#WFest Q&A with SM Jenkin

 As part of the all day #Wfest, I participated in a Q&A session, talking with Sam Fentiman-Hall about my work and what inspires it. Here is the text, in full:

SM Jenkin is a regular performer on the UK live lit scene, has performed internationally, and has been published in numerous literary anthologies and magazines. Her poetry debut full length collection ‘Fire in the head’ was published in 2018. Here is some more info about SM. (Detailed post with poetry links!) 

What sort of topics do you write about?

(SMJ) My poems are inspired by unspoken/ erased histories. For example, I wrote my poem about Anne Pratt when I found out that she was a Medway girl! She was a self-taught botanical illustrator, and she was taught at Eastgate house. Until recently there was no mention of her at all. Especially local history. It bothered me that I had been to/ past this building so many times & had no idea about her. Other poems are inspired by the beautiful landscape of Medway. I guess I write about things that I am afraid of losing, to keep them preserved in some way.

What are you working on now?

(SMJ) A chapbook with Rosemary McLeish written in response to 'the unspoken aspects of war', it covers a lot of ground. Working with Rosemary really stretched and challenged me. She’s inspired me to have courage. I’m sorry she won’t see it in print. Her work is amazing. Breathtaking honest and a timely riposte to a lot of some rather rose-tinted ideas about the war, about the empire. It's some of her most challenging work. I’m also now working on my second solo collection. I want to explore a little more about my mother’s unspoken stories and history, what it means to be a second generation Irish woman. I can be brave about it, because of women like Rosie.

What writers do you like/admire?

(SMJ) Famous ones? Dylan Thomas, Angela Carter, William Blake and WB Yeats obviously, Kate Bush, Maeve Brennan, Carol Ann Duffy and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Rosemary McLeish obv., Spreken, Setareh Ebrahimi, John Wilmot. I’ve found that attending the Confluence sessions has exposed me to many writers, and I admire their work. You’ve gathered a terrific ensemble of writers in the @Wrdsmithery publishing house.

What was the idea behind your forthcoming collaboration with Rosemary McLeish?

(SMJ) We were inspired by the number of collaborative poetry projects that are going on right now. For me it was 'one mans trash', collaboration between Spreken and Matt. We liked each others’ work, so the only question was, what to write about. As feminists, this informed our ideas, We realised how much of the reality of women's lives is forgotten or erased. There were a lot of myths milling about how wonderful “the war” was, Bulldog spirit and all that jazz. when the reality is that for civilians and women particularly was different. Many things had remained unspoken. It needed to be said. And that was our starting point.

Did you find it easy or hard to collaborate on a poetry collection with another poet?

(SMJ) Rosie was easy to work with, brave, honest and encouraging. But also not allowing me to take an easy option. All I had to do was respond to what she had written, stay within the brief and be honest. The quality and honesty of her work encouraged me out of my comfort zone. She had a real spark to her, and this can encourage you to do more than you thought possible.

What are your tips for juggling real life with poetry?

(SMJ) I find deadlines really help. I know how tricky it is to balance paid work, caring and general life with trying to also be a creative person. It’s easier to find slots of time if I can see that there is a goal to meet. I know how to ration time then. If I have a poem that’s due at the end of the month, I can then plan out slots of time to write in. It gives me an incentive. Ask yourself: Is this necessary? Also, “how does this help me"? Does it give me a chance to develop as a writer? or to get my work seen?

Details about the #WFest are available here: https://www.wordsmithery.info/wfest-2020

Here you can watch some videos of SM Jekin’s work:

MedwayMermaid https://youtu.be/twmDT99ZimI

Prisoner convention three poems Inverlair lodge (from my forthcoming collection with Rosemary McLeish. Rhiannons song (unpublished) and only a fool from Fire in the Head https://youtu.be/4nzmGlqmX8s

And you can bookmark an interview for later!

YouTube interview: Thanet writers meet SM Jenkin https://youtu.be/IbkW7x618mg

You can follow SM on social media.

Facebook (

https://www.facebook.com/SMJenkinWriter/

) , Twitter (@sajenks42), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/smjenkin42/) and Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/smjenkin)

Buy a copy of her book here: https://www.wordsmithery.info/fire-in-the-head

National poetry day -#truth. Child of softer days

I am a child of softer days,
sheltered in the fur of the
Celtic tiger, skins thrown over the
bare bones of the wild Atlantic
Way. My summer visits
home were warm, my tread
softened by busy hands.

I am a child of softer days,
resting on the feather bed made
by my mother, clean conditioned
hospital corners shaped in the
Victorian shade of all saints hospital.
NHS lino breaking the hungry brick
Of Dicken's workhouse.

I am a child of softer days,
cushioned by my mother's silence
from the broken glass of 1970s
England, shattered during three-day
weeks, bins caressed by ruptured
black bin bags, caressed by hungry
rats in ghost towns along the chalk-lined
borders.
Paddy was just my uncle's name.

I am a child of softer days,
the fall of October's ripened
fruits will bruise me.
Will cut my tongue.
I am a child of softer days.

Fire in the Head launched in a Roundabout Way

Performers at Fire in the Head Launch.
Photo by Sam Fentiman-Hall 

It was a dark and dreary winters night...

I'll start that again. It was standing room only at the Poco Cantina at my book launch last night.

Thank you to everyone who participated by reading, listening or by joining in on our #Invicted poem.

Copies of Fire in the Head are available from me at a gig or from the Wordsmithery website.

Fire in the Head - debut collection launch

Yes, it's finally here. My Debut collection “Fire In The Head” will be launched at Poco Loco, Chatham on the 28th of November at 7:00pm. I wanted to draw attention to the many different stories of Medway, including the time that William Blake was arrested here.

The launch is being held on the anniversary of Blake’s birth. The book remembers the stories, people and myths of Medway that often get overlooked. Medway is a place that has many stories and many people passing through, it is a place of transition and transformation. I include myths woven into the fabric of the place.

To find out more about the event visit the Facebook event page
https://www.facebook.com/SMJenkinWriter
@sajenks42
https://www.instagram.com/smjenkin42/

Reviews of Fire in the head:

“You can taste the tang of the Medway in these sharp, observant poems, where myth and history gang-up on the present to tell new tales. A fine line-up from poet, SM Jenkin, to waken the sleepers and inspire fresh dreams.”

Caitlín Matthews (author of Diary of a Soul Doctor and King Arthur’s Raid.)

“In this collection, Chatham based poet SM Jenkin, interweaves myths of seal wives and Medway mermaids, with her own stories and experiences. She questions what it means, if anything, to be ‘adjusted’ in the world and contrasts her philosophies with rich imagery, exploring the ferocity of nature and her thirst for its wild freedom.”

Isabelle Kenyon (Fly on the Wall Poetry Press)

Raw Red peaches - instapoem

Late night fridge poem by S M Jenkin

one thousand red peaches
rain raw honey blood seas
as rose mist sprays
over my diamond tongue

punch drunk dreams

punch drunk dreams : SM Jenkin

punch drunk dreams

those languid peach dreams
recall light in petals
his honey drunk friends
sing deliriously
but never
could she have
you
 here

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Fridge poem by SM Jenkin

Words of the month: Skull, Ghost, Twitch

The Veil Blinks by SM Jenkin

Photo:Pixabay (creative commons)

The veil blinks,

is noticed to twitch, 

once, from the other side

as children dance from

door to door,

cheap plastic caressing

their faces; 

skulls, green drowned

faces melting into innocent

necks. Tonight, it’s 

dad’s turn

and he is glad there have been

no sexy vampires, yet.

It was their game, 

once.

And he watches from the gate,

as some other man’s child wobbles 

past in a dirty white duvet,

scissored holes for eyes.

And he chances a brief look

at his watch, feeling the 

hour hand spinning 

like a helicopter,

lifting his hand.

Until the veil twitches

shut again, for another year.

And he didn’t think of her

once.

Inspired by Lisa Vigor’s Inspirational words of the month, Oct 2017  #Ghost #Twitch #Skull as posted by Lisa on youtube here

Where the Medway Delta meets The World....

Coming soon, Issue #4 of Confluence Medway... Where the Medway Delta Meets The World.

Portmeirion Estuary: S.M Jenkin

Issue #4 is shaping up well, prose and poems beautifully illustrated by Duncan Grant.

Submissions for Issue #5 are now open and the deadline is 12 July 2017. There is no theme so you can send any short stories/prose, short plays and poetry on any topic.

Only original unpublished work submitted by the author will be considered. If you would like your work to be considered for inclusion in the next edition, email your submission as an attachment to: confluencemedway(at)gmail.com with ‘POETRY / PLAY / STORY TITLE by NAME’ in the subject line. (Eg ‘6 poems by Wanda Wax’ / ‘Waiting for Charlie by Herbert Berry’.)

In your email please include your full contact details including postcode, and a short biography, no more than 50 words

More details about how to submit work to Confluence are available from the Confluence Blog.

Blogging and competitions

After a long break, I've started to send out work to competitions and for consideration for publication. I have come across some restrictions on what I can send out that I haven't encountered before, and I find it somewhat perplexing.

Some editors now consider work posted to blogs etc as self-published and therefore ineligible for their prize or their magazine. Others go further and consider work posted to social media as being "published". I can understand why editors will want to limit their input to material that has not been published elsewhere, avoiding the "I can get it free somewhere else so why bother buying". This also limits the possibility - perhaps - of plagiarism and the messy business of trying to put it right.

However, the restrictions on material published online in forums/ social media is proving difficult for people who want to workshop material, especially those facing barriers to joining the traditional ways of work shopping new material. For those of us without a suitable editor/ critical friend, or the chance to join a writers group, how do we access a suitable critique? If there aren't any writers groups meeting locally, or if our work pattern or caring responsibilities means we can't go, what then?

Writers don't work alone - we are a part of a community. How do you manage to get feedback from your friends without self publishing on shared sites?
_______________________
Picture sourced from Pixabay

Hotel dreams Del Estrocho

Hotel Dreams Del Estrocho 

Facing the police flag kicking the sky, 
car exhausts trails dividing the square, banditos on the sly
on the 8th floor, facing away from the view, 
basking in bright weather, coaches with penguins all taunting you,

with cloud soft forms of what could have been,
all the leopard seals and wildlife and icebergs unseen.
Words formed, above the mute phone,
with intimate touch blazing across the screen,
 bald truth reminding you of the obscene
illusion that you are ever alone

Image credit: hot black (morguefile)

image sourced from Morguefile

Tinsel haiku

Moulting tinsel trails
 uproot solstice echoes at
 the empty table

The Judicious Heretics Return

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, 

And sorry I could not travel both”

The Road Not Taken Robert Frost

The Judicious Heretics of ME4 are back! This time they will be enticing you along the road not taken, with a collaborative Litart exhibition of works inspired by the poem by Robert Frost.  

So, what's unique about this exhibition? It was all produced anonymously. A series of written responses to the poem were created and then sent to the artists, who then produced their interpretation of the new works. As last year, the artists did not know who the writers were and the writers do not know who (if anyone) has produced an artwork in response to their poem or story.  

The exhibition includes art and writing from creatives including: Chris Van Beck, Maggie Drury, Sally Evans, Sam Fentiman-Hall, Sarah Hehir, Heather Haythornthwaite, Philip Kane, Bill Lewis, Maria C McCarthy,  Peter Reeds and Dianne Reeves.

The exhibition of words and art will be launched in Rochester on Thursday, 3 September at 7.30 pm and afterwards will be shown at other locations in Medway. Further information about the launch event and exhibition is available from the ME4Writers or on the community page on Facebook

The full text of The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost is available to read or listen to on the website of the Poetry Foundation

World Poetry Day 2014

Happy World Poetry Day!

Image credit: Click

So, what is there to celebrate? What is the point of poetry?

For me it is about expressing and sharing thoughts, feelings, sensations. With the sharing of these, I find more than a buzz of a job well (or otherwise) done. It helps me to connect with the world and the people who live in it

There is more, it's nice to share but for me it's about owning my world too. It's also about choosing the language I choose to express myself it, too. Which language do you use to tell your story?

The UN have a beautiful description on their website here of world poetry day

Have you spoken your part, yet?

__________________________________________________________

Image sourced from www.morguefile.com

Mindful Writing 35 - Capstone Country Park

Above me, a blackbird shimmies his feathers. The fog erases boundaries, smudge and sooth over the edges of the winter. Inside it's gentle breath, the wood expands into infinite possibility. Ascending songs echo, resonate while I turn the corner and bare green branches twist into focus; gain a layer of ivy

Image Credit: SM Jenkin

At the edge of the field the fog curtain brushes the grass.; beside the path link green and seasoned slim brown fingers. The sharp angles strewn at right angles with spider webs are garlanded with dew drops, inverting the world.

__________________________________________________________
Mindful writing is the art of paying attention - being fully present in a moment and then describing it

Mindful Writing 34 - View from the Delce

The fascia gleams so brightly I cannot tell where it is on the spectrum. The spring blossom glaring back at me from the hill covers orange, pink, daffodil yellow. I move forward only in the certainty of his warm hand in mine. Approaching the dip, the glare sharpens into a box window, twin suns reflected back, trapped in the square.

Image Credit_ J Durham

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Mindful writing is the art of paying attention - being fully present in a moment and then describing it

Image source: http://www.morguefile.com

Mindful Writing 33 - Near Wouldham

The low hum fills the air, drowning out the reeds rattling in the gusts skimming across the swollen new banks of the Medway. It's the eerie sound of someone blowing across the top of an empty bottle. But the cloud-sodden sky, grey against grey waves, is empty. The river laps against empty mud trails. The power relay buzzing into view; mystery solved. 

Picture credit: Wally ir

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Mindful writing is the art of paying attention - being fully present in a moment and then describing it

Image source: http://www.morguefile.com

Mindful Writing 32 - 23rd February

yellows and purple
heads peeking
slyly out;
from beneath the shade of the
hill, below the college.
Is it safe to
come out,
yet?

Picture credit: Charmaine 725

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Mindful writing is the art of paying attention - being fully present in a moment and then describing it

Image source: http://www.morguefile.com

Final Mindful Writing 31 - Grandparents

In their wedding best

they stand for the photo,

before the brown brickwork

of some wall. They are quite

dwarfed by the photo frame,

pear, peach, apple

pomegranate twined and full.

I close my eyes like my grandfather

in photographs; beneath the

dust I see my grandmother's eyes

shut, too.

My grandparents
Image credit: SM Jenkin

_____________________________________________

This is the final part of the small stones writing challenge

The art of paying attention

Mindful Writing 30 - Burned Diaries

My mother has walked in

from her garden;

the arms of the tulips on her

cardigan writhe like

black flames against a

pink sunset. Her eyes water,

but there is no more smoke,

no soot; her hands are clean.

Image credit: Emmi P

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This is part of the small stones writing challenge

The art of paying attention

Image source: http://www.morguefile.com/

Mindful Writing 29 - lightbulb moment

A cough, the delicate staccato

of the best man at a wedding

tipping the side of a wineglass

with a fork.

The flash catches me unaware,

my hand on the

switch. It is still

dark.

Picture credit: M Connors

This is part of the small stones writing challenge

The art of paying attention

Image source: http://www.morguefile.com/