‘This is about listening … it’s about absorbing and transmitting.’
The wise words of my mentor, Jo Bell, as I prepared to take on the TWP residency at Drake the Bookshop in Stockton. I made nervous plans, drew up happy activities and tried to put away the part of me trained to teach. I reminded myself that it was highly likely this was not going to go as I anticipated. Certainly nothing like a day in the classroom. I just had to relax, be myself and enjoy the creative ride.
True to form the residency started in a completely unplanned direction when an interesting ‘hook’ was dropped into my lap. Stockton was buzzing, or maybe growling, about Home Secretary James Cleverley MP, and his very public comment about Stockton being a sh*thole.
Mel and Richard (Drake’s owners) engaged with the customers, local radio and press. I had chats with people willing to share their thoughts and opinions. A real opportunity for listening, absorbing and transmitting! What was clear was that people were aware of Stockton’s shortcomings but they resented the fact that, yet again, this part of the UK was targeted by disparaging commentary; as if nothing good or beautiful could ever come from the area.
The strong sense of belonging, identity and community in Stockton made me even more aware of the under-reported projects and activities run by the community for the community. People stepping up where Governments fail to. It was not lost on me that it’s the story of probably every working class town up and down Britain, including my own in Mid-Wales. Mel and Richard have clearly formed meaningful bonds and have a real sense of responsibility for proactive change. A small business at the heart of a community trying to make a difference. I had to produce work that centred on these ideas!
But how to do that? Let me share one of my processes with you.
I have used a similar technique before when writing ‘He is Energy’ for Festival of Thrift (Digital Edition). It’s a combination of research and word-fishing. It leans on the idea that you ‘steal like an artist’ but not through other artists’ work. Instead you
- Search out synonyms, antonyms, alternative and related words to either your focus words or themes and subjects.
- Gather sentences and subject related phrases from journals, articles, newspapers etc.
- Examine the language of the subject or theme, the way it is presented.
- Once you’ve gathered all you can you use it to help build imagery and convey meaning at a greater depth; as well as grow your vocabulary.
In this case it was more a word-genealogy or etymology. It was also crude in the sense that I created it for: ‘shithole.’ It happened quite naturally with very little thinking other than I wanted to respond to Cleverley by using his words and thinking about what that phrase, word, mean at a really basic level.
You can see my notes in the pictures. I started with two columns and lists. Then I started getting curious about other words and started word-building. Looks like a family tree doesn’t it? ‘Shit’; the parent word produces wordy offspring, who continue to grow the wordy family tree.
Try it for yourself! If you don’t have a thesaurus at hand then try online sites such as Wordhippo (I get no commission for that). You can see once I had filled the page, leapfrogging from one word to the next, I highlighted words that stood out for me. There’s also a list of phrases, which I didn’t use for anything in the end. But they might come in useful another day and it was good fun finding them.
There’s also a picture of my earlier notes. There were several attempts and long hours ruminating, lots of long rants and side tracking (not pictured). But finally I had something. It is short but, as I have learned, poetry does not need to be a particular length to make its point. So. Here is the final piece.
“… because it’s a shit-hole”: A Thesauretical Response.
Your parle ordure is just tarnish, disgrace, smear
It is a void, a cavity, a wide-mouthed sneer.
It deviates from the quandary.
It doesn’t fix child poverty.
My response had to highlight what was really done in Parliament that day. Not only had he been disparaging and unprofessional but fellow MP, Alex Cunningham, had asked a very serious question regarding child poverty in Stockton North. What happened to the question of child poverty? As far as I know it was never answered beyond Cleverley’s justification that Stockton being a ‘shithole’ was to blame for child poverty! And that made me a bit angry.
There is so much more to say and share. In early February I shall be returning to Drake the Bookshop to read some more of the poetry inspired by my time at the shop. Perhaps I spoke to you? Or perhaps you made a wish on a star. If you did, thank you, they too were the poetry equivalent of a gold mine as well as a wonderful insight into the warm heart of Stockton and the North East. Hopefully I shall see you there so I can share them with you. Look out for more information on Drake’s, or the Tees Women Poets, social media pages.
(Also, thesauretical is a made up word. I made it up and I’m quite proud of that)
BOOK TO COME TO CAROLINE’S FINALE TALK AND PERFORMANCE AT DRAKE THE BOOKSHOP ON WEDNESDAY 7TH FEBRUARY BY BOOKING A FREE TICKET DIRECT WITH DRAKE’S
DO SOME WRITING OF YOUR OWN WITH THIS RECORDING OF CAROLINE’S WORKSHOP ‘BOOKSHOP ADVENTURES’
Tees Women Poets 