the anxious poet’s podcast

This piece comes from a collection I am writing about my life and experience of the city of Sheffield. I hope to publish this in 2021 alongside a series of photographs. The music is by Andy Selman. The article mentioned can be found at https://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/aug/21/tragic-story-of-sheffield-park-hill-bridge The production of Standing at the Sky's Edge was at the Crucible and they are hoping to reprise it in November. https://www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/events/standing-at-the-skys-edge-1 

This poem is taken from my collection entitled Arriving In Magic and is available on Amazon or from my website adriangrscott.com 

Thanks to Andy Selman for the musical accompaniment. 

Fiona Watson is a Mindfulness Practitioner in Sheffield. You can find more about her at http://www.fionawatsonmindfulness.com The poems used are Easdale Tarn from A Night Sea Journey, Haste from Arriving in Magic, www.adriangrscott.com The Wendell Berry Poem is called The Peace of Wild Things and can be found in his selected poems. Many thanks to Fiona for joining me. The conversation was recorded on Zoom so apologies for the quality. 

The poem Silence is to be found in Adria's Book Arriving In Magic. The Music used was composed for the piece by Andy Selman - local Sheffield musician. Adrian and Andy are beginning to collaborate on music and poetry projects. They are hoping to produce an album of poems and music in the future and (when things are safe) to do some live gigs. www.adriangrscott.com  

A slightly longer mini-ish Poemcast for my birthday - reflecting the time of lockdown we are living through. Thanks to my old friend Graham H Nash for the music. The poem used is from my latest collection - A Night Sea Journey available from www.adriangrscott.com 

The poems read in this Podcast are The Real Truth from The Call of the Unwritten by Adrian Scott, Incertus by Seamus Heaney, from New and Selected Poems 1966-1987, A Dream of Trains by Pablo Neruda from Five Decades :Poems 1925-1970, Iron Hans by Anne Sexton from Transformations, an unpublished poem called A Moment in Each Day by Adrian Scott, and Taking Stock from The Call of the Unwritten by Adrian Scott. The film mentioned is Il Postino (the Postman) available on amazon prime. The book about Ruskin is To See Clearly - Why Ruskin Matters by Suzanne Fagence Cooper. 

The Music is called Priveghiati si va Rugati by Angela Gheorghiu, the Romanian National Choir "Madrigal-Marin Constantin", the London Philharmonic Orchestra & Ion Marin. The title means watch and pray. This is often chanted on Holy Thursday after the service and remembers Jesus in the garden of gethsemane and his words to the his friends as they struggled to stay awake. 

The second Poemcast, a short period of poetic reverie, for as William Blake says "There is a Moment in each Day that Satan cannot find Nor can his Watch Fiends find it, but the Industrious find This Moment & it multiply. & when it once is found It renovates every Moment of the Day if rightly placed." (Milton, Plate 35:42-3)

In this difficult and frighteningly uncertain time we have not only to face our outer fears but our inner ones too. This inner journey introduces us to parts of ourselves that we are unfamiliar with and need to be negotiated with, to be dialogued with, to have secret talks with. Then we will be better fitted to face this changing world as it unfolds with resilience and vulnerability. 

Go well in these more isolated and solitary times. Adrian (the anxious poet). 

(the Music is from Baraka)

This is a new initiative for the Anxious Poet's Podcast - Poemcasts, a short sharing of one poem as a way of pausing in a busy day and opening ourselves up to another economy. To the slow work of reverie, of musing and absorption. This is the poem Falling from the book Arriving in Magic, to be found on Amazon or at www.adriangrscott.com  The Music is by a good friend of mine Graham Nash (not of Crosby Stills Nash and Young vintage, rather a lovely musician from Sheffield. 

This episode explores the twin phenomena of vulnerability and resilience. Adrian uses five poems, Keel Hauled from The Call of The Unwritten, All At Sea from A Night Sea Journey, When Will You Be ready and There is a Certain Kind for Vow from Arriving in Magic, House Martins in the Eves is a new piece. The rest are available on www.adriangrscott.com Brenee Brown's work can be found at  https://brenebrown.com 

In this episode Adrian speaks of Christmas and the Solstice Season. With his own poetry and that of Charles Causley, Kristian Evans, and Dylan Thomas he leads us into the season of the Holly King and the dark of winter. 

In this podcast Adrian is working with the poetry of Dylan Thomas the welsh prophet who lived in the middle part of the 20th Century. Using his own and Dylan's poetry he explores the ways in which we wrestle with the dark and the light, with life and death, with innocence and experience. The pain we experience that creates many of our mental health issues is faced, both head on and avoided with addiction in Dylan's tempestuous life. This allows us to explore these issues through the lyrical and mysterious lines of this enigmatic poet.