Curlew ##59-60

The latest issues of Curlew are ##59-60.The first is subtitled

THE CHILDREN OF PARADISE
A memoir of the children who grew up after the war; with thanks to those have contributed.

It starts with editor J Precious' recollection of her time at Corsham in the 1950s under principal Clifford Ellis. One of the art teachers there was William Scott who taught her painting.

This leads on to John Younger who studied art at Croydon School of Art. Blindness forced him to abandon art in favour of English and he became a lecturer in the School of English at Leeds University. He retired to Lincolnshire in 1991 and poetry has since been his principle creative interest. He writes using a computer fitted with a voice synthesiser. Many of his poems have an artist theme like his HOMAGE to James Ensor (1860-1949) which begins

Half-British demi-Belge, his mixed strands
made a world where fact and fable coexist
and interact with the delicate, as when
he paints himself in a hat enfleuri,
and gross, with devils Dzitts and Hihanoux.

The issue ends with some previously published essays from the 70s on the subject of early small press magazines such as Bogg and Krax.

#60 is a more general issue of the mag with poems from Paul Tristram, Steve Sneyd, Tom Kelly, Will Daunt, Alan Hardy, Joyce Walker, myself and others.

Curlew
Hare Cottage
Kettlesing
Harrogate
HG3 2LB
UK

ISSN 1463-8347
£2.50 post paid
£5 overseas
no foreign currency, cheques nor stamps accepted.

Read my review of issues ##57-58
Read reviews of earlier issues on NHI Review

...

Gee Cross Well Dressing 2008

Today was the Well Dressing Ceremony at Gee Cross, Hyde, Cheshire. The first picture is of Booths Well which this year was decorated by members of the W.I. to celebrate 300 years of Hyde Chapel.

At 2pm the Adamson Band led a procession up Joel Lane to Arnold Hill Well, dressed by children from Holy Trinity School. (no photo)


They returned down Joel Lane to Slateacre Well, which was dresseed by children from Dowson Primary School.


Next they visited Baron Road to the display by 3rd Gee Cross Scout Group.


Then to the Village Green Well, dressed by the Guides, Brownies and Rainbows of Holy Trinity and Hyde Chapel.


The last stop was in the grounds of Hyde Chapel by the display created by pupils of Alder Community High School.

At each site there was a blessing, followed a verse and chorus of Onward Christian Soldiers. Afterwards there was a short service, entertainment and light refreshments in the chapel.

More about the history of the ceremony can be found on the Tameside LH Forum website. You also see my photographs of the 2006 Well Dressing on my own website. One special photo of the band Reflection in Silver is on my photoblog and I'll be publishing some additional photographs later in the week, here and on Hyde Daily Photo.

I have now posted a short video of the band leading the parade up Joel Lane.

ABC Wednesday - L is for Lowry Centre

The Lowry Centre is situated in Salford Quays. It houses two theatres as well as various gallery spaces that display contemporary work as well as works by L.S. Lowry from the collection originally housed at Salford Art Gallery. In addition there are other studio spaces, a refreshment area, gift shop and information centre. It opened in April 2000.


Across the concourse is the Lowry Outlet Mill for those who love shopping.

A footbridge spans the Manchester Ship Canal and leads towards the Quay West Building and the Imperial War Museum North.

My other L posts this week are Long Meadow Passage at Hyde Daily Photo ~~ Lovers Alley at Old Hyde ~~ Lights along the pier at Sithenah

To visit other ABC L posts go to Mrs. Nesbitt's Place.

ABC Wednesday - K is for Katikati Haiku Pathway

ABC Wednesday: K is for Katikati Haiku Pathway

beneath the moon
the heron's slow step
towards frog sound

Michael Dylan Welch

photograph © 2001, 2008 gerald england

The Katikati Haiku Pathway was the brainchild of Catherine Mair. It was created as part of a millennium project that sought to reclaim wasteland around the Uretara Stream which seperated the centre of this Western Bay of Plenty District town in New Zealand from the Highfields area.

watchful the night heron lowers his neck into shadow

Janice Bostok

(photograph © 2001, 2008 gerald england).

I visited Catherine in 2001 and she took me on guided tour. She told me about how she came to choose the haiku used, and about the way the town co-operated, despite certain opposition, with its creation. The boulders had weathered well. After rain, water gathers in small pools on some of the lettering. We poked our fingers into one such pool. I wrote

splash of water
trickles down the stone
finds its own pathway

after visiting the above boulder.

on the farmland
new houses
slowly rising

Patricia Prime

photograph © 2001, 2008 gerald england

shadows
on the river
darker than the birds

Catherine Mair

photograph © 2001, 2008 gerald england

Holding the water,
held by it -
the dark mud.

William J Higginson

(photograph © 2001, 2008 gerald england)

Catherine tells me in a recent email that since my visit there has been massive development.

1. The 'river flats' are now a jig-saw of roofs and burgeoning gardens.
2. Haiku on 24 boulders has been repainted.
3. Two damaged author nameplates have been replaced.
4. A much more visible sign has been designed
5. Information boards are being designed and will be in place soon at the main car park.
6. Three new boulders have been engraved adjacent to the original landing.
7. Stepping stones have been installed to one boulder.
8. A viewing area has been cleared to another boulder situated in the river bed.
9. The Haiku Pathway booklet has been updated and reprinted.

Catherine Mair standing by the exit from the Haiku Path near two carved pieces created by a Maori carver representing one of the three marae in the district. They have since been removed for restoration.

in the evening
the bridge becomes dangerous
tonight's moon

Takebe Ayatari

(photograph © 2008 Sandra Simpson)

Secretary of the Pathway Focus Committee, Sandra Simpson tells me

We now have 30 engraved haiku boulders, which we believe to be the largest such grouping in English anywhere and the largest outside Japan. The poems are by 26 poets from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the US, Japan, Poland and England (Alan Summers).

The Haiku Pathway guidebook was updated and reprinted to coincide with the dedication of the 3 new boulders last winter (our winter May/June).

The next 2 big projects to bring to fruition are a major new entry sign, the design of which is in keeping with the pathway, and information boards for visitors, including items such as a map of all the boulders and some background to haiku.

One of the new boulders is

summer clouds
the river and I
inclined to the sea

Peter Yovu

(photograph © 2008 Sandra Simpson)

Further information is available at Katikati Mural Town.

Discover other ABC Wednesday posts by visiting Mrs. Nesbitt's Place.

Canal graffiti

Recently on Hyde Daily photo I posted Canalside Graffiti.

As usual I added the blog URL to the photo. This is partly for advertising purposes (sometimes I print out a set of postcards from the blog for giving away) and partly to discourage copyright infringement.

Martin Clark wrote

Goodness, Gerald - someone has written your blog address on the surface of the towpath!

At the same time, Ashtonian who now lives in California, decided to do some work on my image, removing the scrawl and painting the URL on the wall! The above picture is the result.

The Sons of Camus

Singapore heat;
government buildings tower
above clean streets

artwork & haiku © gerald england, 2007.

This haiku and charcoal is one of five such contributions by me to the latest issue (#5) of The Sons of Camus Writers International Journal.

A substantial 190 pages it has poetry, artwork, prose. I especially like the Chinese drawings of Suki Humphreys. As I only got my contributor's copy a few days ago I haven't had a chance to read much of it yet.

Other writers include Raymond Humphreys, Herbert Kuhner, John Light, Les Merton, Morelle Smith, Ouyang Yu, Marina P Zografou and several others.

The journal is edited by Ann J. Davidson and published by Rubi Andredakis in Cyprus. The price CY£5, €9, UK£6, US$10, CAN$15 includes shipping. Contact the publisher on roubi@cytanet.com.cy. Submissions for the next issue [only from writers over the age of 55] will be considered from January to March 2008 and should be sent to scwijournal@earthlink.net.

As well as the Singapore charcoals and haiku, I also have a haibun and three poems about Crete published in this issue. Here is one of them:

HAWKS

hawk
on a hot tin roof
stares over hotel roofs and pools
at yachts sailing the blue Mediterranean

silently
a second hawk flies in
from the mountains

the first lifts off
shows the white underside of wings
and the two are away
together

© Gerald England

You can see a photograph of one of those hawks on my photoblog Sithenah and one of the yachts from the same vantage point on Crete 2006.

ABC Wednesday - M is for Manchester Art Gallery

Last Thursday I met up with Juliet Wilson who was down from Edinburgh. As she relates on her blog Crafty Green Poet, we visited the Manchester Literary Festival event Victorian Lines at Manchester Art Gallery.

Art Treasures in Manchester marks the 150th anniversary of the largest art show ever seen in Britain. The original exhibition, held in 1857, was an incredible achievement for the city and an extraordinary artistic event. It was visited by eminent Victorian writers such as Elizabeth Gaskell and Charles Dickens.

On Thursday afternoon David Gaffney took us round the exhibition, stopping at selected paintings and photos to read microfiction pieces and stories he had written inspired by the exhibition. Some fifty people turned up to listen to him. His stories were humorous in the main and full of off-beat characters such as the Victorian boy bought on Ebay, the man with a prescription windshield, the complete forger and a ghost.

The Gallery provided portable chairs for use by visitors. These were a real boon for those of us who couldn't have stood listening to the speaker for almost an hour. Without them, I'd never have stayed the course. In the photo above you can see the chairs stacked outside the entrance to the exhibition.

Fee Plumley has also briefly reviewed this event on the MLF blog.

one line haiku

The theme this week at One Deep Breath is one-line haiku.

Here is a selection of haiku written during our visit to Tenerife in February 2006.

1. lift music wafts down the corridor into our room



2. two palm trees a ladies old bicycle parked between



3. purple flowers opposite burnt-out remains of mini-golf



4. skateboard park iron bars at the entrance to the church



5. on the roof outside the nudist zone topless sunbathers



6. among dunes across the old crater snow and stones



7. hillside terraces hang uncultivated between land-slips



8. overcoats strewn on hotel lobby cases the weather back home



9. red sailboat at the side of the motorway by a bus stop

## 2 & 6 were published in Time Haiku (UK).

## 4, 5 & 9 and the above charcoal were published in The Sons of Camus Writers International (Canada).

Matrushka Dolls

Yesterday we finally got around to separating the Matrushka Dolls we bought on our Baltic Cruise in June.

We bought them, not in Russia, but from a stall in Tallinn, Estonia. The stall-holder's son looks just like Rodney out of "Fools & Horses".

Sentinel Poetry Online #49

Sentinel Poetry Online #49

Features & Reviews

Editorial: The Child of Dream
Interview: The Music of Dignity - with Ogaga Ifowodo
Book Review: Mario Susko's "Life Revisited" by Barbara Reiher-Meyers

Poetry

Roger Humes
Ogaga Ifowodo
Cristian Mocanu
Tolu Ogunlesi
Uche Nduka
Kiesa Kay
Uduma Kalu
Toni Kan
Ana Eulate
Gill McEvoy
Tade Ipadeola
Obododimma Oha
and
Kola Tubosun (Winner, Sentinel Poetry Bar Challenge, October 2006)

Art & Graphics

Chika Okeke-Agulu
Gerald England
Chime Hilary Uchenna

Edited & Designed by Nnorom Azuonye


"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat." -- Theodore Roosevelt