My new site, adopting the markuslloyd.com domain, is now online. It’s purely for poetry and related stuff, like news of publications and essays, reviews. Click here to access it. See you there.
Hello. It’s been a long, long time. And, this missive is just to let you know, the new website is http://kolumboo.com. It’s not an exclusive ‘Markus Lloyd’ site. It’s a collaborative venture with my partner, Amy. I will be creating a poetry page, for news and views, but on the whole the site’s more playful. Please pop by and say hello.
It’s been almost 6 months since this site was updated. Apologies to anyone desperate for news etc. But, life turns corners, and I’ve been taking one one of those sharp-bends. I’ve upped sticks to Portsmouth, closer to my work (paid) and the one I love (sigh). I’m not going to continue this site on WordPress.com – soon, the markuslloyd.com url will take you, firstly, nowhere (a holding page), but, eventually, to a new site. See you there.
poetry live @ aspex – in Portsmouth, UK. We’re hosting a night of open mic readings at the gallery in early November, in conjunction with ExpressFM. The current date, tbc, is 8 Nov – but this might change as there’s a lot happening about the city that night. Those who wish to read should checkout our website – aspex.org.uk – or visit the gallery, where info about the event will become available, or email poetrylive@aspex.org.uk . You don’t have to read, you can make up the audience. Those wanting to perform may read their own work, or a favourite poem by another poet. There’ll be a mix of experienced, unexperienced poets on the night – we aim to encourage people to write poetry and develop it through performance and a direct connection to the response of a sympathetic audience. The show will be recorded for use in a radio show, a pilot for a potential series.
Okay, here are recent reworkings of two poems that’ve appeared previously on the site, one Pompey-inspired, the other Scummer’s Town driven:
The Spinnaker-based poem is one I’ll not submit anywhere, it’s what it is – if it survives, it’ll be as a particle of some other poem. ‘Way to Go Home’ will get a submission outing – a test-drive about the editors of various magazines. I’m building up to some fresh, new work – I’ve some time off – by revisiting those poems, some near-misses, that have been rejected over the last year. No poem is ever finished, until it has gone beyond you, where you can not further or relegate it – the poems to bin are those you ‘finish with’, that sit about but are never returned to. Every new work is like learning to dance to a new tune – sometimes, re-learning to dance altogether.
The latest magazine featuring me is out now, Seam 27. It’s available here.
In desperate need of an ‘aircut, but confined to bed by a virus, I had to cancel an appointment with me stylist (what was once known as ‘losing a fight to a lawn-mower’). So, here’s a recent poem celebrating hairdressing (rather than barbering). Also, it’s timely as it’s the anniversary of Marc Bolan’s death. That’s quite Poet Laureate of me! Naw.
Today I took part in the A Lot Ment event in Portsmouth, organised by Alex Lockett of the aspex:EXPLORE team. An afternoon of contemporary art, performance and poetry on association allotments in the city. It featured artists David Blandy, Marcus Coates, Pil and Galia Kollectiv, The office of Experiments, Frog Morris, Jeremy Willet, Jenny Driver, James Ferris, dear Jon Adams, oh dear Tracey Ward and dear oh dear Roy Brown, and poet…me. The film below consists of photos taken at the occasion.
The booklet I produced, containing the poems I located about the fantastic Priory School plot (run and hosted by Clare Hillman, thanks), can be down load in PDF form – it’s called Allotment Plots – get it here.
I celebrated the end of the day there by going to Roy, Jo and my allotment back in Southampton, to water it, and pulled the first 3 carrots of our belated season! Tasted carroty as Bugsy Bunnies semen they did! Pukka.
September 10 sees the launch of Seam 27, at Foyles on Charing Cross Road, London. Here’s a list of the poets it contains:
Derek Adams, Gill Andrews, Mike Barlow, Stephen Bone, Pat Borthwick, Iain Britton, Philip Burton, Ian Caws, Ken Champion, John Clegg, Martin Cook, Chrissie Gittins, Rebecca Goss, Jean Harrison, Jane Holland, Mike Jenkins, Markus Lloyd, Allison McVety, Robin Maunsell, Gerard Melia, Benjamin Morris, Caroline Natzler, Katy Price, Sheenagh Pugh, Sue Rose, K V Skene, Julian Stannard, Todd Swift, Kearan Williams, Emily Wills, Anthony Wilson, Howard Wright.
I’m going to try and make the event and read Chicken Sheds, the poem they’re publishing. But, it’s a critical day of de-installing the current show at the gallery, Roger Palmer’s Shanty – involving the removal of a load of sky blue powder paint off the floor and walls (before hanging Gordon Cheung on the Friday). I will try damned hard to get there.
On September 2nd, I’m involved in the A Lot Ment event – I’m creating a poem for it, plus collecting together a few existing works with allotment references. It’s going to be a well sound occasion, plenty of local and nationally renowned artists intervening on the plots during their annual Autumn show.
There’s more. In October, I’m going to be presenting a poetry programme on Expressfm in Portsmouth. It’s a community station, and the shows going to be a mix of readings, informal interviews with practicing and amateur poets, plus music, exploring ‘what poetry can be’. It’s open submission, the selected will be invited to read or have their poem/s performed, a chat about the impulse and writing of the piece. A tie-in event, each month, is a live open mic event at Aspex gallery – which will encourage people to use the exhibitions to provoke writing. I’ll post more details when I have them.
The mix of San Miguel, a largesse of fresh air and the glamour of streetlights on a walk home from my local (the Welly) often leads me (both, home and) to conjure some poetry (lines of) as I go. It’s akin to drunken singing, I guess. The music of the lines an aid to memorizing them, so I can scribble them down before thumping the mattress. The following poem started off as I staggered home one night.
News. I’m involved in a Arts project in Pompey that’ll occur on a couple of allotment sites in the city. It’s primarily a visual arts event, but I’ve gatecrashed. I intend to write a piece to be split between the host sites. I might also produce a slim pamphlet of ‘allotment’ poems I’ve got in my back catalogue. I’ll keep you informed.
Here you go. The July issue of Poetry Wales. Haven’t read it fully, but two poems by Matthew Sweeney precede mine, and I’m an admire of his work (so, sweet). Matthew Sweeney was external examiner for my creative writing thesis (an alternative to the usual academic one offered at WSCAD, the art college I attended), back in 1989. I’d produced a novella about dole life in South Wales circa ‘84 – he gave me a first for it (the utterly upper-middle class faculty didn’t believe in, or couldn’t conceive of, the world I’d described; Matthew knew it, an Irish version of it). Of course, he encouraged me to continue writing, and I did, have. I haven’t tackled prose in an age. Mine tends to the poetic, that is, it’s about the bricks and mortar of sentences (lines), making it labour intensive architecture. Anyway, click here to order a copy of the issue.
As it’s been an installation change-over period at Aspex (where I’m technician), I’ve had little time to write. I’ve spent three hours a day traveling by train and bus to work from Southampton and back. Early starts and late finishes mean I’ve been too shattered to hit my desk much. Usually, I write for at least an hour before setting out – and, I’m meant to have one day-off a week, plus the weekend, but! The boon of all this toing and froing is, concentration and condensation. I find I’m drafting and editing in my head, to maximize time when I’m dedicated to drafting and editing at my iMac. Note-making has become a succinct practice, rather than a generative process – thus, my poems are being composed of language stimulated in situ, in direct response to something (place, situ, thought, the idea forming the poem), less after-the-fact. Still, redrafting and editing needs time and space.
Sounds like the July issue of Poetry Wales is available – according to the Seren site. I’ll post the cover shot when I receive a copy. The site has an ad for the post of Poetry Wales editor. It’ll be sad to see Robert Minhinnick depart the post, he’s enlivened the magazine during his internship (and, published me a deal). Change is exciting though.
