TIME FOR POETRY II

Following on from the last blog post - Time For Poetry - here are two more books I'm reading for education and entertainment:



Two Cures For Love by Wendy Cope
Faber & Faber



Out Of The Blue by Simon Armitage
Faber & Faber

TIME FOR POETRY

I have been reading and studying a lot of poetry recently for my amusement and education.  Here are the four books currently on the go.



Mesopotamia by Damian Smyth
Templar



Yellow Tulips by James Fenton
Faber & Faber



New Selected Poems by Carol Ann Duffy
Penguin


For education purposes, I have gone back to basics and read (with active participation in the writing exercises), this guide:



Write Poetry (And Get It Published) by Matthew Sweeney & John Hartley Williams.
Teach Yourself

Some interesting new ideas (and hopefully completed work) coming out of the JC head (2 pieces have been accepted already for publication).

Happy to receive, review and promote new poetry books on this site.

CARY GRANT - DYAN CANNON

Dear Cary: My Life With Cary Grant

Here's the blurb from the Waterstones website:

Dyan Cannon wasn't looking for romance when she sat own for lunch with Cary Grant in the studio canteen; she was a young actress on the outskirts of Hollywood just hoping for her big break. What she found was a star-crossed soul mate - a man who fell instantly in love with her, pursued her relentlessly and eventually persuaded her to love him back equally. Cary Grant and Dyan Cannon were a glamorous and popular celebrity couple, the epicentre of chic and swinging 1960s Hollywood. For a few brief years their romance flourished; they married and had a daughter. Their romance played out like one of Grant's movies - bold, witty, full of dramatic gestures, and equally tender moments. When the love died, however, it ended in the same way it had started: dramatically, on courthouse steps and on the front page of every newspaper in the world. Sweet, sad, candid and honest, Dear Cary reveals a side of Cary Grant the world has never before seen. It has taken Dyan Cannon two decades to reconcile herself to the death of Cary Grant and to come to terms with their stormy, difficult love. Dear Cary is the end result of that acceptance; her final love letter to her one true love, Cary Grant.

Publisher: Biteback
ISBN: 9781849541718

I love Cary Grant, one of the greatest of the great actors. Okay, I return again and again to North By Northwest, but so many great films in his CV. He was suave, he was handsome, he was THE movie star.

This book is an interesting read. Dyan Cannon was his wife for a short number of years. So, she has experiences and perspectives and knowledge of Cary Grant that we do not. She, with him, also has a daughter.

The book is personal and heavily reflective.  Some of the stories and memories are a tad over written, too much invented detail and drama and ego and sentiment but...... she lived with him, she knew him and, I have no doubt, she adored and loved him.

When I'd finished reading, I felt some compassion for Ms Cannon but I wondered more how a Cary Grant autobiography would have told this story and the story of the rest of his life. That, readers, would never have happened, and, sadly, did not happen.

I hope Dyan Cannon is in a happy place. I hope Cary Grant is resting in peace. I liked this book but, alas, I didn't love it as much as the man I know from North By Northwest.

IT

IT

It hangs,

With not so much substance

In the back story,

Just that point

Where strain results in parting,

A moment of truth,

When one suffers

A lack of balance,

After a downhearted performance,

After distraction,

After it vanishes.

My way or the highway,

Spat your cliché.

I chose.

SONG FOR RITA

SONG FOR RITA

This is a song for my mother - Margaret (Rita) Cushnan - 1925 - 2011.

CHORUS

Songs of you come easy, from love’s lament to lullaby

Songs of you come easy, we said farewell but not goodbye

Your memory preserved forever,

Showing you in silhouette,

You gave us all we’d ever need,

You gave us nothing to regret

So many moments looking back,

Crystal clear inside our minds,

A decent soul, a loving heart,

Heaven’s child, one of a kind.

CHORUS

Songs of you come easy, from love’s lament to lullaby

Songs of you come easy, we said farewell but not goodbye

No one said life would be easy

You were dealt a heavy hand

Left to raise your sons and daughters

We were too young to understand

You kept us safe, you were our haven,

You found the will, you found the way,

You taught us right, you taught us wrong,

You loved us each and every day

CHORUS

Songs of you come easy, from love’s lament to lullaby

Songs of you come easy, we said farewell but not goodbye

In darker days and troubled nights,

After all your faith and prayer

Your three angels held you near,

To comfort. you with loving care

Came the hour, came the moment,

Came the time for life to cease,

In spite of all the tears and sorrow,

Came your time to rest in peace

CHORUS

Songs of you come easy, from love’s lament to lullaby

Songs of you come easy, we said farewell but not goodbye

TALES FROM AN ACTOR'S LIFE BY STEVEN BERKOFF

(This illustration says "Scenes From An Actor's Life" but my copy says "Tales From An Actor's Life" - just in case anyone gets picky!)


I have read many autobiographies and biographies about actors and acting but I have not read one quite as quirky and entertaining as Tales From An Actor's Life by Steven Berkoff.

Here's the blurb from the cover:

Long considered the enfant terrible of the British theatre both as actor, director, and writer and famous for his villainous roles in films such as A Clockwork Orange, Rambo and Octopussy, Steven Berkoff is original in everything he does. He is a man of whom one should never expect the expected. Now, in this captivating book, he shares scenes from his own colourful theatrical life, thinly disguising them on occasion to protect the guilty but never being less than entertaining and forthright in his accounts. And what a delight they are, for as Berkoff says in his introduction, acting must be one of the strangest professions since the rules are flexible and few can agree even on the simplest of them. Berkoff has seen it all and he takes us here on an informal tour recalling among other things his first job (as an assistant stage manager and small part player ), and the first line he ever uttered on stage (Going Bowling tonight Sammy?), his early touring dates and disasters (and even romances) in rep, a traumatic audition for a revered Peter Hall which ended in tears, visiting Kirk Douglas at his home in LA, triumphantly directing the classic On The Waterfront on the London stage, and (less triumphantly) playing Hamlet the Berkoff way. Romantic though an actor's life may seem to be to the general public, clearly it is often tough and often laced with tears. But there is laughter too, and camaraderie and in these Tales, Berkoff gives the reader a real insight and feeling of what it is like to tread the boards, and the passion, work, and intuition that goes into creating a role.

And here is a link to Berkoff's screen CV (for information): 

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000925/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

The book is written in a boisterous, flamboyant style, moving with ease from calm explanations of the actor's existence to full-on rants about the frustrations of being a strolling player determined to be as independent as possible in his choices of work.

Most of the book is written in the third person.  Berkoff is "he" and "the actor" and it works well as he tries to hover over his life and career more as an observer rather than as an ego-driven narrator.

Interestingly, knowing the life he has lead, he barely mentions by name any of the famous people he has worked with, loved, liked and despised.  The book is more about feelings, emotions, frustrations, failures, successes, challenges and struggles rather than a buffet of celebrity guest mentions. And it is all the better for it, I think.

The only indulgence in this regard - he allows himself an account of his meeting with Kirk Douglas in Los Angeles and for a chapter he is Steven Berkoff.

If you want an account of what it feels like to be in such a fickle career, I recommend Tales From An Actor's Life for its honesty, its theatricality, bumptiousness and breathless writing style.

It's great fun too!

STORMONT DEBATE TRANSCRIPT

It was you.
No, it wasn't.
Yes, it was.

No, it wasn't.

Yes, it was.

No, it wasn't.

Yes, it was.

No, it wasn't.
(Recess for coffee and biscuits).

Yes, it was.

No, it wasn't.

Yes, it was.

No, it wasn't.

Yes, it was.

No, it wasn't.

Yes, it was.

No, it wasn't.
(Recess for lunch).

Yes, it was.

No, it wasn't.

Yes, it was.

No, it wasn't.

Yes, it was.

Wait a wee minute.

Wait a wee minute yourself.

Catch yourself on.
(Recess for afternoon tea).

No, you catch yourself on.
Er.

No, you catch yourself on.
Er.

No, you catch yourself on.
Er.

No, you catch yourself on.
Er.

No, you catch yourself on.
Er.

No, you catch yourself on.

Etc,

Etc,

Until sense kicks in

Or eternity strikes twelve,

Whichever comes first......