![\"Patricia](\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/centreforcreativewriting\/files\/2014\/04\/Patricia-Debney.jpg\")
<\/a>from experienced readers. Debney began, offering a change from her prose poetry (as seen in collections How to be a Dragonfly<\/i> and, more recently, Littoral<\/i>) with some works from her \u2018newish collection\u2019 Baby<\/i>. Here were open planes of poems, free verse forms with the odd catch and hook of internal rhyme and assonance. Within each frame, microcosms of emotional relationships and the hovering presences of parental figures. \u2018I can\u2019t see your face\u2019, we were warned, \u2018it is some kind of horror space\u2019. Seeing and not seeing: vastness and minutiae. The \u2018I\u2019 of the poems charted \u2018water of biblical proportions\u2019 and the rolling fog that \u2018settles into valleys\u2019, obscuring the view through a windscreen. Under the same scrutiny came a litany of material objects, \u2018coral, gold pendants needing chains, kaftans\u2019, the stuff of tasteful but empty riches that prove \u2018hard to live with\u2019. And as if a piece of trumpery can pass judgement on its wearer, the \u2018single eye\u2019 of a silver pearl ring \u2018stares right at me\u2026until it closes\u2019.<\/p>\nGaffield\u2019s recent experiments have been with mathematical poems, employing geometry and the Golden Ratio. Working with the Fibonacci sequence has produced syllabic verse reflecting structure in sound as well as providing \u2018attraction of form\u2019 on the page. After our scheduled readers, MC Ben Hickman opened the floor to those brave \/ foolish enough to sign up on the door, whether they had planned to or not. The rules were clear \u2013 one poem or one page of prose. Offerings could be rough and raw works in progress or finely tuned and edited finished pieces.<\/p>\n There were plenty of takers.<\/p>\n First up was MA creative writing student Jane Summerfield, whose poem \u2018Batteries Included\u2019 \u2013 relating the exploits of a hormonal slumber party – has been created under the supervision of Gaffield.\u00a0 Tutor & PhD poet Kat Peddie followed with a two-line poem in honour of the lost word \u2018owhere\u2019 (inspired by Gaffield\u2019s recent pamphlet of the same name), committed to memory but jotted down \u2018just in case\u2019. Neelam Saredia, a final year CW undergrad, performed a memorised poem \u2018Dress Sense\u2019, a dress rehearsal of sorts for the Gulbenkian Poetry Slam (with prompt notes, ditto). In the only prose offering, I slipped in a page from my recently finished novel Eden<\/i> (thanks for the cheers at this announcement). Tutor Juha Virtanen gave us another paperless piece, a word explosion extracted from a long sound poem, read from the screen of his phone. Geography and otherness peeped through the poems \u2018My Friend from China\u2019, read by Edward Greenward, and an extract from Sam O\u2019Hana\u2019s long poem, also written under Gaffield\u2019s supervision. O\u2019Hana was followed by three fellow final year CW undergrads: Tom Cox, who read his prose poem \u2018Citizen\u2019s Advice\u2019, featuring cannibalistic chickens and chronic dissatisfaction; Joe Hill, whose joyfully silly and poignant \u2018Much Against Everyone\u2019s Advice\u2019 chronicled a life of bad decisions and loss of body parts, and James Richardson, who gamely read a poem of muddy sinking and slippage, fresh from the clay of a recent seminar, which he titled on the spot \u2018Already Stuck\u2019.<\/p>\n This may mark the end of the Spring Reading series, but there is plenty more to come. Next term the Centre for Creative Writing will host a series of evenings with publishing professionals and readings from MA students. Many staff (as seen and heard above and elsewhere) will appear at the \u2018Sounds New Poetry\u2019 festival in May: for more details see the listings at http:\/\/soundsnew.org.uk\/sounds-new-poetry<\/a> . Some of Kent\u2019s dedicated CW students, led by organiser Sam O\u2019Hana (also see above), will be hosting the UK\u2019s first Creative Writing Undergraduate Conference, \u2018Vox\u2019. The programme will run during the exciting \u2018Full English\u2019 literary festival taking place at Kent this June. Undergraduate creative writers from all universities are encouraged to submit proposals to \u2018Vox\u2019: the deadline for abstracts is 15th<\/sup> April 2014. For more details and the call for papers see http:\/\/voxconference2014.wordpress.com<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n Look out for a last spring blog celebrating our students in print, a final flourish\u00a0over the Easter vacation…<\/p>\n Sonia<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A change to the line-up of the last Spring Reading Series from a poetry double-bill to \u2013 well, a slightly different poetry double-bill, with side dishes. As Jane Monson was unable to join us, Patricia Debney joined forces with fellow Kent poet and tutor Nancy Gaffield, followed by an open mic featuring staff and students. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38085,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[49777,21640,49779,49740,49732,49781,49006,8814,49778,72957,49775,1225,48708,48315,49728,49725,49769,49782,46589,49731,49730,49727,74,49726,49780],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/centreforcreativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/centreforcreativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/centreforcreativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/centreforcreativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38085"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/centreforcreativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/centreforcreativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":193,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/centreforcreativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions\/193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/centreforcreativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/centreforcreativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/centreforcreativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a> Gaffield has been working on a sequence of these with fellow poet David Herd for performance at the forthcoming \u2018Sounds New Poetry\u2019 festival (see below), \u2018but I\u2019m saving these\u2019\u2026 Instead we were given a poem inspired by Da Vicni\u2019s Vitruvian Man, exploring the \u2018harmony of symmetry\u2019, while other pieces expressed and reflected upon sound and form. These were poems full of atmospheric landscapes, plays of light and natural forces. Wild weather and the wilful elements are not to be shifted with \u2018soft syllables\u2019 or \u2018antiphonal phrases\u2019. Even the laws of language and abstract mathematics are no match for a proper Kentish flood.<\/p>\n<\/a>After the readings and the consumption of all remaining wine, the talk and drinking moved downstairs to the Keynes bar, where the evening was balmy enough for us to sit outside and pretend it was already Summer Term.<\/p>\n