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CALEB PARKIN

Poetry. Play. Possibilities.

NaPoWriMo 4: Breath or, Inspiration / Exhalation

Apr 4, 2013
1 min

NaPoWriMo 4: Breath or, Inspiration / Exhalation

An Iain M. Banks Style Spaceship A curious task today: make something using the names of spaceships from Iain M. Banks sci-fi books. It must have been a synchronisity (or was it responsive?) for this to appear on the day that Iain has announced that he’s very ill with cancer and will probably not recover. (His very moving and pragmatic statement is here, too). So I wrote a piece based on two of his ships’ names (all of which are wonderful fun): Refreshingly Unconcerned With

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Apr 4, 2013
2 min

NaPoWriMo 3: A Sea Shanty for Failed Urban Development

Prompt no. 3 of NaPoWriMo was to write a sea shanty. This pleased me greatly as I’m a part of (when I can make it!) the Ocean Loiners – a sea shanty singing group in Leeds (hence the name: Leeds folk are known as ‘Loiners’)… Here’s a video of us belting out ‘Three Jolly Fishermen’ at the Theatre By the Lake in Bradford in October last year. (I am the lanky one in the blue t-shirt in case you’re wondering!) I’ve turned my attention to the place where I live as the subject for

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NaPoWriMo 2: Lies, All Lies

Apr 3, 2013
2 min

NaPoWriMo 2: Lies, All Lies

Eliot – who never had twin daughters…Or did he? (No, he didn’t). Onward with NaPoWriMo catch-up – now at 66.66% catch-up. We’re entering warp-drive composition speed, here: I’ve got to go and perform some work at Wicked Words (a spoken word night in Leeds) tonight, so best be off soon! Yesterday’s prompt was to write a poem which was all lies, or led up to one big lie. In a quick web-sweep, I found this story about a woman who claimed to be BOTH of T S Eliot’s twin daughters

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NaPoWriMo 1: Borrowed First Line

Apr 3, 2013
1 min

NaPoWriMo 1: Borrowed First Line

This was the most tasteful dead dog I could find. Or maybe it’s asleep – let’s just say it’s asleep. Catching up 33% complete: here’s my first NaPoWriMo effort. High-speed poetry! The prompt was to write a poem using the first line of another poem. I used the Poetry Foundation app to find a random poem – which turned out to be ‘Time of Need’ by Allison Seay – which you can read here. The first line is ‘In the road, a dog. Days dead…’ (As a dog lover, this was a sad one to get

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Apr 3, 2013
1 min

NaPoWriMo High-Speed Catch-Up

So it’s NaPoWriMo: National Poetry Writing Month 2013! And I’ve missed the beginning by a couple of days. Drat. So I’ll be putting other poetry on hold and aiming to catch up this evening, tomorrow and Friday…Watch this space! While I might not manage one every day, I’ll be doing them whenever possible… (Obviously if I can write science-inspired AND prompt-inspired poems, then I shall…Two verse-birds, one prompt-stone) #writing #poetrywriting #literature #creativewriting #nat

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Mar 29, 2013
1 min

The Trailer Tent

Greetings, Something a bit different! I recently wrote some stream-of-consciousness reviews of film promos for The Leeds Debacle magazine. (You can find the mag on Facebook here and on Twitter as @theleedsdebacle here.) My feature is called The Trailer Tent – you can read it here (on p 18-19) and it’ll be out in print next week, so keep an eye out Loiners! Hope you enjoy my very flippant responses to Hollywood’s hype machine… #writing #Disney #filmtrailers #BazLurhman #journa

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Mar 27, 2013
1 min

The Proper Science Behind “The Angry Birds”

How lovely: a fellow science and poetry blogger (but one who writes about the science behind poetry, rather than poetry based on science) has written a piece which references my poem ‘The Angry Birds’. You can read Jessie Rack’s post, explaining (with proper scientific rigour) the true extent of wild bird’s plight, here. It’s great that there is such a synergy between our bloggings – I love scientific ideas and writing about them and Jessie loves poetry and unpacking the scie

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Mar 27, 2013
1 min

Falcons ‘rapidly evolved hunter skill’

Falcons ‘rapidly evolved hunter skill’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/21885659 I love raptors – wrote a poem last year about meeting a falconer (and discussing the falcons’ sometimes-deadly speed) at Warwick Castle, you can read it here. It turns out that missile skull of theirs, as well as other of their hunting perfection, evolved in a relatively-short period of time, in relative terms. They hurtle through evolution, as well as through the air, it seems… One day I shall don th

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Little Shadows

Mar 25, 2013
2 min

Little Shadows

How a bee might see a flower – except, not really, because they *smell shapes* (kind of). I’m brewing a project – a series of workshops and performances – around BEES (I always feel I have to capitalise it) for this summer, called BUZZ WORDS (I credit thanks to Mr Ian Billings for assistance with the title). So, with that in mind I’ve been looking out for bee-related stories, inspiration and reading – and tweeting bee-related excerpts from poems too. (They should show up on

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Advice for the Artist When Depicting a Lady-Scientist or, Unbecoming

Mar 12, 2013
3 min

Advice for the Artist When Depicting a Lady-Scientist or, Unbecoming

Ada King, Countess of Lovelace – AKA Proto-Computer Queen So Friday was International Women’s Day – and Sunday Mother’s Day. Hurrah for women! (I realise I’ve rather missed the boat for both, but sometimes having time to sit down and write topical poetry doesn’t quite happen, alas.) Anyway – this week’s piece is inspired by an exhibition at Newcastle’s Discover Museum, which presents portraits of eminent women scientists. Thinking about the act of portraiture and its power, I

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Card-board Word-hoard: Sunday 17th March

Mar 11, 2013
2 min

Card-board Word-hoard: Sunday 17th March

Sunday, 2pm at Melbourne Street Studios, Leeds. YOU SHOULD COME. IT WILL BE FUN AND MESSY. Bring: glue sticks, scissors, old newspapers and packaging (clean not skanky!). On Sunday 17th March at 2pm, I’ll be running a workshop at 2pm at Melbourne Street Studios (Melbourne St, Leeds – address here) as part of The Fabulous Recycling and Discourse on the Environment Exhibition (about which, more information here) working with old newspapers and packaging to create found (and con

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Mar 4, 2013
1 min

A Haiku

‘Arriving at The British Gas Museum, Leicester, with hopes of a huge display of pilot lights, pipes and valves’ A sign on the door: Temporary Closure. My gaseous dreams, cut off. #writing #Leicestershire #haiku #gas #museum #poetry #humour #poem #Leicester #gasmuseum

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Very Extremely Very

Mar 3, 2013
3 min

Very Extremely Very

An artist’s impression of the European Extremely Large Telescope, to be built high up in the Andes – placed next to the London Eye, for some perspective… Well, I’ve oscillated back from animals (Whales, T-Rexes) to SPACE again: so here’s something comic about telescopes. Earlier, I read this story on the UK’s financial commitment to the European Extremely Large Telescope (from the Guardian) – and was reminded how funny I always find the naming of telescopes. I’m pretty sure t

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Canteenosaurus-Rex or, The Numbering of Teeth

Feb 22, 2013
4 min

Canteenosaurus-Rex or, The Numbering of Teeth

A chomping Tyrranosauridae Running a little behind after being struck down with a lurgy last week, but here is my latest sci-po – no wait! It’s a story. I won’t say too much about the news story which inspired this, apart from the classic disclaimer: any likeness to persons living or fossilised genuinely is purely coincidental! So if Dr Dave Hone should read this – the curious narrator in this story is not you, it’s just inspired by the work you do (there’s the link to Projec

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Feb 7, 2013
1 min

Wicked Words

I took part in the Wicked Words open mic event last night at 7 Arts in Chapel Allerton. What a splendid night – some awesome poetry about cauliflowers, grandparental love and something about dolphins on sandwich packets. All in an evening’s course for live literature, it is so energising to see. And an unexpected appearance and performance by Lemn Sissey. I and other open mic performers were on after him, it turned out – and he is a pretty awesome stage presence. Quite an hon

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Jan 25, 2013
2 min

“Many people do…

“Many people do indeed experience this realm of phantasy as ‘perilous’. Thresholds always are. Why else would Angels say, ‘fear not’, whenever they make an appearance? And yet, if we are to come to certain levels of truth we have to take risks with the literal, and be silly. Actually, the word ‘silly’ derives from the German ‘seelig’, meaning ‘blessed’ or ‘soulful’. That is as much as to say that you will not come to the sacred unless you are prepared to make a fool of yourse

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‘As Above, So Below’ or, ‘Capital E. Control A. Control C. Control V.’

Jan 21, 2013
2 min

‘As Above, So Below’ or, ‘Capital E. Control A. Control C. Control V.’

Galaxies or neurons? The Universe is, or is like, a Giant Brain. Or the Brain is, or is like, a Little Universe. Same diff. Last week, I read this story: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/11/27/physicists-universe-giant-brain_n_2196346.html It’s not a very recent/topical one (from the end of last year) – but being as it’s about the self-similarity of networks ranging from the internet, the brain and the Universe itself, I figure a few weeks isn’t that significant. Anyway –

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Crinkly Fingers or, A Lonely Fisherman Sings to the Catch

Jan 14, 2013
2 min

Crinkly Fingers or, A Lonely Fisherman Sings to the Catch

The Loneliness of a (Prune-Fingered) Trawler Fisherman This morning, I read a lovely news story by Jonathan Amos about research on crinkly fingers: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20951232 Scientists led by Dr Tom Smulders have discovered that prune-like bath-fingers may have more to them than simple ‘Ooh, look how old and wrinkled my fingers look!’ value. They have surmised that this may be an evolutionary development to aid in handling wet objects: in their ex

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Prey or, White Metal Cave

Jan 11, 2013
1 min

Prey or, White Metal Cave

A 3M-long scrub python is preyed on by a plane. In my effort to write two new poems a week based on things I’ve seen in the news, here’s today’s attempt (a little more minimalist that yesterday’s asteroid effort, but rather more crafted!). It’s fairly self-explanatory – but based on the news story from the pic above and the excerpt below. Rather sad, I thought – despite it garnering plenty of attention for its ‘Snakes on a Plane’ connotations. So as is my way, I wanted to wri

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Pick One Fleck – Apophis

Jan 10, 2013
2 min

Pick One Fleck – Apophis

There he is! Yes, the slightly-less blurry one with the big red arrow pointing to it. That isn’t actually there, of course. As part of the new year’s Free-range Writer Plan, I’m going to try and write at least one or two poems each week, inspired by things I’ve picked up in the news or online (or perhaps from the Fortean Times, which I was lucky enough to receive a subscription to for Christmas). Sometimes it’s useful to choose a subject and make yourself write a poem about i

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