Oh Wow. A Whole Decade

I had a little notification in the corner of my page this morning.   ‘That’s odd,’ I thought, as I’m usually told of comments and followers via email and I had just checked my inbox.  I clicked on it and it informed me that it was TEN YEARS AGO TODAY!!! that I started this blog.  I won’t bore you with the details as regular readers have heard it all many times before, suffice it to say that Hanif Kureishi was partly responsible for setting me off on this path.  I suppose I really ought to do something deep and retrospective, like picking out my favourite posts or summarising my journey or selecting the best comments, but the very idea fills me with a reluctance so deep that I can barely move my fingers across the keyboard; so I shall just say Happy Anniversary to lizardyoga’s weblog and a particular shout-out to those readers who have been with me since the beginning.

Thinking about it, the last decade has seen my transition from teacher/part time writer to full-time author and performing poet, which is quite a big deal.  I was updating my CV the other week and it was quite startling how many things I’ve done, from the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square to Leicester Riverside Festival to Left Unity’s national conference and Quaker Yearly Meeting to Sing for Water at Leicester Riverside Festival.  Publications include poems in Mslexia, blogging for the same and short stories in Everyday Fiction.

Maybe soon I’ll get it together and find some retrospective links.  But right now I’m getting ready to go to Wales which includes checking the car tyres (am I the only one who hates doing this?  I think I have a subconscious fear of blowing up one of the tyres.)

So if you’ve been a reader of this blog since May 2008, please drop me a comment and let me know how the last ten years have been for you.

Kirk out

Gone Blog: The Last Post

No, I’m not closing this blog: this is about my Mslexia residency.  My next blog post, called ‘Gone Boy,’ is up and you can read it here:

https://mslexia.co.uk/gone-boy/

and I can’t believe my residency is nearly up – it’s been more than three months and yet they’ve flown by.  It’s been a very successful residency though – according to my supervisor I have attracted the most comments she’s ever known!  So thanks to all who’ve taken the time to comment, and please keep it up.  My next post will be submitted shortly and then that will be it.  I shall miss it.

This blog, however, will continue – and while the Mslexia blog was commissioned to be on a particular theme, lizardyoga’s weblog will continue to cover an ever-expanding variety of subjects.  From gardening to wine-making (whose season is almost upon us), from politics to TV reviews, from thoughts about poetry to feelings about religion, there is nothing (or almost nothing!) I won’t cover.

Politically speaking, I have to report that I didn’t get elected as Principal Speaker for Left Unity, though once again the vote was close: I was neck and neck with another woman until they finally divvied up the votes (they use STV which sounds like a sexually-transmitted condition but means you can rank candidates in order of preference, rather than voting for just one.  I guess it’s more democratic but it is also quite cumbersome.)  I wasn’t too disappointed as I was not entirely sure how much I wanted the post…

Socially, I have been fairly busy; on Saturday along with half of Leicester we went to Anna’s 80th birthday party where I did a poem.  I can’t believe Anna is 80!  I’ve known her for about 28 years and she was one of the first people I met when I first came here and joined CND.  It was an enjoyable party and we saw loads of people we knew.  Then last night I was all set to trot into town for the hustings at the Secular Society when I looked out of the window.  Was that hail?  It was certainly windy – so I stayed indoors instead to watch my favourite contender – a down-to-earth sort of woman – win Mastermind.  The general knowledge questions were definitely harder at this level, so to make myself feel better I switched to Celebrity Mastermind, which sort of seems designed to make us feel superior to celebrities as they seem to know so little.  I answered all but one of the specialist subject questions on ‘Harry Potter’ as well.  Which set me off on a televisual journey with Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) travelling the world to find out what drives obsessive fans; the kind of people who will wait for hours in the rain just for the chance of getting an autograph.

These people were more human and less creepy than he – or I – had expected: most of them seemed just to want some kind of contact with someone who had meant a great deal to them.  I was struck by his caring response to his fans, and to one in particular, a middle-aged woman called Tina, who follows him everywhere.

How do people have the time and money to do this?  It’s a mystery to me…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05nxc43/mastermind-20142015-31-grand-final

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01pqg9z/celebrity-mastermind-20122013-episode-3

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05nxgls/tom-felton-meets-the-superfans

Anyway, that’s all for today folks as I have to head off and write my last Mslexia post.

Kirk out

Cold, Clubbers, Clobber and Syriza

What a horrid cold and wet time was had by all, standing at the Clock Tower in the wind and rain to get people to support Syriza.  As I cycled into town, the wind at my back serving only to remind me what hard work it was going to be coming home, I thought ‘Why am I doing this?  Why am I giving up two hours of my Sunday to stand in town freezing my fingers and tingling my toes?

I’ll be honest – I hate being cold and wet.  Some people don’t seem to mind it: I’m constantly astonished by how many brave souls you see confronting the elements in the most basic of outfits.  I’m not even talking about clubbers here – clubbers are a whole new level of crazy in this regard – I just mean ordinary shoppers who face a day like today in only a hoodie or a thin jacket.  Whereas I, in thick jumper, scarf, cagoul, hat and gloves, shivered for an hour and a half and then I’d had enough.

Maybe it’s cars that make people behave like this?  If you just step outside your house and into a warm car, and thence into a warm shopping-centre spending minimal time on the street I guess it’s hardly worthwhile getting togged up for the cold and wet.  Whereas some of us slogged home into a fierce wind getting extremely wet but arriving home with a warm glow of self-righteousness.

And yet in spite of the cold it was encouraging to see how many people stopped to sign the petition and have a chat.  The level of support for Syriza was very gratifying, especially since at the beginning we were wondering how aware of the situation people were.  Yet many of them stopped, appended signatures and took stickers and left some left messages of support.

I think people in general should get a medal for doing these things in the name of democracy.  We should celebrate those who, like Mags of the Green Party, tramp the streets to give out leaflets or stand on freezing corners with cold petitions – or just get out and talk to people about issues they are concerned with.  It’s good to know that there are still people prepared to brave the elements in order to campaign for the things they believe in.

And some people CAN’T EVEN BE BOTHERED TO VOTE!!!

Kirk out

Left Unity-Leicestershire stands with SYRIZA (Greece)

Reblogging this in response to the recent Greek elections.  Syriza in Greece now holds the balance of power and is an equivalent party in Greece to Left Unity in Britain.

The Poetic is Political

Wow!  What an amazing meeting of the People’s Arts Collective on Tuesday night!  It was a slow start going through the minutes of last meeting and a rather unfocussed discussion, but then during the second half Cliff gave us some of his poetry and all of a sudden the thing came alive.  He started by reading from the page and I asked if he could pause to give us time to digest; and then he started to speak the poems – and oh my god, what a difference!  He is a total natural; not quite a rapper but with something of that energy and feel for the voice and how it connects with people.

There’s something of this coming through in Sound Cafe, too – Paul, one of the regulars, has been inspired to write and presented me with a sheaf of poems.  He uses rhyme and assonance in a very rap-like way, too, and I tried to reflect that as I read them out.  Rapping is not easy!  It’s not my style at all and it gave me more respect for the way rappers make it sound so natural.

I have been a busy bee this week: first, the organising-group meetings for next year’s Clarendon Park Artbeat (we’re going to have a poetry breakfast called ‘Poetry on Toast’ as well as guerilla poetry in the streets) then the People’s Arts Collective on Tuesday and Sound Cafe on Wednesday after which I had to rush home, make pizza and then write my talk as it sizzled in the oven* before charging off on my velocopede (as my music teacher used to call it) to the Secular Hall for a very positive Left Unity meeting in which I gave a talk on the place of poetry in politics.  I may put some of that on this blog.

On Tuesday night I also did my poem ‘Spike’ about the anti-homeless spikes and the statue of Christ on a bench (see previous post)

https://lizardyoga.wordpress.com/2014/09/28/where-is-jesus-going/

and Andrea, who is new to the group, joined in with some drumming.  It was terrific and we’re going to do that again at the Twilight gig, coming up at Embrace Arts.

So that’s us up to date.  Tomorrow there will be another guest poem by Graham Gee Connolly, called ‘A Poem in Your Head Can Keep You From Your Bed’ – so stay tuned!

Kirk out

*the pizza, not the talk.  Although possibly the talk as well…

 

Ugh! Knackered In Paris? UKIP if you want to…

Ugh!  Horrid awakening this morning to find out that our worst fears have been realised and UKIP have won substantial slices of yummy electoral cake.  I’m sure 90% of it is a protest vote which won’t translate into winning at a general election but it’s not good all the same.

On the other hand, considering that Left Unity have only been going officially since November, they did pretty well where they stood.  They got nearly 9% in Wigan and 3-4% of the vote in other places.  That’s not bad for a party barely six months old.

http://leftunity.org/local-election-results/#comment-223147

But what really drives me crazy is apathy: the people who declare, often proudly, that they ‘can’t be bothered to vote’ or that they ‘aren’t going to vote because they’re all the same.’  The point is, whether or not politicians are all the same, or all out for themselves (and I don’t believe they all are) they are going to make decisions which will affect your life.  Like Sartre said, whether or not you concern yourself with politics, ‘la politique, elle, s’occupe de vous’ – politics concerns itself with you. *

He’s right.  Politicians will make decisions in your name whether or not you vote for them.  And the one hold we have over them is the fact that if we don’t like them, they’re history.  Thatcher made the mistake of thinking she could do whatever she liked: she pushed through the poll tax, and she paid the price.

It’s all we have – and it’s not negligible.  Consider countries where people can’t elect their leaders – or, more importantly, get rid of them.  Think about what kind of society we’d have then.**  And then consider what others went through so that we could vote.  This is particularly significant for me as a woman, and I often think about what the suffragettes suffered, just so that I could put that cross on a piece of paper.

And as for saying ‘my vote doesn’t count’ – what if everyone said that?  What if everyone said, for example, ‘my money doesn’t count’ when they’re thinking of giving to charity or, say, buying fair trade goods?  History has been changed by such actions.  Journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, as they say – and frankly, if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.

Bit of a rant today, I’m afraid – but if there’s one thing I would like to stamp out, it’s apathy and cynicism.

Hang on.  If there are two things I would like to stamp out, they are apathy and cynicism.  And greed.

The three things….

We could do this all day.

Kirk out

*I’m sure he said that – I quoted it in a number of essays, but I can’t find a reference to it.

**Although what concerns me more now is the selling off of public concerns and the amount of power global corporations have.

Oh why can’t people just….?

Why can’t people just be nice? Yesterday I went on a march.  It was a May Day march and quite well-attended with about a hundred or so assorted people marching with banners, and more at the clock Tower to hear the speeches.  In some ways it was quite a rousing event, and it should have felt empowering and, well, if not warm and fuzzy then warm and glowing.  But several things spoiled it for me.  First was the shouting.  I know it’s traditional to chant on a march and as an old hand I’ve got ‘Maggie Maggie Maggie!  Out!  Out!  Out!’ engraved on my heart – but the loud men at the front chanting words I couldn’t hear totally drowned out Red Leicester Choir, whom I would much rather have listened to (to whom I would much rather have listened).  I think a lot of loud chanting puts people off, whereas singing with meaningful lyrics engages people.  There were a lot of spectators, thanks mainly to the Leicester City Football bus coming along behind us, so we had a good audience.  Before the march began I was giving out a few Left Unity leaflets and a member of said choir collared me and asked what it was all about.  ‘How is it different from the Socialist Party?’ she demanded.  I said I wasn’t sure as I didn’t know what their policies are.

‘Well, what are your policies then?’ she said.

I explained that we are anti-austerity, anti-privatisation and in favour of renationalising key industries.

‘Well do you call yourselves socialists then?’ she returned.

‘I guess most of us would,’ I said.

‘What about the rest?’

I wasn’t sure.  ‘I guess we’d call ourselves broad left,’ I said.

‘Well that’s really wishy-washy,’ she said, and flounced off.

There’s no way to win that sort of conversation, and I hate it when people think that just because you don’t tick all the boxes they think you should tick, that you’re weak and pointless.

On the march, Mark and I were wielding the banner.  This is a fresh new Left Unity banner just out of the box.  It’s good to have a banner, isn’t it?  I commented to a guy holding a LU pennant that the banner was on its first outing.  He glanced contemptuously at it.  ‘Where’s the other half?’ he said.

This time I walked off.  I consider that kind of remark utterly unwarranted.

So all in all I was more than ready for a coffee by the time we got to the clock tower.  Having set someone up to do poetry, I quitted the scene in search of a good strong brew and discovered a place called – well, Bru – which does lovely pots of leaf tea and soya milk to go with them.

Yum.

And so home, via Wilkinson’s where I picked up a particularly unwieldy bin and managed to get it all the way home.

Kirk out

 

O What a Tangled Web we Mix…

… when first we practise – politics.

That rhyme (which I thought was quite clever) is going through my mind at the minute as I am going through the motions.  Oh, the motions!  Can people not express themselves more concisely?  I always do.  I’m the queen of concision – I never use two lexical units where a single item of verbiage will do.  Ho ho.  By the way, do you ever do what I do when listening to ‘Just a Minute’ – ie try to play the game yourself?  It’s quite extraordinarily difficult.  It’s like one of those puzzles where you can get three out of four but never quite * square the circle.  You can carry on without repetition but sooner or later you’re going to have to hesitate in order to allow your brain to breathe.  Or else you can carry on without pausing but go off the topic.  Or stick to the topic and not pause but repeat a word.  It really is quite * the hardest panel game on the radio today – perhaps because it’s also the oldest.

But I digress.  Buzz!  Deviation from the topic on the card which was political motions.  And I am trawling through a veritable ocean of motions (oo! that rhymed!) for the Left Unity conference which is coming up in a couple of weeks.

http://leftunity.org

There’s still time to join and register for the conference if you want an alternative to the market-led zeitgeist and especially if you think the Labour party has deserted the people who formed it; if you are against the privatisation of the NHS and prisons and education provision and – oh, god, just about everything that moves; if you want a more compassionate and less greedy society, and so on.  However I advise caution when going through the motions.  Some of them are quite extraordinarily wordy.  But I am pleased to note that Leicester’s three are short and to the point.  Would that everyone expressed themselves so.  It’s pointless rambling on and on – it just sends everyone to sleep.

The conference is on the 29th and I’ll keep you posted.  I may even get the chance to do a poem – my one about the bedroom tax has been well-received everywhere.

Kirk out

 

*someone should buzz in at this point as I’ve just repeated the word ‘quite’

OK That’s Enough

I’ve given up on the digitising tablet as I can’t cope and you can’t comprehend a single non-word I’m not saying – so it’s back to the mainframe.  Well, it’s not a mainframe but you know what I mean.  A busy day today; cycling up to the Quaker’s on Queen’s Rd for an hour of lovely silence, punctuated by a few thoughts: the youngest contributor is Zeb, who as a Home-educated lad is obviously totally together and articulate.  Then home for soup and Casualty, our usual Sunday ritual, and so to town for the Left Unity People’s Arts’ Collective meeting.  This is a political effort which I am totally behind (or behind which I totally am, or something) which aims to introduce a dialogue between politics and the arts.  It’s not about funding for the arts, particularly, but about ways in which poetry, art, music, drama, street theatre and so much more, can contribute to the political dialogue.  Plans are afoot for a launch in September which will almost certainly include poetry and music but perhaps also many other art forms as part of the First World War commemorations.  We are particularly keen to represent the experiences of ordinary people and somewhere in my book collection I have a volume called ‘Forgotten Voices of the First World War’ (there’s a companion volume about the Second World War) which presents what I suppose we must call sound-bites from ordinary people about their perspectives and experiences.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Forgotten-Voices-Great-War-History/dp/0091888875

And so home, meaning that I’ve cycled about 8 miles today.  Not bad…

Kirk out

We’re Left and We’re Right!

It’s interesting to observe tendencies in personality on the left of politics, as well as on the right.  Obviously I know more about those on the left: they tend to be anti-authoritarian, questioning, creative, thoughtful, self-determining and passionate.  The good thing about meetings with these kinds of people is that everyone has a voice, everyone gets heard and everyone’s opinion is as good as anyone else’s.  There are no hierarchies, no chairs except rotating chairs (not literally), no officers except those voted in and maintained by the common will of the electorate – and so on.  That’s the good side.  The not-so-good side is that people on the left can be argumentative, even combative; mistrustful of anyone in a position of power, even if they have been voted into that position: and some people will quite literally argue about anything.  Unless the chair is extremely skilled, you can find yourself in a meeting where arguments proliferate like nuclear weapons.  There are not only arguments about policy – which are entirely necessary – but also about who should be allowed to argue and for how long and on what topics; there are often arguments about what language is permitted and what is proscribed; about what decisions can and can’t be taken by any particular meeting – and all of this can go on for so long and take up so much energy that no actual decisions get taken.  One of the things I particularly liked about the founding conference was that the Standing Orders committee (who deal with procedural matters) were on a separate table and all points of order were taken to them.  Nothing used to make my heart sink into my boots more than somebody popping up and saying ‘On a point of order, Chair!’

It really can be like herding cats.  In addition to this, some people seem to come to, say, conferences with a particular idea that they wish to see adopted, and if they are voted down, they act as if the entire project is pointless and doomed.  I am as attached as anyone to Leicester Left Unity’s idea about bringing the arts into politics, and I was very glad that we were heard at the Founding Conference; however I would never dream of saying that the whole project was pointless without it.  And yet…

I’m not singling anyone out here.  In general in Leicester we run our meetings without this kind of difficulty; so these are general observations based on my experience of Left politics over the years.  But I think these are issues we need to get to grips with and understand if we are to build consensus.  And consensus is something we all want….

All together now:  What do we want?

Oh, and people on the right?  I’m guessing they are more authoritarian and cohesive – but I could well be wrong.

Kirk out