THE DOCTOR KEITH ARMSTRONG ARCHIVE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM

http://reed.dur.ac.uk/xtf/view?docId=ead/lit/armstrgk.xml






DURHAM  


Cobbled webs of my thoughts

hang around your lanes.

A brass band nestles in my head,

cosy as a bed bug.

I’m reading from a balcony

poems of Revolution.

It’s Gala Day and the words are lost

in the coal dust of your lungs.

Your dark satanic brooding Gaol

throws a blanket over blankness:

a grim era of second hand visions

aches like a scab in a cell.

And rowing a punt up your Bishop’s arse

a shaft of sunlight on the river

strikes me only as true,

shining into the eyes of all the prisoners

swinging from Cathedral bells.

Old Durham Town, you imprison me

like a scream in a Salvation Army song,

release me soon:

someone 

get ready to hug me.

KEITH ARMSTRONG

PETERLEE
 
Growing old
in a New Town,
we watch the sea roll,
stroll
through the fallen leaves
and cracked houses.
You whisper to me.
‘It’s the place to be’:
this misty dream,
this bird hanging from a tree,
this windblown giro world.
Across the flat roofs,
we danced and skipped
over the puddles and the nightmares.
The clouds hung in our eyes.
Older now, wize and wizened,
we stare from our windows in Sunny Blunts
and feel our skin peel.
‘Peter Lee is the Man in the Moon,’
we tell our kids,
‘he’s where it’s at.’

A stray dog barks in the moonlight.
Tonight, newspapers swept across grass,
it’s time to find
a future:
a New Moon,
a new New Town.


KEITH ARMSTRONG

DOCTOR KEITH ARMSTRONG & DURHAM

Keith Armstrong was founder of East Durham Writers' Workshop 

and the Durham Voices community publishing series.

He has compiled and edited books on the Durham Miners’ Gala and on the former mining communities of County Durham. He was Community Arts Development Worker (1980-6) with Peterlee Community Arts (later East Durham Community Arts) and was awarded a doctorate in 2007 for his work on 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.

He has also held residencies in Durham, Easington, Sedgefield, Derwentside, Teesdale and Wear Valley.

His commissioned work includes ‘Suite for the River Wear’ (with Dreaming North) (1989) for BBC Radio; and ‘The Little Count’ (with Andy Jackson and Benny Graham) (1993) for Durham County Council. He was the Judge for the Sid Chaplin Short Story Awards in 2000.

He has long pioneered cultural exchanges with Durham’s twinning partners, particularly Tuebingen and Nordenham in Germany and Ivry-sur-Seine and Amiens in France. In fact, he has visited Tuebingen over 30 times since he first spent a month there in November 1987 as poet in residence supported 

by Durham County Council and the Kulturamt, and he has performed his poetry in the city’s Hoelderlin Tower and, on four occasions, as part of its Book Festival.

An archive of his work is held at Palace Green Library, University of Durham. http://reed.dur.ac.uk/xtf/view?docId=ead/lit/armstrgk.xml

more raw material

THE BIRD WOMAN OF WHITLEY BAY

Photo by Tony Whittle 

She is out feeding the birds,

on the dot again,

in the drizzle of a seaside morning;

the seed 

cast fom her hand

to the jerking beak of a cock pheasant.

She is alone 

in a flock of dark starlings,

scattering crumbs to make them shriek.

She is a friend of spuggies,

gives blackbirds water.

Her eyes fly across the garden

to catch a quick robin,

to spot a wee wren,

to chase a bold magpie.

She is innocence,

she is a lovely old lady;

still giving,

still nursing.

She deserves heaven,

she deserves a beautiful nest

to dream out her last hours 

in bird song;

in the rich colours of music,

in the red feathers of sunset,

she is my mother,

she is a rare bird

who fed me beautiful dreams.

Thank you for letting me climb 

with the skylarks.

Thank you

for the strength of wings. 

KEITH ARMSTRONG

Thank you very much for this poem. Ever since I have heard you reading it out at “Poems, Prose, Pints” it has been on my mind – it’s written in such a gentle and honest voice. The poem may be dedicated to your mum, but, as you said in the pub, it’s something you could say about all mums. I certainly feel reminded of my own mother, who died not so long ago, when I read the poem.

Love

Brigitte

Hi Keith

Thanks for this beautiful poem.

Tim G

Dear Keith ! Thank you very much. You read this poem when you were here in Groningen. It moves me each time I read or hear it. Nice talking to you on the phone yesterday. All the best, yours, Henk

Thanks Keith - you moved me.

All best

Chrissie

The Bird Woman of Whitley is a lovely poem, Keith.  Beautiful tribute.

Trish.

You amazing poet YOU

- thank you for that that poem - it deserves a very good moment, but I will translate it.

Uwe

Lovely poem!

Keep sending them!

Julie

Good poem, Keith

Cheers

SallyE

Thank you, Keith, thank you –

 For bringing a fulsome tear to my eye with the sad and beautifully-crafted The Bird Woman of Whitley. How amazingly coincidental and serendipitous that you should have numbered me amongst those privileged to receive it because, just this afternoon, I have put in the post to you my Christmas book (in Irish) An Nollaig sa Naigín (Christmas in the Noggin [my homeplace]), which has in it the story Céad Sneachta na Nollag (First Christmas Snow), which features my own mother feeding two birds, they being the Robin and the Wren!!!!

 Bravo, my friend, and thank you for giving me the delight of reading so beautiful a poem.

Ré

Thats a nice poem Keith. Is that lady really your mum?

Mick

Thanks for sending me this beautiful poem. It really moved me. I have a special Mother too, she hasn't a selfish thought in her body. 

Cheers

Catherine Graham

Hi Keith loved the poem

Mike

Thanks for your beautiful poem Keith. I must write something special to my mum. 

Paul

NORTH EAST LABOUR HISTORY SOCIETY

Greetings one and all,

A First Tuesday meeting will be held at the Bridge Hotel, at 7.00 pm on 6th October 2015.

                       

   The Belgian Refugees: A Hundred Years On.

Next year marks one hundred years since the arrival of Belgian refugees into the region. Bill Lawrence  will bring us up to date with they and their families, and will discuss the events and publications planned, both in the North East and Belgium,  to  commemorate the centenary. Keith Armstrong will present his poem that has been specially commissioned as part of the celebrations.


'Thanks for the poem and thanks for your contribution the other evening. It went down well and the whole evening was entertaining as well as informative (I've been trying to reduce the po-faced academic element).' 

Brian Bennison (NELHS)

MOUTHS OF TYNE

photos: dr armstrong

This poet’s wild imagination

is open all hours.

Fired by the flash of barmaids

I have worshipped,

I crawl the Shields bars,

seeking memories 

of old sailors.

Thrashing through The Jungle

of sun-kissed lounges,

I look for a date

with a Tyneside Dolly,

trawl through the faded papers

for a glimpse of a dashing blade.

My thirsty history is in these pubs,

seeping through The Porthole,

swimming with the Low Lights blues.

My tongue is wagging with excitement,

I am the talk of the Tyne,

one of the many mouths

of this swilling river

in our blood.

KEITH ARMSTRONG 

HERITAGE OPEN DAYS 2015

Hookey Walker’s Farewell to Shields

South Shields Museum and Art Gallery, Ocean Road, South Shields, Tyne & Wear, NE33 2JA

Performance by poet Dr Keith Armstrong of the atmospheric narrative poem describing the state of South Shields in 1852 written by former Shields gazette Editor William Brockie (1811-1890), together with a short selection of other poetry by Brockie. The rendition was accompanied by sea shanties performed by South Shields folk heroes 'The Ancient Mariners'. All those attending received a Hooky Walker souvenir broadsheet at the performance.

Opening Times

• Thursday 10 September: Performance 12.00

Organised by

Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums

The Geordie Lamp: Celebrating the Stephenson Legacy

White Swan Centre, Citadel East, Killingworth, Tyne & Wear

A special event organised by Northern Voices Community Projects to mark the 200th anniversary of the invention of the 'Geordie' mining safety lamp by George Stephenson. The event included readings from 'North Tyneside Steam', the recently published book by Dr Keith Armstrong and Peter Dixon which tells the story of George Stephenson in Killingworth and North Tyneside and of steam railways in the area. Contributors to the book performed their poems, stories and songs as well as new materials inspired by the 'Geordie Lamp'. They were introduced by local poet Keith Armstrong with music from the Sawdust Jacks.

Additional information

North Tyneside Steam: This new book from Northern Voices Community Projects, was commissioned by North Tyneside Council in 2014, with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, It was published to mark the bicentenary of George Stephenson's steam locomotive Blucher and tells the story of its creator in Killingworth and North Tyneside and of steam railways in the area.

MAUD WATSON, FLORIST

bred in a market arch
a struggle
in a city’s armpit

that flower
in your time-rough hand’s
a beautiful girl in a slum alley

all that kindness in your face

and you’re right

the time are not what they were
this England’s not what it was

flowers shrink in the crumbling vase
dusk creeps in on a cart

and Maud the sun is choking

Maud this island’s sinking

and all that sleeping sea is

the silent majority

waving



Keith Armstrong

BERWICK 900