On Adrian Mitchell's Answerphone

On Adrian Mitchell's answerphone -
bells ring,
birds sing,
saxophones
swing!

On Adrian Mitchell's answerphone -
Blake works a miracle,
Big Ben sounds hysterical,
the world waxes lyrical!

On Adrian Mitchell's answerphone -
the passwords sigh,
the terrorists cry,
the children fly!

On Adrian Mitchell's answerphone -
leave plenty of love -
after the tone!


By Keith Armstrong


(As published in Red Pepper)




Dear Keith,


I hope you don't mind but I have put your Adrian Mitchell tribute poem
on my Facebook page - it's just beautiful.
I've put a link to your Write Out page there too.

Thank you,

Joe Galliano

Mad Dogs and Englishmen - Bierreclamemuseum, Breda 25.11.01

SHANNON

Dedicated to Richard St. John Harris and the roaring boys of Charlie St. George’s bar.

My heart is bursting its banks

with the songs of the Shannon. 

My girl friend wells up with the beauty of daybreak,

her breasts swell with the glory of sunshine, 

her eyes are glowing with wisdom. 

Swim with me to the Atlantic surge,

we can watch the mighty birds take flight,

we can feel the urge of history in our bones

and ride on the aching backs of workers.

Shannon, you are our breath aglow

with the salmon of knowledge.

You are the spray in our faces,

full of bubbles of inspiration

welling up in our surging veins.

Wise one,

lift me up in your flow,

leave me in awe of your wonder.

Let me sparkle with the birth of new ideas,

reach out for the touch of a sensational moon, 

dance in a festival of stars

and drown in the arms of a glorious goddess.

"There will be another song for me

for I will sing it.

There will be another dream for me,

someone will bring it.

I will drink the wine while it is warm

and never let you catch me looking at the sun

and after all the loves of my life,

after all the loves of my life,

you will still be the one.

I will take my life into my hands and I will use it,

I will win the worship in their eyes and I will lose it.

I will have the things that I desire

and my passion flow like rivers through the sky

and after all the loves of my life,

after all the loves of my life,

I will be thinking of you

and wondering why."

KEITH ARMSTRONG

From Anthology for a River, published by the Shannon Protection Alliance, 2012.

AVAILABLE NOW!

STILL THE SEA ROLLS ON

THE HARTLEY PIT CALAMITY OF 1862: 

a commemoration in words and images to mark its 150th anniversary

The Hartley Pit Calamity of 1862 was the first large scale mining disaster of Victorian times. The extent of the Calamity, together with the spreading of news by rail and telegraph, brought this tragic event in rural Northumberland into the homes of families throughout the land on a daily basis.

The reaction from the public, together with the interest shown by Queen Victoria, kept the story in the press for more than a month. Just as evidenced in 2010 in the Chilean mine rescue, the public were gripped by the horror of men trapped underground and the heroic efforts made to rescue them.

This new book from Northern Voices Community Projects, compiled and edited by Dr Keith Armstrong and Peter Dixon and commissioned by North Tyneside Council, has been published to mark the 150th anniversary of the Calamity. With historical documents and images, alongside poems, songs, stories, photographs and drawings by local people, it forms part of a series of events and activities intended to ensure that the story of Hartley is not forgotten.

COPIES CAN BE OBTAINED FROM:     

NORTHERN VOICES COMMUNITY PROJECTS, 93 WOODBURN SQUARE,WHITLEY BAY, TYNE & WEAR NE26 3JD TEL 0191 2529531 

EMAIL  k.armstrong643@btinternet.com

PRICE £7.99 (ADD £2 POSTAGE)

ISBN 978-1-871536-20-1

FIGHT TO THE FINISH

GORDON MACPHERSON

(1928-1999)

The life, poems and stories of an East Durham Miner

This is a moving and passionate account of one man’s extraordinary battle against adversity to raise a family in an East Durham pit village.

Gordon MacPherson's poetry and writing sums up the arduous working conditions that miners struggle under and his own personal battle with emphysema in later life.

 

Gordon was an ordinary miner who did great things. This book glows with love and human decency against all the odds.

It shows us the power of community and serves as an example for the future of this area of North East England and beyond. 

A MESSAGE FROM GRAHAME MORRIS, M.P. FOR EASINGTON

It was an honour to know Gordon MacPherson. He is an inspiration; a man committed to his community, family and with a deep love of the area where he was brought up. I am proud to have known Gordon and he was a friend and an inspiration.

 

This very personal, moving and evocative account of one man’s extraordinary battle against adversity to raise a family in an East Durham pit village in many ways typifies past working class struggles.

Order from: Northern Voices Community Projects, 93 Woodburn Square, Whitley Lodge, Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear NE26 3JD tel. 0191 2529531 or: Heather Wood, 8 Comet Drive, Easington, County Durham SR8 3EP tel. 0191 5270371.

ISBN  978-1-871536-15-4                             PRICE £5 (add £2.50 postage)

ATHLETE

You cut sharp strides

through the crowds.

You push aside 

the clouds;

all the weak, the mild,

the losers and dregs,

all of those

who might cramp 

your style

as you unleash

your barking legs.

You aim

and shoot yourself

at the line.

You claim to own

the better time.

At heart,

in bed, 

you’re an impatient mover;

for all that you lack

as a casual lover

you know

you will gain

on the track.

You are

the sexual athlete.

You run

to save your life.

When you breathe

you compete

for a place

for a wife,

for all the medals

the system mints;

all those that gleam

in your ‘healthy’ head

as fresh 

from an early morning stint,

you’re the first

to drop

down dead.

KEITH ARMSTRONG 

from a swahili phrasebook

TUEBINGEN/DURHAM LITERARY/ARTS TWINNING

The twinning continues to go from strength to strength. Poet Doctor Keith Armstrong and folk-rock musician Gary Miller, lead singer of Durham band the Whisky Priests, travelled to Tuebingen at the end of March for performances in pubs, cabaret venues and schools where they performed with Tuebingen poet Tibor Schneider who visits Durham in October as part of the ongoing exchange. Tibor will join his Durham counterparts for readings at St Chad’s College, Durham University as well as in schools and pubs.

Durham University poet John Clegg, together with Keith, will return the compliment with a trip to Tuebingen in March 2013.

Last year, Tuebingen rock musician Juergen Sturm jetted in with his music partner Mary Jane at the end of October for pub gigs, including a twinning event in Durham on Monday 31st October featuring Juergen and Mary Jane with Durham folk musicians and poets. That followed on from a visit to Tuebingen in South Germany in early April 2011 by Keith Armstrong and photographer/artist Peter Dixon. The intrepid pair worked together on a touring display featuring Armstrong's poems and Dixon's photographs documenting the unique link between Tuebingen and Durham which was staged initially in the Durham Room at County Hall, Durham in November. Armstrong performed his poetry in cafes, bars and schools and met up with Tuebingen friends, old and new, with the multi-talented Dixon capturing all of it on film. 

This trip reciprocated a visit to Durham in November 2010 by Tuebingen poets Henning Ziebritzki and Carolyn Murphey Melchers, when Juergen Stuerm also took part in a series of pub performances. There was a special event at Clayport Library, Durham City on Monday November 1st with the Tuebingen poets and special guests from Durham, followed by a rousing session in the Dun Cow when Juergen, with Mary Jane, and his Durham counterparts, Gary Miller and Marie Little belted out their lively songs.

In addition to his most recent visit, Armstrong was in Tuebingen in May 2010 with Gary Miller for performances in his favourite Tuebingen bar ‘The Boulanger’ and at a local school. This followed a special guest appearance in 2009 at the biannual Book Festival, a reading with Tuebingen counterpart Eva Christina Zeller and a visit to local schools. Eva visited Durham for readings in schools and at a special event on May 13th 2009 at Clayport Library which also featured poets Katrina Porteous, Jackie Litherland, Cynthia Fuller, and William Martin, as well as Doctor Armstrong and music from the Durham Scratch Choir and Andy Jackson.

A highly successful series of events were held in 2007 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the literary/arts twinning established by Keith Armstrong when he first visited Tuebingen in 1987 for a month’s residency, supported by Durham County Council and Tuebingen’s Kulturamt. Since then, there have been readings and performances in pubs, universities and castles, schools, libraries, book festivals, jazz and cabaret clubs, even in Hermann Hesse’s old apartment, involving poets, writers, teachers and musicians from the twin partnerships of Durham and Tuebingen.

Tuebingen’s music duo Acoustic Storm, poet/translator Carolyn Murphey Melchers and Cultural Officer visited Durham and the North East in October/November 2007. The musicians performed in Durham schools and pubs and there was a special evening in Durham’s Clayport Library to celebrate the twinning, with Keith Armstrong launching his new Tuebingen poetry booklet and performances by poets Carolyn Murphey Melchers, Katrina Porteous, William Martin, Michael Standen, Ian Horn, Cynthia Fuller, Hugh Doyle and musicians Acoustic Storm, Marie Little and Gary Miller. Margit Aldinger of the Kulturamt in Tuebingen and Brian Stobie of the International Department, Durham County Council, also addressed the audience.

For the record, here's a list of those who have made it happen so far:

Tuebingen visitors to Durham since 1987:

Carolyn Murphey Melchers, Karin Miedler, Gerhard Oberlin, Uwe Kolbe, Johannes Bauer, Eva Christina Zeller, Simone Mittmann, Florian Werner, Juergen Sturm, Mary Jane, Wolf Abromeit, Christopher Harvie, Eberhard Bort, Marcus Hammerschmitt, Henning Ziebritzki.

Durham visitors to Tuebingen since 1987:

Keith Armstrong, Michael Standen, Julia Darling, Andy Jackson, Fiona MacPherson, Katrina Porteous, Marie Little, Ian Horn, Alan C. Brown, Linda France, Jackie Litherland, Cynthia Fuller, Margaret Wilkinson, Jez Lowe, Jack Routledge, Gary Miller, Matthew Burge, David Stead, Hugh Doyle, Peter Dixon.

These events were supported by Tuebingen’s Kulturamt and Durham County Council.

FURTHER INFORMATION: NORTHERN VOICES TEL. 0191 2529531

jingling geordie!

inspiration quest

ARTS & DARTS!

Born in Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne, where he has worked as a community development worker, poet,librarian and publisher, Keith Armstrong, now residing in the seaside town of Whitley Bay, is coordinator of the Northern Voices Community Projects creative writing and community publishing enterprise which specialises in recording the experiences of people in the North East of England. He has organised several community arts festivals in the region and many literary events featuring the likes of Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Douglas Dunn, Barry Hines, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Katrina Porteous, Ian McMillan, Sean O'Brien, Edward Bond, Edwin Morgan, Uwe Kolbe, Attila the Stockbroker, Jon Silkin, Ivor Cutler, Adrian Mitchell, Julia Darling, Jackie Kay, Frank Messina, Ron Whitehead, Benjamin Zephaniah, Liz Lochhead, The Poets from Epibreren, Tsead Bruinja, The Poetry Virgins, and The Poetry Vandals. 

He was founder of Ostrich poetry magazine, Poetry North East, Tyneside Writers' Workshop, Tyneside Poets, East Durham Writers' Workshop, Tyneside Trade Unionists for Socialist Arts, Tyneside Street Press and the Strong Words and Durham Voices community publishing series.

He has recently compiled and edited books on the Durham Miners' Gala, the former mining communities of County Durham, the market town of Hexham amd the heritage of North Tyneside.

He qualified as a Chartered Librarian at Newcastle Polytechnic and was employed in this field at Newcastle University Library, Blyth Public Library, International Research and Development Company (I.R.D.,Newcastle), Merz & McLellan Consulting Engineers (Killingworth), Gateshead College and Sunderland Libraries, before becoming a community worker with Newcastle Neighbourhood Projects (part of Community Projects Foundation), research worker withTyneside Housing Aid Centre, and then Community Arts Development Worker (1980-6) with Peterlee Community Arts (later East Durham Community Arts).

As an industrial librarian at I.R.D., he was christened 'Arts & Darts', organising an events programme in the firm incuding poetry readings, theatrical productions, and art exhibitions by his fellow workers, as well as launching Ostrich poetry magazine using the firm's copying facilities and arranging darts matches between departments!

He has been a self-employed writer since 1986 and he was awarded a doctorate in 2007 for his work of Newcastle writer Jack Common at the University of Durham where he received a BA Honours Degree in Sociology in 1995 and Masters Degree in 1998 for his studies on regional culture in the North East of England.  

His book on Jack Common 'Common Words and the Wandering Star' was published by the University of Sunderland Press in 2009.

TUEBINGEN 1989

(to Alfonsas Nyka-Niliunas) 

Oh Jenny

you walked with me in your dreamy way

along Hauffstrasse,

my lady out of a fairy tale,

blonde hair shimmered

golden

in the Neckar breeze.

And what exactly were we doing

together

sharing those crazy moments?

Wild flower

plucked from Friedrich’s grave,

you wanted something more tangible

I fear

in your oh so sensual way.

You intoxicated me 

with the strange fragrance 

of your long sexy fingers,

the depth of your lips.

But you couldn’t understand

why I called you ‘Caroline von Schlegel’,

why I wanted to make love to you

in smutty Amsterdam

on a creaking canal boat

on soaking Prinsengracht,

when I could

have had you

simply,

basically,

all to myself

on your bed

at home.

KEITH ARMSTRONG

Alfonsas Nyka-Niliunas was born in 1919 in the highland region of Lithuania. He studied Romance languages and literatures and philosophy at the University of Kaunas and the University of Vilnius. In 1944, as the Soviets encroached upon Lithuania, he escaped to Germany, where he lived in Displaced Persons camps until 1949, furthering his studies at Tübingen and Freiburg universities. In 1950, Nyka-Niliunas emigrated to the United States, He is considered to be one of the main émigré poets. He has published a number of books of poetry, has translated Dante, Virgil, Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, Baudelaire and other important European poets into Lithuanian, and has been awarded many prizes, amongst them the Lithuanian National Prize for Literature.

thought from mark

I believe, to progress human beings have to think critically. Neo-liberal governments have removed critical thought from education in the last twenty years. It is not considered necessary for a consumer society. Now we're in a mess. We can only move forward once we reintroduce critical thought in education. Critical thought can make people discontented and unhappy but it also gives them a tool with which to change the world.

MARK RAVENHILL

GEORGE ORWELL FESTIVAL

Dr Keith Armstrong will give a talk and reading on Newcastle writer Jack Common (1903-68) at this year's George Orwell Festival, David's Bookshop, Eastcheap, Letchworth. 7.30pm, Saturday 22nd September. Admission free. Armstrong's doctorate at the University of Durham was based on the life and work of Common. Common was a friend of Orwell and at one time looked after his cottage in nearby Wallington when Orwell was away on travels.

NORTHERN VOICES COMMUNITY PROJECTS

NORTHERN VOICES COMMUNITY PROJECTS  

93 WOODBURN SQUARE,WHITLEY LODGE,WHITLEY BAY,TYNE& WEAR NE26 3JD                        

TEL 0191 2529531 

The objectives of Northern Voices Community Projects are to:

1) Offer a platform for the views and experiences of those people living in the North East of England who are normally denied a voice. Through this, question and subvert established views of culture and the distortions which often surround them and give support to local autonomy and integrity as opposed to centralism and the anti-democractic hierarchies of government and big business, the aristocracy, mass media and ever increasing quangos.

2) Contribute to the culture of the region through a projects and events programme which celebrates its diverse communities, in particular the currently neglected working class, and the area's history and politics and dissenting tradition. Recent projects have involved a touring show in Northumbrian churches, performing poetry on the beaches, working in the community of Spittal, profiling Whitley Bay's Spanish City and the Marsden Rock in South Shields, celebrating the Newcastle writer Jack Common and the Durham links of poet Christopher Smart, performing and recording with folk, pop, classical and jazz musicans and exhibiting with visual artists and photographers. Important events have recently been staged with Amnesty International, the Tyneside Irish Cultural Society and the North East Labour History Society. 

Northern Voices Community Projects attempts to be original and innovative in its programme and to seriously engage with local people and issues rather than indulge in the predictable and unchallenging nature of many cultural events and projects which are often more to do with careerism and the overbearing machinations of cultural bodies which see the arts as a vehicle for commerce and business. 

3) Develop links with likeminded people and institutions, locally, nationally and internationally by a commitment to collective action and to engaging in political activity in an historical context. Recently, reciprocal links have been established with Limerick and Cork, Bradford, Liverpool, Lincoln, Sheffield, Penrith, Aberdeen and Edinburgh and there are significant international links with, for example, Groningen in The Netherlands and Tuebingen in Germany, stretching back some twenty years. Further similar links are actively sought in order to avoid literary and publishing activity being presented in overtly institutionalised, centralised and isolated cultural ghettos which merely replicate prevailing establishment and ruling class orthodoxies.

Such links also question overly cosy notions of  'The North' and celebrate North East England's place in the world and particularly in Europe.

4) Offer help and advice to local people seeking to develop a voice. This can be through creative writing, songs, community research or on tape and through the media and new technology.

Membership is open to anyone who shares the objectives of Northern Voices Community Projects and who wishes to engage in community arts activity in the North East of England.

Northern Voices Community Projects acknowledges project support from the Community Foundation, Awards for All and North Tyneside Council.

SAVING GRACE

The Grace Darling League

must be one of those 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.

In your Museum,

the Flotsam & Jetsam

drifts on a becalmed Bamburgh day.

A sharp sunlight cuts through the church window:

‘Out of the Deep have I called unto Thee’;

‘Charity, Faith & Hope’.

These tangled words that make up our lives,

the tattered wrecks, flaked skins.

I stare in awe at a piece of the Oar you used,

constructing a jigsaw of your life:

here is a scrap of your dress,

a throb of your ‘English Heart’;

here, locked up, a lock of your hair,

a handbag containing your thoughts;

and ‘There’s The Girl That I Love Dearly’,

a storm in a teacup,

a National Heroine of Japan

who coughed herself to death

like a seagull choking in oil,

like the bloodshot wreck of a dying Empire:

‘Saving Grace’,

save our souls:

Sister,

Save Our Souls.

KEITH ARMSTRONG 

Keith Armstrong at The Black Light Engine Room - Poetry Bookshop Online

Keith Armstrong at The Black Light Engine Room - Poetry Bookshop Online

TIDELINE

We are breathers of water

take sea air

We waltz in breezes

dream of waves

We break voices on shores

sink in the deep

We swim with sea horses

drink the ocean

We are poets of surf

skim on tides

We are dancers in sand 

dip toes in sun

We soak poems in North Sea

rock with the roll of it

We are fishes flying

scream with seagulls

We walk on coral streets

awash with words

We are sharks at the seaside

laugh with dolphins

We hear echoes of foghorns

lonely in dunes

We are singers of shanties

roar with ships                                

KEITH ARMSTRONG

ROOKS AT BUNRATTY CASTLE

We’re Macnamara’s crows,

rooting for sticks and twigs in Limerick days.

We peck the flesh from Lord Gort’s arse,

from the hangers-on to his rich pickings.

We sweep our turbulent wings across the Shannon,

swimming in the Atlantic winds,

flailing over the airport.

We’re building our own

branches of castles,

screaming rebel rants at you below.

Us rooks

have seen the Vikings and the Stoddarts

rave and die.

We are a black brood

swarming though history,

watching you feckless humans

scrap over misery.

See how our wings beat

with the moment’s surf.

How dark our hearts grow 

with suffering.

Keith Armstrong

SONGBIRD

If I had been a really professional poet,

I would be still rewriting this,

poring over the umpteenth draft,

burning the midnight quill.

As it is, all I want to say again is this:

that a songbird does not need an Arts Council grant

to sing.

Keith Armstrong

I WANT MY POEMS IN A BIG PRESS

So you’re in print with a small press

a little press for a short arse

Well I want my poems in a big press

a large press with big breasts

with poems that talk to the world

with spirit in every word

KEITH ARMSTRONG 

MEN OF THE NORTH

Doctor Keith Armstrong presents:

‘Men of the North’ (part of Local History Month)

From poet John Cunningham to wood engraver Thomas Bewick, political agitator and poet Tom Spence, painter John Martin to writer Jack Common - their stories told by Dr Keith Armstrong aka The Jingling Geordie who also performs his own poems dedicated to this splendid array of local talent.

Thursday 17th May 2011  6.30-7.30pm 

Bewick Hall, Newcastle City Library

Admission free

Further information: tel 0191 2774149