Sudden Collapses In Public Places
The art of falling safely is to stay loose
Hello there friend,
Firstly, welcome to my new subscribers. You are now part of my wonderful, ever growing writing community.
So today, I am lifting the thick nightclub rope and beckoning you into my Velvet Room. This is where my more experimental material happens, and can be seen by those who pledge support by taking out a paid subscription. My monthly life writing, The Short Tall Letter, is free to read for all subscribers and these drop into your inbox at the beginning of each month. Thank you all for reading and sharing my writing.
For you this month I’ve made an audio-film-poem artwork, Things That Should Never Have Happened, dedicated to the writer, poet and artist, Julia Darling (1956 - 2005). She was a major literary figure in the north-east until her untimely death from breast cancer at the age of 49. Her writing is clever and funny. Much was about illness and she believed passionately that poetry should be a part of the life of every hospital. I’m sure I would have met her, if only she had lived.
But in another sense I did meet her. Her novel, Crocodile Soup, helped me discover a place for my writing voice which in turn spurned me to write my first novel, In Search of the Missing Eyelash. After her death, I contacted her partner and was generously invited to the memorial party held for Julia in Newcastle. There I met her family and friends, including the wonderful Jackie Kay who read a poem for her. Since then, Julia has tutored me from afar, through the energy and life in her poetry.
But now it’s SHOWTIME. So I’m dimming the lights as you enter my inner cinema. Come find your seat, and did I forget to mention here the drinks are free, and that the chairs support every part of your being?
So take a moment to make sure you’re sitting comfortably, preferably in your dressing gown, nightie or just free as a bird.
Press play.