Rural cultural economies 7th November 2012 Newcastle UK

The wild place breeds a special kind of art. But urbanites don't always get us.

This event at Newcastle University focuses on how that might change  The programme includes talks from a Development officer from Jura (an island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland) and also a representative from the organisation Littoral (a non-profit arts trust which promotes new creative partnerships, critical art practices and cultural strategies in response to issues about social, environmental and economic change).

The first part of the day explores strategic cultural policy and rural development research, the second part of the day focusses on a detailed view of rural cultural livelihoods and specific challenges of supporting and promoting rural creative micro-business.

More information here http://www.ncl.ac.uk/cre/events/item/nrn-event-7th-november

Cramped space and poetry

Ted Hughes said he did his best writing while working  in a kind of cupboard rigged up as an office. He had left the desk looking out of the window for his wife Sylvia Plath to write at. They were still getting on at this time.

Sometimes poems can come in the most unusual circumstances.

Some research has been done on workstations and whether sitting at a a desk at all is helpful to doing work. One tip is to only go to your computer when you have something to do on it. Just staring at the blank screen (like a blank piece of paper) doesn't help anyone get creative.

So here is an odd idea for a Sunday...go and fix up some thinking room in a place you never go in your home, garden or anywhere really.

I was orienteering yesterday and ended up on my back pinioned between the twisting branches of a fallen tree I had just fallen over engulfed by deep bracken. I was competing but lay there a little while thinking how good the sky looked. And that I never see it that way normally.

Thanks to Kenraiz for the use of this photo. 

Finding Ada

Celebrating the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths.

There is a rather nice website here http://findingada.com/about/ if you want to contribute your thoughts to Ada's memory for the day itself (16th October).

Ada was in my book a poet and geek and if you look into her story you may notice that she had some sort of poetic relatives too http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace

Ada Lovelace Day

Women geeks.

This whole concept annoys me!

Why do people need to put the word women in front of geek as if geek was an inherently male concept?

This movement is to do what? Attract more women into technology/IT/ and maybe even science? (Though scientists are not in my opinion geeks...they are something else entirely.) It is not attracting me.

I have worked in and at nerdy workplaces for almost 20 years from the British government, Microsoft, Oxford University, to the BBC and BT (where not that long ago there was 2 female toilets in a multiple storey building "for the secretaries"). And I have always had women on my team. Because women are geeks. And can outdo geekiness in anyone else.

Why? Because the women I have worked with were creative problem solvers who loved their jobs; they were dead cool; wore the wrong clothes but tried hard (like most geeks) and were excellent colleagues who have gone on to attain great things. Many obsessive programmers just didn't have these skills - they could program well and tirelessly - but that imaginative element was missing. And yes, they weren't necessarily male either so don't make that assumption.

What this argument boils down to is geeks versus engineers? The industry needs more geeks and they can and should be of either sex.

See more here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19884720

And btw Ada Lovelace was the first computer programmer. Male or Female.

N.B the image shows Frankenstein's monster written by the geeky Mary Shelley.

Poet domain

I have been doing a little bit of research into domain names with the word poetry in.

While in the UK, poetry.co.uk is a fashion store. Poetry.com is a full-on poetry site. A bit of a lottery in fact. (Still in beta)

It describes itself thusly:

Poetry.com welcomes all amateur poets and wants to encourage your participation in the world's largest and most vibrant poetry community. We have established a system of points and badges which you'll earn for every different type of action you take. For example, you will receive points for each poem you write, each poem you review, etc.

I would be interested to know if you have tried it out. This kind of community works well for fiction writers but for the prickly beast that is the poet?

Have a go and let me know what you think...you may win a free pin.

More information here http://www.poetry.com/

Oh and btw it is under new management!

The old ways

Robert MacFarlane's latest book covers much of the same ground that his readers will be familiar with. But then its subject is The old ways.

Excellent explorations of the ephemeral routes of tidal paths and seaways and contested and prohibited land. And a fascinating knitting together of Nan Shepherd, Eric Ravilious and the ever-present Edward Thomas who touchingly is caught watching in a sentry post chalkpit shortly before his death in 1917. "The sallow catkins are soft dark white..."

Although poet walks aren't much the focus of the book, walking as an act of creation is - the section on the memory walking of artist Miguel Angel Blanco is a revelation.

MacFarlance spends some time himself collecting words for walking.

• sarha - original Arabic for letting cattle out early to wander and graze pasture freely
• stravaig - Scots for a walk without set goals or destination
• saunter - from French sans terre which MacFarlance defines as a contraction of to the sacred place
• navigatio - a voyage away from familiar territory to challenge and confirm our sense of self

Dumb messages

The dumb messengers is the new book of poems from Giles Goodland. A poet who oddly does not even have a wiki page yet - although you can discover that he is a lexicographer at the OED and was in the Eric Gregory Award class of 1994 - which also included  Julia Copus, Alice Oswald, Steven Blyth, and Kate Clanchy.

(poetandgeek can also confirm that he tried to swim over a reservoir but failed, has been chased by a bulldozer when demonstrating against the Newbury by-pass, and has lost his glasses in a tidal pool at least once; the last recovered by p&g in spite of some loss of skin.)

The fine-looking book collects shorter and lyrical poems Goodland has written over the last ten years alongside his language-driven output of books including Capital (Salt) and the impressive What the things sang (Shearsman). Poems themselves can be considered dumb messengers but Goodland's take on children and language adds a twist to this interpretation.

You can find out more at the Salt Publishing page here http://www.saltpublishing.com/shop/proddetail.php?prod=9781844715046. Or read one of the poems that featured in poetandgeek.com magazine here http://www.poetandgeek.com/issue3/03goodland.html.