Happy new year

The last time I was here I was probably talking about leaf structure and sound. Those little shudders and eddies that the foliage makes in the moments between work or thought or even breath. An empty forest. But in fact, goldcrests and siskins invisible but making their own business above.

That's a roundabout way of saying that yes sound is still important to me. But my life has taken a different more regular turn of late with a partner, their children and salary being that little bit more important than before. No more exploring the space between double hedges or sleeping in abandoned sleeping bags for a while then.

So in answer to the questions - my health is good, I am in a solid place and I am still listening. And still trying to understand the shapes of leaves, the pattern of the wood.

Green geometry. Good luck with your own balancing acts.

Lost in the wood

Working on a Scottish art-anthropology project submission for speculative land use proposals - rarely has anything been more up my street or in this case, up my forest ride. The deadline is quite close and what with meeting wild boar in Perthshire wood (yes, this did happen - not intentionally) - there has been a quietness over p&g. But plenty to tell you and silence is regenerative. In fact, one thing I learnt from my counsellor is if things drop in the pool you can always take them out.

In addition this project has introduced me to the work of Peter Liversidge - on typewriter  - of what I would term art poetry. More on that later.

You can find out more about Speculative Ground http://thecommonty.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/speculative-ground-call-for-submissions.html and Peter Liversidge here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Liversidge

Open Mouse (Poetry Scotland)

Can I encourage you to take a look at Open Mouse over the weekend?

Scottish poet Colin Will edits this almost daily offering of a poem (the virtual form of Poetry Scotland) and you can submit your own work too. A win win situation.

You can read my poem Boundaries from May 8th here inspired by Zhang Zao’s In the forest (of which I have written often on p&g http://poetandgeek.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/in-forest.html) and find out how to submit your own work http://www.poetryscotland.co.uk/.

In the forest

This poem has been haunting me this week here at p&g. It picked itself.

What I like about Zhang Zao's 1996 poem especially is that everything happens at the same time. A poem of transformation written in 3D. So the forest is like a generator, squirrels make telephone calls long distance, china shops, bills and ballet in the mist and vegetation. "You walk about,as if the forest isn't in the forest." And yet it becomes more forest because of it.

And that it was written on New Year's Day so it fits in with a whole other genre of new year poetry.

And Brian Holton's translation!

He feels he's got from the universe, for the first time, a pair of hands and violence.