We've been away on a gardens break, visiting the Chelsea Flower Show (bit of a circus),
The RHS Garden at Wisley (fabulous)
(nice Ixia in the Alpine House, and a Vanda in the main glasshouse),
Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent,
and finally Tatton Park Garden in Cheshire - simply wonderful,
The Italian Garden (there's also a gorgeous Japanese Garden), and the brilliant unsubtle azaleas. After the terribly tasteful greens of Chelsea, it was lovely to see colour and to smell scents.
The Ullapool Book Festival is supported by the independent bookshops of the Northwest Highlands, and they always impress me every time I visit the area. This year I was delighted to see Sally Evans' The Bees in the shops there, together with some of the new Diehard Windfall series. And the range and variety of titles stocked in the shops is just wonderful. Where else, I ask you, could I have walked into a shop and bought a copy of the poems of Po Chü-I, one of the finest poets of T'ang dynasty China?
I took David Hinton's selection of Chinese wilderness poetry with me to Glencanisp, and it must have seeped into me, because I found myself writing a couple of poems in that style. On the surface it's conversational, but many are profound reflections on the natural world and our place in it. And my poems, while not claiming to be profound, led to a fascinating debate round the fire one evening, about detachment and involvement.
Other poems were very different, and many of them are still unfinished. Influenced by Mandy Haggith's The Last Bear (of which more later), I found myself starting what I think will be a longish poem about a year in the life of a bear, with bear physiology and behaviour prominent. The Goldilocks story has a lot to answer for.
This is your mountain. It's around 2,500ft high, and the walk in is 5 miles either way, so it's not something to be undertaken lightly, on a whim. I left the lodge at 7am and was back by 4 - exhausted and very stiff.
This is the decidely OTT dry-stone wall on the bealach (the 'pass' in the middle) of Suilven. The summit ridge continues above.
This is the view from the bealach.
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This is for Rachel:
I'm off to Lochinver at the weekend on a 'Top Left Corner' Writers' Retreat at the Glencanisp Lodge, and I may not have time to blog anything before then. I was there last year and it was terrific. I haven't got any definite plans for writing this time, but I'll be doing the initial editing of a new chapbook - making a 'first cut' from an MS portfolio. I'm thinking about the waters of the world just now too, and something may come out of that. I also need to catch up with my reading - I seem to have a lot of unfinished books on my shelves at the moment. I'll definitely take 'Mountain Home; the wilderness poems of ancient China, translated by David Hinton. There's an honourable tradition of such poetry in China which extends before and after Han Shan (Cold Mountain), the one I'm most familiar with. I would take Ezra Pound's Cantos, but I think he might unduly influence anything I might write myself. W.S. Merwin's 'Migration' and Pattiann Rogers' 'Wayfare' are two others on my list.
Publishing is seriously addictive, particularly if you make it a really creative process, and don't aim to treat it as a business. When you look at all the things you have to do to bring a book together it's clear that those of us who run small presses do it for love, not money. There are challenges at every stage, but they are creative challenges. And when the result arrives in these brown boxes from the printer it's pretty exciting. As long as I produce works the authors and I can be proud of, I'm happy (and I aim to cover my costs too, of course).
With Anna's book now available (from CWP) my next three are already lined up. Poetry chapbooks from Anne Connolly and David C Purdie are almost ready for the printer, and I should get the MS of Donald McKinney's short stories by the end of next week. Two, maybe three, are in preparation for late Autumn, and already I've found myself thinking about the 2009 schedule - you have to in this business.
I said at last December's Poetry Pamphlet Fair that I specialise in publishing the work of my friends. I prefer the "Don't call me, I'll call you," approach, and that only works (for me anyway)if I know the authors and their work already. What's the motivation in publishing poems by complete strangers? I'll leave that to others.
In the meantime, my two entries for the Callum Macdonald Award weren't shortlisted, but I'll be going along to the ceremony on Wednesday to see who wins. It'll maybe give me some ideas for improving my chances next year.
I collected Anna Dickie's Heart notes from the printer yesterday, so now it's published and available. Check the Calder Wood Press site for details. I still have to do the admin-type things, like sending off the legal deposit copies and registering it with Nielsen BookData, and I'll do that later today. I must set up an e-payment facility on the site too, now that the list is growing - two more titles coming in June. Anna and I will organise a proper launch (or two) once we've got our diaries together.
I'm really pleased with it - it's printed really well. The cover has come out beautifully, and the text is printed on really nice paper. Well done Levenmouth.
Anna came along to the Dunbar Group's informal reading in the 1650 Café last night to collect her author copies. It was a very good evening, with 10 of us reading to an audience of friends in a comfy setting. We'll definitely do this again, if the owners agree. (Their coffee is excellent, if you're looking for a cuppa in Dunbar.)
