tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46133992602358989832024-03-05T16:02:03.149+00:00Poetry and Pictures at the MuseumPoetry and Pictures seen and created at the museum. At present the museum is the Ashmolean museum in Oxford.nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.comBlogger115125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-89691519845623008632015-03-26T17:31:00.001+00:002015-03-26T17:31:08.327+00:00 A fond farewell<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">A great big thank you to all my friends and supporters who have made <i>poetry and pictures at the museum </i>such a great project for me. Thank you for this lovely gift and card combined with a stunning print by William Blake.</span><br />
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I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. It is not over, though. You can still take part here: <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuD3nuSAFrKvmP3TqfDALSABZ1d7q1mkrBYSwjNPGzpMrzRtjuWP4-dWAOL377yHyRseY2xFfidQ3jamgK03T_S4rxaAA5u2bx_-IKYoAmvZBEKocHyLFRhBjjwQ2y72DEYBGIz9lsoLY/s1600/leaving+present.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">https://ekphrasispoetry.submittable.com/submit</span></a><br />
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It is just that I shall not be running it any more and it is changing shape.</div>
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Now it is called <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuD3nuSAFrKvmP3TqfDALSABZ1d7q1mkrBYSwjNPGzpMrzRtjuWP4-dWAOL377yHyRseY2xFfidQ3jamgK03T_S4rxaAA5u2bx_-IKYoAmvZBEKocHyLFRhBjjwQ2y72DEYBGIz9lsoLY/s1600/leaving+present.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;">ekphrasispoetry</a></div>
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The next readings are in April. Check the Ashmolean What's On.</div>
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I would like to share the work of Diana Moore on the weblog. She has put together an amazing collection of snippets of poems and their pictures taken from different times, places and performances from a whole range of writers including herself. The collage is all stuck onto the different faces of a large cardboard box, both inside and out, so you can visit another facet of the history of the project with every change of angle. There is even a floor plan on the floor of the box. Click on the pictures to take a closer look.</div>
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And so it comes to an end. It would be great to receive comments on the weblog here.<br />
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I shall be starting a new weblog, probably called "In the footsteps of Blake."<br />
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Maybe one day I will reopen this blog. But for now it is adios, so long and thanks for all the poem fish.<br />
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<br />nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-86436759475411245412015-03-17T20:59:00.001+00:002015-03-17T20:59:39.269+00:00In the footsteps of Blake: An introduction to poetry and pictures, with special reference to William Blake.<p:colorscheme colors="#ffffff,#000000,#808080,#000000,#bbe0e3,#333399,#009999,#99cc00">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><p:onmouseclick href="D:\My Documents\poetry at the museum\What's On Special Events - Ashmolean Museum Nick Owen.html" hyperlinktype="url"><a href="file:///D:/My%20Documents/poetry%20at%20the%20museum/What's%20On%20%20Special%20Events%20-%20Ashmolean%20Museum%20Nick%20Owen.html" target="_parent">Some notes from a presentation given at the Ashmolean on March 28th 2015</a></p:onmouseclick></span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><p:onmouseclick href="D:\My Documents\poetry at the museum\What's On Special Events - Ashmolean Museum Nick Owen.html" hyperlinktype="url"><a href="file:///D:/My%20Documents/poetry%20at%20the%20museum/What's%20On%20%20Special%20Events%20-%20Ashmolean%20Museum%20Nick%20Owen.html" target="_parent">I hope to do an audio presentation to go with these slides in due course. </a></p:onmouseclick></span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: small;">It was a delight to be offered the chance to deliver this presentation as a special event at the Ashmolean Museum as part of The Blake Festival in Oxford . That is Michael Phillips, the curatorof the exhibition in the picture above, making a Blake print. </span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: small;">I am flattered to be pictured as Blake's hero figure "Los".</span> <span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 32pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">I hope this set of notes will not be too much of a howl. (The picture is called "Los howled".</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: small;">First I would like to thank the Ashmolean for allowing me to lead a group of talented poets for the last four years in sharing poems written about objects in the museum. I must also thank the committee of the exhibition on William Blake that has just finished for allowing me to make a special presentation on the theme of poetry and pictures. </span></span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It has been a great pleasure and also a privilege to share my own and other people's poetical works both in the galleries and the special exhibitions to the visiting public. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I would also like to thank Jude Barrett, from the Ashmolean Education Department for managing the whole process. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Some may be wondering why I am being offered this opportunity since I am not an academic and have no credentials as an art historian. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I am a poet and digital artist who specializes in writing poetry with a close connection with photographs and works of art. I have two books of illustrated poems published </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Telling It Like It Is," modern fairy tales in verse, printed by Transitions publications and available in the Amazon Market Place</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">and </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"A Journey Through Grief, in prose poetry and pictures," published by Chipmunka, available through the Chipmunka website.</span></div>
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This self portrait was printed in an international art magazine.</div>
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Entitled "Self portrait with head in flames," it blends original photographic images with digital art work.</div>
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I hope you do not find this presentation too hot-headed.</div>
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If I have any authority in talking to you about the visionary poetry and pictures of William Blake it is based on my previous incarnation as a director of the Oxford School of Psychotherapy and Counselling, based here in the city.</div>
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My main professional perspective is that of a Jungian Analyst. </div>
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Though at one point I have been guest of honour at the British psychological Society</div>
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<p:onmouseclick href="http://www.bps.org.uk/" hyperlinktype="url"><a href="http://www.bps.org.uk/" target="_parent">http://www.bps.org.uk/</a></p:onmouseclick> </div>
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today I am here primarily as a poet. On occasion I have put together my psychological insights with explorations of famous poets such as Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath</div>
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I was asked to speak at the Plath 75 here in Oxford.My paper can be found on line in volume 7 of Plath profiles, an on-lie journal about Plath's life and work.</div>
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My paper is called:</div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">THE ORIGINS OF CREATIVITY AND DESTRUCTIVENESS IN THE LIFE AND WORK OF SYLVIA PLATH
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">This presentation is concerned with the juxtaposition of poetry and pictures. I believe all of us today who create art which puts puts visual and poetic art together owes a great debt to William Blake.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Before we begin to explore Blake's work I hope you will allow me to share an example of my own work, which echoes Blake's connection with his dead brother.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The figure in this poem-picture is my dead wife Gill.</span></div>
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<b>Beyond the world and death</b></div>
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<b>We find redeeming beauty</b></div>
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<b>Through the eyes of love</b></div>
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From "A Journey Through Grief"</div>
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A little historical background:</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 20.0pt;">“Poetry and Pictures”</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt;">A Twenty First Century Participation Art</span></b></div>
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<b>A manifesto.</b><b> </b></div>
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From the earliest days of printing, a world of visual images with associated thought and feeling, juxtaposed with text has been part of the western way of enculturation, to help in the process of translating meaningless ciphers, squiggles on a page, into the stuff of inner experience, into understood written words, leaping from the page or screen into constructs of a mental world.</div>
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I will never forget the moment when words and images entwined and danced for me as I began to understand written text for the first time. It was like the moment when stumbling and sinking transform into skiing and swimming as learning transforms to achieving.<br />
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The earlest mixture of words and images goes back to the Egyptians. It was not until the decoding of the Rosettta Stone that it was understood that the script was not just about picture words. They were also using images for sounds. The texts are a complex mixture of sound and image.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-RedkiLf2o5CbvUE4lTW6ylKUDM0gabKwM9RsFbYY49MDaSE8Rkw2mz-zOzxRQgt0vU-BC9g-6aVYyv8qTQCbZ7PmH8280D2sRoxId0ReXJmw0j0tK6um1X7a2fvcAi1I_PzyBiKqE9Q/s1600/Papyrus_Ani_curs_hiero.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-RedkiLf2o5CbvUE4lTW6ylKUDM0gabKwM9RsFbYY49MDaSE8Rkw2mz-zOzxRQgt0vU-BC9g-6aVYyv8qTQCbZ7PmH8280D2sRoxId0ReXJmw0j0tK6um1X7a2fvcAi1I_PzyBiKqE9Q/s1600/Papyrus_Ani_curs_hiero.jpg" height="320" width="272" /></a></div>
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The real father of modern Poetry and Pictures as a genre has to be William Blake, a visual artist and print maker by trade, and one of the greatest poets in the English language.<br />
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More recently, the poet laureate, Ted Hughes, set the ball rolling for modern artists with his book, “The Remains of Elmet”. He wrote poems specifically for a photographer’s art works here. In a second book, “River”, he juxtaposed poetry with an artist’s photographs without connecting them more intimately.</div>
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Hughes only wrote the poetry. He collaborated with others to create these poem-picture works. We are encouraging such collaborative work, and are open to both photographers and poets, but we are mostly focused on creating a combined work made by one author.<br />
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“Poetry and Pictures” is, I believe, the first attempt to establish the two arts together as a genre for the twenty first century. </div>
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Photography has sometimes struggled to establish its credentials as an Art form in its own right. Poetry in turn, has struggled to make a case that it is still culturally relevant to this fast changing world.<br />
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Much modern writing is as uninspiring as a snapshot from a cheap digital camera. I believe that combining ideas expressed visually with ideas expressed in words can make for a powerful medium of expression, both folk art and high art.<br />
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The idea is to link a poem with a picture or series of pictures. The two can also blend together into a single visual image, which is both poetry and photography.<br />
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I am not sure how many variations on the overall theme will emerge. Already there are versions I had not dreamed about. I find the merging of words into visual art in graphic artistry a particularly inspiring form.<br />
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Poetry condenses experience. A photographer or graphic artist can do the same with a visual image.<br />
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As a psychologist I am aware of how both photography and poetry can make our experiences more vivid and memorable. Combining the two can be profoundly therapeutic as well.</div>
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<b><u>Beginnings</u></b></div>
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In 2002 I founded “Wychwood Poets”, a group of
writers and photographers based in the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:place w:st="on">North Cotswolds</st1:place><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>area
with members in Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Oxfordshire.
The group met to read and discuss poetry and pictures on the first Tuesday of
every month at my home.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></div>
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This art form called “Poetry and Pictures” combines a poem with a
photograph, graphic image, painting or group of photographs.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
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“Poetry and Pictures” became an international web based activity in 2006
housed on the Flickr platform. This group grew rapidly and now has over
600 members. Thousands of poem pictures are displayed online there. It
has expanded into a wide range of forms, many of which combine written poetry
with graphic imagery. See<br />
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<a href="http://flickr.com/groups/poetryandpicturesinternational/">http://flickr.com/groups/poetryandpicturesinternational/</a><br />
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<b><u>Walking in Wychwood</u></b>.</div>
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At Christmas time 2006 I started leading guided walks in
the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Wychwood</st1:placename><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:placetype w:st="on">Forest</st1:placetype></st1:place><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>area,
where I coached people in taking photographs and writing poetry about the
natural world. This picks up on the recent observations made by the BBC among
other organisations, that going walking in nature could be a better remedy than
prescription drugs for the very high numbers of people suffering from depression
in the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:country-region w:st="on">U.K.</st1:country-region> <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>The idea, in simple terms, is to
involve people within reach of the ancient<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">forest</st1:placetype><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:placename w:st="on">Wychwood</st1:placename></st1:place><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>in exploring the rural landscape, and
recording their impressions in poetry and pictures. Participants are encouraged
to share their work on-line. There is a web log which records events, activity,
poetry and pictures associated with the walks.</div>
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<b><u>Poetry and Pictures<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">England</st1:place></st1:country-region></u></b></div>
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I would love to see P&P activity all over the country,
but have focused in my local area initially. Eventually there could be local
P&P groups just as there are golf clubs and bridge clubs. There is now a
growing “Poetry and Pictures England” group on flickr, which is curated by
Tina Negus and I. </div>
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<a href="http://flickr.com/groups/poetryandpicturesengland/">http://flickr.com/groups/poetryandpicturesengland/</a></div>
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Poem-picture groups are at the initial stage in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on">Oxford</st1:city>,
Wantage and Witney.</div>
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Other activities include:</div>
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<b>1) School lectures, workshops and field trips</b></div>
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The model for this has been tested on St Mary’s Primary
School Chipping Norton, where groups of Year 6 students enrolled in a three
stage programme, concluding with a display of finished work to parents, staff
and fellow students.</div>
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Everyone involved felt pleased with this experience. </div>
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<b>2) Holidaymaker expeditions.</b> </div>
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Nothing planned as yet.</div>
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<b>3) Performances in Theatres, Libraries, Museums, Colleges and Universities</b>.</div>
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There has been a lunch-time performance at the Theatre
Chipping Norton. Performances have
now happened at Festivals in Abingdon, Cheltenham, Malvern, Chipping Norton,
Droitwich,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on">Oxford</st1:city>,
and Wantage, including<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Oxford</st1:placename><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and the Oxford Fringe Festival. </div>
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<b>4) Arts Festival Events. </b></div>
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International Poetry and Pictures was launched in the real
world at the Wychwood Festival 2007 in June. Artists from all over the country
as well as<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:country-region w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region>,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:country-region w:st="on">Italy</st1:country-region>, the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.A.</st1:country-region><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:country-region w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>had their work presented along with
artists from the local area.</div>
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<b>6) Gallery Exhibitions</b></div>
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There have been exhibitions at the Theatre Chipping Norton
and the Crown and Cushion Hotel Chipping Norton, the Rose
and Crown Pub in Charlbury and Witney Arts Centre. There have also been
exhibitions at the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Said Business</st1:placename><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place><span class="apple-converted-space"> and </span>in the County Hall,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:address w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Oxford</st1:city></st1:address>.</div>
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<b>7) A major multi-dimensional arts project based in the
Wychwood landscape itself.</b></div>
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This is some way off. It will require a partnership with
many organisations before it can come to fruition.</div>
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8) A mental health project using poetry and pictures as creative therapy.</b></div>
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I worked with clients of Mind in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:place w:st="on">West Oxfordshire</st1:place><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>to do P&P work.</div>
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Work is now complete at the Mind Project and a gallery of
participant’s work is visible online by group members.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/mindpoetryandpictures/">http://www.flickr.com/groups/mindpoetryandpictures/</a></div>
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<b>10) A terrestrial journal or yearbook</b></div>
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I hope to publish a book of poetry and pictures based on the work at the Ashmolean Museum.</div>
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<b>11) Courses in P&P</b></div>
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Courses have now been run with the Animation Station in
Banbury and in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><st1:city w:st="on">Woodstock</st1:city><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and
Chipping Norton. There have now been a number of courses at the
Ashmolean in <st1:city w:st="on">Oxford</st1:city>. This presentation has given rise to more demands for courses, which I shall pick up on soon.</div>
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<b>12) Video Poetry</b></div>
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Some of us are beginning to explore spoken poetry alongside
a series of video images.</div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/videopoetry/pool/">http://www.flickr.com/groups/videopoetry/pool/</a></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">13) </span>BBC Bitesize English exam revision</u></b></div>
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Anyone teaching or taking GCSE English will now be familiar
with images being run alongside poetry. The BBC has made this a major feature
of its revision format.<span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></div>
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<span style="left: -1.41%; mso-special-format: bullet; position: absolute;">•</span> <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Poetry and Pictures On-line
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<b>“Poetry and Pictures England”</b> hosted on flickr, is curated by Tina Negus and Nick Owen.
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<p:onmouseclick href="http://flickr.com/groups/poetryandpicturesengland/" hyperlinktype="url"><a href="http://flickr.com/groups/poetryandpicturesengland/" target="_parent">http://flickr.com/groups/poetryandpicturesengland/</a></p:onmouseclick>
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Tina Negus is a multi-prize winner poet and artist who curates the group with me. she has contributed a number of poems to the programme.</div>
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<p:onmouseclick href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/84265607@N00/10975047624/in/pool-poetryandpicturesengland/" hyperlinktype="url"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/84265607@N00/10975047624/in/pool-poetryandpicturesengland/" target="_parent">https://www.flickr.com/photos/84265607@N00/10975047624/in/pool-poetryandpicturesengland/</a></p:onmouseclick>
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Dr Giles Watson is a poet, photographer, artist and teacher, who has contributed more than anyone else to the programme.</div>
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<p:onmouseclick href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/29320962@N07/4329832845/in/pool-poetryandpicturesinternational%7C29320962@N07" hyperlinktype="url"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/29320962@N07/4329832845/in/pool-poetryandpicturesinternational%7C29320962@N07" target="_parent">https://www.flickr.com/photos/29320962@N07/4329832845/in/pool-poetryandpicturesinternational%7C29320962@N07</a></p:onmouseclick>
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<p:onmouseclick href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/84265607@N00/15451005673/in/pool-poetryandpicturesinternational%7C84265607@N00" hyperlinktype="url"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/84265607@N00/15451005673/in/pool-poetryandpicturesinternational%7C84265607@N00" target="_parent">https://www.flickr.com/photos/84265607@N00/15451005673/in/pool-poetryandpicturesinternational%7C84265607@N00</a></p:onmouseclick>
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Mike Laycock: Panther is Mike's reworking of Blake's Tiger.</div>
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<p:onmouseclick href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/15087852@N00/5596141948/" hyperlinktype="url"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/15087852@N00/5596141948/" target="_parent">https://www.flickr.com/photos/15087852@N00/5596141948/</a></p:onmouseclick><b><p:onmouseclick href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/zemotion/" hyperlinktype="url" tips="Go to Jingna Zhang's photostream"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/zemotion/" target="_parent" title="Go to Jingna Zhang's photostream">
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<b><p:onmouseclick href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/zemotion/" hyperlinktype="url" tips="Go to Jingna Zhang's photostream"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/zemotion/" target="_parent" title="Go to Jingna Zhang's photostream">
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<b><p:onmouseclick href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/zemotion/" hyperlinktype="url" tips="Go to Jingna Zhang's photostream"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/zemotion/" target="_parent" title="Go to Jingna Zhang's photostream">Jingna Zhang</a> has been poem-picture artist of the year</p:onmouseclick></b><p:onmouseclick href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/zemotion/622991373/" hyperlinktype="url"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/zemotion/622991373/" target="_parent"></a></p:onmouseclick></div>
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<b><p:onmouseclick href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/zemotion/" hyperlinktype="url" tips="Go to Jingna Zhang's photostream"><br /></p:onmouseclick></b></div>
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<p:onmouseclick href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/zemotion/622991373/" hyperlinktype="url"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/zemotion/622991373/" target="_parent">https://www.flickr.com/photos/zemotion/622991373/</a></p:onmouseclick><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
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<span style="left: -1.41%; mso-special-format: bullet; position: absolute;">•</span> <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Poetry and Pictures at the museum</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b> First of all: The V & A</b> </span></div>
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This was my first experience of poetry and pictures at a museum.</div>
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It was based on a real-world book of the work of ten poets who had chosen
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to write a poem about an object at the V and A
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It was wonderfully exciting and ambitious, but it was rather chaotic and disorganized in the delivery.</div>
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I thought maybe The Ashmolean could do it less ambitiously, but perhaps better, so I sent my manifesto to the director.</div>
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He passed it on to the <b>Department for Public Engagement</b>, which interviewed me before sending me on to <b>Jude Barrett </b>in the<b> Education Department. </b></div>
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The whole process took several months.</div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">Gallery Readings</span></b></div>
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Once a month for ten months in every year we produced a set of poems performed in the galleries of the Ashmolean for the general public and for free. For details see back issues of the web log here.</div>
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But there were also exhibitions to write for. entry to these was not free, but the poetry readings were still free to those who could pay to enter.</div>
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We were very fortunate to begin and end with a poem picture artist. </div>
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The first readings we did were for the <b>Edward Lear exhibition.</b></div>
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I chose a painting. Jerusalem, which is in the permanent collection on show in the museum.</div>
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I have photographed and edited the image adding a fragment of my poem to an area of the sky in the landscape.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: large;"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Jerusalem</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua';"> A poem by Nick Owen 2012<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">We look over his shoulder <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">At Shepherds standing by, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Unmindful of the city.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">An open sky is heaven enough for them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">But shining on the other hill<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">The artist shows so clear<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">The place they call <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">So far and yet so near.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">A valley lies below us, bare and dark.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">For me this has to be the shadow of death,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">A place of desolation, fearful, stark,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Where all too many soldiers took their final breath.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Armies of the past, and of the future too;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">We do not see them now upon the ground<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">And yet I think I hear their dreadful sound.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Over his shoulder we see some goats or sheep<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">In pastures almost green,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">A peaceful, restful, pastoral scene;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Even the rocks are bright and clean.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">He might have drawn on William Blake.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">These could be northern English hills;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">An English man’s <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:place></st1:city> to make,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Not covered in satanic mills.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Out of nowhere, a God without a face<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Compels the souls of men to make for this.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">It whispers to the world, “This is the place<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Which, more than any other, is the source of bliss,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">More powerful, more wonderful than any lover’s kiss.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">For, if there is redemption, it is here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Come all ye, and enter without fear”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Our fathers went on pilgrimage to reach this holy city,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">A pure white shining citadel beyond decay.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">In hope to reach eternity, they made their way,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">With prayers in many tongues, and oaths to say.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Some came in peace, some came in holy war<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">They shared a sacred dream,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Some thing, for them, worth fighting for.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua'; line-height: 18.2000007629395px;">Thousands fought and thousands died</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">And thousands more will fight and die<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">To hold this land. Many have tried<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">To find a way of peace, but many lie<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">And will lie again. I ask you why?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">When you believe that God is on your side<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">You do not count the dead, or lose your pride.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">We look over his shoulder<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">For a dream that we hope to come real<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">A place of love and beauty, peaceful games,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">A place with magnetism, a serene appeal,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Where conflicts end in happy resolution.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">But all these hopes are turned to desperation,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">The darkness spreading higher on the hill,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">As war threatens death to every nation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Christian, Moslem, Arab, Jew,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">The jealous God that was just for you<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Can change his mind, adding new revelation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Acceptance might transform your indignation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Please set aside the gun and bomb,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Or I fear the end of days will come,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Jerusalem</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua';"> itself will be no more.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">The breathless child Lear left behind<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Escaping into nonsense or fine birds<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">And pastoral landscapes of this remarkable kind,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Where life becomes more real, less absurd,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">And men sit silently, no words<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Upon their lips. Perhaps his promises had all been kept<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Or maybe he has stood here, painting while he wept</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">This presentation can only offer a brief introduction to the process of poem-picture making.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">Going through this web log from beginning to end will offer much more insight into it, at least in terms of writing poetry around museum objects.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">I have chosen to focus here on Blake as most important in this respect. Yet I do need to make a few other references first. If we started with the ridiculous world of Edward Lear's Limericks and finish with the sublime artistry of Blake, somewhere in between we have the wit and wisdom of </span> <b>Xu Bing</b>. </div>
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See: http://poetryandpicturesatthemuseum.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/good-poetry.html</div>
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http://poetryandpicturesatthemuseum.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/good-poetry-and-other-thoughts-and.html</div>
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I wrote: <b style="line-height: 18.2000007629395px;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #666666; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';"><span style="background-color: white;">I went to his exhibition to see how he combines poetry with visual art. The exhibition is called “Landscape Landscript”. One of my greatest loves is poetry connecting with landscape.</span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #666666; font-family: 'Book Antiqua';">It is radical indeed to look at poem-pictures through the lens of a character like Xu Bing. He is a trickster, half comic, half ironic, turning art and nature upside down and coming up with challenges to our concepts, both east and west. He is a global character. He offers us “Good Poetry” (see below), on a fridge magnet to take away from his exhibition. It does not feature on the gallery wall, however; nor does “Good Painting,” his other fridge magnet. I am inclined to believe he has created English Chinese characters especially for the exhibition.</span></b></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Good poetry in landscape</td></tr>
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Using script in landscape Chinese stayle<br />
with an Italian landscape<br />
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Script Xu Bing<br />
Photograph Nick Owen<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Good Poetry Fridge Magnet</td></tr>
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Black and white in text and image<br />
from an Oxfordshire landscape<br />
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Text Xu Bing<br />
Image Nick Owen</div>
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Xu Bing was not a great success in Oxford. I think he would have been, however, had there been works like this one from another of his exhibitions here. A lake of words pouring down a plug hole to the floor of a gallery would surely have brought in the crowds.</div>
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Bare with me a little longer. I know you are eager to explore Blake. Just another couple of museum observations.<br />
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http://poetryandpicturesatthemuseum.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/emperor-by-nick-owen-second-draft.html<br />
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Here I took my own photograph of a Rubens image. I then wrote the poem for it and stitched the words together in the manner you can observe in an earlier post on the web log. The link shows a colour image. Here I show it in black and white.<br />
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Modern equipment makes it easy to collect a passable image from many if not all works in museum galleries. The use of reflective glass instead or the more expensive non reflective variety in the Ashmolean can make for a frustrating experience for both viewer and photographer.<br />
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It is possible to work on a digital image in an editing tool such as photoshop to discover things in an image you do not see properly directly, however.<br />
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In the image below I was able to bring out details of the Magdalen figure not at all clear from viewing the original.<br />
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It is beyond my skill to tell how much of this image has decayed with time. I enjoy re-creating the image in ways that please my own desires.</div>
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You can see the effects of reflections in the gallery interfering with the quality of the image here. You can purchase a photo from the museum in many cases if you want something cleaner.<br />
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I have enhanced this to my taste, not having the possibility of gaining an adequate closeness to the original.<br />
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You can also take an image and blend it with your own ideas, expressed through poetry.<br />
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Sacrilege to some, creativity to others.</div>
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You can even take an image from a gallery and turn it into a whole book of poetry for performance as my colleague Diana Moore has done with the famous "Visitor to the forest".<br />
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See: <u><p:onmouseclick href="http://www.diana-moore.com/" hyperlinktype="url"><a href="http://www.diana-moore.com/" target="_parent">http://www.diana-moore.com/</a></p:onmouseclick></u><u></u><br />
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So at last we come to William Blake<br />
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Blake had to teach himself to write backwards in order for his works to print the right way round. But here we see the letters transcend their fontine nature and blend into the image world.<br />
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It is claimed by some that Blake wrote the words first and then fitted the images around them. I am sure that this is true at times. However, Blake is full of ideas and ways of working. He does not stay with any single modus operandi.<br />
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What is so wonderful to see in Blake is the way the word and image flow together into something that is a work of art in itself.<br />
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This is why it has been so appropriate to begin my work at the museum with Lear and end it with the mastery of William Blake.<br />
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How sad it is that he could only afford very small copper plates to etch his work on.<br />
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How sad that he could only make such a small number of images at a time.<br />
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I looked forward to the Blake exhibition for three whole years. But when it was finally unveiled to the world it was:<br />
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<span style="font-size: 20pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>A real curate’s egg</b></span><span style="font-size: 20pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
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<i>It's a fascinating but erratic and frustrating show, </i></div>
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<i>on the one hand "a fanatical survey of Blake's graphic techniques", </i></div>
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<i>“On the other hand, a second narrative wants to find the Blake we know and love among all the documents and data – Blake the left-field genius, the religious and political revolutionary, the radical visionary and poet whose aphorisms are emblazoned on the walls.</i></div>
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<i> It might seem that these ideals don’t have to be incompatible, and there are moments when they come together at the Ashmolean, at least in the form of wall texts. But in general this is a mismatch of what seem to be two disparate shows.” says <b><u>Laura Cumming in <p:onmouseclick href="http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/dec/07/william-blake-apprentice-master-ashmolean-oxford-review-master-monoprint-radical" hyperlinktype="url"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/dec/07/william-blake-apprentice-master-ashmolean-oxford-review-master-monoprint-radical" target="_parent">The Observer</a></p:onmouseclick>.
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<i>Blake's extraordinary visions should be free to fly, but here, alas, didacticism draws them closer to earth."</i></div>
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Colin Harrison was excited about recreating Blake’s prints, about all the techniques Blake used and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>discovered.
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That is fine if you are an academic or a print maker, perhaps even a historian.
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But it is the easy option. It just does not go to the heart of the matter.
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Blake is not a revolutionary genius because he invented printing techniques.
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He is a unique English genius for connecting thought, feeling and philosophy in poetry and pictures.
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It is the placing of poetry and pictures together that makes Blake unique and special.
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The exhibition taught us how Blake developed from an autodidact playing in the streets of London to a master engraver and print maker. There are lots of stunning works to enjoy.</div>
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But It focuses on things that made Blake a print maker, not an artistic genius.<br />
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If I was making a Blake exhibition I would have built it around this quotation from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.<br />
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">"But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul is to be expunged;
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">this I shall do by printing in the infernal method, by corrosives, which in hell are </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">salutary and medicinal, melting apparent surfaces away, and displaying the infinite
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>which was hid."
</i></b><span style="text-align: center;">“<b><i>If the doors of perception were cleansed </i></b></span><b style="text-align: center;"><i> every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. </i></b><b style="text-align: center;"><i>For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern.”</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">It was actually there on the wall of the exhibition, but tucked away in a corner and so badly lit that it was not possible to read it all standing in one position.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">The Inspired by Blake festival, which was tacked on to the side of the exhibition, helped to redress the balance a little. Blake as poet and visonary creative genius was celebrated much more fully in this shorter period.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">There was also an opportunity for our modern poets to add something to the mix through our two poetry readings in the exhibition.</span></div>
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I made this for a poster to advertise the first gallery readings in January 2014<br />
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It blends an altered image of Blake himself with my own art work.<br />
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There is a fragment of my first Blake poem overlayed on the poster.<br />
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Both the nudes and the poetry are in a Blakean style.<br />
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All this is so easy to achieve in photoshop.<br />
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It is so easy to reproduce and share with the world.<br />
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Poems for the Blake Exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>January 24th 2015<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>12.30<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and 14.30 p.m.
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Poet<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Poem<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Object/s
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Julie Forth<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Master and Apprentice<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The monotypes
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Printmaking Studio<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Studio
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Nick Owen<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Inspired by Blake<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ezekiel
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Jalina Mhyana<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Canto V, La Commedia"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Lovers’ Whirlwind<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Mary Stableford<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Blake thou shouldst be living at this hour…’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>by the print room
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Merryn Williams<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rainy Thursday<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Outside
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Derek Summers<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Blake and the Volcano God<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Los
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I share Mary Stableford's poem from the set here, partly because it set me thinking about what to write myself, and partly because it is too much "In the footsteps" of the master.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Today, we need photoshop and the internet not a copper plate to get our message out to the world about the dreadful things that are happening today which require poets and artists to speak out.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>‘Blake thou shouldst be living at this hour…’</b></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Little lad who maimed thee?
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">who on earth would hurt thee?
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">A stealthy drone has struck you down
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">paralysed, naked, to the ground.
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Now held firmly: silent, damaged
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">a dirty turban is your bandage.
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Child victim you will be displayed
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">a large photo. on the centre page,
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">showing just how much we care.
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">But we, of course, live nowhere near.
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Little lad who maimed thee?
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Blake would know who maimed thee.
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">He’d cut his rage into the copper plate,
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">reveal the cruel obscenity of your fate.
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Mary Stableford
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">January 2015
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I focused my own thoughts on this Ezekiel image.<br />
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At this point I realized that even if we are walking in Blake's footprints we should maybe not do it so literally. Merryn Williams offered us something that was essentially a parody. I decided to write something more <i>in the spirit of Blake.</i><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>In the spirit of Blake</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b><i>
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“Ezekiel, tell me why you may not grieve?”
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“When it is time to go we simply leave
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Our loved ones pass into a nearby room
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My grief would hold me on this earthly plain
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
My meditation would not be the same.
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
I have to speak of things
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
And prophecy.
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
That’s why.”
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
“Now Blake, you had a brother.
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Tell me why
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
You did not grieve for him
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Although he died
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
So very young.”
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
“My brother sits with me
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
And holds my hand
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
He tells me of a greater consciousness
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
And visions that expand
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Beyond the worlds
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Of single visioned folk.
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
I do not joke.”
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
“Last night I slept with loves long dead
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
I spoke with them
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Sweet things they said
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
About the star you find within your heart
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
And how great loves
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Emerge through art
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
And now the words begin to flow
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
I prophecy
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
and speak of things that you should know
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
A single vision will not do
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
So many modern poets
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
That is you
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Shallow pedants tell you what to think
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
You follow in their footsteps
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Writing like they do
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
When you should find a demon
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Or a God or two
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Within your very being
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Deep within your heart
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
That’s where to start
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 50 0";">
</div>
</div>
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</p:colorscheme><br />
<div class="O" v:shape="_x0000_s1026">
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<br /></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
If you should need a teacher
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Ask your death
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
His secrets
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Listen to your breath.
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
A second vision you will find
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Behind your very ordinary mind
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Then if you dare
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Dig down into a third
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Poetic genius is there
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
It’s infinite
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
And not absurd.
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Blake can take you where you need to go.
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
His simple words and visions show
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
A world of beauty, life and light and joy,
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
A place where every little girl and boy
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Can thrive,
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Till they are educated
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
To a single visioned life
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Full of wars
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
And full of strife,
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Where Gods keep fighting
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Over who is best.
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
I’m singularly unimpressed
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
By all who rule and murder
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
In some mighty name,
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Which should control us all,
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Or so they claim.
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
There is an esoteric truth
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Behind each exoteric God.
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
All Gods dissolve
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
When humans
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
On the fourfold path
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Have trod.
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
Existence, consciousness and bliss
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
That’s what there is.
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
One other thing I hold as true.
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
If there are Gods
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
They dwell within
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
As you
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
And you
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
And you.
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 50 0";">
</div>
</div>
<br />
<b>We had a second set of readings in February</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
</div>
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
A double sided poster with poetry and pictures
</div>
<b><br /></b>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLm3JrL2UKed1jH3TOPW5fmUqVFAam4oDoFsK2Yda-uGdHDef6V05iQAa8Av3KY_mqZPJApmn2RltjmEkDrF0M3jXDIcBwapKlUtTJu1bgFzy9hy-8QymaPTOwx_qCtrVZHx4YLQyyN7I/s1600/Lovers+colour+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLm3JrL2UKed1jH3TOPW5fmUqVFAam4oDoFsK2Yda-uGdHDef6V05iQAa8Av3KY_mqZPJApmn2RltjmEkDrF0M3jXDIcBwapKlUtTJu1bgFzy9hy-8QymaPTOwx_qCtrVZHx4YLQyyN7I/s1600/Lovers+colour+poster.jpg" height="400" width="282" /></a></div>
<b><br /></b>
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<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Gallery Readings for February
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<br /></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Poet<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Poem<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Object/position
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Jennifer McGowan<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>£52.10.0<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The apprentice agreement
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Tony Isaacs<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anthem<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jerusalem
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Louise Larchbourne<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Metamorphic<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The approach of doom; Robert Blake
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Diana Moore<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ghost of a flea
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Debbie Moogan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Behold Newton.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Newton image<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Julie Forth<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Imagination Divine<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By the printing press
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Acrostic
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I turn my back to the east
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Sarianne Durie<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Samuel Palmer<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Palmer: Late twilight
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Nick Owen<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lovers redeemed<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Illustration for Dante's Inferno
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 50 0";">
</div>
</div>
I chose Blake's illustration for Canto 5 of Dante's inferno, where Virgil speaks with Francesca Da Rimini, who is among those sinners who have had illicit sexual liaisons. Blake rescues her from the whirlwind fate and sets her and her lover in a sun-like sphere up on the top right of his image.<br />
<br />
Curiously, Jalina Mhyana had also chosen this work for her poem in the January set.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOJ4v7WIzmZoCQm5vc9n_NOIkUwsWwOjkCDslDTJsaUVNhYOrzE3eZd5A8YoqwETVo_oOU384_nppH1ryUeR8NKKi2SVF5nyzfqsUtI-LEKF0vWpYG9nlgFhy4eyVXE5pYMnIesIhvF0c/s1600/lovers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOJ4v7WIzmZoCQm5vc9n_NOIkUwsWwOjkCDslDTJsaUVNhYOrzE3eZd5A8YoqwETVo_oOU384_nppH1ryUeR8NKKi2SVF5nyzfqsUtI-LEKF0vWpYG9nlgFhy4eyVXE5pYMnIesIhvF0c/s1600/lovers.jpg" height="222" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
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<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Lovers Redeemed
</span></b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 8pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Love is a heaven<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>And love is a hell
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Love is a mistress who likes to compel
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>She tosses you up
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>When you’re standing your ground
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>She smashes you down then
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>And spins you around
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>You’re down on your knees
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Then you’re up in the sky
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>You can’t even crawl
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Then you find you can fly
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>When love is just courtly
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>It isn’t enough
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>When you’re under her spell
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>You want more of that stuff
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>When your heart’s burning up
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>With forbidden desire
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>There’s no holy water can put out the fire
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>You only hear sirens
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Not heavenly choir
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<b style="font-size: 12pt;">Yet love is a power that’s stronger than fear </b><b style="font-size: 12pt;"></b></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Your vision is certain
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Your vision is clear
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>You will give up your life
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>If it brings your love near
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>You really don’t care if the price
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>The price
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>The price
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Is impossibly dear
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; mso-line-spacing: "100 50 0";">
</div>
</div>
<br />
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<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Repent, regret, remorse
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Those voices never go away
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>And yet
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>And yet
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>And yet
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>There is no way
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>No way to ever make things right
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>That is forbidden lovers plight
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>It’s true I did not win the grail
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>But even Lancelot has failed
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>And when I die
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>I know that I
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Will fly forever on the wind
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>And whirl forever through the sky
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>But I shall reach my lover’s hands
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>And as the spiral twists, extends
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>We’ll dance together through the wind
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>A not unpleasant punishment
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>For those who’ve sinned
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>At last, dear Blake
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Our hands you’ll take
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>And pull us from the gale
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>You’ll rest us in eternity
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>And finish our travail
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Flesh and blood shall fade away
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Dissolved within the sun
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>But we shall find redemption in
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>The place from whence we come
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>
</b></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>© Nick Owen<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>February 2015</b></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I am not sure how well we have done in creating poems good enough for Blake's images. Perhaps people will be willing to comment here on the blog.</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">There was certainly a burst of creativity back in the 1960's that was very much inspired by Blake.</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I note some examples of it.</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
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<div>
Timothy Leary and the 1960’s psychedelic revolution
</div>
<div>
The doors of perception
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The mescalin and LSD experience
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Leonard Cohen
</div>
<div>
The story of Isaac
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Patti Smith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSLjYScyaBo
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The Rolling Stones
</div>
<div>
Satanic Majesties Requests
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
The Beatles
</div>
<div>
Sgt Pepper
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
Stan Grof The discover of LSD and LSD therapy
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
C G Jung
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div>
If you read Jung, Blake is much easier to understand
, I believe, though I know many find Jung hard to understand as well.</div>
<div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In the sixties OZ and IT used simple printing techniques to get out their revolutionary underground newspaper messages</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-aCFZmMdvQT-lMdV5S9EuBfat0s-F5ydj4nWwR5vQq8Bat_hsWsut3QN1IZo-soagNl6oRceLDUFWK3_Z0Fkz_2yo3t_3QHcGyJAvluSeBVprEHSIjXoakkRPsXLZN2jUVJjFjKVJ3TQ/s1600/International+Times+censorship.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-aCFZmMdvQT-lMdV5S9EuBfat0s-F5ydj4nWwR5vQq8Bat_hsWsut3QN1IZo-soagNl6oRceLDUFWK3_Z0Fkz_2yo3t_3QHcGyJAvluSeBVprEHSIjXoakkRPsXLZN2jUVJjFjKVJ3TQ/s1600/International+Times+censorship.jpg" height="400" width="242" /></a></div>
They had to avoid censorship just as Blake had to do in his revolutionary era.<br />
<br />
They were part of a sexual revolution in human relationships which Blake would have whole-heartedly supported.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0O-IUGuvkYYzTk9JcxdHz7ZXgRXFEa1RkzdKNgjxtwBoZxpEwn15arYTe8BNqZ6yRg1uWJFfkcIYPLMWTvVTVsz-WkpZnwfAPIuSfLPzehyt2Mer7oGyxFId7nY13npkiQ_hY8FsguQw/s1600/the+sexual+revolution.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0O-IUGuvkYYzTk9JcxdHz7ZXgRXFEa1RkzdKNgjxtwBoZxpEwn15arYTe8BNqZ6yRg1uWJFfkcIYPLMWTvVTVsz-WkpZnwfAPIuSfLPzehyt2Mer7oGyxFId7nY13npkiQ_hY8FsguQw/s1600/the+sexual+revolution.jpg" height="316" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Music was a huge part of that movement. One of the readings in our second set was actually sung in the exhibition space.</span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The pop group, The Doors took their name from Blake's words. In Jim Morrison, their lead singer, they had a poet worth celebrating. </span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt;"></span>I quote: <span style="font-size: 14pt;"></span></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
<br /></div>
<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1;">
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<span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><i><b>“The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role.
</b></i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><i><b> You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask.
</b></i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><i><b>There can't be any large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution, on an individual level.
</b></i></span></div>
<div>
<i><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It's got to happen inside first.”<br />
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">― </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><p:onmouseclick href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7855.Jim_Morrison" hyperlinktype="url"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7855.Jim_Morrison" target="_parent">Jim Morrison</a></p:onmouseclick></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
</span></b></i></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><i><b>
</b></i></span></div>
<div>
<i><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“What have they done to the earth?<br />
</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">What have they done to our fair sister?<br />
</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her<br />
</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn”</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
</span></b></i></div>
<div>
<i><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">― </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><p:onmouseclick href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7855.Jim_Morrison" hyperlinktype="url"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7855.Jim_Morrison" target="_parent">Jim Morrison</a></p:onmouseclick></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
</span></b></i></div>
<div>
<i><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></b></i></div>
<div>
<i><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></b></i></div>
<div>
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Troubled times return</span></u></b></div>
<div>
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div>
<div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The Guardian Newspaper has picked up on the need for a new visionary spirit for politics</span></div>
<div>
</div>
</div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span></div>
</div>
<div>
<b><u><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div>
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</span></p:colorscheme><br />
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<div style="mso-char-wrap: 1; mso-kinsoku-overflow: 1; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Another time of revolution and war
</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><p:onmouseclick href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/02/english-radicalism-william-blake-politics" hyperlinktype="url"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/02/english-radicalism-william-blake-politics" target="_parent">http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/02/english-radicalism-william-</a></p:onmouseclick><p:onmouseclick href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/02/english-radicalism-william-blake-politics" hyperlinktype="url"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/02/english-radicalism-william-blake-politics" target="_parent">blake-politics</a></p:onmouseclick>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Art's task is to save the soul of mankind</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">http://www.stillnessspeaks.com/ssblog/william-blake-the-greatest-visionary-artist-of-all/
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Steve Bell produces a parody of Blake to describe the current threat to our free national Health Service. Over the last thirty years the gap between rich and poor has got ever wider leading to a likely break down of society not unlike the revolutions of Blake's day in France and America.</div>
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Perhaps the vehicle for such modern audio-visual poetry might best suit video-poetry</div>
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Video Poetry
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Owen Sheers has certainly come up with stunning landscape video to enhance the poetry of a number of recent poets. Sadly I have not been able to find them on youtube. They were screened on TV but do not seem to be available on i-player.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I have run out of time. I will leave you with the words of TS Elliot and the imagery of William Blake</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>We shall not cease from exploration<br />
</b></span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>And the end of all our exploring<br />
</b></span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Will be to arrive where we started<br />
</b></span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>And know the place for the first time.<br />
</b></span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Through the unknown, unremembered gate<br />
</b></span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>When the last of earth left to discover<br />
</b></span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Is that which was the beginning;<br />
</b></span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>At the source of the longest river<br />
</b></span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>The voice of the hidden waterfall<br />
</b></span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>And the children in the apple-tree<br />
</b></span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Not known, because not looked for<br />
</b></span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>But heard, half-heard, in the stillness<br />
</b></span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Between two waves of the sea.<br />
</b></span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Quick now, here, now, always—<br />
</b></span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>A condition of complete simplicity<br />
</b></span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>(Costing not less than everything)<br />
</b></span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>And all shall be well and<br />
</b></span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>All manner of things shall be well<br />
</b></span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>When the tongues of flames are in-folded<br />
</b></span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>Into the crowned knot of fire<br />
</b></span><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>And the fire and the rose are one.
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>From the four quartets by T. S. Elliot
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<span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: 14pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><b>I began with Lear's Jerusalem so it is fitting that I end with Blake's amazing image for his own work, Jerusalem. I hope that when I depart it will be like slipping into another though more wonderful room.</b></span></div>
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nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-70567681771453074822015-03-01T19:27:00.001+00:002015-03-01T19:27:08.837+00:00Gallery Readings for March 21st. The last readings from this weblog<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">First of all a big thank you to those of you who came to my presentation at the museum yesterday.</span><br />
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There were so many people there I did not even notice my first wife and her husband somewhere at the back.</div>
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I shall make the slide show of it available on line in due course.</div>
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One woman walked out thinking that photoshopping Blake is almost sacrilege, but the great majority seemed to think it was good.</div>
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There have been a number of requests for a workshop on the theme, which is very gratifying.</div>
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The date of the final set of gallery readings is </div>
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12.30‒1.30pm & 2.30‒3.30pm Gallery Activity 21 FREE Poetry in the Galleries March 21</div>
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The theme is beginnings and endings.</div>
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Please choose an object which inspires a poem on that theme which you can interpret as you wish.</div>
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I shall focus on the Ark to Ashmolean gallery, so I can end where the Ashmolean begins.</div>
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Several people have said that they will contribute a poem, but it will still be down to actually sending one to me in good time.</div>
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I would love to hear from you or simply see you at the event.</div>
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I am told there may be a gathering afterwards.</div>
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Please ask Jalina for details.</div>
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With every good wishNick Owen</div>
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nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-45174985355658157832015-02-25T11:36:00.001+00:002015-02-25T11:36:35.294+00:00http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/dec/07/william-blake-apprentice-master-ashmolean-oxford-review-master-monoprint-radicalI could not agree much more with Laura Cumming. I do hope I can provide a little of what was missing from the exhibition. see image of a demonic angel below<br />
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At least the Live Friday event on Heaven and Hell brought us just a hint of the dynamism that is in Blake. It is all very worthy and academic to learn about the techniques of Blake as a print maker, but that is such a minor detail about his contribution to the world.</div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/dec/07/william-blake-apprentice-master-ashmolean-oxford-review-master-monoprint-radical</span></div>
nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-16881470280885233592015-02-25T10:35:00.003+00:002015-02-25T10:36:51.722+00:00http://www.ashmolean.org/events/SpecialEvents/?id=148<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
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In the Footsteps of Blake</div>
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William Blake Exhibition Event</div>
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With Nick Owen, poet</div>
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Saturday 28 February, 11.00 a.m. –12.30 p.m.</div>
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The pairing together of poetry and illustration has never been as inspiring or revolutionary as that seen in the work of William Blake. With the digital tools we have today it is easier for us follow in his footsteps and connect writing with images. Poet Nick Owen will discuss these works of art and encourage you to make your own illustrated poetry. Tickets £5/£4 concessions.</div>
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Tickets £5/£4 concessions. Booking is essential. Click here to book online now.</div>
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This will be a Powerpoint presentation on the development of nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first century poetry and pictures from the inspiring work of William Blake. The emphasis will be on connecting visual art with the written word and poetry.</div>
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It will also look backwards to much earlier connections between visual and linguistic codes in Egypt and China.</div>
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There will be references to the latest developments in multi-media self expression as well as an examination of the work of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath and Pre-Raphaelites.</div>
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Blake will be seen as an inspiration both in terms of philosophy and psychology as well as the developments he inspired in poetry and the visual arts.</div>
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Extract from Poetry and pictures manifesto below</div>
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(From the earliest days of printing, a world of visual images with associated thought and feeling, juxtaposed with text has been part of the western way of enculturation, to help in the process of translating meaningless ciphers, squiggles on a page, into the stuff of inner experience, into understood written words, leaping from the page or screen into constructs of a mental world.</div>
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I will never forget the moment when words and images entwined and danced for me as I began to understand written text for the first time. It was like the moment when stumbling and sinking transform into skiing and swimming as learning transforms to achieving.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15.3599996566772px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
The real father of Poetry and Pictures as a genre has to be William Blake, a visual artist by trade, and one of the greatest poets in the English language. More recently, the last poet laureate, Ted Hughes, set the ball rolling for modern artists with his book, “The Remains of Elmet”. He wrote poems specifically for a photographer’s art works here. In a second book, “River”, he juxtaposed poetry with an artist’s photographs without connecting them more intimately.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15.3599996566772px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Hughes only wrote the poetry. He collaborated with others to create these poem-picture works. We are encouraging such collaborative work, and are open to both photographers and poets, but we are mostly focused on creating a combined work made by one author. “Poetry and Pictures” is, I believe, the first attempt to establish the two arts together as a genre for the twenty first century.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15.3599996566772px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em;">
Photography has always struggled to establish its credentials as an Art form in its own right. Poetry in turn, has struggled to make a case that it is still relevant to this fast changing world. Much modern writing is as uninspiring as a snapshot from a cheap digital camera. I believe that combining ideas expressed visually with ideas expressed in words can make for a powerful medium of expression, both folk art and high art. The idea is to link a poem with a picture or series of pictures. The two can also blend together into a single visual image, which is both poetry and photography. I am not sure how many variations on the overall theme will emerge. Already there are versions I had not dreamed about. I find the merging of words into visual art in graphic artistry a particularly inspiring form. Poetry condenses experience. A photographer or graphic artist can do the same with a visual image.)</div>
nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-9281803008346961052015-02-22T17:40:00.001+00:002015-02-22T17:41:48.044+00:00£52.10.0 By Dr Jennifer A McGowan from the Blake Exhibition series<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
Good master Basire, the lad’s willing:</div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
been drawing since the age of three,</div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
haunts the print auctions.
See here.</div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
he’s been to drawing school, and this—</div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
and this—they demonstrate something</div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
out of the ordinary, don’t you think?</div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
An able boy, prone to detail rather than</div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
the reverse—makes a change, eh?</div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
Here’s my hand. Now,
Will….William!</div>
<div class="NoSpacing">
Bit of a visionary sometimes, I fear.</div>
<br />
<div class="NoSpacing">
All right, an extra ten shillings for that.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a></div>
nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-5073315710563111392015-02-18T22:46:00.002+00:002015-02-18T22:46:38.669+00:00a teaser for the poetry readings on Saturday 21st February<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRPAWidB0wjHH1VmJraf4r0jJTNYqqV1GyHlmbg3shP9_bOK0AjcNEvl7wNRefZ__aBoYN2x4YaTdBUMBjZ1hyphenhyphenoCCW0UyGWQCrUKq10Q0A6uakIKr5QvoAk-it_yPGmjp12WfcX3mwbxc/s1600/Lovers+colour+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRPAWidB0wjHH1VmJraf4r0jJTNYqqV1GyHlmbg3shP9_bOK0AjcNEvl7wNRefZ__aBoYN2x4YaTdBUMBjZ1hyphenhyphenoCCW0UyGWQCrUKq10Q0A6uakIKr5QvoAk-it_yPGmjp12WfcX3mwbxc/s1600/Lovers+colour+poster.jpg" height="640" width="452" /></a></div>
Nick Owen and William Blake- a snippet from Lovers' redemptionnick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-90708339561572788432015-02-16T18:23:00.001+00:002015-02-16T18:25:21.312+00:00Readings for February 21st in The Blake Exhibition<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNavhsRUkaUwijYZzb_R6MSZLZRlrhCl71b2FXbM7alVqCdGhyd_4i4PLHiQVzyD7xjQelO9jbo-v2v09r6JehMs7wFQ1o4HxMSWJWy3TyeUkhehB4MpfLihs72NXs1BM1BlBzbS16u3g/s1600/lovers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNavhsRUkaUwijYZzb_R6MSZLZRlrhCl71b2FXbM7alVqCdGhyd_4i4PLHiQVzyD7xjQelO9jbo-v2v09r6JehMs7wFQ1o4HxMSWJWy3TyeUkhehB4MpfLihs72NXs1BM1BlBzbS16u3g/s1600/lovers.jpg" height="222" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Poet
Poem Object/position<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Tony Isaacs Anthem <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city></st1:place><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Julie Forth Imagination Divine By the printing
press<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";"> Acrostic<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";"> I turn my back to the east<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Nick Owen Lovers redeemed Illustration for Dante's Inferno<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Sarianne Durie Samuel
Palmer Palmer: Late twilight<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Debbie Moogan. Behold <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Newton</st1:place></st1:city>. The Newton image <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Louise Larchbourne Metamorphic The approach of doom; Robert Blake<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Diana Moore Awaiting title The ghost of a
flea<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Jennifer McGowan £52.10.0 The
apprentice agreement<o:p></o:p></span></div>
nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-74663189692450751042015-01-23T21:58:00.002+00:002015-01-23T21:58:36.390+00:00Three opportunities to see poetry inspired by Blake<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiCvGj7PIz99B0ng2Cl4deMIDVXt4m5NcWRoltbntoLOwA3UhXoCAU8ZIfiPTgx7yZOns3pqPSsabvQXi5Ysio1O_aHO6f0xET25Llo0IvMZaI9i4luB021644ZdzG1j2ZH49W89YoVnE/s1600/Blakeposter+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiCvGj7PIz99B0ng2Cl4deMIDVXt4m5NcWRoltbntoLOwA3UhXoCAU8ZIfiPTgx7yZOns3pqPSsabvQXi5Ysio1O_aHO6f0xET25Llo0IvMZaI9i4luB021644ZdzG1j2ZH49W89YoVnE/s1600/Blakeposter+3.jpg" height="640" width="452" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Poetry at the
Ashmolean<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 26.0pt;">In the footsteps of Blake<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Nick
Owen has organised a series of three events of modern poetry in celebration of
the life and work of William Blake.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
first two events are poetry readings inside the William Blake; Apprentice and
Master Exhibition which is on now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 16.0pt;">January 24<sup>th
</sup> <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Seven
poets read their works among the exhibits. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There
are two readings; the first is from 12.30 – 1.30 p.m. The second is from 2.30-
3.30 p.m. Free with a ticket to the exhibition<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 16.0pt;">February 21<sup>st</sup>
<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Poets
read their works among the exhibits. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There
are two readings; the first is from 12.30 – 1.30 p.m. The second is from 2.30-
3.30 p.m. Free with a ticket to the exhibition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 16.0pt;">February 28<sup>th</sup>
<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 18.0pt;">“In the
Footsteps of Blake.”</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;">11.00
a.m. - 12.30 p.m.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Nick
Owen gives a talk with slides describing how William Blake has inspired people
across two centuries to create poems with pictures. The talk will examine some
of Blake’s works as well as modern works that have been inspired by Blake. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;">£5
via ticketing at the oxford Playhouse. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;">( See:
Ashmolean website or poetryandpicturesatthemuseum.blogspot.co.uk.)</span><b><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 26.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-35379005515281306922015-01-23T20:39:00.001+00:002015-01-23T20:39:54.993+00:00In the footsteps of Blake<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Poetry at the
Ashmolean<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 26.0pt;">In the footsteps of Blake<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Nick
Owen has organised a series of three events of modern poetry in celebration of
the life and work of William Blake.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The
first two events are poetry readings inside the William Blake; Apprentice and
Master Exhibition which is on now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 16.0pt;">January 24<sup>th
</sup> <o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Seven
poets read their works among the exhibits. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There
are two readings; the first is from 12.30 – 1.30 p.m. The second is from 2.30-
3.30 p.m. Free with a ticket to the exhibition<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 16.0pt;">February 21<sup>st</sup>
<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Poets
read their works among the exhibits. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;">There
are two readings; the first is from 12.30 – 1.30 p.m. The second is from 2.30-
3.30 p.m. Free with a ticket to the exhibition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 16.0pt;">February 28<sup>th</sup>
<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 18.0pt;">“In the
Footsteps of Blake.”</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;">11.00
a.m. - 12.30 p.m.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Nick
Owen gives a talk with slides describing how William Blake has inspired people
across two centuries to create poems with pictures. The talk will examine some
of Blake’s works as well as modern works that have been inspired by Blake. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;">£5
via ticketing at the oxford Playhouse. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 14.0pt;">( See:
Ashmolean website or poetryandpicturesatthemuseum.blogspot.co.uk.)</span><b><i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 26.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-77376681181331886252015-01-11T12:05:00.002+00:002015-01-11T12:05:58.768+00:00The Oxford Blake Festival: some thoughts from Nick Owen<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpT6bQt4aJBXrlvci5ddWLUANmL2jNZzTg4Hn0o13ladC_6h5PETGcx5TunjaotgiZU9bVrKnybfJHE_0KQgIep-3rNXalrT0azxLXSiasBG4DbjULK6vqwOHyTt3yxrb20pgK7YayRVM/s1600/Beatrice_Addressing_Dante_(by_William_Blake).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpT6bQt4aJBXrlvci5ddWLUANmL2jNZzTg4Hn0o13ladC_6h5PETGcx5TunjaotgiZU9bVrKnybfJHE_0KQgIep-3rNXalrT0azxLXSiasBG4DbjULK6vqwOHyTt3yxrb20pgK7YayRVM/s1600/Beatrice_Addressing_Dante_(by_William_Blake).jpg" height="225" width="320" /></a></div>
<h1 style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Blake was a revolutionary prophetic poet and artist, who put together
sublime poetry and pictures in the service of his profound visionary illumination
of human life. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">He invites us all to find within us our poetic soul, which will lead us
into wise understandings.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">More than that, Blake challenges us to transcend the opposites, heaven
and hell, love and hate. He anticipates Jung’s archetypal psychology by a
hundred years and more. But while Jung suggests that if we are looking for God
we should start by looking in the mud at our feet, Blake advocates a marriage
between heaven and hell. Heaven may have reason, he says, but hell has the
energy we all need to live creative lives.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">He writes:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<h1 style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </span></h1>
<h1 style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 11.25pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“The
Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel dined with me, and I asked them how they dared so
roundly to assert, that God spoke to them; and whether they did not think at
the time, that they would be misunderstood, & so be the cause of
imposition.<br />
<br />
Isaiah answer'd, I saw no God, nor heard any, in a finite organical perception;
but my senses discover'd the infinite in every thing, and as I was then
persuaded, & remain confirm'd; that the voice of honest indignation is the
voice of God, I cared not for consequences but wrote.”<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #181818; font-family: "Book Antiqua";"><br />
<span style="background: white;">―<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";"><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13453.William_Blake"><span style="background: white; color: #666600; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">William
Blake</span></a><span style="background: white; color: #181818;">,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/24837"><span style="color: #666600; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">The Marriage of Heaven and Hell</span></a><o:p></o:p></i></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">To study Blake is to explore theology, philosophy, art, religion,
history and culture change in addition to his core achievement as one of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">England</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s
greatest poets. You can find something of all these things in the Blake
Festival which starts in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Oxford</st1:place></st1:city>
on 18<sup>th</sup> January. <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.ashmolean.org/assets/docs/Exhibitions/AshmoleanWilliamBlakeExhibitionEvents.pdf">http://www.ashmolean.org/assets/docs/Exhibitions/AshmoleanWilliamBlakeExhibitionEvents.pdf</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">However, the main exhibition of Blake’s work is at the Ashmolean, <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> <a href="http://www.ashmolean.org/exhibitions/williamblake/about/">http://www.ashmolean.org/exhibitions/williamblake/about/</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; color: #181818; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">which started in December and runs to the end of February has decided
to be much constrained, focusing on his development as a print maker. The
preamble describes him as “</span></b><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">still
one of the least understood” of English artists.<span class="apple-converted-space"> The exhibition certainly helps us understand
his technical innovations in the development of print making, but if that is
not what inspires you about Blake then you may find it disappointing. Given the
incredible complexity of Blake, it must have seemed very sensible to ground the
exhibition in the relative simplicity of cutting marks into copper plates. The
amount of research and scholarship which has gone into the exhibition is
immense. Yet I find the presentation frustrating. On the walls there are some
of the key words Blake wrote, but they are even harder to see than the small
dark prints he made that have faded over the years. Why can’t they employ a
better lighting engineer? <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I will help;<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul
is to be expunged. This I shall do by printing in the infernal method, by
corrosives, which in hell are salutary and medicinal, melting apparent surfaces
away, and displaying the infinite which was hid. If the doors of perception
were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.” <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Amazing words. What a fine central focus for an exhibition on
Blake they would have made. They are there, written on the wall in gold printed
letters, but tucked away in a very dark corner where they cannot easily be
deciphered. You must move about and stretch to be able to read all the words. <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Instead of exploring these depths we learn about the sociology
of Blake’s life and about the commercial aspects of his work. We see evidence
of his apprenticeship, and the economics of his trade. If the curators are to
be believed, art then was as much about social position and money making as it
is today.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">We do learn about Blake’s sources, which enable us to put him in
a long tradition of illuminated script. We can observe a journey from medieval
“illuminated manuscripts” to what Blake himself calls “illuminated printing.”
We also see work by some of his contemporary followers. But you need to go to
the wider Blake Festival to see how Blake is alive in graphic novels and other
forms today.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The Tutmania exhibition last summer showed how the world of a
hundred years ago was stimulated by the discoveries in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Egypt</st1:place></st1:country-region>. But here
we have no references to the modern world of Youtube where video-poetry
inspired by Blake is still vividly alive.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The editor of a TV company I approached about Blake and modern
poetry felt that he was not sufficiently in the public mind to make a film on
him a goer at the moment, without a specific anniversary. But Blake is so
relevant to the world we live in now.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Blake was a prophet in a revolutionary age. America and Europe
were bursting the shackles of the old Gods and Kings and creating new liberty,
equality and fraternity. He evaded the English censors of his time only because
he could print his works himself in a room in his own house (recreated in the
exhibition).<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Today we are barely waking from an adman’s media dream world to
the reality of revolutions that threaten to destroy our political, financial
and ecological systems. <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The old religions of the near east are profoundly challenged by
modern secularism and neo-capitalism. Their fundamental adherence to ancient
revelation cannot endure much longer. In their death throes they start new crusades
and Jihads to fight for their old dying “truths” and threaten us all with their
jealous controlling monotheistic Gods of destructive rage.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">We secular Westerners still worship Gods. We do so without even
knowing it. We build vast towers that dwarf the old cathedrals to the
glorification of that Old Devil Pluto, God of the underworld, of wealth and of
Death. We no longer serve God, we serve Mammon. Those vast financial
institutions came very close to tumbling down recently, and according to some
analysts are due to fall down permanently quite soon.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The wisest among us are trying to tell us that the unbridled
greed of our neo-capitalist system can do nothing to preserve the biosphere we
inhabit, but will only cause its destruction.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Yet the wonders of modern digital technology enable us all to
create visionary art and poetry in the spirit of Blake. But where are the new
prophets? Who is making the journey to
the inner self, the Higher Self, and bringing us their visions and poetic
insights? The internet is filling with
visions of Jihad recruitment films and apocalyptic nightmare wars or terrorism.
Blake could print his own work. Today anyone can publish to the world
instantly. <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Our creative young people seem to be choosing instead to advise
their followers on the use of make-up. Vast corporations seek to employ them to
promote their goods.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Where are the creative poem-picture and video-poetry makers
inspired by Blake, who can show us a better way forward, showing us a new
Jerusalem? Is art in the hands of the formaldehyde fish brigade or the young
Jihadis who want to take us back to the dark ages?<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The inspired by Blake Festival looks at modern work in rap and
graphic novel writing. The panel on Blake and his visions looks worryingly like
an attempt to turn him into a psychiatric problem. (Forgive me if this is
wrong.)<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It is possible that the Live Friday session on Heaven and Hell
will give us modern art, poetry and music. But I have no details to share.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">If you want to see what modern poets make of Blake you will have
to go to the poetry events I am leading at the Ashmolean. They are not shown on
the Ashmolean’s own festival programme on-line nor on the Blackwell’s festival
website. However, you can find information about them on the written leaflet available
in both places. <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Poems by Nick Owen, Tina Negus, Jalina Myana, Mary Stableford,
Diana Moore, Julie Forth and others can be heard in readings at the museum
exhibition at 12.30 and 14.30 on January 24<sup>th</sup> and February 21<sup>st</sup>.
My illustrated presentation, “In the footsteps of Blake,” can be seen on 28<sup>th</sup>
February at 11.00 -12.30 p.m. in the lecture theatre at the museum. <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">You can find examples of poem-picture art inspired by Blake on
the Flickr website here: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/groups/poetryandpicturesengland/">https://www.flickr.com/groups/poetryandpicturesengland/</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><b><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Or on this dedicated weblog: <a href="http://poetryandpicturesatthemuseum.blogspot.co.uk/">http://poetryandpicturesatthemuseum.blogspot.co.uk/</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-38377352293162389132014-12-08T21:07:00.001+00:002015-01-11T11:30:00.156+00:00Gallery Readings for the new year<b><span style="font-size: large;">The readings for January and February will be in the Blake Exhibition</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">If you want to see what modern poets
make of Blake you will have to go to the poetry events I am leading at the
Ashmolean. They are not shown on the Ashmolean’s own festival programme on-line
nor on the Blackwell’s festival website.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt;">However, you can find information about
them on the written leaflet available in both places. Poems by Nick Owen, Tina
Negus, Jalina Myana, Mary Stableford, Diana Moore, Julie Forth and others can
be heard in readings at the museum exhibition at 12.30 and 14.30 on January 24<sup>th</sup>
and February 21<sup>st</sup>. My illustrated presentation, “In the footsteps of
Blake,” can be seen on 28<sup>th</sup> February at 11.00 -12.30 p.m. in the
lecture theatre at the museum. You can find examples of poem-picture art
inspired by Blake on the Flickr website here: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/groups/poetryandpicturesengland/">https://www.flickr.com/groups/poetryandpicturesengland/</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Or on this dedicated
weblog: <a href="http://poetryandpicturesatthemuseum.blogspot.co.uk/">http://poetryandpicturesatthemuseum.blogspot.co.uk/</a></span></span><br />
<br />
Check last post for more detailsnick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-12105223838441011622014-12-08T20:57:00.000+00:002014-12-08T20:57:03.029+00:00IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF BLAKE<div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
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at 11:00am - 12:30pm</div>
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<span class="fsl" style="font-size: 14px;">This will be a Powerpoint presentation on the development of nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first century poetry and pictures from the inspiring work of William Blake. The emphasis will be on connecting visual art with the written word and poetry.<br /><br /><br />It will also look backwards to much earlier connections between visual and linguistic codes in Egypt and China.<br /><br />There will be references to the latest developments in multi-media self expression as well as an examination of the work of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath and Pre-Raphaelites.<br /><br />Blake will be seen as an inspiration both in terms of philosophy and psychology as well as the developments he inspired in poetry and the visual arts.<br /><br />Extract from Poetry and p<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline;">ictures manifesto below<br /><br /><br />(From the earliest days of printing, a world of visual images with associated thought and feeling, juxtaposed with text has been part of the western way of enculturation, to help in the process of translating meaningless ciphers, squiggles on a page, into the stuff of inner experience, into understood written words, leaping from the page or screen into constructs of a mental world.<br /><br />I will never forget the moment when words and images entwined and danced for me as I began to understand written text for the first time. It was like the moment when stumbling and sinking transform into skiing and swimming as learning transforms to achieving.<br /><br />The real father of Poetry and Pictures as a genre has to be William Blake, a visual artist by trade, and one of the greatest poets in the English language. More recently, the last poet laureate, Ted Hughes, set the ball rolling for modern artists with his book, “The Remains of Elmet”. He wrote poems specifically for a photographer’s art works here. In a second book, “River”, he juxtaposed poetry with an artist’s photographs without connecting them more intimately.<br /><br />Hughes only wrote the poetry. He collaborated with others to create these poem-picture works. We are encouraging such collaborative work, and are open to both photographers and poets, but we are mostly focused on creating a combined work made by one author. “Poetry and Pictures” is, I believe, the first attempt to establish the two arts together as a genre for the twenty first century.<br /><br />Photography has always struggled to establish its credentials as an Art form in its own right. Poetry in turn, has struggled to make a case that it is still relevant to this fast changing world. Much modern writing is as uninspiring as a snapshot from a cheap digital camera. I believe that combining ideas expressed visually with ideas expressed in words can make for a powerful medium of expression, both folk art and high art. The idea is to link a poem with a picture or series of pictures. The two can also blend together into a single visual image, which is both poetry and photography. I am not sure how many variations on the overall theme will emerge. Already there are versions I had not dreamed about. I find the merging of words into visual art in graphic artistry a particularly inspiring form. Poetry condenses experience. A photographer or graphic artist can do the same with a visual image.)</span></span></div>
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nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-15564117937486189162014-11-18T21:10:00.001+00:002014-11-18T21:10:40.127+00:00The Holy Grail<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>“There is a crack, a crack in
everything. That’s where
the light gets in.” Leonard Cohen<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">In a quiet corner
of this old museum a grail lies. Far from the famed Pre-Raphaelites and
Raphaelites and all the other ites it sits beside its ancient friend. The Holy Grail
is said to heal and whole whoever drinks from it. But Christians think
communion cups of any kind can turn your wine to blood, and golden salvers turn
your bread to flesh. Ah! The grail that you see is not the grail that you think
you know. Its holiness pertains to holes around its sides. Patched and patched,
patched and mended, this Holy Grail is not exactly splendid.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Why are we here?
Look with your inner eye. Go on, give it a try. Are those just rings that hold
the handles on the lip, or can you catch a glimpse of fingers take a grip. Over
the lip, over the lip, over the lip and in- Gwion dips and comes out Taliesin.
Are you a bard, or druid, did you say? You’ll know the tale where Gwion steals
new life and runs away. Ceridwen’s cauldron is the grail on display.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Cool and quiet,
behind the glass, why not go by, and simply let this pass? It asks no questions, hasn’t much to say, why
not walk on, it will be here still on some other day? Oh, but if you will look
closely then perhaps you’ll see a fire burn below it, a fire from a living
tree- a fire that can turn base metal into gold, and other wonders, wonders to
behold – if you could only see this object with your inner eye. I beg you once
again, give it a try. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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© Nick Owen November 2014<o:p></o:p></span></div>
nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-79046145219250028922014-10-17T18:43:00.000+01:002014-10-17T18:43:01.122+01:00October readings in the galleries<b><span style="font-size: large;">Poetry Tour in the Galleries </span></b><b><span style="font-size: large;">Saturday 18th October</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Meet Randolph Sculpture Gallery</span><br />
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12.30 and 2.30 Laura Guthrie reads "Gallery 21" The seated Muse, Clio Gallery 21, Sculpture<br />
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12.40 and 2.40 Dr J A McGowan reads ‘Hadrian and the Old fisherman’ Gallery 14, Cast Gallery<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
12.50 and 2.50<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> Sarianne Durie reads Stitches So Small Gallery 5, Textiles lower ground floor<br />
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1.00 and 3.00<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> Nick Owen reads ‘Under a Blood Moon’ Gallery 46 Baroque Art<br />
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1.10 and 3.10 Mary Stableford reads ‘Holding a Cat and Dog Gallery 43 Italian Renaissance<br />
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1.20 and 3.20<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> Paul Surman reads ‘The Flight of the Vestel Virgins<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Early Italy Gallery, 42,nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-78919416763431455762014-08-02T12:46:00.001+01:002014-08-02T12:47:11.585+01:00last call for poetry summer school. Please book your ticket now<div class="tG QF" style="background-color: white; color: #404040; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px; position: absolute; width: 0px;">
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">The poetry summer school was full last year, but at the moment, with staff sickness in the Education Department, they are looking to cancel the workshop.</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">We need a few more tickets sold by the middle of next weeks, so if you were thinking of going, or know someone who might be interested please look at the attached flyer.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">I spent a few hours in the Tut exhibition on Thursday. It is very different from earlier Tut exhibitions, which showed the wonders of the tomb to people fo</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.31999969482422px;">r the first time.<br />This exhibition is all about the context of the discovery, hence the title, Discovering Tutankhmun. Maybe it should be "Rediscovering Tutankhmun".<br /><br />It was 1914, a hundred years ago, just as Europe sank into the terrible conflagration of a war that was supposed to end all wars,<br />that a very young Englishman and fine artist called Howard Carter was allowed to start excavating the Egyptian Valley of the Kings.<br />He was on the point of giving up in despair when the tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered in 1922.<br /><br />The exhibition begins with images of that moment of discovery. In a single moment the world of three thousand years ago burst through<br />into the light of a twentieth century day. But will it make any ripples today?<br /><br />I am looking for poets who can connect that shock and awe of a hundred years ago with the shock and awe of today.<br /><br />The West seems set on humbling Russia, a country just one sixteenth of NATO's economic size, while standing idly by while hideous atrocities<br />are carried out by Israel in the middle east. A Third World War just might be looming. Our rulers are ignoring humanitarian needs again.<br /><br />The second part of the Ashmolean Exhibition is called "Tutmania." It shows us the way in which the Western World responded<br />to the discoveries in the roaring twenties which followed the war and the flu epidemic which followed it, killing more people than the war itself.<br /><br />We look at high culture and low culture, from the finest gold jewelry to the silliest pop song of the day.<br />The air waves hummed with "Old King Tut". The world loved it. But any poet of today could write a better lyric in five minutes.<br /><br />Can anyone capture the spirit of our age through the mirror of the Pharaoh?<br /><br />I was impressed by the skill and intelligence of the men and women who explored the contents of that tomb and brought it out into the modern world.<br />I was also impressed with the interaction between the lost and rediscovered Kingdom of the Pharaohs and the shattered and shaking Kingdoms of modern Europe.<br /><br />As a psychotherapist and mythologist I perceive the culture of the twenties as manic, even hyper-manic.<br />The creators of the exhibition emphasize how economies and technologies were driving rapidly ahead as the effects of war faded.<br />They emphasize the great cultural enthusiasm for the Golden King, rescued from the obscure past.<br />They do not endorse the recent hi-tech research evidence that the young King was probably killed in battle, saying it is just one of many theories,<br />though they acknowledge that there was warfare both with the Nubians to the south and the Syrians to the north at this period.<br />They do cover the extraordinary history of the period a little, however. Tutankhamun, which translates as the living image of Amun, was originally<br />named Tutankhaten, the living image of the Aten. Tutankhamen, which my computer ties to tell me is the correct spelling, is a only historical distortion.<br /><br />The exhibition does not explore the birth of a Communist alternative world out of the First World War, nor the collapse of that world over twenty years ago.<br />It could have emphasized the fact that King Tut undid the revolution of his culture-hero father, returning Egypt to the worship of the old Gods his father had briefly swept aside.<br />That is a far more interesting subject, but we do not have the right artifacts to support it.<br /><br />Britain was very close to a general strike at this time. The old British/German monarchy had to reinvent itself to survive. The actual German monarchy was gone, replaced by a failing republic.<br /><br />The mad mix of monarchy and capitalism which had created such an appalling war tottered on through the twenties in Britain.<br />Old King Tut was not so much a hero of a new world but the PR man's dream of a poster boy for continuing the old order.<br />In America, President Hoover named his dog "Tut".<br /><br />"Tut", the emblem of an eternal empire, an unending golden Kingdom, is so far from historical reality.<br />I suspect he symbolizes most of all the attempt to push the genie back into the bottle, to restore the world to an old order,<br />which should have been swept away by an awareness of the madness of world war that order created.<br />Instead, we had the flappers and all that manic jazz, followed by round two of the unfinished world war.<br /><br />Seven years ago, our capitalist Gods deserted us.<br /><br />We propped them back up again, but for how long?<br /><br />Is poetry or the museum relevant to any of this?<br /><br />Come to the poetry workshop and explore it with me on 19th and 20th of August at the Ashmolean.<br /><br />For Booking people need to visit <a href="http://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/ticketsoxford" rel="nofollow nofollow" style="color: #3b5998; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">www.oxfordplayhouse.com/<wbr></wbr><span class="word_break" style="display: inline-block;"></span>ticketsoxford</a> to buy online, call 01865 305305 to book by phone, or call in to the Oxford Playhouse ticket office to buy in person.</span></div>
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<b>taken from another weblog; very touching!</b></div>
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<b>Why the world went wild for King Tut</b><br />
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<i>But there is another, more poignant reason for Tutankhamun’s popularity: the impact of the First World War. The vulnerability of this pharaoh who had died while still an adolescent moved a public coming to terms with the loss of so many young men on the Western Front.</i><br />
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<i>An article published in The New York Times in 1923 confirms that people at the time viewed the story of Tutankhamun through the prism of the Great War: “As the objects have been brought out, spectators have remarked that, from the manner in which they were bandaged and transported with almost tender care on the stretcher-like trays, they reminded one of casualties being brought out of the trenches or casualty clearing stations.”</i></div>
nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-36604990629618840972014-06-13T09:35:00.000+01:002014-06-13T11:46:24.703+01:00Change of timing for June 14th readingsThe gallery readings will start at 12.30 as usual but the afternoon session will start at 14.00 as there are only four readings<br />
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<br />nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-76550220659950986222014-06-11T18:15:00.001+01:002014-06-11T18:15:05.878+01:00June Gallery Readings<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="font-family: Garamond;">Nick
Owen Revelation </span></b><strong><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Plate with the Vision of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">St John</st1:city></st1:place> the Evangelist and
“grotesque” decoration
Italian renaissance tin ware collection<o:p></o:p></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Peter Malin </span></strong><u><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Garamond;">Specimen<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></u><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Garamond;">
Interior with Mrs Mounter</span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Garamond;">, Harold Gilman</span><strong><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">
63</span></strong><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<strong><span style="color: #555555; font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Diana Moore heaven or hell </span></strong><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: Garamond; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Lelio Orsi's 'St Michael Subduing Satan <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-39453417081255675962014-05-28T21:26:00.005+01:002014-05-28T21:31:36.671+01:00Songs of innocence and experience:Preparing for The Blake exhibition.<div class="table-block" style="font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">
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<li style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 371px;"><span class="label" style="color: white; display: inline; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px;">Fu<a href="http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/william-blakes-songs-of-innocence-and-experience" target="_blank"> http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/william-blakes-songs-of-innocence-and-experience</a>ll title: </span><span style="color: white;"> </span><span id="full-title"><span style="color: white;">Songs of Innocence and Experience [A facsimile of a</span><span style="color: #f1c232;"> coloured and gilded copy of the first edition]</span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 371px;"><span style="color: #f1c232;"><span class="label" style="display: inline; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px;">Published: </span> <span id="published"><a href="http://www.bl.uk/collection-items?date_created_published=1923" style="text-decoration: none;">1923</a> , Liverpool</span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 371px;"><span style="color: #f1c232;"><span class="label" style="display: inline; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px;">Formats: </span> <span id="formats"><a href="http://www.bl.uk/collection-items?formats=book" style="text-decoration: none;">Book</a> , <a href="http://www.bl.uk/collection-items?formats=illustration" style="text-decoration: none;">Illustration</a> , <a href="http://www.bl.uk/collection-items?formats=image" style="text-decoration: none;">Image</a> , <a href="http://www.bl.uk/collection-items?formats=facsimile" style="text-decoration: none;">Facsimile</a></span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 371px;"><span style="color: #f1c232;"><span class="label" style="display: inline; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px;">Creator: </span> <span id="creator"><a href="http://www.bl.uk/people/william-blake" style="text-decoration: none;">William Blake</a></span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 371px;"><span style="color: #f1c232;"><span class="label" style="display: inline; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px;">Usage Terms: </span> <span id="usageTerms1"><a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Free from known copyright restrictions</a></span></span></li>
<li style="box-sizing: border-box; float: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 371px;"><span style="color: #f1c232;"><span class="label" style="display: inline; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px;">Shelfmark: </span> </span><span id="shelfmark"><span style="color: #f1c232;">C.71.d.19</span><span style="color: white;">.</span></span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="background-color: #0b5394; color: white;"><b>William Blake was an artist, poet, mystic, visionary and radical thinker. Working at a time of great social and political change, his work explores the tensions between the human passions and the repressive nature of social and political conventions. In <em>Songs of Innocence and of Experience</em>, perhaps his most famous collection of poems, he investigates, as he put it in the subtitle, 'the two contrary states of the human soul'. </b></span></div>
<h3 style="font-size: 1.1375rem; line-height: 1.4; margin: 1em 0px;">
<span style="background-color: #0b5394; color: white;">How was the work produced?</span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: #0b5394; color: white;"><b><em>Songs of Innocence and of Experience</em> is regarded as both a visual and literary work of art. Blake invented a new way of printing, designing the work in reverse with varnish on metal plates, which were then etched with acid to produce relief printing surfaces; these were printed in brown ink, and the prints were coloured by hand. Only a small number of copies were made, and sold privately to friends and collectors. </b></span></div>
<h3 style="font-size: 1.1375rem; line-height: 1.4; margin: 1em 0px;">
<span style="background-color: #0b5394; color: white;">Are the <em>Songs</em> directed at children?</span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: #0b5394; color: white;"><b>Though Blake stated that children could understand his work as well as, or better than, adults, this is rather a comment on how children understand things directly and without the clouded perceptions that derive from the compromises required by adult life. The songs are specifically ‘of’ and not ‘for’ innocence and experience. </b></span></div>
<h3 style="font-size: 1.1375rem; line-height: 1.4; margin: 1em 0px;">
<span style="background-color: #0b5394; color: white;">How do the <em>Songs</em> relate to previous literature?</span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: #0b5394; color: white;"><b>The work echoes the rhythms and forms of popular 18th-century children’s poetry and ballads. However, much of the verse directed at middle-class children at this time contained simple didactic messages, and Blake deliberately avoids this type of dogmatic morality – instead many of the poems in <em>Songs of Innocence and Experience</em>contain unsettling ambiguities. Blake’s very particular spiritual visions, which underlie all his mature writings, include reactions to philosophers such as Emanuel Swedenborg. </b></span></div>
<h3 style="font-size: 1.1375rem; line-height: 1.4; margin: 1em 0px;">
<span style="background-color: #0b5394; color: white;">What are the <em>Songs</em> about?</span></h3>
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<span style="background-color: #0b5394; color: white;"><b>Despite the simple rhythms and rhyming patterns and the images of children, animals and flowers, the Songs are often troubling, argumentative or satirical, and reflect Blake’s deeply held political beliefs and spiritual experience. Blake’s vision embraces radical subjects such as poverty, child labour and abuse, the repressive nature of state and church, as well as right of children to be treated as individuals with their own desires. Many of the poems in <em>Songs of Experience</em> respond to counterparts in<em>Songs of Innocence</em>.</b></span></div>
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nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-53388998224939001072014-05-25T09:20:00.004+01:002014-05-25T09:20:57.780+01:00April Gallery Readings<div class="MsoNormal">
Poet Poem Work Gallery</div>
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Diana Moore The Hunt
in the <st1:place w:st="on">Forest</st1:place> Paolo Ucello Gallery 43 Italian Renaissance</div>
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Nick Owen Griffin Griffin East meets west space </div>
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Giles Watson,. <st1:city w:st="on">Battle</st1:city> of the
Animals’ <st1:place w:st="on">Battle</st1:place> of the Animals’ Tapestry
(French, c. 1769).</div>
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Jennifer McGowan "Mortifications of the Flesh" the dead Christ supported by an angel gallery 47</div>
nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-55568923976396322952014-05-22T16:52:00.001+01:002014-05-23T13:10:56.548+01:00Paul Cézanne and the Modern: Mont Sainte-Victoire The current exhibition at the Ashmolean is called Cezanne and the Modern.<br />
<a href="http://www.ashmolean.org/exhibitions/cezanne/" target="_blank">http://www.ashmolean.org/exhibitions/cezanne/</a><br />
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It is based on a single collection of paintings, which begins with works of Cezanne and leads on to a number of early modernist painters.<br />
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The poster image for the show is one of Mt Ste Victoire, which Cezanne painted many times, usually from the same angle. The one below is one of my favourites.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIfr7jFMYjhprXSyt6q_6PF1RlMj7zbBdeQr0v347lYe0Aj0aYpozYunO_6mb8QYkbnfkoGHWy_lZPMHy8FXSpT0UmcXz-pOk-kaDpiKIQH2eVce4UIXGK0VsuezOQWyHcZJOKjjDlDE0/s1600/mont-sainte-victoire-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIfr7jFMYjhprXSyt6q_6PF1RlMj7zbBdeQr0v347lYe0Aj0aYpozYunO_6mb8QYkbnfkoGHWy_lZPMHy8FXSpT0UmcXz-pOk-kaDpiKIQH2eVce4UIXGK0VsuezOQWyHcZJOKjjDlDE0/s1600/mont-sainte-victoire-1.jpg" height="257" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is not the one in the exhibition.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
I have chosen the poster image of the Cezanne and the modern (linked at the top) for my poem this month, May 2014, partly because I love Cezanne's work, but partly because I don't like this version of the mountain.<br />
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As a photographer and mountain walker I am very interested to see how a painter handles light on a mountain. In this image Cezanne has gone a little too far from what I am pleased to see as a mountain scarp.<br />
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This one would be very dangerous to walk!<br />
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What is real and what is echo?<br />
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Is nothing real, as Baudrillard would have us believe? The hyper-real Cezanne painting is more real than the mountain, but maybe the poster has replaced the painting as our version of reality.<br />
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Please explore the paintings linked here and then read my poem.<br />
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It would be great if you then tell me what you think or feel.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Mt+Ste+Victoire+Cezanne&safe=off&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=4Dt-U7OMFMue7AavtICIBg&ved=0CCkQsAQ&biw=1920&bih=1075#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=1KWRv7JB8CoGcM%253A%3B0qTsf9ONxqwq-M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fc300221.r21.cf1.rackcdn.com%252Fla-mont-sainte-victoire-by-paul-cezanne-1360087549_org.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fpictify.com%252F367660%252Fpaul-czanne-la-mont-sainte-victoire%3B1200%3B1000">https://www.google.com/search?q=Mt+Ste+Victoire+Cezanne&safe=off&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=4Dt-U7OMFMue7AavtICIBg&ved=0CCkQsAQ&biw=1920&bih=1075#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=1KWRv7JB8CoGcM%253A%3B0qTsf9ONxqwq-M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fc300221.r21.cf1.rackcdn.com%252Fla-mont-sainte-victoire-by-paul-cezanne-1360087549_org.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fpictify.com%252F367660%252Fpaul-czanne-la-mont-sainte-victoire%3B1200%3B1000</a><br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/kebpix/6193779262/in/photostream/lightbox/">Paul Cézanne: Mont Sainte-Victoire | Flickr - Photo Sharing!</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02847/Cezanne_2847575b.jpg">http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02847/Cezanne_2847575b.jpg</a><br />
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<st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Mont</span></b></st1:place></st1:state><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua"; font-size: 18.0pt;"> Saint-Victoire<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Cezanne<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">How I love your work<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">So distinctive<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Ploughing a singular furrow<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Through a parched landscape<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Rejoicing in the cooler shady places<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">In redemptive blues and greens<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Nature merged with abstract shapes<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">How I love your meditations<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">On the mountain <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Far away<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Mont</span></b></st1:place></st1:state><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">
Saint-Victoire<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Mont</span></b></st1:state></st1:place><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">
Saint-Victoire<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Bringing richness, saturation, colour<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">To a world too light, so bright<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Shimmering with uncertainty<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">By day or moon-lit night<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Now<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Why have they stretched your canvasses<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Across modernity?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">You will not fit the frame<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Post modern dreams beyond modernity<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Embrace your name<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Mont</span></b></st1:place></st1:state><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">
Saint-Victoire<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Mont</span></b></st1:place></st1:state><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">
Saint-Victoire<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Mont</span></b></st1:place></st1:state><b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">
Saint-Victoire<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Let’s go, Papa<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Oh no_ the place does not exist<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">It’s just the echo of a place<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">A simulacrum that persists<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">This is just one<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Of a long, a long, long list<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">But Daddy<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Out of all those paintings<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">It’s the only one that’s here<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">So surely, it’s a special painting<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">No<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">The only thing that makes it special<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Is a feature I dislike<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">The shadow of the escarpment<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Is more solid than the thing itself<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Is more solid than the thing itself<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Solid<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Thing<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Itself<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">And if Cezanne is really modern<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Something new and true and great<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Why pick on this<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">As poster image<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">Out of all these images, so special,<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua";">The one to which I don’t relate?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b> ©Nick Owen
May 2014<o:p></o:p></b></div>
nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-18596074262845702862014-05-20T16:02:00.005+01:002014-05-20T16:03:12.282+01:00TO LIVE FOREVER Poetry Summer School at the Ashmolean: August 19th and 20th.<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia;">100 years ago the
discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb thrilled and astonished the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">We hope the exhibition at
the Ashmolean this summer which is based on those discoveries will continue to
enthral large audiences. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">But will it inspire people
to write great modern poems? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">This two day poetry summer
school/workshop with Nick Owen intends to support people to do just that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Whether you only visit the
Ashmolean for the two days of the workshop or spend a month exploring the
exhibition before the workshop starts the aim will be the same, to help you
write a poem which might inspire readers in another thousand years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The course will pay
particular attention to the way in which words and images entwine. Nick Owen
will help you create photographs of images in the exhibition which you may want
to set alongside your poem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">The Egyptians were
inspired by the idea that they could continue their earthly journey towards
becoming Gods in existences beyond the grave. They sensed unearthly powers and
energies in the animals in the world around them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Poetry workshops often
focus on connecting more deeply with the senses, but seldom is there a
connection with the inner eye or with the eye of Horus. Nick Owen draws upon
the science of mythology and the concepts of C. G Jung to help open up new
possibilities for your writing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">Your poems may be included
in a book of poetry at the Ashmolean which is in its early stages of
development. You will also have the opportunity to read your poem or have it
read for you to an audience at the exhibition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia;">About Nick Owen<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Nick has been a director of the Oxford School of
Psychotherapy. He is an independent tutor in English Literature. He has two
published books of poetry and has written for a wide spectrum of journals, covering
poetry, art, psychology, psychotherapy and photography. His work has been
widely anthologised. He has run workshops in creativity for twenty years and
leads the “Poetry at the museum programme,” at the Ashmolean. </div>
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Dr Giles Watson writes of him “…. humane, compassionate,
observant, and possessed of the requisite courage to face the fears as well as
the joys of life; and that is truly a poet."</div>
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On his most recent exhibition: “This is an exhibition of the
highest quality. Poems and pictures are quite superb.” Christine Whild.</div>
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Dates: August 19<sup>th</sup> and 20<sup>th</sup>. </div>
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Venue: The exhibition and the Ashmolean Lecture Theatre</div>
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Places: 15 <span style="font-family: Georgia;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-21448614862850581182014-05-20T16:00:00.004+01:002014-05-25T09:09:52.945+01:00Gallery Readings for Saturday 24th May<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; font-size: small;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">Poet Poem Work Gallery<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">Dr J McGowan </span></b><span class=""><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></b></span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">T<i>roy</i></span></b></st1:place></st1:city><b><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">: After the Horse</span></i></b><span class=""><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></b></span><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">(the sketches of Aeneas, Dido, and Creusa) <o:p></o:p></span></b><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">Cezanne Exhibition</span></b></div>
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<st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on"><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">Nick Owen Mt St Victoire MT St</span></b></st1:address></st1:street><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;"> Victoire Cezanne Exhibition<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">T Vincent Isaacs Happy Buddha'. Miss Orovida Pissaro. G </span></b><b style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">62</span></b><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;"> </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">Giles Watson </span></b><b><span style="background-color: #f6f7f8; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">Cistern in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Park</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Chateau Noir</st1:placename></st1:place> (Citerne au Parc du Château Noir) </span></b><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">Cezanne Exhibition<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.5pt;">Peter Mallin "Dolls' House": <i>Mme Pissarro Sewing beside a Window<span class=""> </span></i>and<span class=""> </span><i>Jeanne Holding a Doll<span class=""> </span></i>Gallery 65).</span></b></div>
nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-30889669500259854122014-03-28T18:26:00.000+00:002014-03-28T18:26:26.156+00:00Poetry Tour in the Galleries on Saturday 29 March<br />
Meet Randolph Sculpture Gallery 21<br />
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12.30 and 2.30 Sarianne Durie reads Mother & Child, Gallery 19 Ancient Near East<br />
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12.40 and 2.40 Nick Owen reads Boar, Gallery 40 European Ceramics<br />
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12.50 and 2.50 Vahni Capildeo reads Snake in the Grass Gallery 41 England 400-1600<br />
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1.00 and 3.00 Dr Jennifer McGowan reads The Child Italian Renaissance Gallery 43<br />
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1.20 and 3.20 Tony Vincent Isaacs reads Jeanne holding a fan, Pissaro Gallery 65<br />
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Please join us to hear these recitals in the Galleries.<br />
<br />nick owenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16346347687522222913noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4613399260235898983.post-23146460892596017852014-02-28T08:23:00.002+00:002014-02-28T08:23:18.914+00:00FAR FROM ROME by Vahni Capildeo<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 12pt; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">The blue dusk settles at a rate,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">and fields can be forgotten</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">as they are; as-they-were appear</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">uppermost, lidded, swept smooth;</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">beneath, left still, kiln-fired</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">vessels belonging to him,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">pleasing to his strong, torn hands –</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">so very much not in Rome,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">this redeployed general.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">The sea mixed in your eyes,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">arrived at cruel decisions</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">yet stalling execution.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">I would have sworn to die for you</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">sooner than try to live with you.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">The sea swarms in my ears.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">I sift your breath through mine.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">A modern probe might take me</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">for less-than-human remains,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">for nail-seed dirt and cumin.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">I wouldn’t mind; being her,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">and yours.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;"> But not in this life –</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">the intolerable one</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">which, when the blue dusk scratches,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">lends it my eyes. To discern,</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">alone, your life, indicts me.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">Such knowledge a reburial.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">Turn me to copper, one of you</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">gods he only temporized with:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Perpetua, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: black;">melt me down then score me</span></span></div>
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