Authors Electric

Poetry forms such as the villanelle and the sonnet are extremely useful, as they provide a framework within which to write. When I was doing my MA in Creative Writing, a course almost lost in the mists of time, I did the poetry module because it was the form with which I was least comfortable and I wanted to learn, rather than parade the things I knew I could do. (I’d had five radio plays broadcast by that point). I can’t remember exactly what the homework was, but I decided to parody Ted Hughes’ poem Pike. I can’t quote the whole poem here for copyright reasons, but I am allowed to give you the first verse. If you know the poem you’ll see what I did, but if not you can easily find it on the web.  Pike, three inches long, perfect,  Pike in all parts, green tigering the gold.  Killers from the egg: the malevolent aged grin  They dance on the surface among the flies.  I took the subject matter, which I subverted to make a point about the tourism industry in Kenya,...

My exhibition at Newcastle Central Library, Part the First.  Not another double entendre from me, you cry! To which I reply, I insist on getting it out as often as possible with as many different people as possible. Yes, getting our work out there, it's the perennial question to which there are many answers, all of them sadly requiring time away from writing, watching NCIS and messing about online. I’ve just returned from overseeing the installation of one such, ‘Will Power’, a solo exhibition opening today, which I was offered by the central library in my nearest city, of my poems inspired by Shakespeare. Exhibition Part Two: My 'Ophelia's Sista' Hamlet rap, some of my play posters, and Will S. I’m better known for death, sex and pathology poetry lately but occasionally I’ve bashed out a sonnet, sometimes based on one of Will’s but on a modern subject. As I’ve found with my science-poetry art installations, from very untechie (beachballs, sheep, swimming pool...