Writing alongside painting

Writing has taken much more of my creative energy in recent months than painting- participating in Faber Academy’s fine Writing Poems course, held for the first time in Newcastle. So, when I would usually head to my studio (an early start) I’ve been heading to a writing chair instead. I’ll explain the route to poetry in my next post.

In some cases, the link between poems and the paintings is very explicit. For example, my last post included a painting about exploring Heptonstall’s churchyards. I’ve now written a complementary poem, with the same title:

---

Searching for her resting place

Approaching the first

and shattered shell,

an uneven pavement 

of outsized tombstones,

discards of some

supernatural storm, now

covering what remains of 

so many 

Greenwoods

and Chatburns

among the tens of thousands

persisting here.

These broken bulwarks 

catch rain drops as they fall

from empty archways,

etching grit in steady trickles.

Now step

out well beyond these 

high enclosing walls

where

crazed crosses and, 

Sycamore boughs

and tangled wire

mark the intake’s edge.

Look 

where

between Southworths 

and Speaks

her name’s embossed, 

then clawed away,  

some craving conscription 

of those fierce flames.

Some resting place!

More passing-place

for lives incomplete.

---

And finally, if you are unfamiliar with this place- a couple of photographs as well…