Allan Sutherland’s blog charts the progress of working on his first collection of poetry, Leaning On A Lamppost. The collection will give an overview of his work, including 20 years of performance, his more recent pioneering work in transcription poetry, found poems and a set of new work responding to his mentoring by John O’Donoghue.
‘Art is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment is recognition of the pattern.’ Alfred North Whitehead One of John’s more surprising suggestions was that ‘Tattoo’, a poem from ‘Paddy: A Life’ could be turned into a pattern poem. I’ve know George Herbert’s work since I studied the Metaphysical poets for O Level, so I am familiar with pieces such as ‘Easter wings’...
One of the things John first picked up on about my existing work was my liking for strict versification. Where possible, I like to write poems that have strict metre and rhyme, as in ‘Bite the Hand that Feeds You’ (‘Frank is a nice boy/He never makes a fuss’/Frank spends all his time at home/He can’t get on the bus’). John suggested I should read Charles Causley. Causley was a twentieth Century Cornish poet, best known for ‘Timothy Winters’,...
The late Dennis Potter once put forward the idea that each writer has their own field to plough. The nature of that field is determined by who we are - what lives we have lived, what we feel strongly about, what resonates for us. The process of writing is about continuing to find new ways turn that soil over and produce work that is fresh and exciting. For me that territory has long been about disability. I have wanted to speak out about my own experiences of epilepsy. I also...
I am currently being mentored by John O’Donoghue to produce my first collection of poems, ‘Leaning on a Lamppost’. I’m editing existing material and producing new work, and I’ll be blogging about the process. It’s perhaps a surprise that I haven’t done any of this previously. I’ve been a mentor (to Colin Hambrook, now Editor of DAO - so that went alright) but never been mentored myself. I’ve been blogged about, but never...