The Nature of Fire

Although I am more airy than fiery I find myself increasingly drawn to fire and its properties. Having an open fire in my current home gives me the opportunity to rekindle my relationship with this core element. I enjoy the ritual of sweeping out the hearth in preparation for building a good fire.

I build with paper, kindling, small logs and firelighters, if there is resistance, letting heat build gradually, watching with patience and care as my grate becomes a small furnace.

The dark dankness of this January week has given me the impetus to focus on fire and on using it not just for warmth and comfort but also to stir deep memory while simultaneously burning away that which is past.

Tonight the fire burns with serious intensity. Remnants of Christmas crumble to ash and will go out tomorrow into a pile at the bottom of the garden in readiness for mixing in with compost for the garden later in the season.

Watching the glowing and splitting veins of coal I remember winter nights with my grandma, watching her fire burn low and imagining myself a creature of fire, able to walk through the crumbling walls of red and orange coal, a fire city full of fire people.

The flames and heat are reassuring to me. I can conjure my grandma’s face, her warm eyes, the coo of her Devonshire voice and all the furrows on my brow smooth, my heart eases and I feel safe.

The flames consume the last ghosts of Christmas along with pieces of the past year of which I need to be rid. Fire

To the power of the fire I give up old hurts, wounds and worries and let the flames take it all. Fire is older and more powerful than me, before and after me and my time on this good green earth. I am grateful to the fire and as it burns itself out I breathe out into its heart and feel something dislodge from my heart and surrender itself. It feels peaceful and good.

Fish Tales @ The BBC

Happy New Year to everyone. Here’s the link to the broadcast of Fish Tales from the Herts Jazz Festival.  It’s available until about 22nd January on the BBC iPlayer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09k6btg

Here’s a review from Jazz Rag of the performance at the festival:

One programmed concert of new music at many a festival these days is the latest suite by Alan Barnes, usually for an all-star octet. This year it’s Fish Tales, music and poems based on the Grimsby fishing industry. I often wonder how precisely thematically based jazz suites relate to their subject matter, but in this case the correspondence between the music and Josie Moon’s words is pretty close, from the rowdy fun of Three Day Millionaires to the street parade sounds of Homecoming, even Dave Green’s bubbling bass solo for The Drowning Man. Moon’s poetry covers the domestic, the documentary and the supernatural, her explanations are clear and her readings dramatic. Alan Barnes’ writing makes particular use of the versatility of his threeman reed section (some lovely writing for two clarinets and bass clarinet) and, with top-class soloists throughout the band, Mark Nightingale and Robert Fowler made a particularly strong impression.

Ron Simpson

The Year Closes

 

Thank You

 

To those who have

been kind and fair,

thank you.

 

To those who have

stood strong, stood firm,  

thank you.

 

To those who have

lent teeth and claws,

thank you.

 

Thank you to those

who have seen and heard,

walked shoulder to shoulder,

hand in hand,

never veering from veracity

in the challenges of this year.

 

Thank you.

 

To those who have not

meddled and maligned,

thank you.

 

To those who have not

indulged malevolent spite,

thank you.

 

Thank you to those

not party to the mob,

not baying for blood,

not casting stones,

not spitting venom,

when others invite you to.

Thank you.

 

To the

mobbers, bystanders,

liars, meddlers,

casters of stones,

pitchfork and torch bearers,

 

to you I say thank you.

Because I see you.

Because I know you.

You are darkness visible

and exactly where I want you.

 

Season’s Greetings

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This is just a very brief post to say thank you to everyone who has dropped by the site this year and supported me and my work.  It’s not been the easiest of years but it has been easier to focus on the positives and the wonderful opportunities I have enjoyed rather than on the travails.

And so I do wish you and your beloveds a really lovely Christmas, however you spend it. It can be a tough time for many so spare a thought for those who’ve got trouble and give them some time if you’re able.  My heart goes with those who carry hard losses this year.

So look to the light dear fellow humans on this beautiful blue planet of ours and be peaceful.

Josie out xxx

Fish Tales and Fairy Dust

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at La Luna HQ and in the world at large. The most unexpected and delightful present I think I’ve ever had is the fact that Fish Tales will be broadcast on Radio 3 on CHRISTMAS DAY at 11.00 pm on the lovely Soweto Kinch’s Jazz Now programme. The recording was made at Herts Jazz Festival on a nice October afternoon. I was so glad I was wearing a long, full skirt because my legs shook all the way through the performance  – you try not to think about being recorded while you’re being recorded but your unconscious likes to remind you and I was nervous.

Radio Times

I know I’ve said it often this year but Fish Tales has been the most extraordinary creative experience, right from the start, from the first inkling of the first poem to the last gig at Shrewsbury. It has been sprinkled with fairy dust throughout.  These jazz musicians are spectacular talents, all of them with their ability to dazzle with improvised solos and to come back to a complex score full of subtlety and nuance.  Audiences, venues, promoters have all been full of welcome and bon homie and every gig has had its own flavour and its own moments of delight.

I do have books available and if anyone would like one, just drop me a line. As it’s Christmas I’ll do two plus P&P for £8 I don’t have many left so get them while they last!

To entice you, here’s a poem from the collection:

The Fisherman and the Seal Woman

He saw her dive off the port side,

the flash of her sea-green eyes

had him mesmerised.

 

She watched him from the deep,

waited for him to sleep,

blew him dream kisses.

 

She swam to the fjord,

shed her skin,

shivered, human, on the ice,

watched his ship blow in.

 

She had him in a heartbeat

when he looked into her eyes,

smelt the winding serpent of her hair,

knew he could not live without her.

 

The fisherman took her for wife.

hand-fasted they jumped the fire,

kissed under the dancing sky.

 

He gave up the sea for a hearth

and the green Norwegian slopes,

his heart caught fast in her net.

 

She paced the shore in longing,

yearning for more than the cabin door,

the mending of nets,

tending the babes that came each year.

 

She heard her sisters’ call

felt the sharp pull,

until the seventh spring,

no longer able to keep it in

she retraced her steps

found her skin

slipped easily into the water

leaving her little sons and daughters

wide-eyed, wondering

at the transformation of their seal mother.

 

He sails the fjords and open seas

wild-eyed, more sad than mad

that he didn’t see

that she was never meant to be.

She was a dream of a girl

from a frost-bitten night

under a red sky in which

there was no delight.

He hears her in the cries of the seals,

sees her hair in the winding eels

that slip and slide along the side

of the boat where he fishes and fishes

and hopes and yearns,

prays to all the Gods, that she will return.

 

He knows in his soul that it cannot be

that his seal woman is at one with the sea,

free forever, gone for good,

called back by the salt that ran in her blood.

Spirit

I was going to call this blog post Spirit of Jazz in recognition of the fantastic CD The Spirit of Trane by Gilad Atzmon and the Orient House Ensemble because the band had me and the rest of the audience in rapture last night at Grimsby Jazz’s final gig of 2017. But actually it’s spirit I want to write about because it has been a week of feeling spirit in so many lovely ways and although last night was the apex there have been some fantastic moments of community and togetherness that I want to try to capture.

When we talk about spirit what do we mean?  I think it’s a word that is myriad in its meaning and probably context specific.  There was a spirit in the room last Friday when the community choir performed at Cambridge Court.  There was a sense of shared purpose and fellowship which I think is captured in these pictures.

I know I talk a lot about the power and the value of singing together but it comes home when we go out into the community and perform.  The choir’s spirit is immense; big-hearted, generous and welcoming. Monday evenings at St Mark’s should be available on prescription.

Last night’s gig at Grimsby Jazz was just spectacular.  Gilad Atzmon is a genius and I would never use that term glibly. When Gilad plays Euterpe enters and something transcendent happens.  The Orient House Ensemble is a stunning band. Each musician plays from the soul and inhabits the music so completely. It was an immeasurable joy to be lost in it.  It was a poignant night as well  because it was Gill Wilde’s swansong gig. But what a finish. My best human remarked that it was one of the best gigs he’d ever been to and I have to concur.

Three best humans

I woke up thinking about jazz this morning and its glorious defiance as a musical genre. It is so free and so revolutionary and it challenges you as a listener to really engage.  I started going to the jazz in Grimsby years ago because I wanted to be excited by music and musicianship. I’ve had such an education and such revelations and have immersed myself in jazz as a writer and performer. I want more of it all the time.

Back to the ordinary world today and the second Riverhead Coffee Poetry Cafe. What a rich afternoon.  The participants bring so much, not just writing but themselves. It’s evolving as a place to consider the nature of ourselves not just as writers but as beings, existing in a time and a place.  Today there was such a wealth of shared narratives and everyone left with an uplift.

 

And spirit is the thing that unites this experience, the spirit of people coming together to do what they do; to talk, make art, share ideas, perform, give.  It’s something spectacularly human and wonderful and the stuff of living.  Long may it happen.

Poetry, Music and Living

Illustrations from In Case of an Emergency by Sophie Helen Ashton  https://www.facebook.com/sophieashtoncustomart/

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Looking at my calendar for December my hair begins to stand up in fright and then when I look back at November I wonder how I got everything done that needed doing – but of course I did, because we just do.  November was a month and a half in terms of what I managed to do; not single-handedly of course, there are lots of people who deserve thanks, bottles of wine and much more besides.

I moved house in November, just over a week ago in fact. So far, so very good. Great place, loads of room and all boxes labelled in a sane way that I understand. They may not be unpacked for some time, we’ll see.

Last Thursday I finished the first phase of my ACE funded writing project with the launch of In Case of an Emergency, the anthology of writing from young people who either attend or have attended Franklin College and undertaken the now defunct Creative Writing A Level. There is a lot that I could say about the government’s decision to scrap the course and much has been said. It was a lumpen, brainless decision borne out of the ridiculous notion that education is about measuring and not much else. The anthology proves that real education is not something that can be measured. The learning, experience and production that went into the book is not something that can be weighed against a set of meaningless assessment objectives and performance indicators. The book is an expression of the souls and imagination of its young contributors.  And it is a thing of beauty.  It was very telling that amongst the audience for the launch on Thursday evening there was not one single measuring stick wielding individual present. Their absence was noted but not missed.

This Thursday (December 7th) is the second La Luna Poetry Cafe @ Riverhead Coffee.  This is an opportunity for writers and those interested in writing to come together, share work and talk about what it means and what interests them about it.  Last month we had a terrific afternoon and very diverse contributions.  Everyone is welcome, it’s free to come along and the coffee is great.

December is very much about music and singing and the Great Grimsby Community Choir has a full and busy schedule.  We are supporting community events and taking part in a very special Christmas concert at St Augustine’s on December 22nd.  The weekly joy of getting together at St Mark’s and singing our hearts out cannot be underestimated. We are a very welcoming choir and we embrace new members. Everyone is welcome to come along and join us; no auditions!

It’s a lovely December afternoon. I’m looking forward to singing at Grimsby Minster later as part of the choir for the Advent Carol Service and then to settling down to watch Casablanca with my very best human.  I love Advent, probably more than I love Christmas and I wish everyone a whole lot of love and peace.

 

Ebb and Flow

Drill Hall Ian 1

And so the official tour comes to a glorious finale with a wonderful gig at The Hive in Shrewsbury. It was a special evening after a very special run of gigs.  This tour has been an incredible experience for me as a writer and performer. I’ve found a rhythm and a style on stage that I am very comfortable to inhabit. I feel like I’ve found my home now as a performer and it is a very happy one.  The warmth and generosity of the musicians has played a big part in me finding my groove. I will miss them all and am already forming plans and ideas, dreams and schemes as to what happens next.

So, thank you to everyone who has made this a success and such a joy.  But special, heartfelt thanks to my lovely friend, mentor and jazz wizard Gill Wilde. It was Gill who started this and she was there to the last note and the last word. Her energy, commitment and belief in this project have been the special ingredients that have made this work.  Gill is stepping back from her role as Mrs Grimsby Jazz and the town will be poorer for it. Gill has given so much time, love and energy to jazz over the years and although she deserves her time in the sun, we will miss her so very much.

And so, adieu for now beautiful jazz and poetry world but we won’t be apart for long …

In Case of an Emergency

In Case of an Emergency: Book Launch. November 30th @ Moon on the Water

Sophie 2

La Luna presents: In Case of an Emergency

Book Launch with Franklin College Young Voices

Free Entry

La Luna Publishing is delighted to announce the publication of its first anthology of ambitious new writing In Case of an Emergency.  The book is the result of a project delivered by La Luna for the Franklin College Young Voices, emerging writers keen to develop their skills in both writing and performance.  The book also features photography and original illustrations.

To launch the book La Luna is hosting an event at Moon on the Water in Cleethorpes on Thursday 30th November where the participants will perform some of their work. The event begins at 7.30 pm and entry is free. Copies of the book will be available to purchase for £6.00

The anthology has been produced with support from Arts Council England.  The funding has meant that the young writers have had the invaluable opportunity to receive critical editorial feedback on their work from professional writers and editors Josie Moon and Nick Triplow.  They have also benefited from workshops with professional poets Antony Dunn and Helen Mort.

Print

It would be wonderful to have a great audience at the event to show support for these talented young people and the work they have done.

 

 

Being in the World

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Most of my posts are about what I’ve been doing but this morning I am thinking about being.  The nature of being, of our existence is both simple and complex. Here we are, hurtling through space on a rock living with the inevitability of our own death and that of everyone we know. That is the simple bit. The complex bit is what we do with the time we have and how we are for ourselves and others.  This takes some work.  You can choose to never think about this of course and to just get on with it. For me, just getting on with it is not an option.  How I get on with it and how I am in my existence and in my relationship with others is of paramount importance.

Being with others is not always easy. Often it is painful and challenging and when there is hurt, misunderstanding or deliberate unkindness and cruelty it can be hard to envisage any kind of positive relationship with those responsible.

When I was practising Buddhism I was intrigued by the dharma of Maras. Maras are those who harm us.  The dharma teachers that these individuals are a great asset to our lives because they bring us the most valuable lessons, the ones that enable us to grow the most.  Having had a great many Mara lessons of late I now understand the wisdom of this.  Growth comes from adversity, from challenge and from facing it, even when it is overwhelming and completely exhausting.

Once a storm passes, the air is clearer and it is once again possible to find some peace.  Today, after the storm, I have some peace and I also accept the inevitability of more storms because that is how life is.

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