Brightsparks

Take my house
and shred it.
All the mementos,
the snaps of since-past people;
the ducks forever flying; the books; the litter of lampshades;
the oh so valuable, valuables,
and apply for an annulment

I was wed to the adulterous belief
a house would become a home,
a place of sanctuary,
if you built an extension of yourself
into it.
But as I look around from one piece of memory to another,
they fail to jog into the jigsaw puzzle
that might form the anatomy of my life.
Instead, this disjointed pile of fragments, has become an army
blasting me with well-aimed accusations.
For I am a cheat,
as the pictures on the walls-
the eyes and ears of my artifacts-
watch and listen
for moments of infidelity.

It is a con and always has been
that should you follow the habits
of a home, a habitat,
you will be delivered from disconnection,
saved from the certainty of chaos.

I divorce thee house
along with my chattels,
and enter the tempest, the tsunami,
to be flung into a space
as meaningless as matter,
familiar in its anonymity,
for it is the only house that offers me a welcome,
and from now on, I will call it
home.

Linda Hart 10.11.04

Here’s what we’re going to do then. We’re going to hold our next facilitated poetry session on Wednesday 20th December, 1-3pm.  The second session will be held on Wednesday 10th January, 1-3pm.

In between these 2 dates we’re going to trial run an informal writers group (Wednesday afternoons 1-3pm) where poets can catch up informally, share work, collect exercises, etc…the detail’s up for grabs!

If you’ve already been attending, just turn up. Otherwise, register your interest by emailing us here (secretagentartist@hotmail.com) or by leaving a comment below - we’d love to hear from you! 

Brightsparks Poets…and potential Brightsparks Poets…we need your thoughts…

Following the resounding success of our poetry workshops, we have funding to pay for 2 more. After consulting existing attendees of the course, Wednesday 1-3 seems to be the best slot to plan around. So, interested parties have a choice. Would you prefer:

This coming Wednesday 1-3-followed by Wednesday the 20th December OR
two consecutive Wednesdays in January.

Your comment, emails and pledges of interest would be appreciated…

The house is light, not heavy.
Its back door is light not dark.
The front door is light; no sorry
it has lots of front doors, which don’t smoke!
You can seperate the different lights in the house.
There are less fatty rooms spread around the house than is normal.
The house has a butter front.

There’s this guy who always speaks his thoughts out loud.

Doesn’t matter to him if he’s alone or in a crowd.

I wonder what’s happened to make him this way?

I’m sort of frightened to listen to what he might say.

Are they words of wisdom he mumbles to himself?

Or is he just talking to no-one as he has no one else?

I’ve seen him around for a few years now.

I feel kind of sorry for him. Life’s a cow.

In all this time he’s never got any better

and I don’t know how he can help himself,

now or in the future.

People try to avoid him: they’re scared - they think he’s strange.

Even other schizophrenics think he’s slightly deranged.

But I think he must be happy in his own psychotic way.

If there wasn’t still a spark inside, he wouldn’t still be here today.

When I look at him I wonder: is this where my future lies?

If I can’t face & overcome some of the demons I have inside.

But then I stop myself and think:

“Would it really matter if I ended up that way?”

As what the hell’s this thing called life about, anyway?

James

Let our talent be measured by all things bling.

The kids won’t realise that we can’t actually sing.

If we add a few obscenities we will be a hit.

What else do they want to hear but “fuck” and “shit”.

It isn’t like they need to use their brains.

Music TV has already driven them insane.

Now that they can’t tell one song from another.

All we need put out next is a reworked cover.

Infact let’s bring out a whole album of different re-mixes.

Kids are so lucky they’re not living in the sixties.

Back then all they had was “Stones”, “Beatles” & “Kinks”.

Is it any wonder they all played tiddlywinks.

Nowadays, imagine a world without “drum ‘n’ bass”.

No ecstasy or whizz to get off your face.

Yeah, when we’re high we’ve got nothing to dread.

Infact won’t it be so god damn cool if we end up dead.

Then they’ll bring out our posthumous CD.

Just to make some more money.

But oh shit, I’ve just realised the end to this fable.

All that money will then go to the bloody record label.

Damn!

James

The day has arrived! Show your support for the home of BrightSparks and many other arts in health initiatives by voting for 27A Access Arts today. If they get enough votes they’ll get 50K and stay open. If not they won’t!!

How to vote…

· TEXT 63330 with CENTRALEAST 2

· TELEPHONE 0870 2433 402

· Voting available between 9.00 and Midnight tonight ONLY

· Watch ITV Central News at 6pm.

· Tell everyone you know and forward this message on as far as possible!

· You can vote up to 10 times

· Calls and texts cost 5pence.

Please help them win!

For more information
contact Nicola on 0116 222 9030 / 27access@totalise.co.uk

Another cut and paste lighthouse poem, this time from session attendee, Jo Twist. See the post below for more details…

living in the shared light Tottenham is the beginning
after the end of good the world
saves me from obsessive clean solipism
retentive hoovering and the detail in the entire
scrubbing floor universe the world
temporary home was saved from religion
when Danny created all of this talking
in the papers we made problems we need
music always banging on anything losing

The 4th and final week of the BrightSpark Sessions has swung around, but due to popular demand we’ve been able to extent professional facilitation for 2 more weeks. So, if you live in the area and haven’t been lucky enough to get along to one of the sessions, then get in touch via comment or email and we’ll see what we can do…

Meanwhile, back to the lighthouse. This week the BrightSpark Poets were asked to help publicise Lighthouse Learning, the social enterprise charity. The charity was holding a conference on the evening of our workshop day and needed us to come up with work to decorate their fully working (well, nearly) lighthouse sculpture.

Once again, Mark Goodwin, our poet in residence excelled himself in the genius of his exercises. Try this one at home

Take a piece of A4 paper. Fold a margin off behind, then fold the remainder, vertically down the middle. At the top of one half write the word ‘House’. Write as freely and nonjudgmentally as possible under this heading until you get to the bottom of the page. On the top of the other side of the page write the word ‘Light’ and repeat.

You should now have 2 pieces of writing. To collapse and play with ideas, you can now create new sentences by combining lines from one piece, with lines from the other. You can even create a brand new piece this way. Here’s what Brightsparks ghost poet (mark. s) came up with…

house

a tortoise-the
one i’m thinking
of has no more
idea of how to
spell tortoise
than i have
i’m bored with
this tortoise &
this tortoise
hasn’t even thought
about thinking
except, that
wonderous-once
when he was
in a blizzard,
of sick and semolina
he was a ghost
that fell in
love with a
wendy-wendy
whose house was
(again) wonderous
-well, just
the once before
the incident
with the puffin -
a coffin is a
house-a boat-
a tin of sardines.

light

like a laughing
lion in the dis-
eases of ducks the
light-bulb has a
good idea-yes-
just as if a light-
bulb had gone on
in the light-bulbs
head-it’s a
chimpanzee on
a dangerous
planet of trampoline
-for instance
i am clueless
as darkness,the
gallopolling
zebra-pigs can’t
find the lexical
wherewithall to
-to-ergh-
laugh like a
dandylion or
do you like butter?

seven lines to the lighthouse

a tortoise like a laughing
lion one-the one i’m thinking
in the diseases of ducks-i’m
bored with the light-bulb yes
spell this budgerigar for the
goose-guessing ghost-the one
wonderous one with the sudden glees
of an univited albatross in
dismay-for instance, i am
cluless as sick and semolina-
a coffin galloping like zebra-
pigs
we’ll invite them to tea &
have them bring the lexical
wherewithall of the puffin
incident - the tea &
crumpets are lit by idiot-
angels playing toy-trumpets.

 or…

lighthouse

the lighthouse is
laughing -if you don’t
believe me i don’t give
an albatross, much less (or
more) a budgerigar-but
listen -
ha-ha-ha-ha
hee-hee-hee - tee
hee-ho-ho the lighthouse
is laughing as you may see-
side by the sea-sad - see?
ha-ha-ha-ha - the
lighthouse is made of
papier-mache - hee-hee-hee
-me
-head fulls off, notwith-
standing

my own Light and  House can be found at my blog- www.secretagentartist.wordpress.com

Keep writing, wherever you are! 

  27a Access Artspace in People’s Millions Lottery bid

As you may know, in September of this year, 27a Access Artspace narrowly missed out on a grant from the Your Pound Your Choice bid. However, city centre charity 27a Access Artspace has been given a second chance of winning a £50,000 lottery grant by the Big Lottery Fund and ITV, under their People’s Millions scheme.

Please vote for them!

On Tuesday 14th November , the telephone lines will be open for the public to vote for their preferred project; the vote will be head to head between 27a Access Artspace and the Bronte Close Community Green Space Project, which is supported by Leicester City Council. There will be a short feature on ITV Central Evening News at 6:00pm on the two projects, and voting opens at 9am on the 14th November and closes at midnight on the same day.

How to vote:

You can text or telephone your vote. Please remember the number will only be available on Tuesday 14th November. The numbers to telephone and text will be released in the Daily Mirror newspaper on the day, and will also be featured on the ITV Central Evening News at 6pm.

The £50,000 grant will help to secure 27a Access Artspace’s future and allow them to make much-needed improvements to the building, including better security, improved disabled access and decorating work, after months of financial difficulty following funding cuts by Leicester City Council.

In addition to many other groups, 27a Access Artspace offers support those recovering from mental health issues. They provide fun, interactive opportunities for people to access art and craft activities, including music, drama, dance, film and video.
In 2005, 27a had its funding cut by the city council and Arts Council England, leaving the charity in a very precarious state financially. They have worked extremely hard over the last sixteen months to keep 27a Access Artspace open and increase services to the people who depend on them.

For more information, please contact Emma D’Souza or Nicola Adcock at 27a Access Artspace on 0116 222 9030 or at 27access@totalise.co.uk