E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

KINGSTON UNIVERSITY PRESENTS PENRHYN ROAD CAMPUS KINGSTON-UPON-THAMES OPEN TO ALL - ADMISSION FREE Tuesday 7th May, 2013, 5.30-7pm An Evening of EcoPoetry and Sustainability: Conversations with Ann Fisher-Wirth, Todd Swift, Brycchan Carey and Katherine Eames   Ann Fisher-Wirth , poet from the University of Mississippi, reading from her anthology of American EcoPoetry and in discussion with Todd Swift , Katherine Eames , and  Brycchan Carey about US and UK ecopoetry and the making of anthologies.  JG4006, Penrhyn Road, Kingston University. Refreshments will be served.

Eyewear is happy to present another poem from one of my BA students in CW at Kingston University.   Kaylin Brennan (pictured)   is an American exchange student studying in the UK for the year.  This is her sestina on the sinking of Titanic. Never Feel It, Never Know Swirling around each other, first class girls and boys dance. One such Tom slides his hand down her back “It’s strange, you’re the only one I see.” A heated chill drives up her spine, bursting in her eyes from centerpoint touch. Mom can see you. Her mind settling as her heart screams. It’s ok. It’s ok. It’s ok. You don’t love him. Yet. You need a break. “I’m sorry, could you say that again? I didn’t hear.” In the lounge there is a sign: ONLY MEN IN HERE. Suiting the requirements, a group enters, telling their wives “No we’re giving you a break!” Their voices become louder, laughter rumbling from fat bellies. Door and frame touch. Can I get a fucking word in? Anger swells in the loudest...

Jacob Sanders is another talented BA student in CW at Kingston University.  Here is his villanelle from my Poetry Now module. Mrs Jones’ Jungle Boogie It turns out the show's only just started when the fat lady's sang. But mum had told me it'd be over when Mrs Jones came on, So imagine my surprise when she burst into Kool & the Gang. It was at this talent show; I'd come to see this smoking Orang-utan. I'd seen the mediocre 'Mystico' , the lacklustre 'Lassie' and a midget called Ron . It turns out the show's only just started when the fat lady's sang. The final act was to be signalled with a gong and a bang, Then out came Mrs Jones, the size of the entire Yukon. So imagine my surprise when she burst into Kool & the Gang. I guess it was a perfect example of yin and yang And since it happened Mrs Jones is quite the local icon. It turns out the show's only just started when the fat lady's sang...

Conor Clooney (pictured) is one of Kingston University's Poetry Now students.  Here is a recent sonnet of his, written for my class. I find it very moving, and adept. My Father’s Tattoos I remember looking at your tattoos. When I was a child I’d stare for hours Hoping that one day I’d be just like you; Smelling of ciggys and whisky sours. You’d come home late with swallows on your hands And women on your arms. My name branded On your bicep. I cannot understand Why it is there and you’re not here. Stranded In the flat, I wait for you to come home And kiss me and play with me in the dark, But you don’t and now you’ll never know That I wanted you tattooed on my heart. So now I see that like you they lose their colour And I should’ve tried to be more like my mother. Poem by Conor Clooney

Vesna Goldsworthy won the Crashaw Prize this year from Salt, for her new poetry collection in English - she's already well-known for her prose writing.  She's a professor of creative writing at Kingston University, and a colleague of mine there.  It is being launched tonight.

Following on from a recent post, I have tasked Kingston undergrads in my Poetry Now class with trying to outdo Jon Stone 's clever Mustard anagram sonnet in Best British Poetry 2011 .  Here's another clever version, from second-year-student poet Michaela Clarke , pictured. Creative What use is it, trying to be creative? It’s as difficult as trying to motivate rice to grow in the famine of your mind. Instead, starve: ice cold in the pit of your imagination. Retire: cave into your wallowing self. Or take no notice: rave your life away. Or say, ‘C’est la vie’. React to this challenge: this destructive race against time to find the perfect words, and with instinctive care. Hope to find peace in that inventive crate in your head. To be creative is to believe: cart away the doubt and be reckless. Take my advice: tear it up. Even though doubt is a bond harder to break than to tie, crave, need, embrace, nurture. Someday, you’ll find the live trace t...

I teach Jon Stone 's recent poem, 'Mustard', a fourteen-line poem which cleverly ends each line with an anagram of mustard.  I found it in Lumsden 's BPP 2011 .  I've encouraged duplication of this form as an exercise for my Year Two undergrads in CW at Kingston University.   Lydia Bowden , pictured, a student poet, tried her hand at a version of this, with a semi-anagrammatic play on the word "daffodils" that I think is rather fun and smart.  Here it is below: Daffodils Putting an effect on something can’t overlook the folds Of a photo let alone that thing you had with a sod Once. Yes, you see flaming daffodils Growing, wilting and stuck in the ground but doff The effect and you’ll see it for what it is; a fad. Because after all, you’re just a foal Waiting to be touched up and turned into old So don’t sit around waiting for something sad Because there’s something beside this odd. Perhaps you should forget daffodils and add ...

The 2011 Lehman Lecture in association with The Kingston Writing School Professor David Lehman, Distinguished Visiting Writer "From Parody to Praise: When Poems Talk to Other Poems" Professor David Lehman was born in New York City in 1948. He graduated from Columbia University and attended Cambridge University in England as a Kellett Fellow. He also received a Ph.D. in English from Columbia University. He is the author of several collections of poems, including When a Woman Loves a Man (Scribner, 2005).  His books of criticism include The Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York School of Poets (Doubleday, 1998).  His study of detective novels, The Perfect Murder (1989), was nominated for an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America.  He is series editor of The Best American Poetry, which he initiated in 1988, and is general editor of the University of Michigan Press's Poets on Poetry Series.  Most recently, Lehman edited The Oxford Book of American Poetry ...

Geri Lambert – Former MA Student of Creative Writing at Kingston University By Jo van der Borgh On Tuesday 16 th November Geri Lambert passed away after a long battle with cancer at Guy’s Hospital.   The last time I saw her was at the end of September with a mutual friend, Emma Strong .   It was at the hospital and she was full of life, her hair curly from the chemo.   It suited her.   She spoke of her writing plans, the food she missed, the people she missed; her dear partner Trish and her mother.   She generously told me I was born to be a mother, as I gave my little, then eight month son Oscar a tub of baby food he wasn’t enjoying at all!   Emma had her little Eva with her and Geri was enjoying the makeshift nursery atmosphere. I first met Geri when she bounded into the room where I sat on my own waiting for our first workshop with Todd Swift.   Within moments I was told all about her background.   How she had given up a lucrative care...

Eyewear attended graduation ceremonies today for Kingston University's class of 2010, in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.   Professor Sir Peter Scott , Vice-Chancellor, spoke out powerfully and with noble clarity about the dangers of the Coalition proposals to savagely cut university budgets. I was very proud of the students, many of whom I've tutored these past three years, as they graduated, often to the applause of friends, family and other supporters - still so young, but on their way - into an increasingly fragile and contentious socio-economic space, where the arts are less and less valued beyond their merely financial merits.  Seeing them in their gowns, tossing their caps in the air, I felt they at least had the security of their degrees, experience, and conviction, to aid them in their dealings with the "real world". One of my former students, Stefan Mohamed , this morning graduated in Creative Writing with Film Studies BA (Hons), first class, and w...

Eyewear is very pleased, on the eve of election day, to offer readers an occasional light verse poem by a creative writing student of mine - a poem on being undecided in the UK that has a particular resonance with me, for one. Thomas Hewson is a 21-year old Kingston University student. He lives in South Yorkshire and will be voting in the Sheffield-Hallam constituency on May 6th. Sheffield Hallam’s current MP, and prospective MP, is the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg - whom will be expecting to win the seat with a comfortable majority. Voting on May 6th Gordon Brown wants substance over style, Cameron thinks Labour should be put on trial. But the Lib Dems are definitely affirmative - Cleggy boy offers a brand new alternative. As for the other parties, UKIP and Green, they have no real policies I think it would seem, and then there is Griffin, who for power does hunt, - I’ll say just this – he’s an ignorant… Cameron, you’ll spend our money without any waste - well if that’s true ...

Mental illness - especially depression - is far more common than some people accept - and remains a stigma, when other diseases (such as cancer) no longer seem a mark of Cain (despite what Sontag wrote on the subject). Recently, Little Episodes , a platform for artists, musicians, writers and other creatives, was put online, to establish an interface between mental health concerns and creative endeavours. It is an impressive project, and I am proud to say students from Kingston University are involved with the work.