Cambridge Word Fest Day 1

Free WiFi on a bus, bonus! It makes the 1 hour journey go a lot faster, yes I can't live without the internet. I did end up reading a really interesting article by Hugh Grant where he bugs the bugger in interviewing an ex-News of the World journalist: Hugh Grant strikes back
It's definitely worth a read.

I got into Cambridge around 12 and went straight to buy my tickets to learn the hard way to book in advance, the History writing workshop had sold out as did Dawn French's talk. Bugger! However, the poetry workshop was still available, but that was on at 4pm meaning I had 4 hours to kill in Cambridge, if it was not being stopped by a lovely pair of Mormons it was stopping by Lush, yes I am an addict, but I bought the soap that donates money to Japan, so it wasn't all self serving and materialistic, I don't even like coconut.

Anyway, I should be talking about the day: the poetry workshop with Don Paterson, it was definitely interesting. It was cool to chat with other writers of different skill and success levels (as opposed to the student environment) as well as listening to Don answer some of their intriguing and insightful comments; I felt I learned a lot about the process of writing poetry and what it means to be a poet. Interestingly his perspective was not that poetry can be used for therapy for the writer (he says when that happens it's not poetry) but is actually therapeutic for the reader, it allows the reader to connect with their own feelings and emotions rather than have the writer dictate. At least that was one thing I took away from the workshop, amongst other things. He talked a lot about neurology and poetry, how we process information in 3 second gaps, how rhythm, rhyme and meter affect the brain, how poetry uses language and how the sounds of language make you feel, not just the words. As a person very much interested by the brain and a person who studied psychology, it offered an interesting way of looking at poetry, as well as his talk about syntax and etymology - two areas of language that chime with me.

In the end I felt as though I could write poetry, most of my stuff is crap, but actually if, say, I work on the technical side of poetry I can learn to work it as second nature, so as soon as that inspiration strikes then I've got the tools for expressing it, without corrupting it thinking, "does the rhythm work? Have I got the form right?" and thinking things I shouldn't be worried about, not at least until I start editing it.

And now on to day 2, I hope that the Ian McEwan and Sam Harris session isn't fully booked because a discussion on science a morality sounds fantastic, maybe the Wiki Leaks event too as I suspect the topic of 'free speech' will come up as well as some interesting discussion on journalism. I'll remember to take pictures, even if it's just of a building in Cambridge, pictures make a blog look pretty after all.