Isabelle Charlotte Kenyon's Blog

Writing Inspiration: ‘Our Planet’ a new docuseries streaming on Netflix now

In the last few days to enter the Planet in Peril competition, I hand over to marketing intern Ella with some brilliant ideas for writing prompts...Climate change is not just a threat to the future, it is also a threat to the present. The effects of climate change are not just going to be felt by future generations, they are being felt by plants and animals and human beings all around the globe. Huge glaciers that have been frozen for a millennia are melting, causing sea levels to rise and coastal towns flooded, air toxicity in cities is climbing and causing many to suffer and die from respiratory related illnesses across the world. The continued use of fossil fuels is releasing an unprecedented amount of carbon back in to the atmosphere, which has been safely stored by nature for thousands of years and hundreds of species are being pushed to the brink of extinction every day. It is a challenge we need to urgently address and we need to address it now. (Image from Wix)Last week, on the 5th April 2019, Netflix played their part in addressing this pressing crisis with the release of their game-changing nature documentary, ‘Our Planet’.The traditional passivity and non-contextualised filming of the beauty and spectacle of nature may now be a thing of the past. In this multi-million-budget docuseries from Netflix, partnered with WWF and narrated by the one and only Sir David Attenborough, continually highlights the fragility of the connections within ecosystems, with a focus on us as the ultimate threat to it all. The blame is placed very firmly at our feet. The premiere, fittingly hosted at the National History Museum London, was highly attended by many climate change advocates, such as Prince Charles (President of WWF) with Prince William and Prince Harry, Sir David Beckham and Ellie Goulding (who was responsible for the poignant accompanying soundtrack to the series.) Hopefully the big names of those in attendance, reflects that this is an issue that affects everyone and that everyone is responsible for finding a solution to it.(Image from Wix)During Sir David’s introductory speech he talks about climate change being not just an ecological issue but a communication challenge as well. In the grips of the 6th mass extinction event on our planet, it is vital that everyone is united in working towards saving the planet; the reach of the 8 part docuseries is roughly 1 billion people and in the week following its release both #SaveOurPlanet and #OurPlanet have been trending. Communication is key. The ‘Planet in Peril’ anthology (in association with WWF and The Climate Coalition) will contribute towards the communication of the pressing global crisis. Through highly crafted poetry and dramatic photography, nature’s plight will be displayed for its readers. After watching ‘Our Planet’, why not use the breath-taking and at times highly emotionally footage to inspire your writing? Why not a poem entitled the Flight of the Walrus’ or The Dance of the Birds of Paradise? Why not be inspired to get outside and capture a honey bee pollinating the flowers in your garden? Why not use a quote from Sir David or Prince Charles’ moving speeches to inspire your own writing? Because if they’ve got one thing right, it’s this: this is our planet, it’s the only one we’ve got and that makes it all of our responsibility to save it from peril.Sir David Attenborough’s speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlKkqQHCCCsPrince Charles’ speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzHhEZYUibEIf you would like to submit to the Planet in Peril poetry competition and find out more about prizes please see our Planet in Peril page https://www.flyonthewallpoetry.co.uk/planet-in-perilDeadline is the 28th April

Planet in Peril Photography Prompt: Looking from Above

Today I'm excited to pass over the Fly on the Wall blog to marketing intern, Bozhidar, who has a photography prompt to get you inspired in the final weeks of the Planet in Peril competition! We usually look at the world through our own perspective – which is around a few feet above the ground, depending on our height. This is great when it comes to looking at things around us and living our daily lives. However, this perspective only works if we believe we are the centre of the world, when in reality, we are only specks on the surrounding environment, which is much bigger than what we see with our own two eyes. In order to get a better picture at what our world really look like, we need a change in perspective. The Overview Effect is a phenomenon experienced by astronauts, as they leave the Earth’s atmosphere and see our planet from hundreds of miles above. It is a unique and profound experience, with a life-changing effect: astronaut Scott Kelly says that after seeing the Earth from space, he “[got] this feeling that we just need to work better — much, much better — to solve our common problems." This perspective can inspire humility and a sense of solidarity and timelessness: borders disappear, and the blues of the oceans, the greens of the continents, and the whites of the clouds take over. “It looks like we are all part of one spaceship,”Scott Kelly said, “Spaceship Earth”.Boats floating in Yuba County, California (credit https://www.instagram.com/dailyoverview/) Of course, very few of us will realistically get the chance to see Earth from space, but the message of this celestial perspective is clear: Earth is still the realm of nature, not people. Inspired by the Overview effect, Benjamin Grant has created the Daily Overview (http://www.dailyoverview.com/), a photography project which takes a bird’s eye view of our world, revealing the marks, and sometimes scars, people have left on the surface of Earth. Colourful tulip fields in Lisse, Netherlands (credit https://www.instagram.com/dailyoverview/) The change we create on our environment can sometimes be seen only through this altered perspective. Both the sprawling web of highways our metropolises rely on, and the plastic coffee cups we walk past on our way to work, reveal things about our impact on the environment. Pointing the camera forward limits us to our human perspective, which may be useful for walking or driving, but fails to show us the bigger picture, which can only be seen by pointing the camera down. Regardless of whether it’s on the edge of our stratosphere or a just a few feet above the ground, a change in perspective can show us secrets about our nature and confirm that humanity is just a blimp on the radar, surrounded by the vast expanses of nature.If this photography prompt has inspired you, check out the Planet in Peril competition here! We look forward to seeing what you come up with.

A taste of 'the sea refuses no river' by Bethany Rivers!

I am excited to say that Bethany Rivers'collection, "the sea refuses no river", is now up for pre-order from the Fly on the Wall Press shop! To give you a teaser of what lies ahead, Bethany has shed some insight into the following poem from the collection…The Gate at ShrewsburyI’d never noticed before: at the other sideof the tracks a sunbeam falls througha half open iron gate, not one you’dexpect in a station; iron swirls of infinitydance on top of the vertical rails, somethingyou might see at the end of a long drive ofa stately home. I’m on the other sidein the shade of the cooling day, in the wings. There’s still a hectic in my blood of Edinburgh Fringe,the last three days of it: raucous street theatre, ghost trails, baristas and barmaids of Europe & South America,the actors & writers, the talent & hopefuls,the audiences & ticket sellers, the rounds of applause,show after show, where each of us goes, seekinga mirror of nature in the gesture of a character.I found one of my mirrors. I cracked. I’m grateful.After seven hours of trains, the quiet hillsof Wales, wait in all their earth-bound patience,whispering in a wind voice I can never quitecatch. And in the middle of Wales, where sheepout-number the people, the old fear creeps nearerwaiting to enter my veins: the lost mirror.A wood pigeon alights on a sunlit wrought iron gate.Bethany says..."Train stations are very much in-between places, you're neither here nor there, and this was particularly pronounced that day coming back from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, on my way back to Wales. Edinburgh had been so inspiring, moving, uplifting and 'raucous', and I was returning to my quiet routine life in Wales. There was an old iron gate on the platform, that was sunlit, and my side of tracks was in shade. It felt very symbolic, like it was an invitation to change my life. I had seen three different versions of Hamlet in Edinburgh, as I was studying this for my Ph.D. at the time, and one of them was the most mind-blowing, heart-striking performance I'd ever seen; hence the nod at the text of Hamlet ('mirror of nature in the gesture of a character') of all the world being a stage, and people being merely players upon it. Part of me wanted to stay in Edinburgh, and the excitement of it all, part of me wanted to start a new life in Shrewsbury and part of me longed for and feared the quiet of my Welsh home. And that particular performance of Hamlet, the emotion and physicality of it, felt like a mirror of where I was at in my life at that time. Pigeons have always been a symbol of freedom/happiness/hope for me, which is why they appear at the end of the poem."Blurb:The journey of grief is a strange oneand one not often talked about in our everyday reality of this society,but I know what it's like to dive deep,down to the bottom of the wreck,feel the ribs of the wreck,after losing a parent so young in lifeIn this collection, the sea refuses no river, there is an acceptance of the pain and an acceptance of the healing moments; the healing journeys. To quote Adrienne Rich: I came to explore the wreck', and in this collection, Bethany discovers how, 'The words are purposes. The words are maps.'Excited for this gorgeous collection to reach readers - make sure to pick up a copy from here!

Planet in Peril Prompt: Thinking like an animal

I ran an eco-poetry workshop for 15 to 18-year-olds, focusing on poetry prompt and how we can write about various different aspects of climate change. I realised that despite my target audience, these prompts may be enjoyable for all to experiment with! Some aspects of the workshop can be found below.Our impact on animals: Based on the "Dynasties" series, narrated by David Attenborough! These are quickfire prompts, so don't overthink your responses!Prompt 1: Poisoned MeatAttenborough brought the death of Lions by a human intent, to our attention in the new series of "Dynasties", where villagers chose to illegally farm and leave poisoned meat for the predators to eat, to avoid the Lions devouring their cattle.I want you to decide a perspective from which you are writing:From the dying Lions' perspectiveFrom the perspective of the HunterFrom the perspective of the film crew, filming the dying LionsPick three words or phrases which describe how you are feeling, exploring all senses which contribute to this: taste, smell, sight, hearing; touch. What does guilt/victory feel like?If you are the animal, what does your fur feel like? What can you taste? Prompt 2: SimilaritiesDavid the chimpanzee captured the hearts of a nation as he battled to maintain his alpha male status in the pack. His expressions and his behaviour was, at times, so human that it was easy to see similarities between humans and chimps, who share 97% of their DNA.For this prompt, I want you to look at an image of the chimpanzee hand and observe your own hand. What does your hand tell you about your life – do you do lots of manual labour, do you have chipped nail polish, do you have soft hands, do you bite your nails? What does the image of the chimpanzee's hand tell you? How many fights have they been, how old are they, how strong are they? What makes them human, what makes you an animal?Write these down in draft form and see if the poem emerges.Prompt 3: A day in the life of a penguin I would like you to write down words and images that you associate with the emperor penguin (choose an image if this helps!)Using these associations, see if you can imagine what it would be like to live as an emperor penguin.This narrative poem style can be dramatic or silly! I would like you to imagine the whole day, from the morning you wake up as a penguin to when you go to sleep. I can tell you that this time of year, it's -35° in Antarctica and most of your life will be spent in the sea, where you are vulnerable to predators.Life cycle of a penguin and fun facts:Around April every year (the start of the Antarctic winter) emperor penguins meet to breed on the thick Antarctic ice. By the time the female lays her egg (usually around June), she”s worked up a big appetite! She passes the egg to the male before journeying up to 80km to the open ocean where she can feed her hungry tummy on fish, squid and krill.During this time, the males are in charge of keeping the egg safe and warm in the breeding ground. They do this by balancing the egg on their feet and covering it with feathered skin, called a ‘brood pouch’. It takes about two months for the eggs to hatch.The females return in July, bringing with them food in their bellies which they regurgitate (or throw up) for the chicks to eat. The females now take over babysitting duty, leaving the males to head to the ocean for their own fishing session.As the youngsters grow, the parents leave them in groups, called ‘crèches', whilst they head to the ocean to fish. Come December, the warmer temperatures break up the ice that the penguins occupy, bringing open waters closer to the nesting site. By this time, the chicks are old enough to swim and fish, and take to the ocean themselves!Happy writing!Enter the Planet in Peril competition/find out more here

Elisabeth Horan's 'Bad Mommy Stay Mommy' is up for pre-order!

I am excited to announce that Elisabeth Horan's brave collection battling postpartum depression is now on pre-order via the Fly on the Wall shop!Elisabeth has been speaking to Twist in Time about the influence of Sylvia Plath's poetry on her work and the publisher has kindly allowed us to see a sneak peek of the creative study..."Sylvia Plath. Yes. Many people connect with Plath - her words are so fearless, so tragic, so knowing - she was not afraid to say the horrid things.I have always respected her in that - like, she had the courage to say in her poems, the dark monster which was in her heart -to make the poems ugly and beautiful. To make suicide ugly and beautiful. And I follow her - and I try to make the darkness I hold readable to you all - to show you the monster in me - I think Sylvia's monster was the Bi-Polar and the PMDD - I think it screamed and howled at her every month - with her cycle - the rage would bubble up along with genius - and she would write, and be fire, and wrath and phoenix, and then crash - the guilt of mothering, the shame of loss, the anger at men - at the world. So, I feel these things - Sylvia came to me and we had a talk. I don't presume to get it 100%, but I can empathize and guess - from my own massive and crushing postpartum depression, my own PMDD cycles - which cause the genius flurry of brilliant poems and fire - followed by suicidal crash, shame, guilt, self hate, and immense rage and anger at myself and the world.I hope you can see in my work here - this duality - can one be a brilliant poet and a decent mum...? Can one forgive oneself for doing such harm, and survive, not succumb to the grave, but suck up the gut-eating guilt and move on? For one's children? Or did she have no say. The demons,,, to powerful, dragged her away. and she was not present at the time.I hold on. But it is bleak at times. I'll never forgive myself for the words I said to my children in my darkest hours. My only slight consolation, is that I did not die, and they get to see their mother's face in the morning, even if the terrible monster still exists inside - Mommy is here little ones,,, and she is still alive. Much love to you all. and thank you always for opening your hearts to me and my humble, broken-glass words."Make sure you grab a copy of the talent that is Elisabeth Horan - her debut chapbook!

Poets of the future: Simon Corble

Derbyshire-based poet, photographer and performer, Simon Corble, captures the three artistic mediums I love and appreciate the most. Simon is well known for his stunning landscape photography and his poetry performances, with the theatre performance of 'White Light White Peak' being recently performed at the Buxton Fringe. His collaboration with Fly on the Wall will bring his theatre performance and his poetry and photography to life, showcasing the work of an established artist and a love of nature, in Autumn 2019.More about Simon:Besides being co-creator of The 39 Steps stage show, Simon is best known in the North of England for his daring work in wild places throughout the 1990’s with Midsommer Actors’ Company. His adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s novel The Woodlanders took the company into the forest at Hardcastle Crags, West Yorkshire and his production of The Hound of the Baskervilles began life on the moorlands at Brimham Rocks, near Harrogate. He wrote an adaptation with music of the medieval epic, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight entirely in alliterative verse, which was recently revived in Oxford. His First World War adaptation of the Of Mice and Men story, set on an English working farm, won a Manchester Evening News Theatre Award. Simon collaborated with the Library Theatre, Manchester in 1994 to write and direct The Wonderland Adventures of Alice, which toured Victorian parks all over the country. He has also written and directed for The London Bubble, Lancaster Duke’s Playhouse, and Harrogate Theatre, among very many others.His most recent poetry commission was for AirSpace gallery in Stoke-on-Trent, where he came up with a small collection on the subject of brownfield sites around the city. He helped start an online magazine for the Peak District, “Frim” in 2014 and contributed very many pieces of both verse and prose to this, along with photographs. He also writes and photographs trails for the Royal Geographical Society, The Peak District National Park and The National Trust – many of these are as audio work.Simon Corble: A brief autobiography and a discussion of White Light White Peak."In 2014, fellow photographer Steve Wake and I started an online magazine for the Peak District – Frim; sadly, it did not survive more than a year, due to other work commitments. It did, however, set me thinking: We noticed how black-and-white pictures seemed to work best to illuminate the poetry, while colour worked well for my prose pieces. Colour seemed to compete too loudly against the quieter voice of the poems.I had always planned to have my own darkroom, but time moved on and, later, digital photography arrived, making almost anything possible at the click of a mouse. And I had gone into making theatre, not photographs. I tend to think that I have worked hard at the poetry, while I find people's admiration of my photography vaguely embarrassing. Embarrassing because I have been incredibly lazy about it; never been on a course, never been much interested in “kit” - my current camera I bought mainly because it is incredibly tough; tough enough to withstand my carelessness. I rarely take a tripod out with me, as it's just too much bother and I justify this by saying, “I prefer spontaneous moments.” I think the poems have evolved in a similar way though; they have become more and more about the essence of a moment, or series of moments. Perhaps they have been directly influenced by the photography.I have been asked about White Light White Peak, which comes first, the poem or the photograph? The truth is a right mixture. More often it is the poem, which I then find a way of illustrating, either from images taken at the same time, or from earlier “library” shots; or I have to head back out to complete the sequence. If a piece starts with a photograph, then I am asking the question: Why did I take that? What did I see and where is it leading? The poem then goes on a voyage of discovery. One such started with a footprint, frozen in ice on a bitterly cold day; it became one of the longest poems in the collection.It was not long before I realised I had the beginnings of a book in progress. Being something of a showman by both training and nature, the idea to create a live presentation of the material was almost the very next thought. I could see that the book would clearly work, but what about a performance backed by large projections of the photographs? I was unaware of anyone trying such a thing, so I would need to trial the idea before moving forward with either strand.So, with the book put on hold, a huge amount of 2017 was given over to creating a trial version of White Light White Peak, with many more trips into the field, both to photograph and take sound recordings – the idea was to make the experience as immersive as possible. With invaluable support from Buxton's Green Man Gallery, the first experiment was staged there in the October and pronounced “mesmerising” by the events manager - photographer and writer, Caroline Small. Audience feedback was unanimous – the concept works a treat; “Get on with it!” and, “When is the book coming out?”Obviously, since the trial theatre performance, over a year ago now, new poems have come along and new photographs; some have screamed, “Put me in White Light White Peak!” I also have a long list of “holes to fill” on the photography front. Adequately capturing a certain stage of the snow's retreat from the slopes below the Kinder plateau, for example, did not become a reality until the day before I first contacted Fly on the Wall. It had been my third or fourth trip out that way and all for one line of one poem, or a few seconds screen time during the live show.Oh and the title? White Light White Heat, was a track by the Velvet Underground, (about taking amphetamines!) Whenever I pick up my Ordnance Survey “White Peak” map, which I do most days, I look at the cover and the Velvets start playing in my head, but with “peak” for “heat”. Very silly, but I thought the black-and-white photography contains nothing but “white light” so it is highly appropriate.One thing I have appreciated, over the past few years though: There is no such thing as a truly dull season, or a day without something magical; you only have to let yourself be open to experience."- Simon Corble.

Introducing Commissioned Poet, Helen Mort!

I am delighted to say that the former Derbyshire Poet Laureate, Helen Mort, will be part of the Planet in Peril project. Helen will be writing a brand-new piece for the anthology, global warming being a subject close to her heart. I have always been a fan of Helen's poetry and it is wonderful to be working with her."Helen Mort is among the brightest stars in the sparkling new constellation of young British poets" - Carol Ann Duffy (Image from Helen Mort's website)More About Helen:She is the five-times winner of the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Competition!Helen's work has been shortlisted for the Costa Prize and the T.S. Eliot Prize. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her poetry collections 'Division Street' and 'No Map Could Show Them' are published by Chatto & Windus. She is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. Helen also writes creative non fiction and has been published in The Independent and in 'Mount London', an anthology of ascents in the vertical city. She has also edited an anthology of poems for children, 'The Owl and the Pussycat'. In 2017, she worked with Stuart Maconie to edit 'One For The Road: An Anthology of Pubs and Poetry'. She has also edited 'Waymaking', a book of adventure-inspired art and literature by women.Find out more about Helen on her website here.Enter the Planet in Peril competition here.

Author Spotlight: Stuart Buck

'Become Something Frail ' by Stuart Buck will be published in March by the lovely publisher, Selcouth Station Press. I'm really excited for this one and wanted to give you some insight into the upcoming book by interviewing Stuart!Background:Stuart Buck is an award-winning poet living in North Wales. After spending a decade as a chef, he began writing Haiku and Tanka and after moderate success decided to branch out in to longer-form, freestyle poetry. His first collection, Casually Discussing the Infinite, was described as 'a visceral experience...of poetic sucker-punches' and broke in to the top 100 on Amazons World Poetry Chart. In 'Become Something Frail' he describes the dark and mystical, the humane and the fantastical.Interview:Now I've seen a sneak peak, but can you tell me 3 main themes which run through this collection? Sure. Become Something Frail is split into 3 sections. These focus on ‘dreams, ‘sex’ and ‘trauma’. The final poem is separate, an ode to a singer called Scott Hutchinson who committed suicide last year. The book as a whole is about embracing who you are, even if who you are is a weak, scared person. I have become a lot more aware in the last few years that I am not the strong, masculine person that it is required to be nowadays (I think in a lot of areas you are learning but where I live it is still very much an alpha male space). The book is trying to tell people that it is OK to become something frail every now and then, to accept yourself and come to the realisation that, deep down, everyone is scared. So while the book is split into 3, they are only loose thematic parts, not specific topics. For example, the final section, ‘trauma’, can be seen more as the places we go to in our minds when trauma comes about, both as an adult and, in my case, as a child. It is about escapism which can also apply to dreams and sexuality, which the book covers in the first two parts. I am rambling a bit but I guess what I am trying to say is that it is OK to be a flawed human being. Social Media projects this idea that everyone has their lives where they want them to be, because that’s how you have to be on Social Media. But really, most people are struggling and that is just fine. In fact, I believe the strongest people are the ones that admit they are afraid.There is a haunting line which alludes to family trauma. How personal is this collection? Extremely personal. I don’t know how to write any other way. Childhood was a jumble of various types of grief and chaos. I am learning now that the idea I had back when I was a child, that adults were infallible beings who had no right to make mistakes, was wrong. If you think I am any closer to knowing what the hell is going on than when I was a teenager well I am not. I wear my heart on my sleeve at all times, both in my writing and in real life. I have no filter between my brain and my mouth and the same goes for my brain and my pen. It all comes back to not being afraid of who you are. I have been through some rough things and they have shaped who I am. I want to try to relate that to people. The bad shapes you just as much as the good. When I perform live, I let go as much as possible. I made three people cry once at a poetry reading and it was one of my proudest moments as a poet. I want people to feel something when they read my poems otherwise, given the emotiveness of the topics, I have failed.I’m painting this as all doom and gloom. It’s not. I approach the themes in a very surreal way at times. A lot of the poems are influenced by childhood and that is when your mind is most vibrant but also most dreamlike. So these are not word for word recollections of bad things. The poems take you places that you may feel uncomfortable being, but you won’t recognise where you are. The book does touch on dark subjects, but I have tried to approach them with levity and grace. It also gets darker the further along you go, I have curated it in a way that if you want to just dip in towards the beginning you can take an entirely separate set of feelings away with you. Someone once asked me why I put the darker poems towards the back of the book and in all honesty it’s because I know my mum won’t read that far.Name two of your favourite writers. At least 1 has to be alive! Well, my all-time favourite poet is probably E.E. Cummings. For me, he revolutionised white space in poetry and his use of line breaks, punctuation and capitalisation was inspired. But that wasn’t all there was to Cummings. He wrote about brutal things at times, about deeply personal things. He wrote some stunning love poetry, some beautiful odes to people in his life. I could read him for the rest of my life and not get bored.In terms of someone who is alive, I would say Andrew McMillan. He is a Yorkshire born poet whose work focuses on masculinity, sexuality and adolescent confusion. His poetry is just phenomenal, the two books he has released, ‘physical’ and ‘playtime’, are two of my favourite books of poetry ever, and I was lucky enough to see him perform last year. I don’t think he is massively well known other than in the UK where he has won endless awards for being brilliant, but whoever I talk to about poetry I always recommend him as his work is near transcendental. Every single man should have to read ‘physical’ and ‘playtime’.Is writing therapeutic for you? Yes. It used to be a lot more cathartic, but my writing process has changed somewhat in the last two years (Become Something Frail is the culmination of these two years). I used to write at least a poem a day and they used to be a lot more confessional than they are now. It was like I was writing out all my dirty secrets and letting people know what I was. I used to be a very closed person (I am dyspraxic so I struggle a lot with basic things and that used to scare me a lot more than it does now) so poetry was a way of telling people what I was thinking. I started writing properly at a very low point in my life, I had just left my job after a nervous breakdown and when I read the poetry I wrote in those couple of years (over a thousand poems) they were extremely bleak and nihilistic. Now I write a lot less but the poetry is a lot better, a lot less self-pitying. I still love writing and it still helps me empty my mind, but I take it a lot more seriously now. It has taken five years or so but I finally feel I am worth reading!How do you edit your poems?Rather controversially, I don’t. Well, almost never. Most of my poems are scenes that I create in my mind, a time, a place, a colour, a noise. I then try to get that idea out of my brain and on to the paper as quickly as possible. My poetry tends to flow as if it has just tumbled out of my mind and that is because it has. I feel like editing the work lessens the emotional impact. I want you to see what’s in my mind. I write one long sentence then add line breaks and that is it. I may walk away from it for ten minutes to make a coffee then come back and see some glaring error but that is as far as my editing goes. I am going to annoy a lot of people I am sure but that’s my feelings on the matter. It may change later in my career but for now it works for me so I am sticking with it.What did you find most challenging about putting together this collection?I find the whole process can be rather draining mentally. Because of the personal themes in the book, it is a lot like a therapy session when I read back through the poems. Thankfully, the process was fairly organic, the poems fell nicely into the 3 sections and the last poem summed the whole book up so there was not a massive amount of shifting around of pieces etc. I sometimes struggle with objectifying the work as well. I read the poems as the guy that wrote them, with all the emotional baggage, memories and imagery that goes with that. So I can sometimes be overly subjective and that is maybe the hardest part of writing poetry. Learning to read it from another’s perspective. Detach yourself from these words that mean so much so that you can make sure they will make sense to someone other than you.When and where can we buy it?! My favourite question! Well, you can buy it from the publisher directly which isSelcouth Station or by contacting me on my twitter (which is where I live) @stuartmbuck. It will be out in March and I can tell you that, having seen a proof copy, it looks and feels beautiful. I would just like to say thank you to the publisher who have r eally been amazing, handled my words with all the care in the world and have made me feel like I have a story worth telling. Which is priceless to me.

Writing prompt: weaving science into poetry

With the Planet in Peril Poetry and Photography competition on its way, I would like to introduce to you Dr Michelle Cain, at Oxford University.Michelle is the Science and Policy Research Associate, and will be generously writing a foreword for the book, as well as annotating your poems and photos, to ensure that this project is bang up to date with the latest scientific research on Climate Change.Michelle’s core expertise is in air pollution, greenhouse gases and climate science. Her focus as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge (2009-2017) was on the greenhouse gas methane and its sources in the UK and in the Arctic. She took part in conducting large field campaigns to the Arctic to measure methane in the atmosphere, linking these measurements back to sources such as remote wetlands.(Although not all of us can visit the Arctic Circle, you may find yourself inspired by other travellers – is this poemhere is inspired by the Inuit of the Arctic Circle.)In Cambridge, Michelle was the coordinator for the Cambridge Centre for Climate Science, a network of climate scientists in departments across the university and the British Antarctic Survey, responsible for a programme of activity to build the climate science community. Michelle also spent 18 months as a Natural Environment Research Council policy placement fellow at Defra (Department for environment, food and rural affairs), specialising in air quality. Her PhD, from the University of Reading, combined measurements with modelling of long range transport of pollutants in the atmosphere from North America to Europe, and also in the West African Monsoon. (Why not put pen to paper to pin down how the air we breathe can become our enemy? Here are some poemswhich explore pollution.)Before embarking on her PhD, Michelle was a communications officer at the Institute of Physics, working on both media and public engagement. This put her in good stead for coordinating the outreach and knowledge exchange activities for two research projects in Cambridge.As you can see, Planet in Peril is in excellent hands! I'm excited to see what you come up with.

One year book birthday for 'Please Hear What I'm Not Saying'!

This time last year 'Please Hear What I'm Not Saying', a poetry anthology raising funds the UK Charity, Mind, was published, featuring 116 poets across the globe.The anthology does not shy away from the realities of mental health and is divided into sections, the poetry feeling more positive throughout the book, with a focus on therapy and healing towards the end of the work. Since the book was published we have raised just under £600 for charity – an impressive figure which I'm keen to build on!To celebrate this book birthday, I am running a giveaway. Below are the fantastic entries I have received so far. If you want to enter your micro poem of 10 lines or under, you can send your entry to Isabellekenyon@hotmail.co.uk with your address and your social media handles. Address your subject line as 'Micro poem competition'. Competition closes on February 24 and the winner will be announced on February 25.Cloudy MindBy Robin McNamara Twitter: @robbiemac Broken windows,The wind rattles theRusted frames.Religion on the TVOn this dead Sunday.Life is closed today,Quietness at the table,The wind of this barren,Dulled day howl louder,On this dead Sunday.ThreadsBy Dale ParnellDo you see the fine threadBy which I hang?A filament burning white hot,Ready to breakAnd cast me into the abyss.VoiceBy Fokkina McDonnellI’m scared of the voice that tells me to let go of the wheel.It’s an old man’s, harsh, gritty, cold, pushing me.That time: Monday, sunny, A487, heading for Portmadog… throat, sweaty fingers, heatBlack figures carry bags home. Whatever home might mean.Silence, only sirens calling. The dog-end of the year.Falling is kind of doing something.You can fall sideways, head first, backwards.I have worked all these years to stay upright.Running like a rabbit on a metal track.The Worry TreeBy Jon WilkinsAs a device in mental health circles some brightspark has developed the smashing idea of the worry treewhere, if you are anxious about anything in particular you comeup with an action plan and when you have that plan in place yousay to your doubting self can I do anything about this worry?And if you can that’s fine, but if you can’t the answer is so simple,you throw the worry away. So along with being asked if you havethought about harming yourself due to your illness, or even ending yourbleak filled life you now have to nurture the roots of the worry treebefore you throw your worry away and are so miraculously Cured.messed upBy Laura McKee in praise of the blur the imperfect edge where your hand or the breeze dared to shakeChimpBy Jeff Skinner@JeffSquibby TwitterI whisper for Englandsilence the crowd with my noise,tamper with your playliston the bus. You can’tshake me off, throw me up.I’m in your face. In the tunnelon your case. Nowhere’s safe.Don’t ch-choke now.RelayBy Louise BrownTwitter @LouiseLawyerThat day was like a race of relay;you the runner at the front;sprinting to the finish linelike an Olympian;the burning torch passed back to us.Pain transferred;your story ended that day by suicide ; our new stories began.InsulatedBy Rachael Ikinslithium-cocoonedstill I weep “goodbye.”still parting’s pain likewet leaves you mustpeel my fingers off your car one by one.Invisible, my fingerprints swirl, curldust settles while your taillights wink.From the outside (looking in)By Juliette SebockTwitter @juliettesebockI was having a bad day andcould hear the universecollectively ask why,and I didn't have an answer.How can I explain thata little bit of everythingseems to be wrongwhen nothing really is?From what they see,I have no right to be sad.Held Closed By Maxine Rose MunroThink of me as that kitchen drawer jammed shut ever since you've known, so long you've forgotten what's in there. If you ever knew. Superficially it's the same, but with added hidden depths. Forcing things to open won't work,you know that. Use your hands with your heart with your mind, take time to find what's held closed; those things I keep inside. Links to buy Please Hear What I'm Not Saying and support Mind:The Fly on the Wall ShopWaterstonesBookmarks BookshopAmazon~