IT STARTS WITH THE SOUL OF A POET
Norah Platt

National Poetry Day
2003



Validation:

recognizing
the passion for poetry

and creating a space for poetry to happen

When a Social Worker  first investigated Norah's case, it was thought she might be mad. She was found in a very distressed state in her flat, with scraps of paper scattered all around her apartment and pinned to walls. Norah wasn't mad; she was a poet. The scraps were bits of poems she was writing. During her remaining years, in spite of being in poor health and often house-bound, Norah produced an impressive body of work in a very short time.

Her desire to write poetry was encouraged by Tony Bloor (Third Age Project) and Tina DuBois (Third Age Out-Reach Worker) and her enthusiasm encouraged other poets (including Eppie, Kathy and Islam) to meet to write and perform poetry for Third Age events at West Euston. The Time Bank celebrated National Poetry Day with a reading in 2002, and launched Norah's book on National Poetry Day 2003.

MEDIA:The Third Age Project sponsored a book launch of Norah Platt's Thoughts of an Optimist (edited by Tony Bloor and Tina DuBois)  on National Poetry Day October 2002.

ARTS FEATURE:  
"It's Breaking Out in Verse For Norah" by Andrew Walker, Camden New Journal, 3 October 2002, page 25 (book launch for Thoughts of an Optimist; includes biography and photograph of Norah).

.........................
YEAR TWO:

from

National Poetry Day
2003

to

National
Poetry Day
2004


creating poetry

The time bank poets met in small, informal workshops and, where possible, the workshops were led by experienced poets.

Although West Euston did not have an experienced poet to lead the workshops at this stage, Tony Bloor helped facilitate the West Euston group. The co-ordinators for the project  were Alison Paule, Maria Duha and Urmi Nurjahan.

Throughout the year, the poetry group (Norah, Eppie, Kathy and Islam) gave a number of readings  to audiences of 10 - 25 within the West Euston Third Age Project (and at other civic events).

In 2003 and 2004, the West Euston Time Bank and Third Age Project hosted their own celebration of National Poetry Day, which they combined with a celebration of Black History Month.

The Day included  poems, traditional stories and art work of refugees from Somalia who make up a significant membership of the local community (and the West Euston time bank).

Children were encouraged to attend and take part in the celebration and the workshops.

MEDIA LINKS: Poems from the participating Time Banks were published in London Time: Poetry from London's Time Banks (nef: London) 2004, 36 pp. ISBN 1899407979  editor: Karen Lyon. This publication was sponsored by the London Time Bank Network, nef and the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust.

to 
National Poetry Day
2005

creating
poetry for performance

The poetry group continued at West Euston, although the serious illness of Norah Platt meant that the group had lost its focus and direction.

In May 2005, with the appointment of poet and playwright Kim Morrissey as the workshop tutor, the poetry workshops became more regular.

At this stage of building a poetry workshop, Kim's role was that of a teacher.  Poetry is a craft as well as a passion. In the early stages of a workshop, having an experienced poet in the group is the easiest and quickest way to teach the entire group poetic technique and the tools they need for group editing.

The first communal project for the group was to translate Heeron Begh's Bengali love poem , In the Cage of Love, into English.

Although the sessions were originally set up for the workshop to meet monthly, the poets found the workshops were more useful for them if they met on a semi-weekly basis (other events such as tea-dances, meetings and long weekends still meant the group weren't meeting every week).

The second communal project was to write The Stream, a poem celebrating the strengths of belonging to a Time Bank Community.

OCTOBER 2005. Karen Lyon of nef co-ordinated a London Time Bank  Network reading  with all the Time Bank Poetry Groups at the Poetry Cafe on National Poetry Day with Poet Laureate Andrew Motion.

Kim had been invited  back to Canada to read in her native Saskatchewan as part of the province's Centennial celebrations Before she left England, she rejected  the very bad 'standard contract' nef  had supplied for all Time Bank Poets to sign (in the nef contract, the copyright belonged to the poet, not the organization and gave all the Purple Poets a contract where the copyright remained with the poet.  This is an important lesson for poets to learn: you can share your work freely, if you choose, but the copyright should always reside with you.

Kim arranged the order of poems for the group and had them rehearse their reading several times. Tony, Urmi and Heeron arranged transportation on the day, but the poets were responsible for presenting their reading.

MEDIA LINKS: The first rehearsal of the West Euston Poets reading was filmed in September 2005  by a German television company, as part of a documentary on European Time Banks.

The group re-scheduled the session to a more favourable day, when there would be less interference from meetings, tea-dances and long weekend breaks.

As the new slot  followed on from the drama club, it was also more convenient for Kathy, Eppie and Islam, who attend both classes.

This new schedule made it easy to organize actors from the Drama class if they were needed in poetic drama workshops.

Kim brought all the poetry binders to and from readings,  brought food and drink to events for all the poets and arranged everyone's transportation, so that the purple poets didn't have to worry about anything except being poets.

The appointment of Natalie Irvine to the time bank as development officer in 2005 was invaluable. As well as being an excellent organizer, she respected the craft of the poet, and ensured that the poets were invited well in advance of an event, and given proper time and attention when they read at events.

Her training as a lawyer also was very useful for establishing privacy and copyright issues concerning children and vulnerable people on the West Euston website and the London Time Bank IT steering committee. Sadly, her last day of work as a West Euston Time Broker was Friday, September 1st, 2006, but she left  a full  set of notes  and contacts for our new time broker, Shahanara Begum,  to carry on her good work.

During 2006, the poets became more familiar with poetic techniques and critical models. As they have gained in confidence and experience, Kim tried to encourage them to change her role in the group from Teacher to Mentor and Resource Person.

She held several workshops appointing someone else as the leader of the workshop, to show the poets it is possible for them to hold some workshops without her.

Kim arranged a round-robin exchange of telephone numbers, so that everyone had everyone's number (including her own). This helped to build a sense of community amongst the poets, who could contact each other about poetry matters.

LINKS WITH OTHER TIME BANK ACTIVITIES:
The third communal project (still ongoing) was to create a  poetic drama, The Wind and the Sun (After Aesop)  showing the poets how to create and workshop their own play. As Kim is a professional playwright, this gives the group access to the workshop techniques of theatre professionals.

A third of the NEF grant was contingent on the West Euston Time Bank organizing a London Time Bank Reading for National Poetry Day. Unlike the reading last year, West Euston organized a space which is wheel-chair accessible and also easily accessible (a five minute walk from Warren Street Station and local bus stops).

They committed half the budget to providing two workshops for children on the day (with Dave Neita) and a lunchtime poetry workshop session with office workers in the Warren Street area.

They scheduled a Poetry Panel  with participating time banks to evaluate the Poetry Project Experiment (with a view to supporting other poetry workshops in the coming years).

MEDIA LINKS: Although the reading at the 2006 Camden Green Fair did not generate any media attention, the Cumberland Festival appearance resulted in the group's photograph being featured in the Camden New Journal (Thursday, August 3d, 2006 . photograph by Polly Hansen or the Ham & High).

Their companion Time Bank project, The Oriental Dancing Group  (which includes Eppie and Kathy) photograph  appeared in the Ham & High (August 4, 2006) from the same event, at the Cumberland Community Festival.

The group has set up the Norah Platt Poetry Prize in memory of Norah, who died in 2005. This prize will encourage children and other poets to attend the West Euston National Poetry Day Celebration.

The National Poetry  Day reading was recorded by Time Bank member Faith and donated to the Holborn Local Archives and the  National Poetry Library (South Bank).

Although the emphasis for Kim in any workshop is on writing poetry, not publishing poetry,  she gave advice about markets, appropriate cover letters and copyright issues to poets who wanted to start submitting to poetry contests and magazines or submit manuscripts to a publisher.

As a professional writer, Kim was able to suggest  guest poets for readings and arrange workshop opportunities with other professionals.

Kim helped other time bank poetry groups establish their own webpages and workshops.

Kim gradually let all the Purple Poets be responsible for bringing their own poems to readings, although she continued to be responsible for transportation for the group.


Kim was committed to providing free food for all poets for National Poetry Day (home-made, and helped enormously by Bithi Das and Patsy Futatsugi). The Purple Poets made plum jam for the desserts and their guests on National Poetry Day and then donated the bulk of the jam to the Poetry Cafe for use throughout rest of the year.

The maintenance of a mature workshop is largely based on the good-will of the participants. The one major financial commitment for the group will continue to be  the raising at least £150 each year to provide funds for the Norah Platt Poetry Prize.


MEDIA LINKS: Although the reading at the 2007 Camden Green Fair was not reported in the local papers, the Purple Poets were sought out by photographer Polly Hansen (Ham & High) who photographed them with great pleasure and took several pictures of the group. The Purple Poets read on the stage at this event in 2007 and also arranged their own impromptu reading later in the afternoon, beside their PURPLE POET Banner on The Village Green at the West Euston Time Bank space (generating more audience). They also handed out 200 pamphlets of their poems from the 2006 reading.


Kim attended the preliminary planning sessions for the 2007 Capital Age Festival Summer Festival (co-ordinated by Karen Lyon of nef and David Slater of CAF) and arranged for three short poems by Purple Poets be printed as postcards (print run: 2,000 x 3) to be handed out at the Festival,  with the surplus to be used by all Time Banks to promote the Capital Age Festival, Time Banks and Time Bank Poets.

Kim invited all the Purple Poets  to the two planning meetings at nef in Vauxhall. (Carol Moon attended the first meeting, but due to ill health could not attend the second.)

The Purple Poets opened the Capital Age Festival Summer Fair with a short poem, written and performed by Jean Watt, read at the Jazz Stage and played The Poetry Game in the Tea-Tent with members of the Public during the afternoon, posting the poems in the tent. this was widely publisised by CAF and is still available as a press release posted on the Internet.

The Purple Poets continue to maintain and build on the government and media contacts they have made in the years before, so that they can use media coverage and goodwill in the community, rather than advertising, to publicize events.

They continue to strengthen their links to schools and to libraries.

With their website, they also have a permanent showcase of their work and build an archival record of their members, past and present.

Kim published her poems in the acclaimed literary magazine ATLAS, and mentioned the West Euston Time Bank in her biographical notes. She also read her poem, (written to the Time Bank's 2006 National Poetry Day special guest, Rose Hacker) at the ATLAS launch at the Nehru Centre.


The Guardian Diary 11 August 2007
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2146078,00.html

Pomp and sex therapy  review of ATLAS 2
[excerpt]· An alarming rumour began to circulate that, at the launch of vol 1, 32 poets read from their work. But this time a shorter cast list was given just two minutes each. Khalvati still found time to praise a journal that gives space to longer poems, while Daljit Nagra provided a neat Anglo-Indian link. George Szirtes and Daniel Weissbort - neither of whom are in the new book - were good value, but perhaps the most heartfelt applause was for the British-based Canadian writer Kim Morrissey. She had drawn attention to 101-year-old Rose Hacker in the audience, a pioneering sex therapist in the 1930s (and still a feisty columnist for the Camden New Journal) who inspired Morrissey earlier this year to write the poem "Imagine Rose Dancing".... NW [Nicholas Wroe]

Islam Molla's live was celebrated as part of the 'Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary People' exhibition which toured Enfield libraries in 2006 - 2007.

Bithi Das had her poem 'ReBirth' exhibited and was awarded a prize in a community exhition.

- that only the words on the page can be discussed

- that everyone is a poet

-that when anyone says 'I can't write poetry' you add the word '... yet!'