Duty

The poem by Norman Morrissey below is in Strandloop, while the bit by me is an extract from the title poem of my upcoming book of love poems, Path of Beauty. It shows his wisdom in relation to the world is so much greater than mine, though he was more than twenty years younger than I am now when he wrote the poem. May I live up to him yet.

 

Give Your Writing The Edge Newsletter No.43, January 2019

Due entirely to an error on my part, the online version of this month's newsletter is only available from today, so, while I don't usually use the blog for the newsletter, I am using it now to re-post it across the social media channels. I apologise sincerely to all who may have been inconvenienced between Tuesday and now.

Below is my covering letter; if you wish to leap straight to the newsletter, it is here:
https://perspectivepublications.wordpress.com/give-your-writing-the-edge/  

Dear friends

Happy new year to you all with a whopper of a start for Give Your Writing The Edge.

The editorial, On Building a Theatre for Spirit, is to a large extent inspired by Pulitzer-prize winning poet, Mary Oliver, who died, at the age of 83, on 17th January, leaving behind an extraordinary trail of creative work. Do follow the link (in the second footnote) to the interview with Krista Tippett - it's a worthwhile set of conversations with the deeply experienced and humble writer Oliver was.

I hope you enjoy South African-born, Italy-based feature poet Tania Haberland's series of poems, written during a recent unexpected experience in hospital. The poems are accompanied by haunting images - photographs taken by Haberland herself, who often combines her poems creatively with visual and audio-visual material. An intimate, erotic poem of hers is slipped in, anticipating the month of love that's coming up. Tania's new book, Water Flame, is available ... I think at a special price at this stage still, so you may click on the link provided and seize the opportunity.

Rene Bohnen's excellent review of the Ecca Poets 2017 publication, This Moment's Marrow, is bound to fascinate with her thorough investigation of the concept of 'marrow' and her application of it in her reading of each poet's contributions. May you enjoy it, and please don't be shy to send responses!

I popped in a few links on the Notice Board Page to YouTube channel clips featuring work in process with filmmaker Riccardo Magnanini - those of you with an interest in the way in which moving images can be poetic, and can serve poetry, will hopefully be entertained and uplifted. Your feedback is SO welcome.

Since I was sadly forced to withdraw from the Summer Songs and Poems event on 6th January this year, I have published all six poems, which I had planned to read on that day. I invite you to read them aloud to yourselves or your fellows, in trust that they will move you as I had intended my audience to be moved.

Coming up on February 15th is the launch of an unexpected (yes, completely so) book of love poems I've put together for Valentine's Day which I've entitled Path of Beauty. They're being printed next week - please do let me have your orders. The launch will be complemented by songs and stories of love, in an event held at the Rose Theatre in Hogsback, with Gwyneth Lloyd and Trevor Webster. If you are in or near Hogsback, we would be delighted to have your company. I'll be publishing extracts from Path of Beauty on my blog in the next two weeks. (Most of the poems in there are pulled out of Section 7 of  my upcoming book, Greater Matter, so I guess it amounts to a kind of preview.) 

You'll see a new page in this newsletter, announcing that I shall be doing this newsletter as a charitable venture for another five months. Thereafter, I would like Give Your Writing The Edge to be carried by donations - that is my plan, at any rate. Unfortunately, I am far from being a wealthy widow. Please see p.26 for details.

I'm keeping VERY busy with the fourth draft of Greater Matter and am likely to announce a launch date in next month's newsletter, so if you've been following my Facebook and blog posts, you can start looking forward to that collection (my 'heffalump') FINALLY seeing the light of day :-)

I wish you a beautiful month of reading and writing. 

Yours in fellowship

Silke

The devil in words

Building up to the launch of Path of Beauty, I'm practising piano/ keyboard to accompany soprano Gwyneth Lloyd for a couple of songs we intend to include in the programme. Along with a love story or two, told by Trevor Webster.

Path of Beauty includes 8 old love poems (9 if you count the one on the back cover) and 12 new ones. Of the 8 (9) old poems, 3 are erotic in tone.

I'm thinking about my audience ... are they going to enjoy that? Should I pull those poems out and replace them with others?

The devil in words

If the frogs court with bleeps,
and the birds neck
one another,
opening wide
their feathered arms -

if they're free
to compose
their rapture,

and mating beetles fly
through the air
close by our heads,

and the butterflies
dot paths and grass,
wings shivering in ecstasy -

why, if all this is SO normal, why
should WE not speak
the language
of love?

Why are words taken as obscene, intrusive,
when love
is common -

pure music, movement
and creative
energy?

What is it that puts the devil
into
words?

- Silke Heiss, 29th January 2019

Front cover

Back cover. Portrait of Norman by Michael Chomse

Path of Beauty

In preparation for a Soiree of love songs, poems and stories - to be performed at The Rose Theatre on 15th February by Gwyneth Lloyd, Trevor Webster and myself - I've assembled twenty love poems of mine, ranging from the early 1980s to the present, in a collection I've entitled Path of Beauty. (Twenty-one, actually, if you count the poem on the back cover.)

Artist Michael Chomse has kindly given permission for me to use his portrait, Norman leaving, on the back cover.

My printer's colour cartridge is just about empty, so these prints are pretty wasted-looking - but they give you an impression anyway, and hopefully whet your appetites for what is to come.

If you want a copy of the book, you are welcome to pre-order it. (R50 per copy, add R20 postage inland, R40 overseas.)

I'll post some extracts or poems from the collection as things start warming closer to Valentine's Day.

Many of the recent love poems in the book are extracted from Section 7 of Greater Matter - a section which I've re-titled Path of Beauty - so if you want to hold a sneak preview in your hands, this little book would be it.

Path of Beauty front cover

Path of Beauty back cover