Kim Morrissey
Writer-In-Residence
West Euston Time Bank
Purple Poets

'I have been meeting with the West Euston Purple Poets, since May 2005. Every week they bring something to the workshop to astonish me. I am amazed, amused and delighted by the Purple Poets; they are generous, funny, courageous, good-tempered, flexible, hard-working, witty, and lively.  They are such pleasant company, the Workshop should be called a Playshop.
Come play!'        

--- Kim Morrissey,  National Poetry Day, Bloomsbury, 2006.

Kim is a poet, playwright, editor, researcher and radio dramatist. Her most recent stage play is Mrs Ruskin , produced by Theatre Metropolis (Warehouse Theatre, Croydon, 2003).

Kim was a commissioned writer for BBC Radio 4's political satire comedy sketch show WeekEnding (1994-1995) which also aired on the BBC World Service.

She researched and wrote "This is My First Wife: a Hundred Years of James Thurber " (BBC Radio 4 documentary, Christmas 1994, producer Gareth Edwards). She has done readings and workshops at the Open University Summer School in York and taught Play Analysis at Rose Bruford College for Drama (Sidcup, England).

Kim gave a rare poetry reading at the launch of Atlas 01, the Literary Magazine (edited by Sudeep Sen), Lauderdale House, Highgate on June 8th 2006 and then again at the Nehru Centre, Mayfair, on June 9th 2006. She read again at the launch of Atlas 02,  in 2007, at the Nehru Centre, with Rose Hacker in attendence.

Kim Morrissey
Imagine Rose Dancing
(for Rose Hacker)
Read at the London launch
of Atlas 02(edited by Sudeep Sen)
Nehru Centre, 14.07.2007
London

Imagine Rose Dancing:
Rose Hacker's Dance Performance in Bloomsbury
February 24, 2007


Imagine Rose dancing
white lace at her throat
dark dress falling shoulders
                              to floor

the lights catching stage dust
the slow curve of thin wrists

                             suspended

Rose dancing,
still turning heads
each breath that she takes
                              lemon-sweet

imagine Rose dancing
to one-hundred-and-one
imagine Rose dancing
                              and dance!

Kim Morrissey
Lives of the Poets: Poets in Residence
First read at the London launch
of Atlas 01 (edited by Sudeep Sen)
Lauderdale House, 08.07.2006,
Highgate, London

Lives of the Poets: Writers-in-Residence
by Kim Morrissey

The problem with artists as house-guests
Is they don't go away.
You can't fold them up in a suitcase
And take them down to the station.
They arrive with one bag or two
And leave with three more of yours
And take you with them
To carry their luggage

All artists have bad backs.
So do I.

The problem with artists as house-guests
Is they expect you to listen them lecture
Before breakfast, through your favourite play,
At three in the morning when they
Come into your room with tequila and salt
And bounce on your bed.

The only time they are silent
They are tongue-kissing your lover.

The problem with artists as house-guests
Is they are all larger than life
And spend most of it trying to end it.
I have nothing to live for
Just let me die.  Oh please, please,
I'd be better off dead
Until you agree.

Or they cry because they can't have children
                                                    With you.

The problem with artists as house-guests
Is when they sleep, they burn your carpet
Or their beards or set fire to your bed
Dropping lit cigarettes.

Artists as house-guests need feeding
Three times an hour
If you leave them any longer
You find them hungrily
Eyeing the baby.

They all cook either badly or well, but they all
Cook using every pot in the house. They drop
Fag ashes beating eggs for the omelettes
And roll joints for your mother
And after they wash up
All your non-stick pans
Stick.

And the damn thing of it is:

The problem with artists as house-guests
Is that when, eventually, they go away
You miss them.

BOOKS:
Batoche
(Regina: Coteau Books, 1989)

Poem For Men Who Dream of Lolita
(Regina: Coteau Books, 1992)

Dora: A Case of Hysteria
(London: Nick Hern Books 1994)

Clever as Paint: the Rossettis in Love
(Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 1998)


CHILDREN'S PLAYS:

Raisins and Almonds
(adapted from the novel by Fredelle Maynard)
available from Playwrights Guild of Canada

Snow White and the Three Dwarves
Christmas Play
available from Playwrights Guild of Canada


PUBLIC READINGS:

ATLAS 2 Launch July 14, 2007
Nehru Centre, South Audley Street, London
(Guardian review)

Thursday, February 15th 2007
Lauderdale House, Highgate, at  8 p.m.


OTHER INTERNET SITES FEATURING
KIM MORRISSEY'S WORK:

Coteau Books in Schools (Secondary School Level)
Batoche Study Guide
http://www.cenlyt.com/Batoche/start.htm
(includes first nation lesson plan suitable for
secondary students by Wilma Riley)


Hypertext Poetry Workshop (London, England) Site
http://www.btinternet.com/~carpenter/home1.htm

University of Toronto 'Canadian Poets' Site
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/morrissey

Playwrights Guild of Canada Site
http://www.playwrightsguild.com/pgc/main.asp

The Comedy Collective (UK)
http://members.aol.com/playscript/Comedy/Britain/Writers/

HISTORY OF THE POETRY PROJECT