Warwick Poet Laureate

New Blog!

2010-08-31T00:12:00.000-07:00

My new blog address is: www.blogaboutwriting.wordpress.com
come on over and have a look!
Helen

Creative Writing Evening Class - from 19th April 2010

2008-09-05T07:30:00.000-07:00

I teach a Creative Writing evening class for Solihull college at Arden School, Knowle on Monday evenings from 7.15 - 9.15pm. All writers or would-be writers welcome!

We cover everything from short stories to limericks and there's plenty of opportunity to read your work (if you wish) and get (positive and encouraging) feedback from the group.

What Am I Up To Now?

2008-03-14T02:40:00.000-07:00

There is life after a year as a Poet Laureate!

I'm now teaching a creative writing evening class on Monday nights in Knowle, Solihull, looking at everything from poetry to writing for children. The new term starts after Easter, in April 2008 and if you'd like to join in (we're a friendly group!), just contact Solihull College on:
TEL: 0121 678 7000 or drop me a line here.

Morning Coffee With The Warwick Poet Laureates

2007-10-07T13:28:00.001-07:00

Well, today was the day that Jane Holland, new Warwick PL and I performed to the crowds at Cafe Chai in Warwick and although our audience was 'compact and bijou', it was an appreciative and attentive one, so we couldn't complain! (I think the 10am start might have put a few people off - it was a bit early unless you live in Warwick and could just roll out of bed!).

Jane read from her collection and as I don't have a book, here, as my final BLOG entry, are a couple of the poems I read out this morning, which don't appear anywhere else on the BLOG:

1. 'Refunds & Exchanges'
2. Too Old For The Beatles
3. Managing Love

I wrote 'Refunds & Exchanges' just after last Christmas. A ‘true story’, as they say...

‘Refunds & Exchanges’

Two days after Christmas,
This is the Queue of Shame
For those of us who got it wrong,
Who bought in haste, whose taste is
Questionnable,
Whose gift was, after all,
Not just what they’d always wanted.

The half-wit who chose red underwear
The woman who bought blue jeans – with a flare -
The saddo with CDs they already had
And me - with blue suede gloves, for my Dad.

You try it.
Crouching in M&S, below the scarves, near the socks,
Try to recall the size of your Dad’s hands.
Those walks in the park when I was eight or nine
His hand had just covered mine and I thought
That ‘medium’ would be fine.

But on the day,
Like the glass slipper before it found Cinderella
The first glove only went half way
Before it stopped
At the knarled knuckles, the humps, the shiny stretched skin.
Thirty years is a long time
“Large,” my Dad said softly
“I think perhaps I need large.”

This one was written for my Mum who was in her late twenties when the Beatles were 'big' and always claims that she was too old for them (late twenties was 'old' in those days!)

Too Old For The Beatles

She was too old for The Beatles back in 1963
She had her very own ‘Fab Four’ – the twins, our Jack and me
And when the world was changing, she was changing with the rest
Changing terry-towelling nappies, sheets and shirts and grubby vests
And she knows exactly where she was when Kennedy was shot
She was drawing pictures in her head and filling the teapot
But now she draws a pension and her dreams have never died
Forget the about a bus pass, she’s her own ‘ticket to ride’
She’s holidaying with the girls and learning how to drive
She’s a wow at western dancing at the age of sixty-five
As a flower-power tribute she grows psychedelic beds
Her garden’s just a riot – of orange, pink and reds
She’s acting out her fantasies, her life has just begun
She’s waited thirty years, for her Swinging Sixties fun!

This was one of the first poems I ever wrote and the first to be published (in a West Midlands arts magazine)

Managing Love

The project is over, we’ve won the deal
The contract’s complete now
but how do I feel?
Elated, deflated
I’m happy, yet sad
Does this bring a close
To the closeness we’ve had?

Let’s go to the pub, we deserve it, you say
for more than a year we’ve worked hard, every day.
And you pass me my wine and our hands gently touch.
Is it wrong, how I’m feeling, to want you so much?

As the evening wears on and the crowds drift away
we toast our success, you entreat me to stay.
And ‘though I am smiling, I just want to cry
because you have a husband.
Oh God, so do I.

Warwick Words Festival: 4th - 7th October 2007

2007-09-28T08:25:00.000-07:00

Warwick Words festival is NEXT week - which means I've only got a few days to go until the launch, on Weds 3rd October, when I officially crown the new Poet Laureate with his/her laurel wreath (actually, I do know who it is, but I'm sworn to secrecy until then. I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you).

I'm involved in a couple of events, so if you're planning to be in or around Warwick during the day on Thursday 4th or Friday 5th October OR you fancy an early start on Sunday morning (7th), have a look at these:

Poetry Tea Rooms: (4th & 5th October 2007)
Warwick Words – Festival of Literature and Spoken Word
4 – 7 October 2007

If you like your tea and cake served up with a dollop of fabulous poetry, then look no further than the Thomas Oken Tea Rooms in Warwick on Thursday 4th and Friday 5th October (11am – 4pm).

As a finishing touch to her year as Warwick Poet Laureate, Helen Yendall has invited local poets to showcase their talents in the 500-year old tea shop for the Warwick Words Festival and over 30 of them have risen to the challenge.

“I was delighted with the response,” Helen says. “There’s a wealth of talent in our region and many of the performing poets are published writers or Poet Laureates themselves. I like the idea of taking poetry out into unusual places and I’m sure it’s going to be great fun - for the poets and customers alike! This event is open to all and if any of the Tea Room visitors would like to read out one of their own poems, they’ll be more than welcome.”

Poets who will be performing upstairs in the Thomas Oken Tea Rooms include members of The Leam Writers, Warwick Words Writers’ Group and Inktank, plus Giovanni ‘Spoz’ Esposito (Birmingham Poet Laureate 2006 -7), Sean Kelly and BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire’s own Poet Laureate, Jo Roberts.

For more information on the poets or to request a timeslot to read your own poem, please contact: Helen Yendall – Warwick Poet Laureate helenyendall@yahoo.co.uk

Morning Coffee With the Warwick Laureates
Sunday 7th October
Café Chai, Swan Street, Warwick
10.00am – 11.30am
Tickets: £6.50

Join last year’s Poet Laureate, Helen Yendall, and catch up on her time as Warwick Poet Laureate. Helen will read a selection of poems and introduce the new Poet Laureate 2007/2008. Includes morning coffee and pastries.

Taming Children - And Dinosaurs

2007-09-14T03:53:00.000-07:00

I was in a couple of primary schools in Warwick this week with local poet and celeb, Julie Boden, (former Birmingham Poet Laureate and person of exquisite good taste – well, she did choose me for Warwick Poet Laureate!) www.julieboden.co.uk

Julie has conducted poetry workshops for schools over many years (in fact she’s worked out that she’s been into over 1,000 schools!), so I thought I’d tag along and see how it was done.

I must admit, I was slightly nervous! The last time I was in a primary school, I was a pupil myself and I can’t remember what it’s like to be 9 or 10 (it was a while ago). Would they ask me embarrassing questions about my love life? Would they understand what I was talking about? Would they run wild round the classroom, leaping from tables and throwing chalk at me?

Well, I needn’t have worried. They were all very well behaved (hmm, especially in the second school, which shall be nameless, where the teacher ruled with a rod of iron! Anyone who’s worried about discipline in schools should put their head round the door of that classroom one day!)

And guess what's changed since I was at school? They have Assembly at the END of the school day! (because some boffins have worked out that they are more receptive to learning in the mornings. Makes sense, I suppose).

Julie has been working with 3 schools in the town on an exciting project called ‘Poet-Tree’. The idea is that the children create poems which they will attach to a tree sculpture at the culmination of the project, during the Warwick Words festival. www.warwickwords.co.uk

The winning school will keep the tree ‘for ever and ever’, which is a really great prize! So, inspired by that idea, Julie and I got the children writing ‘kennings’ and ‘diamante’ poems and limericks, which was all good fun.

And before that, I read each class the only children’s poem I’ve ever written, which they seemed to enjoy, bless ‘em. So here it is, just for you:

Could You Tame A Dinosaur?

Could you tame a dinosaur?
I want one for a pet.
I’ve asked my Mum but all she says is:
‘I want doesn’t get!’

A winged pterodactyl,
now that would be so cool!
I’d train it single-handedly
to fly me into school.

Triceratops are special,
spiny horns upon their heads,
A baby one would surely fit quite nicely –
in our shed.

And I bet a brachiosaurus
would lend itself to tricks,
I’d slide down its long neck
and teach it to fetch sticks!

Or what about the dinosaur
that everyone respects –
I’d better every bully with
Tyrannosaurus Rex!

So could you tame a dinosaur?
I want one for a pet.
I’ve asked my Mum but all she says is:
‘I want doesn’t get!’

A Love Poem?

2007-08-21T07:19:00.000-07:00

This poem was published in 'Raw Edge' too many years ago to remember (actually before it was called 'Raw Edge')...

Funny Face

When love was new and exciting, he called me his ‘Funny Face’
And breathing softly into my neck
He whispered that my face, without its freckles
Would be like the night sky without its stars
And I believed him

As love grew worn and battered, he called me his Missus.
He liked his tea on the table at seven
with three pieces of bread and butter
Sliced. White. None of that brown rubbish, thank you
And I prepared it for him.

Now he loves lager and The Blues and he calls me a cow
Because I object to him going to Ibiza with the lads
And it’s only for a week and why shouldn’t he go?
“Why? Why? Why?”
So I let him.

I pack his case
I drive him to the airport
I hand him everything he needs
And when he shows his passport
They won’t let him board
On account of the red beard, the goofy teeth, the glasses
On his photograph
I drew it for him
I call it his ‘Funny Face’

I've been Spoz-ed!

2007-08-13T13:25:00.000-07:00

My pal and fellow PL, Birmingham’s current Poet Laureate, Giovanni ‘Spoz’ Esposito is ‘on tour’ around the libraries of North Warwickshire and Birmingham at present, delivering workshops to little darlings on their summer holidays. I went along to Coleshill library last Friday morning, to give him some moral support (not that he needed it!), to see the master at work… and er, to check what he’s up to on ‘my patch’!

I joined the ‘Mums’ sitting at the back and I think we had even more fun that the little ‘uns. We were squirted with a water pistol during a poem about.. wait for it… water, we helped out with rhymes for ‘knuckle’ and ‘collar’ when the kids got stuck (‘chuckle’, ‘honeysuckle’ and ‘holler’, but do feel free to come up with some of your own) and two of the lucky ladies were serenaded by Spoz during his poem about a schoolboy’s unrequited love. Bless.

One of the highlights of the session came courtesy of a toddler who found the button for the disabled, which opened and closed the library front door… and proceeded to press it, and press it and press it… (and was only distracted when the scissors came out).

The children drew around their hands and penned pictures of dogs (some with a little bit of help) and a poet-tree made up of their rhymes and pictures now adorns the wall of Coleshill library. But best of all, they had fun with words and they met a very funny poet. (Thank you Spoz!)

Who Will Be My Successor?!

2007-08-07T04:58:00.000-07:00

You've only got a few days left if you want to enter the competition to find the NEW Warwick Poet Laureate for 2007/8! The closing date is 24th August, so get scribbling! The stakes have been raised since I won the competition last year and now you have to submit 4 poems, no less and a 'statement of interest'!

Of course I'm not in a big rush to hand over my laurel wreath but I am rather curious to see who's going to follow in my fairy footsteps, not least because we've got to do an event together as part of the Warwick Words festival (and it needs to be good because it's to a PAYING audience!)

I can see you reaching for your diary now, so make a note of this: "Morning Coffee With The Warwick Laureates" (try saying that without your teeth in!). Here are the details, lifted from the Warwick Words website, which now has all the festival details: http://www.warwickwords.co.uk/
and booking is OPEN!

When: Sunday 7th October
Where: Café Chai, Swan Street, Warwick
Time: 10.00am – 11.30am
Cost: Tickets: (a mere) £6.50

Join last year’s Poet Laureate, Helen Yendall, and catch up on her time as Warwick Poet Laureate. Helen will read a selection of poems and introduce the new Poet Laureate 2007/2008.
Includes morning coffee and pastries. (YUM!)

And who knows, if you enter the competition, it could be YOU, up there with me, entertaining the masses! Give it a go, eh? (You have to live in Warwickshire, mind!) Here are the details and good luck!

Warwick Words presents its fourth poetry competition and will appoint Warwick Poet Laureate 2007/2008. The competition is open to anyone aged 18 and over. For details of how to apply and where to send your entries, download the form below.

The position of Warwick Poet Laureate is an honorary one, for which there is no payment. Candidates must be capable of writing good poetry and willing and able to perform their own work. The Laureate must be willing to get involved in key events and activities throughout the year. The Laureate will be commissioned to write some poems about Warwickshire throughout the year.

The winner and runners-up will have the opportunity to read their poems at the Festival Launch. Download the competition form from the website:
http://www.warwickwords.co.uk/getinvolved/poetrycomp

Rapping and THE Poet Laureate...

2007-06-27T08:08:00.000-07:00

Hmm, life is hectic at the moment, with work, work, work and when my brain’s full of stuff, there’s no room for the creative juices to flow! Which is a pathetic way of admitting that…. I haven’t written my Kenilworth poem yet, but I will, I will!

I can’t write (at the moment) but I can still read and I came across something funny today in the paper, which I thought I would share:
William Wordsworth's famous poem about daffodils is now a rap song!
“I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud” has been set to a beat to attract young visitors to the Lake District, reports the Daily Mirror.
It includes phrases, "the flowers were quite some-ting, yeah", "so check it".

Maybe I should have a go at a rap poem? But then again, having seen the Poet Laureate’s attempt to write a trendy rap poem for Prince William’s 21st… and all the sniggers that created, maybe I won’t even try! I like Andrew Motion (a friend of mine went to one of his readings recently in the Lake District and said his voice was “like ten hours of foreplay”!) and if he can’t do it, well, what hope is there for me?!

A History Lesson

2007-06-06T04:45:00.000-07:00

I’ve been commissioned to write a poem about an aspect of Warwickshire, by Vanessa Oakes, (while she was still in her role as Warwick District Council’s Arts Development Officer).

I racked my little brain for a while! It’s difficult to know what to choose when you’re not a local lass but then I spotted that Kenilworth Castle had a Living Medieval Village for a week, I thought I’d go and recce that (market research, I love it – always a good excuse to go out somewhere nice for the day, eh?!).

We went last Sunday, 3rd June and despite the awful predictions from Michael Fish and co, it was actually a boiling hot, lovely day! The ‘living village’ part was really good, with a rat catcher, a cordwainer (making ropes), a baker, blacksmith and even an alchemist and, to give them their due, all the ‘actors’ were pretty grubby-looking, just as they would have been, I suppose, in the time of Henry V.

I haven’t been to Kenilworth Castle for a couple of years but they’ve really improved it lately for visitors. There are rooms set up in 1930’s style (which is the last time the Castle was used as a home – see, I was paying attention!) and a great exhibition about Elizabeth I and her lover Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. I must admit, looking at the pictures of the chap, he was no oil painting (those goatie beards never really do it for me), BUT Lizzie clearly had a real thing for him. She gave him Kenilworth Castle as a gift and during one of her visits there in 1575 (I think) there were days and days of partying and celebrations.

It was all quite sad that they couldn’t marry, but there were two problems there – one, all her courtiers advised her that it wouldn’t ‘do’ to marry one a commoner and secondly, slightly more problematic – he was already married! (Well, he was for a while, but then his wife died under suspicious circumstances! She was found at the bottom of the stairs – DEAD!) As one dear old lady standing near me, put it: "See, they even had it in those days! Scandal!”

I am thinking I might write my poem about Elizabeth and Leicester! But then again, the rat-catcher was quite an interesting character! The ideas are currently fermenting… I will be back when I have ‘created’ something!

Poetry: Massage for the mind?

2007-05-25T03:23:00.000-07:00

I was invited to talk to Coleshill Reading Group last night, which meets in the library once a month. In my interview with the Coleshill Herald I gave the library a mention (and apparently 'put Coleshill on the map'!), which gave rise to my invitation.
And very enjoyable it was too. A nice group of ladies (of course - what reading group ever had more than one'token' man?), a cup of tea before I started and then I explained my 'role' as PL and read a couple of poems.
They had all seen my Kettle poem in advance of the meeting but they commented how much better it seemed when it was read out loud. Of course, poetry is meant to be read aloud and it's sooo relaxing and soothing. Most of us haven't been read to since we were children. It's massage for the mind, don't you think?
I enjoy getting my poems out there, off the page! I'm going to do some more readings, so watch this space!

Poems Duly Dropped!

2007-05-24T09:36:00.000-07:00

On Friday 4th May I did my ‘poetry drop’ in Leamington and what fun it was! (even though I was all on my tod and it definitely would have been more of a laugh with a pal in tow. We could have had T-shirts printed: “Poet Laureate” and “Poet Laureate’s Friend”?)
In total I managed to ‘distribute’ 40 poems in such diverse places as: a park bench, a phone kiosk, a hairdresser’s, a photo booth, an optician’s and a taxi (I was rather proud of that one. Big thanks to the Asian driver, who I spotted reading a book as he sat in his cab outside the station and who made a perfect target for me! I had visions of my little poem whizzing round Leamington all day. Well, I can dream….!)
Only one place (a pub, which shall be nameless), turned me down (because of course I asked permission where necessary) and even they did it in a nice way.
If you ever do this yourselves, don’t make the same mistake as me: I only put one, or sometimes two, poems in each place (so it took ages and I was foot-sore by the end of it…..!). I should have left at least 5 or 6 in the library and the Art Gallery, which were bound to be full of poetry-loving, arty-farty types, weren’t they?
Another disappointment was not being able to find a doctor’s surgery or a launderette, (obviously Leamington-ians are all a healthy bunch, with their own washing machines!), which would have been ideal locations and although I left a poem at a bus stop, I didn’t dare take the plunge and actually get on a bus to leave one on there – goodness knows where I might have ended up!
The best bit was actually giving poems to people (which I know wasn’t exactly what I was supposed to be doing, but everyone seemed really pleased and at least I know those poems were read!). I handed poems out in the coffee shop in a church and when I spotted a lady sitting alone in the waiting room at the station, I popped in and asked her if she’d take one, which she did, with a smile.
Note to self for next time: distribute more poems! (Or give a bigger and better prize!). The aim was to get people to leave comments on the Warwick Words website and although we had a few (eg: from one lady: “Loved your poem left on a bench in our village of Birdingbury, it quite made my day,,,,,it being wet and windy!”), I would have liked more!
Maybe next time.... !

On The Liz Kershaw Breakfast Show: 3rd May 2007

2007-05-02T02:52:00.000-07:00

I'm going to be on BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire at 7.45am on Thursday 3rd May, to promote the Poetry Drop on Liz Kershaw's breakfast show! I should be an old hand at this by now as it's my third time on the radio!
If you want to listen in, tune in to: 94.8FM, 104FM, 103.7FM and DAB Digital Radio
Let's hope she doesn't give me such a hard time this time....!

Poetry On The Loose In Leamington!

2007-04-27T08:02:00.000-07:00

If you’re out and about in Leamington over the Bank Holiday weekend, watch out for poems lurking in the most unexpected places. I'm going to be planting dozens of my poems all over the town – everywhere from cafes to doctor’s surgeries - to encourage as many Leamington-ians as possible to “read a poem and pass it on!”

Lots of people haven’t read a poem since they were at school and poetry’s often dismissed as ‘boring’. But modern poetry is very relevant to today’s world – it can be thought-provoking, amusing and fun! By taking poetry out of books and classrooms and putting it in some unusual places, I’m hoping my poems will reach people who don’t usually read poetry and that they will enjoy the experience.

And just to increase the fun-factor, if you find one of my poems, I want you to read it and then pass it on, by leaving the poem somewhere else for another person to enjoy!

Use your imagination! You can leave the poem anywhere where people have time to sit and read it – waiting rooms, on a bus or train, in a launderette - the sky’s the limit! The only rule is, don’t leave the poem anywhere where it could constitute ‘litter’.

Once you’ve read the poem and ‘passed it on’, you can record where you found it and left it and your response to the poem, on the Warwick Words website http://www.warwickwords.co.uk/poetlaureate

There’s even a prize for one of the participants, who will be chosen at random to receive tickets for Warwick Words Festival Launch at Warwick Castle on the evening of Thursday 4 October 2007.

I'll be ‘dropping’ my poems on Friday 4th May. If you’d like a poem (or two) for your shop, café or premises, please contact me on helenyendall@yahoo.co.uk

More Activities in March...!

2007-04-11T14:59:00.000-07:00

On Monday 19th March I was a guest on the poetry slot on BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire, with Jo Roberts, the station’s very own poet laureate. I’ve met Jo a few times now and she’s a lovely lady and very generous with her ideas and advice.

It was Jo’s idea to have the weekly poetry slot and she worked hard to persuade the station to give that airtime to poetry. As a result, one local poet has the chance to read some of their work, live, on air each Monday evening. If you want to catch it, then tune into 94.8FM, 104FM, 103.7FM and DAB Digital Radio between 7.30pm and 8pm.

Maybe I'm just getting used to this radio lark (second time, after all!) but I felt much more relaxed than when I was on Liz Kershaw's breakfast show. I even managed to forget the listeners and it just became a chat between me, Jo and the presenter, Alan Miller. One of the aims of the poetry slot is to encourage the audience to send in their own poetry, so Jo and I were asked to give some tips to would-be writers. And here are our tips:

1. Read the poem aloud!
2. Put your writing away and when you come back to it after a few days (or weeks), you will see it more objectively
3. You can get ideas for poetry from anywhere. Carry a notebook around with you, so you never miss anything!

On 28th March I was back in Warwick for the Volunteers’ Evening for this year’s Warwick Words festival. There was a good turn-out and I’m sure they can’t have all just come for the free wine and nibbles! Warwick Words Writers, a group that was set up at last year’s festival, took to the stage and read some great poems. There are lots of ‘jobs’ for volunteers at this year’s festival in October – everything from stuffing envelopes to picking up writers from the train station, so if you’re interested in getting involved, speak to Helen Meeke, the co-ordinator. You can contact her through the Warwick Words website: www.warwickwords.co.uk or by phone: 01926 427056

Friendship Project Evening

2007-04-10T13:21:00.000-07:00

On 24th March 2007, the Friendship Project, a charity for disadvantaged children, with which I've been involved for six years, celebrated its 21st anniversary, with a concert at the beautiful St Giles Church in Exhall, Coventry.

The organisers asked me to write and perform a poem for the evening, which I was pleased to do (although the youth choir, Cantabile who were also performing, rather put me to shame! They were fantastic).

For more details on the charity, please see their website: www.friendshipproject.co.uk

And this is the poem that I wrote for the evening:

The Child In The Corner

There’s a child in the corner of the room
Shrouded in shadow, lost in the gloom.
He stands by, while other kids play,
He’s left out of laughter, day after day.

In every way, he’s felt the pinch.
Bang a door, drop a cup,
and he’ll flinch.
He’s so tired of trying to be strong.
He’s different, he knows it,
He doesn’t belong.

It is cold in his corner, the winter winds bite,
will you not take his hand, bring him into the light?
He can barely recall when this darkness began
How will this leave its mark, when the boy is a man?

He doesn’t need cash or trainers that flash
But someone with time to spend.
There’s a gap: he is lacking,
a comrade, some backing.
The one thing he needs is a friend.

A Poem for Fairtrade

2007-03-14T04:55:00.000-07:00

A Different Shopping List*

This shop is like Aladdin’s cave, a treasure-trove of plenty.
They recommend ‘five fruits a day’, we’ve got our pick of twenty.
South African grapes,
Bolivian nuts,
mangos from Ecuador
Nature’s finest produce, grown for the rich, by the poor.
The basket’s overflowing but there’s something we have missed;
The folk who raised this harvest have a different shopping list:
A borehole,
A school roof,
An anti-aids campaign.
Cots for the crèche,
The price of a nurse,
A tank to catch the rain.
When we buy their wine or roses, we help a village flower;
It costs so little extra, to support them and empower
the farmers and the villagers, our neighbours overseas.
The products in our baskets help to build communities.
Demand is steady, contracts clear, they’re sure of being paid,
our money helps them help themselves
when we choose to buy Fairtrade.

There are over 2000 different Fairtrade products on sale in the UK. www.fairtrade.co.uk

Helen Yendall. February 2007

Photos & Fairtrade

2007-03-14T04:53:00.000-07:00

I’ve had my ‘official’ Poet Laureate photo taken! Warwick Castle has been overused as a backdrop, so we opted for Warwick market, on a beautiful sunny Saturday morning instead. The idea was (to achieve that ‘natural’ look), that I should browse through the stalls while the photographer snapped away. All was going well until one trader - who shall remain unidentified - took exception to the camera (and what he assumed was ‘commercial espionage’). When we explained that we weren’t taking pictures of his products, but of ME, ‘The Poet Laureate’ (ta derrr!), he just shrugged and said “So what?!” which kind of put me in my place!
We got a much better reception from the friendly chaps on the fruit and veg stall and the final picture we chose is one of me, clutching my avocados and peppers
(hmm, I can feel a poem coming on!)
The picture is currrently being printed on 2,500 postcards, which will have my ‘Kettle’ poem on the reverse and will be used to publicise the Warwick Words festival.

An article about yours truly finally appeared in the Coleshill Herald last week – complete with veggie picture – and my secret was out! I’d not told a soul in my hometown about my new ‘status’ and I wondered how long it would take anyone to spot me in the paper! I needn’t have worried. The ladies in the library (where I am a frequent visitor) were delighted to have been mentioned in the piece and they claimed that I’ve ‘put Coleshill on the map’! (Bless). They’ve asked me to speak at their Reading group, which should be fun and will be my first ‘gig’ in the North of the county.
There’s a Spring poetry competition linked to the article, which I’ve agreed to judge. As far as I can see, the Herald’s not offering anything in the way of prizes – just the honour of being printed in the paper – so it will be interesting to see how many entries they get!

It was Fairtrade fortnight recently and Leamington Spa (a Fairtrade town) asked me to write and perform a poem to mark the occasion. Things have been pretty hectic lately and, despite having had months to write the poem, I left it very much to the last minute… errm, like 3 days before it was required! (But, I had been thinking about it and letting ideas ‘germinate’ – honest!). Result: a rather stressful weekend, squeezing out my creative juices, trawling the Fairtrade website and letting anyone and everyone see the poem ‘in progress’ to give me their comments!
I’m publishing the final result on this BLOG and I must admit, I was pleased with it in the end (but I’ve vowed never to leave it all so late again!)
I read the poem out in Leamington Town Hall (twice, because the first time the microphone wasn’t turned on!) at a Fairtrade coffee morning on 3rd March. Fairtrade had sent across a Bolivian Brazil nut producer, who gave a great presentation (in Spanish, but he had a translator) which really brought home the great work that Fairtrade does. I hadn’t realised that the premium the Fairtrade farmers receive has to be used by them to benefit their communities. It was an honour to have been involved with something so worthwhile and it’s really added a new dimension to my year as Poet Laureate.

Poem 1 : Kettle

2007-02-24T10:39:00.000-08:00

This was the poem that won the Warwick Words poetry competition in October 2006:

KETTLE

We were happy before he came.
Polished and poised, I perched on my platform
Ready to go at the flick of a switch

I broke the morning silence at seven
With my chirrups and low rumbles
My whirling fountain of steam spewed out.
A whale’s blow-hole, dampening the kitchen tiles
For tea.

Home from work, she came straight to me.
Before the cat, or the post felt her touch.
Kicked off her shoes, hugged the coffee cup
Her face, reflected in mine, was wide and bulbous and beautiful

At night, one final caress
For Horlicks
Before she creaked alone up the stairs.

Then he moved in.

She presses me - he bangs
She lowers me – he drops
He knocks me against the taps
He uses the old mugs, the back-of-the-cupboard mugs
He swills.
Sometimes I’m snubbed - he heats up milk in the microwave
And like an inconsiderate lover, more interested in his own pleasure
Than in mine
When I’m just on the edge, bubbles building inside me
A wave about to crash -
He turns me off.

But worst of all, he overfills

At first she laughed if off
“Silly! There’s enough water in there for six cups, never mind two.”
But now she tuts, lifts me up, feels the weight of me
Bloated, straining to bring such an ocean
To its climax
Her face, reflected in mine, is contorted
And furrowed
What a waste, she says
And how many times has she told him?
I think this is just the start of it
I am counting the days
Until he is gone

Helen Yendall 2006

What Is Poetry?!

2007-02-01T14:20:00.000-08:00

Well, I’m a third of the way through my stint as Warwick’s Poet Laureate – and what have I been up to?

I’ve done a couple of interviews with the local press, following my crowning in October ’06 in the Great Hall at Warwick Castle (complete with laurel wreath! Sadly, as it was the ‘real thing’, it only lasted a couple of weeks. I wish now I’d had it preserved in formaldehyde).
My first interview was with the Leamington Courier and I blurted out some stupid things, eg: “I’m not like Pam Ayres!” but luckily they didn’t print that! (But I just did – whoops!). The second one was for the Courier’s ‘Choice’ magazine and I had to name my favourite job and worst holiday, that kind of thing. (‘Being Wendy Cope’ and ‘any holiday where I couldn’t take books’, in case you’re interested).

Then back in November the Courier asked me to judge their Haiku poetry competition. The theme was ‘fireworks’ and although the editor said they’d whittle down the entries to a shortlist, they actually sent me all of them, so I had to wade through about 40 haiku (luckily they’re short!). I felt a real responsibility to pick worth winners because I’ve entered poetry competitions myself and I know how much time, effort – and hope – goes into the process.

As I live in North Warwickshire, I don’t know the Warwick area or the local poetry scene that well, but I’m trying to rectify that! I’ve ‘performed’ at a couple of ‘open mic’ poetry events at The Fox in Leamington (The next one’s on 18th Feb) and I’ve been along to a meeting of the ‘Warwick Words Writing Group’ – a really friendly group of (mostly) ladies. The theme of the meeting was ‘The story of my name’ and there were some great stories – and poems – read out by members of the group on that weird and wonderful subject.

At the end of January, I was invited to BBC Coventry & Warwickshire as one of Breakfast Show presenter Liz Kershaw’s ‘Early Risers’. I had to get to the studio for 6.50am! (eek!) and I was on air with Liz for about 40 minutes from 7.20 until 8am.
The idea of the ‘Early Riser’ slot is for local ‘interesting’ people to appear on the show, to talk about stories in that morning’s newspapers and also to say a little about themselves.
I managed to say a little about being Poet Laureate and Warwick Words but I didn’t get much chance! Liz Kershaw gave me a pretty rough time at the beginning, with posers such as, “What is poetry?” and why was my ‘Kettle’ poem “poetry and not just prose?” She kept quoting Bruce Springsteen lyrics at me and declared that she was old-fashioned and liked her poems to rhyme!

Ah well, they never said it would be easy! If you’ve got a snappy answer to the question ‘What is poetry?’ (which you wouldn’t mind me using next time someone asks!) then feel free to drop me a line!