Welcome to ‘Vespers’, a little space within Forgotten Poets for my work, mostly poems, but probably also other bits and pieces along the way. I won’t always send these out via email, cause its not really what everyone signed up for, and I hope no-one minds this brief interlude before we return to our usual programming. I’ve been writing poetry for over 20 years now, and have mountains of stray bits of paper and old notebooks and word documents, filled with forgotten verses of my own. More on all this later, but for now, here’s a wee taster of things to come . . .
I have been participating in the ‘Song Title Poetry Challenge’ this month, over on
. The instructions were simple: “Each day in May a letter is assigned. Choose a band or artist who’s name starts with that letter, and write a poem comprised entirely out of their song titles.” I highly recommend checking it out, and if you’re so inclined, write some poems—there’s still 5 days left in May, plenty of time to get inspired!As the wonderful host
noted, what could have been a slightly gimmicky conceit, “evolved to something more than random titles thrown together.” So much more! Every day there was a growing selection of striking poems, written by an amazing group of poets, including: , , , , , , , , , , , & (sorry if I forgot anyone! please let me know!).The set I wrote I’ll be posting here sometime in the near future, after I have had some time to sit with them, and perhaps do a little editing, but I wanted to share something special to celebrate everyone making it to the end of the month! So, while I was settling in to write the last few, I decided to screen-record while I did it, mostly so I would have a record of myself writing poems in real time—something I have never done or seen before. But then I thought others might get a kick out of it as well. So here is a video of me writing a set of ‘Stone Songs’ out of the song-titles of Laura Marling, with her songs on the soundtrack. Hope you enjoy it!
-: Stone Songs :- for Laura Marling from Dick Whyte I. Old stone Crawled out of the sea, Breathe— You know You're no god. II. Divine Little bird, Wild once— Worship me! Pray for me! III. Covered in snow, The valley Saved these words For you— “Once I was an eagle.” IV. Nature of dust— Night after night Don't ask me why, I speak Because I can. xoxo dw
Where it all began . . .
'Stone Songs' for Laura Marling (2024)