First Rainbow

On Mayday I showed you my first Skywatch picture from our new apartment and the following week I showed you a brighter view.

Today as my contribution to Skywatch Friday I'm showing the first rainbow we've seen from our new abode.

James Kirkup (1918-2009)

James Kirkup, poet and translator, was born in South Shields on April 23, 1918. He died on May 10, 2009, aged 91

Most newspaper obituaries including the one in Times OnLine highlight his involvement in the Gay News blasphemy trial, and its sad that this is what he is most remembered for.

Some of us remember him more for his poetry and especially his contribution to the world of haiku and tanka.

I've had periodic correspondance with him since the 70s when he submitted poetry to me. THE GUITAR-PLAYER OF ZUIGANJI was first published in Headland #8.

I had previously published in a limited edition his "MANY-LINED POEM", one or two extant copies of which I have buried in a box somewhere. He was still sending me work from Andorra as recently as a couple of years ago.

The latest issue of The Tanka Journal #34 includes a tanka sequence THE WEDDING GROUP which begins

In one day's rare sun
they smile their assembled smiles
from the bright heaven
of otherworld garden's own
unplucked bouquet of summer.

As Patricia Prime writes in her review of his collection THE AUTHENTIC TOUCH (Bluechrome Publishing ISBN 1 904781 59 4)

Kirkup's poems are a privilege to experience, their generosity and musicality complementing and complicating the reader's own truths with each and every read. The poems strike a tone of light, deft whimsicality, but within the wit and whimsy, the wisdom and fine irony, is a ruthless commentary on the human condition.

His last published book was Marsden Bay and his publishers Red Squirrel Press are inviting people to a celebration of his life from 10.00 am - 12.00 midday on Saturday 13th June at South Shields Central Library.

I won't be there but I will be remembering him.

Astropoetry to the International Year of Astronomy 2009

Moon and Venus over the Royal Church in Targoviste, Romania, 2008-12-31 © Valentin Grigore introduces Astropoetry to the International Year of Astronomy 2009 by members and friends of the Romanian Society for Meteors and Astronomy; Project Coordinator: Andrei Dorian Gheorghe; Project Designer: Florin Stancu.

Already published are a prologue including some excellent photographs and poetry concluding with an ASTROTIPURITURA by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

Choose the light, man, choose the high light,
Then follow it and become bright!

and the 1st Quarter.

Arlene Carol exhorts

Come, let us join together
To celebrate
All of these glorious celestial bodies
And other galactic orrery…

The poems and photographs record such events as the Moon-Venus Conjunction, Ursa Major over the Retezat Mountains, the Quadrantid meteor shower, Star trails of Orion and Canis Major, Moon sequences, the Rosette Nebula, the Sun Pillar, eclipses, Saturn's rings, Comets Lulin and Kushida, Northern Lights and halos.

My favourite poem (and not just because he is a friend from down the road) is EARTHSHINE by John Francis Haines (U.K. Leader of the Eight Hand Gang - British network of SF poets)

Basking in dim, reflected glory, the Old
Moon sleeps in the New Moon's arms, but behind
This faded face lurks the Darkside, forever
Hid from view, accessible only through
Direct visit by man or probe, a land
Beyond our ken, Luna's shadowy secret.

Three more collections are promised before the end of the year and I shall look forward to viewing them.

Magic with Balls

Rob Bardsley regulary appears on a Saturday morning in Clarendon Mall, Hyde, performing his magic and blowing up balloons. Against the clock he can create a balloon sausage dog in seven seconds!

This brief video clip shows him entertaining my son Craig.



Recently he received his greatest accolade by being granted membership of the Magic Circle in London.

End of the Bang

The B of the Bang, erected in 2004 outside the City of Manchester Stadium, was designed as a tribute to the 2002 Commonwealth Games and was named after British sprinter Linford Christie's famous saying: "I'll be gone by the B of the Bang."

See my photograph of the sculpture under construction.


The 184ft (56m) sculpture, designed to look like a fireworks explosion, was made up of 200 solid steel columns. Welders spent several hours securing five of its 82ft (25m) tapered legs to the ground.

I took this close-up shot of the centre of the sculpture in February 2009.


In February 2009 it was announced that it was to be taken down after being blighted by safety concerns and a legal row. One of its 180 steel spikes was dislodged within two weeks of its erection and 22 have since been removed from the sculpture.


Work has now started on dismantling the sculpture. These last three photographs were taken on Monday 18th May, 2009.


I don't exactly know what the workmen here were doing but I saw flames coming out from what I assume was an acetylene torch.

The short video clip below was meant to show how the spikes were vibrating in the wind. It is clear on the original, but not so clear on this reduced-quality version uploaded through blogger. I still need to learn how to edit video clips.

Beneath Thin Snow

Included in the latest issue of Simply Haiku: A Quarterly Journal of Japanese Short Form Poetry, Vol.7 #2 is Beneath Thin Snow, a triparshva renku by Carole MacRury, Colin Stewart Jones, Gerald England, Alison Williams, Susan Shand, Kathy Earsman, Norman Darlington and Mary White, composed in the Facebook Renku Group during December 2008 and January 2009.

There is also another version which includes Notes from some of the participants which gives a little insight into how the work was composed.

Evening Star

In 2005 under the leadership of William J. Higginson, eight poets gathered to compose the kasen The Click of Mahjong Tiles.

Upon news of Bill's death in October 2008 it seemed natural to gather again in the same spot of cyberspace where they had shared the creative and inspiring experience of writing with Bill three years earlier. To mark the passing of their friend and teacher, they decided to write to a pre-modern abbreviated form known as Ura Shiro, meaning "back blank" because it approximates to the first side of the first sheet of a hyakuin (100-verse renga). The Ura Shiro has eight verses; there were eight members in the group, including Bill, and an old ku of his was used as hokku.

First published in Frogpond Vol.32 #1, Evening Star by Carole MacRury, John Carley, Susan Shand, Gerald England, Hortensia Anderson, John W Sexton, Norman Darlington and William J, Higginson can now be viewed on Xaiku.

Skywatch Friday: Brabyns Park, Marple

More than 300 blogs regularly contribute to Skywatch Friday.

My contribution this week was taken on Tuesday afternoon.

It had been raining heavily for a few days, as the puddles in the ground attest , but on Tuesday, as the shadows attest, the sun came out strongly.

This photograph was taken on a delightfully warm walk from Marple to Compstall through Brabyns Park.

Brabyns Park in Marple was formerly a private estate with a hall but it has been owned by Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council since 1947. More information on the Stockport MBC website.

Since then the weather has turned and as I type this just before 7pm on Thursday, cold winds are blowing and rain is bucketing down again.

Typical spring weather really!

Skywatch a week on from last week.

Last week's Skywatch photograph showed the view from my window about midday on Thursday.

Today's photograph was taken around 6pm this Thursday.

After some cold and wet days, Thursday was sunny and warm.

More than 300 blogs regularly contribute to Skywatch Friday.

Tom O'Connor

I met Tom O'Connor last week when he was in Hyde to perform the official opening of Enfield Court.

He is known as the "clean comedian" delivering what these days would be termed "family-friendly humour" such as the impossible things mothers say to their children

• "Shut your mouth and eat your dinner"
• "Just look at the dirt in your ears"

I used to enjoy his visits to dictionary corner on "Countdown". He recounted how someone asked him on coming out of the church at Richard Whiteley's funeral, "Is it true that Richard died of pneumonia?" "Yes, it is." "Trust him to go out on a nine-letter word!"

Tom's official website is http://www.tomoconnor.co.uk/

Skywatch Friday: A New View

This was the view from my window about mid-day this Thursday.

We moved a month ago. I won't bore you with gory details, suffice to say there were lots of minor mishaps and hassles along the way. But with patience and help they all got sorted out in the main.

We had no phone for two and and a half weeks and it took another week to get the internet connection back. Mind you with everything going on I didn't even unpack and connect the computer up for about ten days.

Still a lot to be sorted but there isn't much that we are missing about the old place. We like our new location very much indeed.

This is a contribution to Skywatch Friday.