New post new poems

p&g2 is here and we are seeking poems to put on p&g mag. We have become slightly self-referential in that the blog is the mag. But then you get to interact with the poems a bit more. So maybe this is cool.


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A few new developments: you can find us on insta @poetandgeek and confusingly we are now on Twitter @poetogeek. This is not a typo. Our account got suspended. Why? Who knows....

Otherwise the usual mix of woodland, bubble searches, goth days, poetry punk, Emily Bronte, zajal, poet's houses, etc.

Glad to be back...please subscribe for more of this nonsense. Send poems to poetandgeek at gmail.com.

Oh

Yes we are back.

How to get hold of Roar Stage tickets? the ABC of spoken word 27th August 2016 Stow, Scottish Borders

The very best of spoken word comes to the Borders – the Roar stage at the Stowed Out Festival Saturday 27th August brings you the ABC of spoken word from legend Sally Evans, Editor of Poetry Scotland, current Scottish Slam Champion Iona Lee and Loud Poet Katie Ailes, to ecopoet and rising star Em Strang while Solareye exhales hip hop flava from Glasgow and local rapper Husler shows a day out of Hawick is not necessarily a day wasted. Been wondering what the fuss is about? 

Tickets £12 (free all day main stage music festival thrown in) available here http://stowedoutfestival.org.uk/.

Katie Ailes (Perry Johnsson)

Oh and did we mention you can bring your kids and there is a train…

Absent stuff

Well apologies for the quiet. But maybe you liked it. I have been away working in Prague and reading Lorca but not at the same time. Both were fun. But back in the groove again. It is hot here and I am waiting for a gigantic rainstorm to arrive. Also have been waiting for an even longer time to get my head around a grouping or collection of poems and it looks like that might also arrive in a downpour.

And with regard to the quiet I suppose losing a parent takes a bit of getting used to.

In the meantime here are some stars from the Alhambra bathhouse.

And a poem by Lorca...

A Irene García

(criada)

En el soto,
los alamillos bailan
uno con otro.
Y el arbolé,
con sus cuatro hojitas,
baila también.

¡Irene!
Luego vendrán las lluvias
y las nieves.
Baila sobre lo verde.

Sobre lo verde, verde,
que te acompaño yo.

¡Ay cómo corre el agua!
¡Ay mi corazón!

En el soto,
los alamillos bailan
uno con otro.
Y el arbolé,
con sus cuatro hojitas,
baila también.

*

To Irene García [a man needs a maid?]

In the thicket
the little poplar trees dance
with one another.
And that tree
with four little leaves
also dances.

Irene
The rains must come
and the snows.
Dance on the green!

On the green green
I go with you.

[howl] How the water runs
[howl] Oh my heart

In the thicket
the little poplar trees dance
with one another.
And that tree
with four little leaves
dances also.

This is my rather free translation - but I have fallen in love with this poem from Lorca's Canciones likely written sometime between 1921 and 1924.

Full line-up revealed #RoarStage @Stowedoutfest August 27th 2016

The full main line-up for the spoken word Roar Stage at Stowed Out Fest is now revealed. And it is amazing. Five fabulous performers all on stage in the Borders for the first time:

Em Strang, Sally Evans, Solareye, Katie Ailes and Iona Lee.

Impossible to summarise their talents in a few word but p&g might just mention that between them they have multiple slam wins including the Scottish Slam and StAnza slam, the Scottish Book Trust New Writer Award, and have published multiple books, videos and tunes, plus performed at Aye Write, T in the Park,  Scottish Parliament, StAnza and the list goes on.

Find out how to get hold of tickets and the details of all the acts on the Main Stage too. This is just the Roar Stage line-up and there will be more acts - including space for you - find out how http://poetandgeek.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/roar-stage-spoken-word-performance.html

Stowed Out is a cracking boutique festival just a short train ride away from anywhere in Scotland. And train and other transport methods are available if you are coming from further afield! More here bit.ly/1rw92XM

#mapofbirds fledgling sparrows

Notes from this week:

Click to see full:

Creative walks

Found myself walking round in unexpected places on the way to events, readings, plays and other more routine visits to the supermarket or dropping off the kids. A carpark in Newcastle, outside an old nightclub in Dumfries, randoming on the Glasgow subway and Galashiels late on a workday evening.

I like these spaces. The fruitful time I can spend between here and there. The commute. The unengaged freedom.

The way the streetlight might suddenly hit a mundane object. And make things quite curious.

The combination, the presentation, the hit of surprise. The stop I didn't expect to make.

A road that suddenly becomes a slab of light. Or a field becomes a pathway.

As you can probably guess I am in a writing phase. Right now.