TYNESIDE POETS!

TYNESIDE POETS!

Sunday 29 September 2013

HERITAGE OPEN DAY IN THE OLD CASTLE

































CASTLE KEEP

Keep, 
this history by the river.
Keep, 
the stairway to the past.
Keep,
the memories singing folk songs.
Keep,
the cobbles wet with blood.
Keep,
those ballads down the centuries.
Keep,
the ancient voices in your head.
Keep, 
these stones alive with music.
Keep,
the wind howling in the brick.
Keep
the days that speed our lives. 
Keep,
the rails to guide you there.
Keep,
the people that you meet.
Keep, 
the children's faces dancing. 
Keep,
the devil in your fleeting eyes.
Keep,
the bridges multiplying.
Keep,
the moon upon the Tyne.
Keep,
the flag of lovers flying.
Keep,
your feet still 
Geordie hinny.



KEITH ARMSTRONG




























BLACK GATE


Black Gate,
an oxter of history,
reaches for me
with a stubby finger,
invites me into Old Newcastle,
its vital cast
of craggy characters,
Garth urchins,
dancing blades
and reeling lasses.
Black Gate,
I can read
the lines 
on your brow,
the very grit
on your timelined walls,
the furrowed path
down the Geordie lane
where Alexander Stephenson stoops
to let me in
and the merchant Patrick Black
still trades in memories.
Once 
there was a tavern
inside you,
that’s why 
the bricks cackle
and the windows creak
with the crack of old ale
and the redundant patter
of publican John Pickell. 
Black Gate,
you could say
my childhood is in your stones,
my mother and father figures,
my river
of drifting years,
waiting to greet me.
Hoist up your drawbridge,
in the startling chill 
of a Tyne dawn,
this boy is with you
and with himself
in this home city
of old bones,
new blood
and dripping dreams.



KEITH ARMSTRONG

*The Black Gate is named after the seventeenth century tenant, merchant Patrick Black

Wednesday 25 September 2013

FOR EDWARD ELLIOT OF EARSDON (1800-1867)





(Stonemason and poet responsible for the Hartley Pit Disaster memorial in Earsdon churchyard)


“IN THE MIDST OF LIFE WE ARE IN DEATH.” 

Chip chip chip,
the rain sinks
into Ned Elliot’s shoulders
as his hands
carve the dead names
into the slab.
The tragedy
weighs down his spirit,
renders him thirsty
for the light.
Chip chip chip,
you breathe the name of Thomas Coal
aged thirty seven,
recite the deaths of boys
as young as ten.
You chisel
through the disastrous list,
the litany of lost dreams.
It is such a burden,
the flood of widows’ tears
gushing through
the village,
rendering the churchyard
a swamp of hurt.

This is true
community spirit,
a man who lived
to mark the dead
in stone,
making a living
by honouring others.
Your own name
is ingrained in Earsdon,
ringing
down the years
a sacrifice
from the quarry
of suffering,
one of your 
dialect poems
still coursing 
in us.


“FOR WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH,
THAT SHALL HE ALSO REAP.”



KEITH ARMSTRONG




Wednesday 18 September 2013

JOSEPH SKIPSEY HERITAGE EVENTS



FOR JOE SKIPSEY: THE PITMAN POET OF PERCY MAIN (1832-1903)


‘He’ll tell his tale o’er a pint of ale,
And crack his joke, and bad
Must be the heart who loveth not
To hear the Collier Lad.’ (Skipsey)


To be a pitman poet
you drag words
out of the seam of a dictionary,
write against the grain
all the time
feeling the pain
of a small education,
scribbling in the dark
for a bright spark
germ of a poem.
Hewing
for rhymes,
ducking 
in case the roof
of the verse
caved in on you,
Joe
it was bloody hard 
to learn,
to craft a line
from the black pit
when the whole world
weighed down on you.
A man was forced
to sing,
to render a ballad
like a lamp in the tunnel,
scraping an education
from coal,
crawling along bookshelves
to find daylight,
Shakespeare,
Shelley
and melody
in the stacks
of an underground library.




KEITH ARMSTRONG






KEITH ARMSTRONG PERFORMING HIS JOSEPH SKIPSEY POEM AT THE  HARTLEY PIT DISASTER MEMORIAL, ST. ALBAN'S CHURCH, EARSDON, WHITLEY BAY, SATURDAY 14TH SEPTEMBER 2013, AS PART OF HERITAGE OPEN DAYS EVENT TO MARK THE 110TH ANNIVERSARY OF SKIPSEY'S DEATH.


ARMSTRONG ALSO INTRODUCED FELLOW POETS DAVE ALTON, GORDON PHILLIPS, ELAINE CUSACK AND ROBERT LONSDALE WHO READ THEIR POEMS ON THE HARTLEY PIT CALAMITY OF 1862:









ABOVE:CHRIS HARRISON, GREAT GREAT GRANDSON OF SKIPSEY, PERFORMING SKIPSEY'S 'THE HARTLEY CALAMITY' POEM AT THE SAME EVENT.





ABOVE: M.C. KEITH ARMSTRONG AND THE SAWDUST JACKS FOLK GROUP (WITH ST. ALBAN'S CHURCH CHOIR) WHO PERFORMED THEIR HARTLEY SONG 'BROTHERS, SONS AND DADS', IN THE CHURCH AFTER THE RECITATIONS AND MUSIC AT THE HARTLEY MEMORIAL. 


Above photos: Chris Bishop





CHRIS HARRISON PERFORMING SKIPSEY AT THE RED HOUSE, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, ON THURSDAY 12TH SEPTEMBER 2013.

Above photo: Peter Dixon



COMMENTS:

Tony Morris:

Great reception at Red House, Quayside, Newcastle last night for Northern Voices Mining Heritage Project. Lovely audience. Thank you Keith Armstrong.




Catherine Graham: 

Thank you to all the lovely people who came along to The Red House tonight, it was lovely to meet everyone - a great night!


Brian Hall:
Praise from the Hall Clan to the Armstrong Clan.........thought you ran last night really well, and a good combination. I enjoyed it, well done.




Robert Lonsdale:

Enjoyed an absolutely brilliant night of exceptional poetry and music at the " Red House " hosted by the legendary Keith Armstrong , many thanks to everyone there. Already looking forward to your next event Keith,

Chris Harrison:

Thanks or giving me the opportunity to sing at these two events.  I was really pleased to be able to do it.

Do let me know about any future events.


Elaine Cusack:

Really enjoyed yesterday's event at Hartley, Keith.


John Leslie (the Sawdust Jacks):

Thanks for the poems and for the opportunity of performing at Earsdon. We enjoyed rehearsing with the choir and I think our relationship may continue. The day was a great success and the feedback from your activities at the memorial was very good.
Thanks again.


Fiona Cullen (Newcastle City Council):
Many thanks for your participation throughout Tyne and Wear.


Chris Bishop (North Tyneside Council):


Best wishes and well done on the event.  


Andrew France (Vicar St. Alban's, Earsdon):


Thanks Keith. I thought it went well.