BasketLogin Donate
Navigation
  • The Trust & Cyprus Well
    • About
    • A Short Film
    • Who We Are
    • Support our Work
    • About Cyprus Well
  • Competition
  • What’s on
    • Warm Space Sessions
    • Young People’s Poetry Competition
    • Community events
    • Events with Rachel Piercey
  • The Work We Do
    • Poetry Competitions
    • Ambassadors
    • Events & Workshops
    • Residencies
    • Centenary 2017
  • Charles Causley
    • About Charles Causley
    • Causley’s Launceston
    • A (Partial) Bibliography
  • News
  • Blog
  • Shop
  • Contact
  • Support Us
  • £0.00

The Maker The Charles Causley Literary Blog

Home Blog March Musings by Sue Wallace-Shaddad

March Musings by Sue Wallace-Shaddad

March 15, 2023
In my Musings last month I talked about attending the Charles Causley Trust’s Winter Warmer Poetry Retreat. The Trust plans many other events over the next few months including their annual festival, so do check out news items on the website.  I have just started reading Patrick Gale’s novel, Mother’s Boy, which was published in 2022 and is based on Charles Causley’s boyhood and youth, available from Patrick’s website (Patrick is a Patron of the Trust). Dempsey and Windle have featured Charles Causley in their 190th newsletter . It is well worth signing up to this newsletter as it is very informative and also gives opportunities for reading at their regular open mic and having a poem published in the newsletter. 

After the retreat I continued to the North Cornwall coast to stay with family for a few days. My daughter has been battling with understanding the lay of the land (literally), trying to get to the bottom of what exists by way of mining reports for where she lives. It reminded me that last year I reviewed Morag Smith’s pamphlet ‘Spoil’ (Broken Sleep Books) for The Alchemy Spoon Issue 6. You can read the online issue here and enjoy some excerpts from the poems. They cover tin mining in Cornwall and the tough lives of workers, particularly young women, the bal maidens. In the review I describe Morag’s poems as ‘grounded in the ancient physicality of the landscape.’  

Mary J Oliver, writer and artist, recently shared a wonderful photograph on Facebook which she has kindly agreed I can share (below). She commented online: ‘I find it so hard to take a photo of a Cornish tin mine that isn’t naff’. The photo really brings home the closeness of many mines to the sea. I find I notice them much more in winter when there are no leaves on the trees. There were some 2000 tin mines in Cornwall in the 19th century and now, of course, there is a new interest in lithium mining.  

I have just discovered the website which records the life and poetry of Cornish miner and poet John Harris, 1820 – 1824. There are some hugely evocative poems to be read there. You can also read a poignant poem by Wilfred Owen written in response to a coal mining disaster in Staffordshire, ‘Miners’, which also brings in the First World War, on the PoetryArchive website. Here is an extract:  

I saw white bones in the cinder-shard, 

Bones without number. 

For many hearts with coal are charred, 

And few remember. 

 

Mining seems to me to have several commonalities with poetry. We have to mine language for the most appropriate word and image. We mine memories and events we and others have experienced. This can read to great riches when we hit a seam we can follow. A poem may take us deeper into the landscape before us; unexpected emotions can come to the surface. What might be considered ‘dross’, e.g. unused drafting, can be revisited again and may feed into another poem.  

Happy mining as you write! 

If you would like to contact me to comment or follow up, please send me an email via the contact box on my website 

Related Posts

Visiting St Thomas, by Rachel Piercey

March 22, 2023

My 5 Favourite Poems I Think You Should Know About

March 21, 2023

Picking up the Pen: A Step-by-Step Guide on Writing Your First Short Story 

March 20, 2023

March – the month for nature writing

March 17, 2023

Poet in Residence Rachel Piercey gives us an insight into her first week in Launceston

March 13, 2023

Then there were two by Mark Fiddes

March 2, 2023
  • Next Post
  • Previous Post
Preserving Causley's legacy by creating opportunities for writers, artists, and communities to develop and connect through a programme of residencies, competitions and events.

Newsletter Signup

Subscribe to the Charles Causley Trust and receive notifications of news & events.

Follow Us

Our Crowdfunder for our Imagine Yourself to Wellness warm space sessions will end in 4 days – if you would like to… https://t.co/jEN6Y0IbMt

Follow us for all the latest news and information

Support The Charles Causley Trust

Donate
Copyright © 2023 The Charles Causley Trust, all rights reserved. Registered in England and Wales Registered Charity: 1152107. Privacy Policy. Terms & Conditions.
Responsive website by Matrix.

Basket

No products in the basket.