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A Few Updates

I have a new computer, which is very lovely in many ways, but I am struggling to find the photos I uploaded yesterday, so until I learn the file management system on this beast, there will have to be old photos. This is one of my library, which was set up last year. Although it has a lot of books in it, it is mostly used for a chill out space for those of us who need a break from the chatter when we’re all together, and for crafting. Sometimes I feel rather uncomfortable about having so much space and access to books, when some people, especially the younger generation, find themselves struggling with access to resources to support their writing, so I’d like to find a way to share this. If you are a writer who needs to borrow or consult books that I have, let me know and we’ll see what can be done.

This is a bit of a distraction from my main intention which was to remind everyone about the poetry event at the Little biggar Festival on 28th October. The Facebook posting reads:

Biggar-based publisher Red Squirrel Press invites you to an afternoon of Red Squirrel Press poets and friends in aid of MacDiarmid’s Brownsbank, held in Biggar & Upper Clyde Museum on 28th October.

Featuring some of the best-known names in poetry, WN (Bill) Herbert, Dundee Makar and Professor of Poetry, Sean O’Brien, multi award- winning poet and Emeritus Professor, Colin Will, writer, musician, former Scottish Poetry Library and StAnza International Poetry Festival Chair, award winning Biggar-based poet Lindsay Macgregor, Andrew Forster, poet and literature development worker and was previously Literature Development Officer for Dumfries and Galloway. Elizabeth Rimmer widely-published poet, reviewer and editor, author of four collections from Red Squirrel Press and editor of the eco-poetry discussion website Ceasing Never.

Tickets available from https://www.biggarlittlefestival.com/literature/red-squirrel

There is another upcoming reading in Stirling on 4th November as part of Paperboats Day for Nature, but I will post more about this later when further details are available.

Also, I am sorry to announce that I am going to stop sending out my newsletter. I used Mailchimp, but as the parent company has announced its intention to scrape content in order to train AI, the potential for copyright infringements eems too high to be worth it. I’m looking for alternative ways of keeping in touch, as there are some subscribers who don’t follow me elsewhere on social media, but in the meantime, I can be found on BlueSky, (mostly poetry) Mastodon (mostly politics and environmental stuff) and Instagram (herbs, cooking and gardening). That’s a lot, and I’ll probably refine it as the platforms develop, but that’s where I am just now.

October 20, 2023
Inspired By Herbs

Last month I began a series of letters called Inspired By Herbs. It includes a featured herb, and a related poetry prompt. Here is an extract from the first, inspired by chickweed:

Latin name stellaria media. Other English names bird’s eye, chickensmeat, cluckenweed, mischievous jack, skirt buttons, tongue grass, murren
Scottish names chickenweed, arva/arvi chickenwir in Shetland
Gaelic fliodh/fliogh (affliction)
Until last year, I hardly noticed chickweed in my garden or on the roadside. It needs rich moist soil, and warmth, so it doesn’t thrive where it gets walked on or mowed, and I simply hauled it out along with the hairy bittercress and wild forget-me-not which are the prevailing weeds in my garden. And then I discovered all the things I could do with it, started to look for it, and discovered it everywhere – in the greenhouse, under the rose bush, growing out of gutters and between cracks in the pavement.
from the chickweed newsletter about the herb

This is not simply the familiar ‘write what you know’. Writing about herbs poems is plagued with people regurgitating ‘what they know’ in a way that is evocative and emotional, – you can see words like ‘calm’, ‘pleasant’, ‘soothing’, ‘sleep’, even in the herbals I’ve quoted. And it can lead to flabby and sentimental writing that has nothing to do with either the herb or the writer but simply reflects the way they want to feel.
I’m going to suggest you start your poetry with writing what you can learn by close observation, disregarding prior knowledge and familiar associations.
from the chickweed letter, about the writing

Writing is not compulsory! But some of you have, and one person even sent me her poem, which was lovely. The next letter goes out on the 21st April, and is about woodruff. It isn’t too late to sign up – the form is on the contact page, and as it is hosted by mailchimp, it is easy to unsubscribe if it isn’t what you’re looking for!

April 10, 2019
Latest News and Some Upcoming Events

This is a ragbag of a post, but if you don’t do Facebook you will have missed some interesting bits of recent news.

Firs ts that the second imprint of Haggards has sold out ( I still have a few though—-). The third imprint has been ordered and will be available from Red Squirrel Press as soon as possible, and I will have more copies to sell in the shop too. Neither Red Squirrel Press nor I charge for postage and packing within the UK (please add £2 if you live abroad). And I will sign any that you order from me.

becoming botanicals

This is a glimpse of the new anthology Becoming Botanicals, in which I have a poem. You can find more information on the post, which also includes a link to the fundraiser, and a glimpse of the perks on offer. The proofs are coming out very shortly, and publication will be in June. But don’t you think it looks lovely?

Then another anthology I was involved in, Umbrellas of Edinburgh, which was edited by Claire Askew and Russell Jones and published by the ill-fated Freight, is now going to be reissued by the imaginative and innovative Stirling Publishing (nothing to do with where I live, the reference is to the Commissioning Editor, Tabatha Stirling). It’s going to have a new cover, illustrated maps, a new foreword and some new poems, and should be out by Christmas. And as part of the project, some of the poets (Harry Giles, me, Gerda Stevenson and Alice Tarbuck) will be filming a reading of their poems in situ. My poem, Grassroots in Edinburgh, is going to be filmed in the Meadows, and it’s all very exciting.

A third anthology I’m involved in, Scotia Extremis, is going to have an Edinburgh launch in Blackwells on South Bridge in Edinburgh, on the 3rd of May at 6.30pm.

Now, switching to my editor hat, three poetry collections I’ve edited are going to have launches in the next week. On Saturday 6th April at 1pm in the Scottish Poetry Library, Red Squirrel Press will be launching books by John Bolland (Fallen Stock) and Mandy Haggith (Why the Sky is Far Away). And on Tuesday 9th April, in the Scottish Writers Centre, Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, John Bolland, Jon Plunkett (whose debut, A Melody of Sorts I edited), Anne Connolly (Once Upon a Quark) and Thomas Stewart (Empire of Dirt), will be reading from their new publications. It has been an enormous pleasure to be involved with these books, and the events should be a delight.

April 4, 2019
Spring in the Territory of Rain

geese heading north

This photo was taken at Gartmorn Dam, on a cold but sunshiny morning. It was lovely to be out – there were signs of spring everywhere, celandines, blackthorn blossom, a wren singing on almost every bush, robins in full courtship display, and the first chiffchaff calling in the trees around the dam.

celandine

I’ve had all my markers for spring, now – the first celandines, curlews, oystercatchers, and, yesterday, skylark song over the fields to the east of the village.

cuckoo flower

I took a walk up to the haggard I had especially in mind when I was writing Haggards. New leaves of yarrow, comfrey, nettles, (especially nettles), horsetails and vetch are showing already, and celandines, shepherds purse and whitlow grass.

whitlow grass

Ivy berries are ripe now and I braved a tangle of nettles and brambles to get some for the start of dyeing experiments for this year. I’ve saved some roots of yellow flag and meadowsweet too, and when someone in the village was thinning out a birch tree, I got hold of some bark pieces, so the first dye-pot of the year will be happening today. Last year’s experiments were very satisfying, but this year I am determined to be more meticulous in following the instructions, to see if I can get some reds, purples and maybe green.

blackthorn blossom

I have been sowing seeds too, so while I’m watching the simmering colours, I will be clearing away last year’s debris and planning for the summer. The garden has survived the winter pretty well, with daffodils, primroses, violets and wind anemones, and the best news of all – in spite of the crow which scooped a lot of frogs out of our pond, there is frogspawn!

Over the next month I’ll be looking out for the return of migrating birds – the swallows usually come back in the last week of April – and watching the tadpoles grow. I’ll take regular pictures of the wild flowers in the haggard, propagate a lot of herbs from soft cuttings, and listening to the dawn chorus. By the end of the month there may be fledgling sparrows – they are always first to hatch – and the gull colony will be looking for nest sites.

wind anemones

March 28, 2019

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