Looking for 'Bunt-ers' (1) Creative History...

Dave Wood (the 'stallholder' of the creative questionnaires and the Poetry Bunting).

Poet at work

Mansfield Local History Fair, 19th May 2013

Dave Wood

Can I pull on your shirt tails a minute? 

There are introductions and there are ways to get attention.  On a hot Sunday morning in May, I tried all kinds of approaches. Sometimes I felt like the proverbial chugger asking for his £2.50 a month instead of offering someone a free way to get their fizzog* online. Some bit, some didn't.  It was all part of the process.

So here was the plan: visitors to the Great Nottingamshire Local History Fair at Mansfield Library would fill in a semi-creative paper based form, asking them questions like (among others) how are you? how did you get here? and name three guests you would invite to dinner.  Then participants sit, stand, pose for a digital photo and it’s all uploaded on to www.ournottinghamshire.org.uk  

There were all kinds passing through: stall-holders, researchers, shoppers and volunteers.  Four were signed up to go through the whole process and be online.  One of them, a young(er than me) punk had no doubts whatsoever, and proudly pushed his tattoos into the foreground. And we had a brief chat about Rob Zombie too. 

Not a plan B, but another plan A.  Call it a double A side if you like (if you collect vinyl, you’ll understand); Poetry Bunting, a process which brings colour and creative writing into the same imaginative pea-pod would eventually stretch between two dedicated posts (thanks Tim!).  Visitors (or call them what you will) are asked to create a rhyming couplet on what they had found out during their time at the fair. 

As with all creative processes, rules are made to be broken, or at least, stretched until they go ping.  Some double liners became about the writing process itself...

spontaneity has gone through the winder

writer’s block sets in

come on words – hit me on the chin

no point to linger – no point to linger

Others were about history

pentrich revolution

hung and beheaded was the solution

Some more as comments on the educational/research process

history at school bored me to tears

and now after all these years

family history confirmed my fears

that the end of our story nears

Each line was written onto A5 sheets of coloured paper and stapled on the line.  If there was a breeze, the bunting would flap like prayer flags over the Himalayas.  But there wasn’t; it was Mansfield on a hot day and inside.

I had some delightful and touching conversations; we had smiles, we had grimaces as folks struggled over lines to rhyme. For example, with networking. The answer fitted perfectly.  After all, isn’t networking just gossiping about yourself?

making contacts meeting people - networking

we’ve done a lot of gossiping

The following day, I created (here it comes again) the other face of the double A side; I produced a response to the couplets and to ear-wiggings I picked up over the 6 or so hours.

It’s easy being a poet (not so easy making a living from it); my thanks to those that dropped by, chatted, looked, gawped and took part.

* fizzog:           face

And now, the whole poem:

Creative Output

The first poem was created by members of the public, producing rhyming couplets (or sometimes tripolets or quadrupolets) in response to the day.

no point to linger

iron are morley ashfield and arnold

made stockings for young and old

history at school bored me to tears

and now after all these years

family history confirmed my fears

that the end of our story nears

there’s a third laxton near goole

at least one with a prominent school

a skein of wool turns its colour

by adding crystals of a child’s drink

makes you think before you drink

pentrich revolution

hung and beheaded was the solution

co-ops and co-operation

making contacts meeting people - networking

we’ve done a lot of gossiping

spontaneity has gone through the winder

writer’s block sets in, come on words – hit me on the chin

no point to linger – no point to linger

dame floggan

samuel brunt

sir john cockell

george dodsley*

what’s in a name?

keeping alive the long history of mansfield’s flame

*Robert Dodsley was the famous Mansfield poet, playwright and publisher [Ed.] 

The following is my own response to the lines above as well as to the History Fair

the skein of hist’ry (a response)

and like a skein of wool turns its colour

we weave through hist’ry – no point to linger

hangings beheadings (sent australia)

the revolution and pointing fingers

we weave through hist’ry – no point to linger

the block sets deep in and the writer’s stumped

and a list of names – gone through the windah

we spread gossip then – like deep waters pumped

hangings beheadings (sent australia)

and laxton three – there’s one near to goole

networks – leaflets – and co-operators

gathering up info and sourcing tools

the revolution and pointing fingers

we find the end of our story nears

hated history at school (a stinker!)

family delving confirmed my fears

we weave through hist’ry – no point to linger

iron are morley ashfield and arnold

by adding crystals to a child’s drink – a

colour seeps out (well that’s what i’ve been told)

the block sets deep in and the writer’s stumped

we spread gossip then – like deep waters pumped