The Wolf launches Issue 17 tonight

Issue 17 of The Wolf launches on Monday 7th April, 8pm sharp. Limited seating!
Venue is The Poetry Studio, 22 Betterton Street, Covent Garden, London.

Readers on the night will be Andrea Brady, Jonathan Morley, James Womack, Siddhartha Bose, Kate Potts with poet/translator Stephen Watts and Ziba Karbassi reading poems and translations from Persian.

This is a FREE event and will mark the unveiling of an all-new look to The Wolf. Do come and celebrate with us.

best,
James Byrne

Editor, The Wolf

www.wolfmagazine.co.uk

The Wolf acknowledges the support of the Arts Council England

Launch of Story Tellers Unlimited

Rab kindly sent this to us...

Launch of Story Tellers Unlimited
www.storytellersunlimited.com

Saturday 5th April at 4pm in Galway City Museum.

You are warmly invited to the international launch of www.storytellersunlimited.com. Funded by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaion the website contains a video archive of stories researched and performed for Galway City Museum by acclaimed storytellers Rab Swannock Fulton and Clare Muireann Murphy. It also includes information on Rab and Clare's teaching work, up and coming performances and shows that can be booked.

The launch is on Saturday 5th April and begins at 4pm in Galway City Museum. Rab will host the Irish launch, along with guest speaker Fionnuala Gallagher, the Arts Officer of National University of Ireland, Galway. At 5pm the launch will then be handed over to Clare in America. The American launch takes place in the Children Museum of Denver and begins at 11am,
Denver time.

As well as www.storytellersunlimited.com Rab and Clare are busy working on new projects. At present Rab is finishing a new collection of short stories and essays for his American fanzine www.geygallus.com, and putting together a show of 'Dark Tales' for the Town Hall Theatre studio, Galway. Clare recently finished a highly praised three-week tour of England, and is
currently touring in the U.S.A.

For more details contact: 00353 (0) 87 654 5411

Poetry Upfront

Here's something exciting we got in the post:

Hello all,

Poetry Upfront returns to its regular open-mic format with a session on Thursday 20 March. Our venue is Trax Cafe & Wine Bar on Station Street, Balbriggan and start time is 8pm. Admission, as always, is free, and everyone is welcome. See our website at www.freewebs.com/poetryupfront.

Christodoulos & Jane
Poetry Upfront

Mao-ing

There's a gorgeous&shivery poem by Fred Johnston here.

Poems for poems' sake

"We have taken it into our heads that to write a poem simply for the poem's sake [...] and to acknowledge such to have been our design, would be to confess ourselves radically wanting in the true poetic dignity and force: — but the simple fact is that would we but permit ourselves to look into our own souls we should immediately there discover that under the sun there neither exists nor can exist any work more thoroughly dignified, more supremely noble, than this very poem, this poem per se, this poem which is a poem and nothing more, this poem written solely for the poem's sake."
- Edgar Allan Poe, 'The Poetic Principle'.

How to speak poetry

from Leonard Cohen's Death of a Lady's Man

"Take the word butterfly. To use this word it is not necessary to make the voice weigh less than an ounce or equip it with small dusty wings. It is not necessary to invent a sunny day or a field of daffodils. It is not necessary to be in love, or to be in love with butterflies. The word butterfly is not a real butterfly. There is the word and there is the butterfly. If you confuse these two items people have the right to laugh at you. Do not make so much of the word. Are you trying to suggest that you love butterflies more perfectly than anyone else, or really understand their nature? The word butterfly is merely data. It is not an opportunity for you to hover, soar, befriend flowers, symbolize beauty and frailty, or in any way impersonate a butterfly. Do not act out words. Never act out words. Never try to leave the floor when you talk about flying. Never close your eyes and jerk your head to one side when you talk about death. Do not fix your burning eyes on me when you speak about love. If you want to impress me when you speak about love put your hand in your pocket or under your dress and play with yourself. If ambition and the hunger for applause have driven you to speak about love you should learn how to do it without disgracing yourself or the material.

"What is the expression which the age demands? The age demands no expression whatever. We have seen photographs of bereaved Asian mothers. We are not interested in the agony of your fumbled organs. There is nothing you can show on your face that can match the horror of this time. Do not even try. You will only hold yourself up to the scorn of those who have felt things deeply. We have seen newsreels of humans in the extremities of pain and dislocation. Everyone knows you are eating well and are even being paid to stand up there. You are playing to people who have experienced a catastrophe. This should make you very quiet. Speak the words, convey the data, step aside. Everyone knows you are in pain. You cannot tell the audience everything you know about love in every line of love you speak. Step aside and they will know what you know because you know it already. You have nothing to teach them. You are not more beautiful than they are. You are not wiser. Do not shout at them. Do not force a dry entry. That is bad sex. If you show the lines of your genitals, then deliver what you promise. And remember that people do not really want an acrobat in bed. What is our need? To be close to the natural man, to be close to the natural woman. Do not pretend that you are a beloved singer with a vast loyal audience which has followed the ups and downs of your life to this very moment. The bombs, flame-throwers, and all the shit have destroyed more than just the trees and villages. They have also destroyed the stage. Did you think that your profession would escape the general destruction? There is no more stage. There are no more footlights. You are among the people. Then be modest. Speak the words, convey the data, step aside. Be by yourself. Be in your own room. Do not put yourself on."

Happy Birthday Wolf

The Wolf - a rather splendid London poetry mag - is celebrating its 5th birthday this month. If you're in the area, you might want to pop by the party:

5 Years of The Wolf & Launch of Issue 15
Monday 23rd July, 8pm
Poetry Studio, 22, Betterton Street (near Covent Garden)
FREE Entrance.