UNESCO World Poetry Day 21 March

A belated blog post

Deadlines defeat me these days. I often ran with the wind to meet them when I was fully healthy, feverishly working to get the work submitted just on time, or thereabouts!

Naturally this means that my blog for World Poetry Day is overdue. A library book that needs returning. My thin excuses include the health ones (poor me, I’ve got AML), the standard ones (too busy) and the creative ones (my imaginary dog ate the blog post I had prepared earlier).

Nevertheless I have a video to share. Several weeks ago, my publishers and editor Ian Gilbert suggested that we pick one poem and have several Independent Thinking Associates read a verse each of Two Futures. It definitely adds a twist to the original poem as there’s 7 of us involved. It also adds in a surreal feel to an emotionally tough poem. It was published yesterday to acknowledge World Poetry Day: the first poem from the Blood Lines collection to be made publicly available.

One of the challenges is choosing how to read the poem. We went for sad stanzas followed by the more cheerful alternative future. It’s also possible to read sad-happy-sad-happy and have the poem bouncing back and forth between two possible futures.

For me, this video isn’t about the poem. It’s about friendship, love and support. That a group of people cared enough to practice reading a poem, doing this whilst recording themselves (never easy) and then submitting it for the world to see. Many volunteers are not featured as the poem simply wasn’t long enough to accommodate everyone.

One weirdness of cancer is that it’s like running an ultramarathon in slow motion. One that you didn’t expect to be undertaking, you had not prepared for, you don’t have a map, it’s frequently off-trail and eventually there are many possible endings ranging from completely cured to dead plus a wide diversity variables in between.

To have friends that join you for the challenge, however brief, is much appreciated. Thank you to all my ITL colleagues and Crown House Publishing for this gesture. This includes those that you don’t see on the video as well as those you do.

In case you recognise anyone, the running order is myself, Jonathan Lear, the Real David Cameron, Jane Hewitt, Andrew Bernard, Martin Illingworth, Hywel Roberts, Nina Jackson and me (again).

Finally Blood Lines is steadily becoming more available to pre-order. At the moment, you can do this at Blackwells, Brown’s Books, Amazon UK, WH Smiths, Hive, Barnes & Noble (US), The Portobello Bookshop nr Edinburgh