GREEN SPACES

 

New book celebrates North Tyneside’s award-winning green spaces

18 November 2020 - 12:58pm

Award-winning green spaces in North Tyneside are the inspiration behind a new book of poetry and photographs.

North Tyneside Council has commissioned local creatives to express their love of the borough’s natural landscapes in a new book entitled ‘Green Spaces: parks, poetry and hidden nature in North Tyneside’.

Compiled and edited by North Shields artist Peter Dixon and Whitley Bay writer and poet Dr Keith Armstrong, the new book is a joint effort by North Tyneside Council and Northern Voices Community Projects.

It comes after eight of North Tyneside’s parks were again confirmed as winners of the coveted Green Flag Award for 2020.

North Tyneside’s Elected Mayor, Norma Redfearn CBE, said: “We are extremely proud of our award-winning green spaces in North Tyneside and this wonderful collection of creative writing captures the special meaning that they hold for local people.

“Our natural landscapes have always been important and very well-loved, but the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted their true importance as places where people can go for exercise and recreation and to enjoy some peace and quiet.

“Like other residents, the authors have lived through lockdown and persevered with their task. They have produced a book of immense importance that will have deep resonance for the people of North Tyneside who have sought sanctuary and solace in the green spaces of the borough.”

The poetry in the book draws its inspiration from green spaces across the borough, including Killingworth Lakeside, Northumberland Park, the Rising Sun Country Park and Chirton Dene Park.

The submissions were selected by Dr Keith Armstrong for the publication.

He said: “It has been very inspiring to have been commissioned by North Tyneside Council to bring together our compilation of creative writing and images celebrating the parks and hidden nature across the borough. In these difficult times we hope that our book lifts local people’s spirits and helps put their love of local greenery into their own words as a way of bringing some sunlight into all our lives. Northern Voices Community Projects is happy to have had the opportunity again to work with the Council and we trust that more joint projects will follow over the following years. This book makes us all optimistic about our future and has been a joy to work on.”

Peter Dixon, of Northern Community Voices, said: “We all have our favourite park; a place to walk with a loved one, explore with our children, have picnics or use for exercise or contemplation. Green Spaces is a reflection of North Tyneside's wealth of parks. For a compact borough the selection of habitats is amazing - from secluded ancient woodlands to the tops of repurposed pit heaps, formal gardens to bowling greens, streams and lakes to pathways following old waggonways. Spending time in all of these places I was struck by the sheer number of people who use them; dogwalkers, young mum's with buggies and toddlers, joggers, couples, families, birdwatchers..and the occasional poet or photographer. Despite the trials and restrictions of Covid-19 I had enormous fun exploring each of these parks and wild spaces. The book should make good Christmas reading - a chance to contemplate walks in the coming year!

The book is priced at £9 and will be available to buy from St Mary’s Lighthouse and via the Northern Voices Community Projects website.

TWO RIVERS MEET

MARSDEN ROCK AND MARSDEN GROTTO

 

MARSDEN ROCK

 

Sensational Rock,
swimming in light.
Bird cries clinging to ancient ledges,
Kittiwakes smashing against time.
What tales you could tell.

Your face is so moody,
flickers with breezes,
crumbles in a hot afternoon.

Climbing your powdery steps,
we look down on the sea
thrashing at you. 

We join a choir of birds at your peak,
cry out to the sky
in good spirits.

Nesting for the sake of it,
our lyrics are remnants on the shore.

We keep chipping away,
do we not? 

We slip
through the pebbles,
splashing
with babies.

We leave our mark,
a grain
on the ancient landscape.

We go.

We dance like the sunlight
on your scarred body: 

tripping,
falling,
singing

away.



KEITH ARMSTRONG

 

As featured in new book by Bill Greenwell:

TUEBINGEN LOCKDOWN EXHIBITION - POETRY BY KEITH ARMSTRONG; PHOTOS BY ULRICH METZ

 

 

 

 

TUEBINGEN LOCKDOWN EXHIBITION - POETRY BY KEITH ARMSTRONG; PHOTOS BY ULRICH METZ

The idea of ​​capturing the effects of the pandemic in a long-term series of pictures came up after the first lockdown had turned Tübingen into a "ghost town".

At least that was my impression when I was out and about in the deserted city center at lunchtime. Well-known alleys and squares, everyday life, cultural events etc. looked different - and were suddenly new to me in photography.

In mid-March I had already started to document the changes in my environment with an analog camera and b / w film, and later with a monochrome digital camera. The photo of the women in my "Kiez" was one of the first pictures in the series. The friends made the most of the unfamiliar situation and met while observing the rules of distance. Nobody could have imagined that it would ever come to that.

In the spring, I was in close email contact with Dr. Keith Armstrong, a poet from our English twin town Durham. From there, too, news came about this life in special times. Armstrong was quickly convinced of the exhibition idea and contributed his impressions to my pictures in the form of poems.

Since we are currently in a lockdown again, I will probably still not run out of motives. Unfortunately.

 

Ulrich Metz

A FALLEN GLOVE

'Tuebingen ... .is like a fallen glove; it lies there in an empty and hushed hangover ....' (Eduard Moerike}

'If there is anything that one can always long for and sometimes find, it is the loving attachment to another human being.’ (Albert Camus)

(1)

The sky above the Rathaus

has grown

so blue.

All the planes

have flown away

and made

the clouds

pure and clean,

filled with a sparkling rain.

Listen close

and you can hear

birds' wings flapping

and their songs

wafting over the Neckar.

All well and good

but today

we are crippled

by a virus

that kills choirs

and separates

people

from each other

when all they ever yearned for

was to hug their families

and to bury their old people

with some kind

of dignity.

It will pass.

Choirs around the world

will embrace

each other again.

And celebrate

the blue skies

and how,

especially in a crisis,

people can find 

new ways

of crafting

love.

KEITH ARMSTRONG

(2)

Hundreds of miles

away,

I am touching 

trees

on the Platanenallee.

I am expressing 

solidarity

behind my mask.

I am bridging, 

with my imagination,

social distancing

so that I can enjoy

feeling the breath from the river

whispering joy

through Tuebingen's branches

and briefly kissing away

the curse of dreams

dying.

KEITH ARMSTRONG

(3)

BOULANGER LOCKDOWN

The bar

has fallen

silent,

shut down

by a quirk

of nature,

closed

out of fear.

I remember

the noise

of people ranting

in the vibrant night,

the clatter

of their tongues,

and beer glasses

echoing

in my dreams.

Now

the tables are covered

in a virus shroud.

We cannot touch

the surface of the wood,

we cannot even smile.

But, from Durham,

I send laughter

to the old and young,

the lonely.

I email hope 

to the suffering.

My old friend,

I will not forget

the poems you made:

they will live on

in the beauty 

of your grandchildren.

KEITH ARMSTRONG

(4)

THE BUSKER

This busker

plays a song

drunk with grief.

It seems that

all life's sadness

is gathered

in his loner's voice

that flutters

and stutters

across the street

in this closed-down town;

this cul de sac

soaked

in wasted wine

and bitter memories

of better days.

KEITH ARMSTRONG

(5)

PANDEMIC WEDDING

This is a marriage of loneliness, 

of inconvenience,

of social distance;

a separation

united in a strong affection,

a love of life

that transcends

a lockdown,

overcomes

the fear of touching.

KEITH ARMSTRONG

(6) 

The next time

I stride

through the door

of the Cafe Piccolo,

I will not wear

a face mask,

I will not be scared

to open up my heart.

I will take a beer

in my lips

and swallow

the sunshine of it,

cracking open

a new joke

to share with Michele

and next year's

spring flowers.

KEITH ARMSTRONG

(7)

ON CORONASTRASSE

On Coronastrasse,

there are lovers unable to touch one another,

children cut off from the old,

vicars who cannot pray in their own churches.

On Coronastrasse,

there are working girls who cannot find work,

footballers with no games to play in,

libraries with no books to borrow from.

On Coronastrasse,

there are hotels with no rooms to stay in,

buses and trains without any passengers,

seminar rooms emptied of seminars.

On Coronastrasse,

there will be sunshine again,

wine and song to fill the days and nights

and futures to dance in.

KEITH ARMSTRONG