambitions to be a magician and owned more than a few Magic Trick sets; but magic tricks had no narrative, they didn’t delve into people’s experience, they were all spectacle and zero narrative.
Then, punk happened, and I had my first experience of word magicians – Ian Dury, a kind of Ronnie Barker with safety pins and swear words; John Cooper Clarke, a cartoon Bob Dylan doll, who delivered rat-a-tat wit and wisdom with immediate accessibility rather than Dylan’s deliberate obscurity; Crass, horribly noisy shouty anarchists whose LP sleeves unfolded into a giant political word map that I’d consume far more greedily than any Modern Poets Collection; Atilla the Stockbroker, whose “Bollocks to That” poem on a Cherry Red records compilation gave me a vision of my future life.
This year, 2024, I’m finally booked to do a feature set at Atilla’s Glastonwick Festival (having already toured extensively with Dr Clarke). Everything poetic opened up from there – Benjamin Zephaniah, Joolz Denby, John Hegley, Adrian Mitchell – as well as inspirational peers such as The Speech Painter, Patience Agbabi and Joelle Taylor, my poetry bandmates in the roofraising Atomic Lip, poetry’s first pop group.
The beauty of having been on the scene for so long means that my gang of peers continues to grow, present friends and influences including Mark ‘Mr T’ Thompson, Red Medusa, Isabel White and David Lee Morgan. Wonderful, all of them.
Oh The Two Ronnies were so clever, weren’t they?! And fantastic influences and names there.
I went to see Atilla the Stockbroker many times in the early ‘90s. He used to do a set with John Otway. And I see there’s a reunion going on now. Good for them. And soon you’ll be performing with Atilla (swoon!).
We’re very excited about your new collection Counter Offensive. Please tell us more…
I’ve been a busy little wordsmith, so my first poetry collection was out in 1996 and my second, Counteroffensive is out this year, 2024. I’ve been too busy doing live events, running workshops, writing novels, and frenziedly writing social commentary poetry that packs a punch one year and is out-of-date the next.
When the lovely Jason Why of London Poetry Books asked me to put together a new collection, it was an opportunity to do a sort of ‘live’ best of, unpublished poems that have been kicking up a racket on the stage, ranging from Beat Poem, written in 2000 and printed here for the first time, to Get The Vet, written in 2023 to support my niece’s training to be a vet.
It’s being launched with an open mic
celebration on Saturday 27th January, 5-7.30pm, at The Artillery Arms, Bunhill Row, London EC1. I’m also looking forward to ‘reading’ from Counteroffensive at London Poetry Books’ Multicultural Book Fair on September 14th.
Fascinating, Steve. I will be there for both. Jason is fantastic, isn’t he
Now, what is the best gig you’ve ever done – and the worst…
You’re rarely more alive than when you’re on a stage – or the top deck of a bus, where one of my most dramatic gigs took place. This was for Apples and Snakes’ Bus Jam, in association with Transport for London.
Unfortunately the Apples’ team-member who was organising us on that particular day bought us all tickets that weren’t valid when the bus moved into the next travel zone, which was when a ticket inspector (who, obviously, hadn’t read the poetry memo) got on and tried to issue us all with fines.
One poet (nameless) wound the inspector up by taking photographs of him and when he tried to grab the poet’s camera a small scuffle broke out, which turned into a slightly larger scuffle involving ripped shirts, scratched faces and a number of combatants tumbling out of the bus and brawling on the road outside Downing Street.
My street-fighting days were long since over and I watched, amused and quite pleased by the fact that here was a fight that I had absolutely no part in.
Another tricky gig was playing the World Music Stage at Glastonbury (at that point the third largest stage of the festival). It was during one of the Mud Years and I was wearing a pink sequined T-shirt. One of the Mud People threw a mudball that was zooming straight for me. I caught it one-handed, threw it back and raised my fist in the air, all without breaking my word rhythm – or muddying my sequins. I guess that was worst and best.
Other best gigs are really any at all that I do in schools, of whatever size. Assembly gigs are great, 9am, the entire school from Year 1 to Year 6, the most volatile crowd you can get, but also the most appreciative if they like what you do. School gigs are my early Beatles Hamburg moments, where I hone my craft.
My other favourites are pub gigs where the bar staff come up to you afterwards with the words, “I’m not really a fan of poetry, but I loved your stuff.” Yes!!
Steve, I could talk to you all day. You have opened up such a fascinating world for us. And you have a wonderful year coming up.
We so look forward to Counter Offensive, and congratulations. Very exciting.
Thank you so much for coming on the show (applause and standing ovation)
Our esteemed guest legs it back up the stairs before Dobby gets him!
Wasn’t Steve a wonderful guest?! Such incredible insight. Here are some links to Steve’s poems on YouTube. Worth a click, I’ve had the honour of hearing Get The Vet. Powerful piece.
Now, you must have been at our New Years Eve non-party last night. Of course, we were all masked so we wouldn’t recognise each other, but wasn’t it a wonderful bash?!
To those of you whose invitation got lost in the post, I apologise. Top of the list for next year!!
The wonderful Trisha Broomfield, talented poet and fellow Booming Lovely was one of the tip-top guests (along with Sharron Green), and Trisha has penned a wonderful anticipatory response to this event of the year.
Read on, it’s marvellous!
The Non-Party
I’m going to a non-party it’s invitation only
I’m wearing my best jumpsuit I’ll order up a Pony,
that’s Bourbon and Campari throw in bitters, orange peel,
I’ll wear my velvet jacket and my very highest heel (s).
Heather will host the party Sharron will be there
and other folks all arty with flowers in their hair.
The drink will flow and music thump we’ll have the bestest time
recite so many verses that by midnight we’ll all mime.
So think of our non-party as you see the New year in
we’ll be having so much fun drinking punch with Bombay gin.
We’ll do a snake-like conga as we all play the fool,
while you’ll be supping cocoa in front of Later with Jool(s).
Even though we are looking at a New Year, I thought as we’re still in December – just, I’d share my recent birthday poem penned by my lovely and talented friend, Trisha Broomfield.
Not only is it beautifully written, it also sums me up to a tee! Great insight there, Trisha and thank you again so much. Please read on, because I think you will agree
Birthday Poem
This cold weather’s not for me
I’m looking for me best cardi
but Dobby’s got her paws on it
despite the fact it doesn’t fit.
She sleeping in me best handbag
I’d better go and have a fag.
I write a lot about past times
love haibuns, triolets and eye rhymes.
You know that Julie was a slag.
I’d better have another fag.
This bleep bleep housework is a bore
I’ve got to wash me kitchen floor
You know where I would like to be ?
me feet up with a G & T.
Of creativity I’m a hive
I make friends’ poems come alive
I’m a Lovely and I’m Booming
I see success for us is looming
I’ll write us up, I do reviews,
now what’s the very latest news?
Trisha Broomfield 2023
Wasn’t that such a terrific piece?! I will treasure that for the rest of my birthdays to come. And yes, watch out for us Booming Lovelies in 2024!
Thanks for tuning in, Poetry Lovers, I will indeed see you next year!
Yes, we’ve taken the Reliant back to Memory Corner.
Why is it that the prospect of a new year makes you hark back to an old one?
I’m thinking of 2019. That was a very good year for poetry. I was very prolific performance wise. And naive, well we all were. Nobody anticipated the blow of lockdown early into 2020. Where we realised how much we took for granted. Did I foolishly once say that 2020 was going to be a good year?! I think I did! Hands up if you did the same.
This is a collage of events;
Sadly, a few of these aren’t around anymore. The Troubadour, once a prestigious place for poetry, is no longer in the equation. Cranleigh Arts Festival looks like making a return though, and hopefully, Celine’s Salon. Dorking is Talking, a marvellous project, would be welcomed back with open arms. The Slip-off Festival and Poem-a-thon were one-offs, so we’ll let them go with love. Fantastic events.
This is not to say I haven’t had good years before and since. 2023, for instance, gave my first foray into a fringe festival with The Booming Lovelies. An exhilarating experience, and I’m confident of other things to come.
Thanks for sharing this journey with me, PL’s. You have fairly recent memories yourself, I know. Now, if you all get in an orderly queue, the reliant will take you back to the present day. No pushing!!
Yes, you heard right! We are back in the talk show studio with the marvellous and talented artist and poet Lee Campbell. (Ecstatic wild applause)
We all want to make Lee welcome, so Dobby – no biting! Ow! What did I just say?!
(Our esteemed guest Lee Campbell glides down the lighted staircase)
Welcome to the show, Lee. Thanks for agreeing to be our guest.
Pleasure, Heather. Tell Dobby to stop growling or I’ll set Rufus onto her, (Dobby legs it – fast)
Now it’s a bit calmer, Lee, fill us in on your background
My formal training background is in Fine Art Painting. Prior to receiving my doctorate in 2016 from Loughborough University, I trained in Fine Art Painting at Winchester School of Art (1996-2000) where I earned my B.A and Slade School of Fine Art (2005-2007) where I received my M.F.A.
I currently work as Senior Lecturer at Wimbledon College of Arts at University of the Arts London (UAL). I have worked across UAL’s six colleges since 2009.
That’s so impressive, Lee. When did poetry become a part of your life?
I have a long history of creating performance art which often included spoken word/verbal language elements but not what I would necessarily consider as being ‘poetry’ or ‘performance poetry’ for that matter, but that’s open to interpretation!
Between 2019-2021, I made a series of short films which recycle my personal archive of artworks as an artist of 25 years into the present. Let Rip: A Personal History of Seeing and Not Seeing (2019), Let Rip: The BeautifulGame (2020), Let Rip: Teenage Scrapbook (2021) and Let Rip: Bodies Lean and Ripped (2020) using the ‘rip’ as both metaphor, symbol and filmic structure to build upon existing work, create new forms out of ‘old’ practice and indeed show new versions of ‘old’ me.
This meant creating surfaces and layers on the screen which I would appear to be ripping or tearing apart to reveal something about myself. Cascading through different time periods but really speaking to the present, these films play with the sensations of an image, aiming to capture how reality is constructed of images, images that are out there in culture but also personal images that I create myself.
Many of the films that I created within the Let Rip series I referred to above, actually begun life having written text placards embedded within them rather than me speaking poetry that I had written as a voiceover (I’ll refer to this point again later in the interview).
Artist Clunie Reid, when watching Let Rip: A Personal History of Seeing and Not Seeing (2019) in November 2020 commented that the written placards within this film needed to be spoken/performed/read aloud by me rather than written as I have a particular voice from a particular point in London’s queer history. She suggested that my voice and my accent evidence my life so clearly – a specific voice that gives me a specific identity to a specific place.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic. I could not imagine the conditions at that particular time of me ever performing (physically) in public again.
It was a cold and dull Sunday in late November 2020. An advert for an online poetry mic called PoetryLGBT on Zoom popped up on my Facebook feed. I thought this would be a good chance to read out those written placards above as ‘poetry’, a context and a scene that I had not ventured into before. What’s the worst that can happen I thought. If they all think what I read out aloud is sh*t then I’ll just press ‘exit’ on my laptop. What have I got to lose! Little did I know that this Sunday afternoon online open mic, was going to change the direction of my practice forever. I remember the experience well.
The host Andreena Leeanne was so supportive and welcoming to everyone. I was enthused by her energy and passion for the poets performing. I performed online for 6 or 7 months due to Covid restrictions.
My first proper ‘poetry performance’ in person was June/July 2021 at Paper Tiger Poetry. Barney (Ashton-Bullock) who I met through PoetryLGBT online invited me along. Do you remember it? It was such a hot night! I remember performing my poem about football and covert desire, Clever at Seeing without being Seen, with my crappy cassette recorder. Finding a humorous route to process the trauma of life (being bullied, losing parents etc). The audience’s reaction and particularly that of Jason (Why) who hosts the night was incredible. That was a life changing moment for sure.
I have really appreciated Jason’s continual support since then, and of course, yours Heather.
I have a soft spot for cassette recorders. They have brought me true happiness.This is so inspirational , Lee.
Yes, I do remember it well. Fantastic piece. Brought the room alive.What a night that was! As well as a big turning point!
Ah, thank you. Jason is a wonderful support, isn’t he.
From a visual arts perspective, artists who use text in their work Ed Ruscha, Lawrence Weiner, Jenny Holzer, Bruce Nauman, Barbara Kruger for sure and also filmmaker Derek Jarman’s text-heavy paintings. Andy Warhol, in terms of my usage of repetition in poetry and performance. I absolutely love South African artist William Kentridge’s work (drawing, film and projection).
Poetry wise, I love those poets who incorporate visual and multimedia aspects in what they do like Pip McDonald, Chris Clark and Frankie Calvert. And particularly those who use their bodies in a really expressive and visceral manner like Redeeming Features. I was absolutely blown away when I first saw him perform at Paper Tiger Poetry. Music is such an important influence, mainly electronica, ambient and drone. Early Chicago house music, Moby’s early stuff in the 1990s (although I love the track ‘Tecie’ from his last studio album All Visible Objects, so repetitive and hypnotic like one of my poems/films). William Basinkski too. I particularly like Bradford’s worriedaboutsatan and Sheffield’s The Black Dog at the moment.
Like the mixtape collections I kept as a teenager in the 1980s/90s, from a young age, for as long as I can remember, I have always kept scrapbooks inspired by my mother’s own love of keeping scrap/postcard books from going on holiday.
The aesthetics of the scrapbook and scrapping have been an anchor through my practice as an artist stretching as far back as the multi-media paintings I produced in the late 1990s inspired by the work of such artists as Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. Recent influences in terms of usage of making picture books and performing with them, are Frog Morris who has displayed his own hand drawn illustrations on an easel during his spoken word performances, and Spike Zephaniah who creates live drawings whilst he’s performing akin to how artist Pablo Picasso drew live as he spoke to an audience.
Also Rachel Pantechnicon who shows imagery from books etc. during her live spoken word performances.
Nothing lowers the tone like [Lee’s poem] Devil’s Hole’ announced cartoonist and poet Martin Rowson speaking at New Poetry Shack, London, April 2023 after my picture book poetry performance of Devil’s Hole. The picture book accompanying the live performance of Devil’s Hole takes on the form of what initially appears to be a travel guide/ brochure for ‘East Coast Cruising’.
As the poem unfolds and the pages are turned showing stills from the film version (2022) including at the start, nostalgic images of Brighton seafront (on the South Coast in fact), the viewer realises the double entendre of the term ‘cruising’ is being employed here; the gay slang for men looking for other men to have sex. Inspired by Katalin Ladik’s Selected Folk Songs 1973-1975 which I encountered at ON STAGE – All the Art World’s a Stage at Mumok in Vienna in Spring 2023 (included a series of visual collages displayed on the wall accompanied by a soundtrack which audiences could listen using supplied headphones), I particularly enjoy performing the lines of the poem including the words ‘ooooh’ and ‘ouch’ printed in my picture book.
Akin to Ladik’s work I saw in Vienna, the audience not only see these words printed in my picture book, but they also hear me make the sounds accompanying these words.
Marvellous Lee, and such deserved endorsements and I LOVE those concepts!I also find your scrapbook so moving, it brings back many memoriesof my mother
Check out these articles I have written and recent interview revealing the processes and ideas behind my films:
Technoparticipation: Scrapbooks, stories and secrets”, Body, Space & Technology 22(1), 199–219. https://doi.org/10.16995/bst.988
‘Covert Operations: Acts of Secrecy and Homosexual Identity, Hakara: A Bi-Lingual Journal of Creative Expression.
.This is such stunning and innovative ground, Lee. What an impressive collection. And the people you mentioned phenomenal, I love those poets too. Such talent
Are you working on anything at the moment?
I have just written a journal article ‘PICTURE BOOK POETRY : Scrapbooks, stories and secrets’ which theorises, articulates and demonstrates how I work personal issues out through my poetry and how my engagement with those issues comes over so powerfully to its audience through my ‘picture book poetry’. The chapter will be published next year. Book 2.0, Volume 14, Issue 1 .
I have also recently finished a book chapter ‘Homo Humour: Metamodernist Acts of Secrecy, Homosexual Identity and Humorous Word Play’ to be included in the book Conceptual Writing and Humor (2023) published by the Institute for Comparative Literature, University of Porto.
I’ve recently started working with performance poet Nick Eisen mixing poetry, drawing, performance and audience participation and have some ideas for performances together in 2024. An article that I have written about our collaboration “On your Marks: Difference, Collisions, and Incompatibilities in Embodied Post-Performative Collaborative Drawing” will be published in Body, Space & Technology 22(2) in early 2024.
I am now excited to be working on my debut poetry collection, tentatively titled ‘SEE ME: An (almost) Autobiography’ a collection of poems sharing my personal history of seeing and not seeing as a working-class gay British man, to confront the politics of seeing and underline how validating seeing can be but also the difficulty of not being seen (e.g, in the poem Clever at Seeing without being Seen). It presents a journey through different relationships including those as a teenager to my dad (in Tackle), teachers, school peers, work colleagues (in Let Rip: Teenage Scrapbook and Head Boy) then adult relationship to gay community (e.g., SEE ME: A Walk through London’s Gay Soho …), alter ego (in Camp-Belle and Rufus), spaces of queer imagination (e.g., in Michael in the Mountains and Juicy Lucy) and references to gay history (e.g. the use of gay slang Polari in The Tale of Benny Harris).
Whilst each poem can be understood as one person’s (my) narrative so too can it easily be read as lots of different voices layered to talk about wider levels of experience with various references to cultural context that (any)one can relate to: football matches, George Michael, late night TV, bad porn, fancying schoolteachers etc. The collection addresses a range of complex and tricky issues; body shaming and bitchiness within the gay community (in Spinach and Eggs and Slang Bang), self-worth, doing things to ‘fit in’, unrequited love, unobtainable love i.e. me fancying my straight mate etc (in Apple of my Eye and Dancing with Spiders), unsatisfying relationships, the fear of being left ‘on the shelf, internalised homophobia and confidence e.g., in Reclaiming My Voice) and concerns around LGBT allyship (e.g. in Camp).
SEE ME works as a flow of history playing with the whole idea of whether or not this is a truthful autobiography/diary and dispelling the notion that if it’s a diary it must be true.
There are imaginative elements of fancifulness in many of the poems which hide me in a certain way and are important because then I could be anyone and my readers can possibly engage more in those stories. As part of the collection, I hope to include a selection of my own hand-drawn illustrations to visually animate the poems.
Oh fantastic, I’m desperate to read it. Your scrapbooks and art blow me away! They really are so personal and strip away so many layers
(Audience cheer in agreement)
So, now the ultimate question – what is the best gig you’ve done, and the WORST ?!
(Audience gasp in anticipation)
One of my favourites was very recently at That Goddamn Poetry Jam, Kid Anansi’s night at The Fiddler’s Elbow in Camden when I performed my poem Spokesfist. I have never heard an audience roar with such laughter at one of my performances than at that night – when I turned my back to the audience and started having a rather intimate conversation with my ‘speaking’ fist!
‘Worst’ …. Well, quite possibly is one I performed at an open mic in Beckenham a few summers back. The audience were far more interested in eating their pizzas than engaging with my poetry – the pizzas did smell rather good though!
I think that’s very generous of you to allow them that. We have to have a bad reading, it’s like a rite of passage. I bet you wished you were sitting there with them!
Thanks for coming on the show and being such a wonderful, generous and fascinating guest. (Audience cheer loudly).
Don’t look now, Lee but I think Dobby’s returning with her mates. I advise you and Rufus to leg it – now!
(Our esteemed guest and dog leave the building swiftly.)
Wasn’t Lee Campbell a wonderful guest, PL’s. Do click on those articles, they’re amazing reading.
Thanks for joining us in the studio, Poetry Lovers, we’ll be back with more poetry action real soon……
So the As I was going to St Ives riddle sparked off memories for me of other traditional pieces one has grown up with. My favourite being East West, Home’s best.
I have written a triolet on this profound statement. I have put it as Home is best to make the line longer, although I think some versions do have the is in there.
East West, Home is Best
East West, home is best
My four walls and a cat
In home ground I did invest
East West, home is best
The outside world is of interest
But I’ve heard it’s not all that!
East West, home is best
My four walls and a cat
H.Moulson 2023
And there are many other proverbs, but here is two I like best. I’ve simply illustrated them. No more triolets in this part..
People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
Not for all the tea in China.
So, Poetry Lovers, let me know your favourite proverb on a postcard to the usual address.
Thanks for tuning in, PL’s. We’ll be back real soon….
Yes, Poetry Lovers, we’re back in the talk show studio (rapturous applause)
And today, our wonderful esteemed guest is talented and prolific poet, Stephen Claughton. (huge applause) (Stephen Claughton glides on elegantly, if a little wary).
Thank you so much for coming on the show, Stephen. And what a cool flowery shirt and tie !(audience cheer in agreement)
Now don’t look so worried, Dobby is not about – at the moment. You won’t be bitten – yet!
That’s a relief! Pleasure to be here, Heather
I’m a big fan of your poetry, Stephen.
Would you like to fill us in on your background ?
I’d be glad to. I grew up in Manchester, read English at Oxford and worked for many years as a civil servant. I’ve recently been a borough and town councillor and was Mayor of Berkhamstead for a year.
Although I enjoyed my time in local politics, I stood down at the May elections to allow more space for poetry and my family. I have a wife, two daughters and two young grandsons.
Oh marvellous. It must have been an honour to wear that gold chain. So splendid looking.
But yes, any sort of politics is very time consuming, so that was a good move. One that’s paid off well.
As well as writing poetry, I’ve done some reviewing for The High Window and London Grip, among others.
I’m a member of Ver Poets, for whom I manage their social media and compile the monthly e-letter. I’ve recently become their Chair. We’re a long-established group in St Albans but have national and international membership.
We’re currently revamping our website and putting together a varied programme of readings, open-mic events and workshops. Open to non-members too.
Oh yes, they have a very good reputation. Reaching out to more poets is a great idea. We should all do that.
When did poetry become a part of your life?
I began writing poetry in my early teens. My mother taught English but it was my school teachers who were my main inspiration. One of our texts was The Albermarle Book of Modern Verse which became my gateway into 20th century poetry.
We remember some teachers all our lives, don’t we. They open so many doors for us.
Despite some early success, there was a long period when I didn’t produce anything, even though I still read poems. When I did send some out to magazines, editors were encouraging but nothing got published.
It wasn’t until I was in my fifties that I started writing seriously. I had a lack of time and confidence, poetry was too important to risk failing at. Then I reached an age when I realised I was going to fail by default, if I didn’t do something about it.
Yes, these moments of clarity visit us, and we’re very glad they do. But it has to be the right moment.
Who were your biggest influences?
There are lots of poets I admire and many have influenced me, but I’ll pick out two – one bad and the other good. T.S. Eliot was a great poet but a bad influence on me as a teenager. It made me think good poetry had to be obscure. I was rescued by Hugo Williams – I admired his clarity and directness as well as his poems. How he revised poems from start to finish rather than line by line. It was a revelation to me.
Yes, adore Hugo Williams. Bit ambivalent about Thomas…..
Tell us about The 3-D Clock and The War with Hannibal. Both very moving collections.
Poetry Salzburg published my first pamphlet The War with Hannibal at the end of 2019. It isn’t an epic to do with the Second Punic War: the title poem is about a Latin lesson and there are poems on a variety of subjects. One reviewer noted that a number of them occur in pairs – two about Larkin, two about tying ties, two ekphrastic poems and three about birds.
I adore those tie pieces. It is an amazingly detailed and personal collection.
And so is the The 3-D Clock, an insight into a painful journey..
The 3-D Clock which Dempsey & Windle published in 2020, deals with my late mother’s dementia. I hadn’t set out to write a sequence about it, but her illness was a large part of my life, so not surprising that it became a subject. The poems kept coming even after the pamphlet was published, although I hope they’ve stopped now – for everyone’s sake.
We might not want them to stop, Stephen. Beautiful moving poetry.
Are you working on anything at the moment?
I’ve recently finished (I think) a series of poems about drawings in Hokusai’s The Great Picture Book of Everything. The pictures were made for an encyclopaedia that wasn’t printed, so they weren’t destroyed in the woodblock-making process. The British Museum acquired them and held an exhibition a couple of years ago.
At the moment, I’m working on a sequence of sonnets about people I met in hospital many years ago. I don’t know if it will come to anything.
They’re both fascinating subjects, Stephen, and it’s funny how people in our past stay with us so powerfully. I love sonnets. I look forward to reading.
Now(Audience gasp in anticipation) what’s the best gig you’ve ever done? And the Worst…?
My best gig was in June this year, when the Toddington Poetry Society had me as a guest reader at one of the regular meetings in the Luton Irish Forum. They were very welcoming and gave me three quarters of an hour in the first half, and five minutes at the end, so I was able to read a large selection of my work. They even bought copies of my pamphlets!
My worst reading was one I organised myself. Poetry Salzburg are in Austria so I had to make my own launch for The War with Hannibal. I hired a room over a pub in Berkhamstead and had flyers printed, which I left with local bookshops and libraries. I advertised the event on social media, Ver Poets e-letter, and even contacted the local paper. Beside my wife and daughter, and some friends, only three members of the public turned up. They were polite, asked questions at the end but didn’t buy any copies.
The venue was ideal, and I enjoyed doing the reading but as a book launch, it was something of a disaster.
Dempsey & Windle were to launch The 3-D Clock at The Poetry Cafe but Covid put an end to that.
Both my pamphlets have been victims of the pandemic. I’m still trying to make up lost ground.
Yes, my heart went out to poets that had been published at that time. Well, your best gig sounded fantastic but your worst… oh no! Funny, you see these beautiful venues sometimes but….. I hope you make up for it with your next collection.
Thank you so much for coming on the show, Stephen. A fascinating and clever guest (ecstatic applause from audience) so out and about tonight, Stephen?
Dobby’s barred me from all clubs in London
Ah yes, it’s the shirt and tie, you see. She didn’t like it – and speaking of which, here she comes!
(Our esteemed guest legs it – fast!). Ah bless her, Dobby’s going after him! Now, be gentle, Dobby!
Wasn’t Stephen Claughton a wonderful and fascinating guest?! (Another ecstatic round of applause). I highly recommend Stephen’s two collections. Go to http://www.stephenclaughton.com to treat yourselves, and see more delightful poetry.
Thanks so much for attending the talk show, Poetry Lovers. We’ll be back with more poetry action real soon…..
and my writing extended itself to children’s novels. My last, Child I, was published by Faber and translated into 11 languages, and told the tale of unaccompanied child refugees in a camp. So, my change of tactics around challenging injustice proved to be a good choice.
Dorking is Talking, a marvellous project, would be welcomed back with open arms. The Slip-off Festival and Poem-a-thon were one-offs, so we’ll let them go with love. Fantastic events. 
I have a long history of creating performance art which often included spoken word/verbal language elements but not what I would necessarily consider as being ‘poetry’ or ‘performance poetry’ for that matter, but that’s open to interpretation! 
The audience’s reaction and particularly that of Jason (Why) who hosts the night was incredible. That was a life changing moment for sure. 
and I LOVE those concepts! I also find your scrapbook so moving, it brings back many memories of my mother
Heather Moulson 