Monday morning saw me walking up out of Clitheroe the couple miles it takes to get to Chatburn. Perhaps I was still full of Sunday's walking experience. Anyway, the point was to meet local poet Louise Martin. I met a friend of Louise in Clitheroe music shop whilst out telling people about the archives and the project. He said she would be interesting to meet and record, and so it proved.
We had a lovely morning with me playing some of the clips of Albert Hill (you can hear them on soundcloud ) as a starting point for discussion, reminiscence and a stimulus for Louise to chose some of her poetry to record. We covered the phenomenon of the obligatory uneaten nuts at Christmas, the people who have inspired her writing, the chain of passing on games in schools that have been going for decades... amongst other things. There was much laughter too!
Louise's poetry has a real directness and interestingly reflects many of the themes that have been coming up in my work with the archives- local food, memory, how life has changed even within the life of a generation, and how wonderful rich and varied stories of everyday life can be.
Here is a recording of her poem 'Blackberry', on the face of it an account of blackberry picking, but a lot is simmering just beneath the surface.
Louise Martin: Blackberry by NWSAproject
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