There are two podcasts left to share with you, and they are both readings by the 7*******s writers. Over the last three months during Andrew’s residency and my own involvement with the Charles Causley Trust we have shared many conversations, poetry group meetings, workshops and come to discuss our own and other’s writing in the intimate surroundings of Causley’s own home. Andrew has hosted the group twice during his residency, and we in turn have shared each others work, often new writing, unfinished, in progress, and experimental in nature. Like many poetry groups that meet regularly there is a shared familiarity and trust that can only grow over time.
The 7 *******s met in the back room of the pub of the same name in Falmouth, Cornwall. We transported our workshop meetings to Cyprus Well in Launceston twice, once in January and then again in April this year. A poetry group comes together as a group of readers and listeners as much as it does as writers, and while we didn’t record the critique of each other’s work – as its quite important to maintain the intimacy that group analysis has to offer – we recorded the poems each of us had brought to the sessions.
I think you’ll enjoy the variety and topical nature of these contemporary works, some directly inspired by Causley’s own work – like Jan’s response to Causley’s “Ballad of the Bread Man” along with Daria Tyzlik-Carver’s and my own experiments with using a “Cut Up” writing technique using Charles’s own words – “The Seasons of North Cornwall” and ” I am the Song”.
Finally, the photographer Becky Screeton accompanied our first group session back in February, and I’ve included some of her photos of us at Causley’s home here.
The 7*******s writers who attended the Causley Sessions were:
Andrew Fentham
David Devanney
Anna Cathenka
Kieron Nightingale
Mac Dunlop
Toby Aisbitt
Mel Johnston
We very much hope you enjoy listening to our work.
Mac Dunlop mentored Andrew Fentham throughout his residency at Cyprus Well, and will continue to support The Trust throughout the centenary year ahead.
