Podcast: Mab Jones

On this edition I am joined by Mab Jones who shares some of her poems and talks about her recent visit to Japan to learn the Japanese art of rakugo – story telling. She would also like to hear your poems on the theme of Japan. They could be about anything related to Japan or poems in a Japanese form about anything at all. Haiku are easy to go for or try one of these. You could even write in Japanese.
Post your poems in the comments or email info@patrickwiddess.co.uk.
You can also hear the poem I wrote in response to Will Ford's prompt on the last podcast.

Here's another of Mab's poems you can buy her book Poor Queen here.

Wonderland

“I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.” – Lewis Carroll

Let curiosity be your guide.

Let the dark that dwells inside

Dare here. Let go of fear

As babies do their mother’s hand.

And at your feet: a doorway, now.

A smiling mouth. Step in. Slide down. 

Let yourself be swallowed whole.

Inside, all your life, you’ve yearned:

Eat me. Drink me. Let possibility

Open wide, consume the you

You thought you knew. Sink deeper.
Fall. Let go of all and, like that ancient

Apple, land. Rise up, then. Stand.

Your naked flesh on newborn feet -

Tentative. Teetering. Testing

Soft soles on an old world’s teeth.

Your eyes, unpeeled. Your heart, a seed.
Prepared for an adventure, here,

That’s furiouser and furiouser.

Mab Jones by Headstand on Mixcloud

Podcast: Will Ford

Cardiff writer Will Ford talks about his writing, performances and publications and offers advice to other writers. He also offers a writing prompt "There’s something flickering in the corner of my eye and I don’t know whether I should look at it..."
Do share your poems in the comments below or at info@patrickwiddess.co.uk.

www.willdeanford.com

Photo by: Yvette Robertshaw Photography

Here's an extract of Will's long poem The Coward which he discusses during the podcast.

The candle on the wooden table
Casts a shadow that moves in the breeze
That steals in between the planks of this hut
In my head I sink down to my knees
Clasping my hands in a desperate prayer
The blood in my veins starts to freeze
In my head I see myself
Thrashing around on the floor
A stray bullet rips at my left side
My guts open up like a door
My insides all outside
Not even the pride
Of dying a hero in war
But what's so heroic about being dead?
Every man one day must die
But not every man will use his last breath
As the fuel to ask himself why
A coward will lie forever condemned
Not just till the day that he dies

To die in battle is to die with honour
So they told us in basic training
Even if just one step is taken
And you slip in the mud that is raining
When the shell impact turns you into meat
There'll be no time for complaining
When shellfire turns you into a hero
And your remains are collected and binned
You'll be remembered for your sacrifice
And the cheerful way that you grinned
But I asked myself in my coward's crater
Where will your medal be pinned?

Will Ford by Headstand on Mixcloud