2017-06-09 - Kings Place (London, UK - Poetry and Lyrics)

[derbyshirepaul]

Spotted this - apologies if already posted elsewhere. Still some seats including front row at time of typing!

http://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/sp ... -pj-harvey

[DrDark]

bump

[derbyshirepaul]

My tix arrived over the weekend!

[DrDark]

bump again

[Kuk91]

I hope she might announce the long-awaited "H6DP" documentary at one of these forthcoming poetry events (seeing how Seamus Murphy's site is being upgraded for a month or so now). But also I'm pretty sure that this prediction will fail, and nobody will be surprised by that.

[DrDark]

...and nobody will be surprised by that.

Yup..

[Kuk91]

Spoiler! :

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVIdQOCD0d8/




https://www.instagram.com/p/BVIeKt_DH7V/

Spoiler! :

[stuffandstuff]

A really interesting event. As someone who found the effect of The Hollow of the Hand muted by the austerity of the language (which at times I felt reduced her observations to banality), it's great to see her being so stylistically adventurous. Also great to see her interviewed at length!

[Kuk91]

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVIw6hklHn-/

Spoiler! :

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVIxd_nBQRY/

[Kuk91]

[AineteEkaterini]

Thank you!

Roundabout, roundabout maggoty pie ... http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=1605

Oh, and Luther's Coppice is just southeast of Corscombe.

... at times I felt reduced her observations to banality ...

I rather thought that, although hearing The Hand read out on the radio a couple of weeks ago made the repetition and blankness of the words strangely effective: it has a cumulatively dreadful power, reducing the human being to one body part. This is very different in style, and tone - proper liplicking gothic at points!

[derbyshirepaul]

I thought this was a pretty wonderful evening!

John Wilson is clearly an interviewer Polly is comfortable with, and she has a very strong relationship with Don Paterson who she described as a mentor, and who also read some interesting poems.

Polly herself seemed relaxed, enjoying the conversations, and very open in sharing the new direction of her poetry.

The new poems - bearing in mind that this is still a "work in progress" - are visceral. Drawing on her childhood knowledge ("I know a lot about forests and sheep!"), we got tasters including the thoughts of ewes being chased by a horny ram, and the sexual appetite of farmhands! Lots of sexual expression too, and a tantalising just-sung reference of the song of a bird!

And, personally, I had the highlight of actually meeting Polly for the first time after so many years, when she signed a copy of The Hollow Of The Hand for me!

I told her I had been a follower of hers since Dry - she said "That's a long time!" - and complimented her on the new poems. She explained more about how she was trying to do something different with the new work. I also referenced seeing her at the New Yorker festival in 2006, when she was interviewed by Hilton Als. As she remembered that event, she reflected that the conversation with Hilton also looked at how she writes and her approach to creating work. She laughed when I said I had a bootleg of the event, and she said "I'd like to hear that!"

And she signed my book with "Good to meet you".....

To anyone who says "Don't ever meet your idols", I totally disagree. I met Polly and she was as engaging, interesting, honest, and in the moment as I could ever have wanted. A wonderful end to a fascinating evening!

[TheNightingale]

Thanks for sharing!

Did she mention her music in the conversation or was it all about poetry? Any insights about The Hope Six Demolition Project, since she hasn't done any interviews about it?

[derbyshirepaul]

Thanks for sharing!

Did she mention her music in the conversation or was it all about poetry? Any insights about The Hope Six Demolition Project, since she hasn't done any interviews about it?

There was an interesting discussion about her seeking out a different style of writing to the Hollow of the Hand poems, which she agreed with John Wilson were of a more "journalistic" style.

Also an interesting discussion about the difference between poetry and song lyrics, with Polly being very clear that good poetry doesn't mean it can easily be sung. John Wilson challenged her about the Hollow poems that became songs on Hope Six - her response was that only a couple of the songs had the same lyrics as the poems, and pointed out that a number had word changes to make them sing-able. She also talked about how music brings a different context and needs to be able to complement the lyric, and that sometimes strong poetry would not allow for that. Don Paterson then talked a bit about Dylan as a kind of "exception that proves the rule"

The only other bit I remember about Hope Six was the well-worn writing down of commentary about Hope Six from the local journalist showing her around - didn't add anything new.

She also talked about how poetry sometimes moves her - like a stone rolling away from the cave of her guts! She was visually moving her hand from the front of her stomach area as she described this.

[AineteEkaterini]

Thank you so much for that - in the absence of any recordings of the interview (yet), whether you could recall any of the conversation was going to be my next question.