Whilst I was browsing in a bookshop a couple of week ago I came across a book by Stephen Fry called, ‘The Ode Less Travelled : unlocking the poet within’. This book claims that ‘if you can speak and read English you can write poetry’.

I’ve always been interested in poetry - from adolescent obsessions with Syliva Plath via Heaney’s Bog poems on my A-level syllabus to the funny and poignant work of Wendy Cope that has been such a comfort to me lately - it’s all fascinated me. So I’ve decided to take Mr Fry up on his challenge.

The books takes you through the techiques of poetry writing and the different styles and forms, and sets you exercises at the end of each chapter. He usually gives you a topic, a task and the amount of time you should be spending on it.

I’ve been working through this book for the last week or so, and I thought I’d make my attempts so far public for anyone who comes across them. I’ve added them to a new blog, which can be found here.

Be warned, they are on such exciting topics as ‘What I’d like to Eat’ and ‘Pesky Tasks Overdue’, but the point is that it does seem possible to train yourself to various techniques and styles.  Ok, so I may not be heading for a Nobel prize just yet, but just because we aren’t all Picassos, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t sketch for fun, or because we’re not Roger Federer we shouldn’t enjoy a knockabout on the tennis court.

I would say comments welcome, but I’m not sure I’m ready for criticism quite yet!

So you think Hamlet has a high body count? You aint seen nothing yet. One feels that the set designer for the Royal National Theatre’s latest production of The Revenger’s Tragedy had no option but to use a revolving stage…how else would the living characters be able to ‘bear up Those tragic bodies’ as the script instructs? Much easier to just rotate them off.

Seriously though, this is a glorious, rich and sexy production of this little performed play. The staging includes several emsemble pieces outside of the script, most notably at the start. It takes us 5 minutes to get to the opening line, as the revolving set does its work and the scene is set both literally and emotionally. We are shown the events leading up to the opening scene played out before us. From the graphic rape of Lord Antonio’s wife, to the money troubles of Vindice’s family. If you keep your eyes open and are on the ball (there’s a lot going on!) then there is no excuse for not knowing what the state of affairs is before things get going.

The programme notes liken the play to a feminist Hamlet, and the parallels are obvious. Much of the action turns on the decisions of women to be virtuous or otherwise. Men are very much subject to their passions - both lusty and vengeful - and it is up to the women to keep things clean. Some manage it, some don’t. The hero/anti-hero Vindice, in disguise, swears an oath to help the Duke’s son win over a local virgin to corruption. He then discovers that the lucky lady is, in fact, his sister. Whilst he is perfectly happy to break the laws of the land to avenge various deaths, he is not prepared to break his oath to warn his sister. It is much more acceptable to put his sister and mother to the test.

In another scene the perpetrator of the aforementioned rape is mistakenly sent for execution. One might be tempted to feel sorry for the victim of this mix up. However, all sympathy disappears when, before hearing of his fate, he marvels at how he can be locked up for a whole month for the the sake of just one woman!

My seat was in the front row and to the side, which was fantastic for catching all the nuances of characterisation as they came on and off the main set. From my side-on view I was also clearly able to see how they got so much blood on stage so quickly without actually severing an artery..but I won’t spoil it on here.

All in all a great evening. Entertaining, thought-provoking, and very very bloody!

]]> http://blutakgirl.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/the-revengers-tragedy/feed/ http://blutakgirl.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/mr-dangly/ http://blutakgirl.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/mr-dangly/#comments Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:13:53 +0000 blutakgirl http://blutakgirl.wordpress.com/?p=140

So, this is what I fill my days with when I’m too hungover to think about linguistics!

Original pattern can be found here.

It was feline versus lupine last night as the skies darkened above Finsbury Park for the softball match of the season so far.

Having umpired a couple of games against the top-of-the-table Fat Cats, we knew they could hit, and we knew they had a reasonable idea about the game…so it was some nervous, but excited Wolves who showed up early to warm up, run practice drills and settle into the pitch.

As the away team we batted first. A string of good solid base hits got us on the scoreboard in an important innings. We then held the Cats to nothing for the next two innings.

As is the way with us Wolves, we never do things the easy way - a dip in the middle meant that the Cats put on 6 runs in 4th innings. We then knew that we needed to keep it tight.

We stepped up to the plate literally and metaphorically - got those all important runs in and held their scoring to a minimum. It got a bit heated for a while there over a few close calls. I’m thinking we probably wouldn’t have made the appeals if the game hadn’t been so tight, but all those hours at umpire school have got to be worth something!

Anyhow, after the full 7 innings, by hook or by crook, victory was secured for Wolf-kind!

Personally I got a particular kick out of holding them to nothing in an innings by getting three straight outs at first, but it’s indisputable to say that everyone played a part tonight. Batting sensibly and consistently, holding runners, keeping the force on and getting those outs!

Three cheers for the Loan Wolves!

My academic department has recently moved buildings and I’ve been exploring the area around and about the new location.

Just 1 minute away is the tranquil St George’s Gardens. This was the first burial ground in Camden to not be next to a church. Now, it’s more of a park and less of a graveyard, althought he gravestones are still in evidence around the borders.

The most striking feature of the gardens, which I noticed today is this statue. I don’t know what it is about it that draws it to me, but I’m found myself intrigued by this figure. She really seems to be about to turn and say something to you. I wonder how long she has stood there, and how many people she has seen come and go. I wonder what she is thinking about, as it seems to be a truly introspective, contemplative pose. Whatever it is, I think she’s great.

So this morning I got out of bed at a ridiculous hour to make it to Regent’s Park (sans Victoria line) in time for the June instalment of the Regent’s Park summer 10k series. I was hoping to register there and then on the day, but I’ll admit a little bit of me kind of hoped the places had all gone. However, sign up I did, and before I knew it I was contemplating the 10 kilometres that lay before me.

As I waited for the kickoff I got more and more nervous. Everybody there looked liked they really knew what they were doing. I started to feel out of my depth. I’ve run 10ks before a good few times, but not for a while. However, I really felt like I needed to do something positive and challenging to get myself back on track physically and emotionally, and this seemed as good a thing as any.

So we set off at 9am. I’d decided that as I hadn’t really trained for this one, I would make it my aim to get around without stopping to walk and try not to be last. I’m pleased to say that I accomplished both! I have quite a steady pace, and although by the 5k mark I knew this was going to be my slowest time over this distance, I think in the circumstances I was fairly happy with that. My steady pace means that I get overtaken a lot at the start, and then gradually towards the middle and end I start creeping up on the hares in true tortoise style and doing some overtaking of my own. The course was three laps, and I think in some ways that made it slightly more difficult mentally. It was at about the 4.5k mark that I started to get lapped by runners on their third lap. I kept on going regardless.

It’s strange the way that you can almost get into a trance on these sort of runs. The rhythm of your feet and your breathing can be quite hypnotic, and in hindsight I can’t really say what I was thinking about for the majority of the time. It got particularly hard around the 8k mark. At this point I’d been running for longer than I have run for quite some time and my legs suddenly felt very heavy. However, I concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other and by the time I hit the 9k marker I felt fine again. I even managed a bit of a spurt for the final 200 metres.

According to my less than great wristwatch, I ran it in approximately 1 hour and 6 minutes. Not great by any standards - about 4 minutes slower than my last time. However, runners were still coming in 25 minutes after I’d puffed over the finished line, and I ran the whole way in my own way and at my own pace.

I’m going to enter the same race again in September to see how much I can improve between now and then.

Watch this space!

I recently came across the work of the female poet Wendy Cope.

She was speaking on this week’s Woman’s Hour and the podcast is available (at least it is at the moment) from the BBC site.

She is understandably not keen on people presenting her work on the internet for free. You can read more about her views on this here.

Therefore, I’m not going to quote any here, but just recommend her and say that I’ll be popping out to buy her latest book - a collection of her poems - in the next couple of days.

I have particularly enjoyed ‘Bloody Men’ and ‘Two Cures for Love’ which both feature in the podcast, and ‘Loss‘.

At a time where I am feeling sad about the state of my own lovelife these have really made me smile, whilst also taking the edge off the lonliness.

According to Samual Johnson, ‘The only end of writing is to enable the readers better to enjoy life or better to endure it,’ and that is certainly what Cope has helped me do these last few days.

If you like these, you might also want to try Gavin Ewart.

So, I’ve long rejected religion, father christmas (sorry kids), the tooth fairy and the like. However, for some reason a few odd superstitions have persisted with me. Wishing on eyelashes, saluting magpies and avoiding walking over three drains (don’t ask) for instance.

However, today I’ve decided to leave all these behind. Why? Because they aren’t true and they don’t work.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been wishing at every opportunity that I’d find love and be happy. Looking at it sensible that wishing doesn’t seem to have made the slightest bit of difference. Now it is time to leave this sort of thing behind me and make my life that little bit more rational.

In the meantime, here is a picture of a black cat. My old black cat Spells. Not because she was lucky or unlucky, but because she was gorgeous.

I came across this randomly and it made me smile and laugh at a time when I couldn’t imagine doing so for a long time. There are a few swear words, but still…

I make it 16….