Monday, May 02, 2011

Channelling Wordsworth

Currently 'cultural forager' with Transform Snibston poet artist Paul Conneally is once again channelling William Wordsworth to mediate between himself, community and place in North West Leicestershire. A major part of his ongoing work 'Spoil Heap Harvest' is the making of the Snibston Wordsworth Trail.

William Wordsworth and his family lived at Coleorton Hall Farm for nearly a year between 1806 and 1807. The trail will start at Snibston and take in many of the places associated with Wordsworth and his friends and family including Coleridge, Sir George Beaumont and Dorothy Wordsworth.

Conneally uses historical poetic and artistic material foraged from the area to make links between the past, now and what might be. On the 14th of May 2011 another of the 4 artists currently working with Transform Snibston, Geof Broadway, will be installing a digital artwork illumination in the Century Theatre on the main Snibston site. Conneally along with Brendan Jackson and Jo Dacombe will also be exhibiting tasters of their own work at the event.

Below is a poem from a previous channelling of Wordsworth by Conneally:

JOANNA ROCKS

no time for streams
or those that look at hills
you learn to love
passing your early youth
amid the smoke of cities

lofty firs
taller than the old steeple
village news

the vicar's collar
a house big enough
for ten rough sleepers

autumn shadows
spray-painted on a boulder
by the rail-track
in huge red lettering
'Joanna Rocks

Paul Conneally

First Published LYNX XVII:1 February, 2002

No comments: