Poetry, the golden string that weaves it all together.
With a BA (Hons) In English & Creative Writing, again, like Photography, this was a more familiar practice to turn to. However, the element of risk came from the act of sharing what I had written; the risk of vulnerability. I have done this with fellow students, on here and via Instagram. I would very much like to pursue the idea of publishing my poetry as a collection in a pamphlet supported by the assemblage of other art works that I create. Risking being so vulnerable and open has been liberating. This act of authentic expression has been a site of transformation; it has allowed me to share my authentic self with others. This transformation has awakened something in me, a desire to share my work further and write more.
I generally don’t set out to write a poem, although I had the idea of having a poem to accompany each walk, they usually emerge as a means of conveying the sense of place and emotions connected with the walk or the moment in time. Like my photographs, they are residue from that experience. Words often come to me like ghosts or echoes, sometimes as I walk, sometimes as I am carrying out a meaningless task; they are not planned reflections but spontaneous. They offer me a chance to distil the experience and in that, poetry is like Blake’s golden string, it is winding me inwards. It connects the multiple micro experiences, one poem could emerge from a photograph, which emerged from a walk, which began with gathering soil.
Sometimes the poetry doesn’t resolve the liminal feelings, but holds them in tension and that’s ok. It’s raw and sometimes unresolved like the rest of the assemblage (DeLanda, 2006).
Poetry is very much a node on the rhizome. It connects the experiences across space and time. My poems draw on things that I see, feel, experience on a walk, often once I am back at home. A photograph is taken in the moment and a monoprint might be created weeks later. The poem becomes the place where the inner and outer landscapes are stitched together, it is a place of reflection and individuation.
‘Any point of a rhizome can be connected to anything other, and must be’ (Deleuze and Guattari, 2013, p. 5).
‘Ceaselessly establishes connections… a tuber agglomerating very diverse acts’ (Deleuze and Guattari, 2013, p. 6).
I am heavily inspired by the work of Blake, Belloc and Keats. I am also inspired by very gifted writers such as Justin Hopper. I also find a great deal of inspiration in writers who combine poetry/prose and photography or art work, obviously the collaboration between Ted Hughes and Fay Godwin is high on that list. Also work in the form of a pamphlet or zine; I have collected many – Rob St John, Rachel Poulton, Louisa Albani and other small printing presses.
Deleuze, G. and Guattari, F. (2013) A Thousand Plateaus. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
