tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40863357702415516902024-02-19T15:23:53.492+00:00The Armstrong-Dixon LineWelcome to the Armstrong-Dixon Line where North East England based writer Keith Armstrong and artist Peter Dixon share their views on the world and all that surrounds it.
Expect rants, politics, poetry, history, photography and all sorts of........stuff.
The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.comBlogger325125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-21130124759907896512020-07-07T08:19:00.001+01:002020-07-07T08:19:14.817+01:00GREEN SPACES - PUBLISHED IN THE AUTUMN<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-44017732750965662402020-07-01T12:23:00.001+01:002020-07-01T12:23:52.940+01:00MONUMENTS<h3 class="post-title entry-title">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>MONUMENTS<br /><br />They will build no more of<br />these winged tributes;<br />the feathered stones<br />of the Empire in flight<br />with God on our Tyne Side.<br />There will be<br />no more heroes like<br />Cowen and Armstrong<br />and Stephenson and Grey.<br />Their self made sculptures<br />have come <br />to a standstill.<br />Baked in dust and</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>bird shit,<br />they shelter from<br />a Life on the Dole.<br /><br /><br /><br />KEITH ARMSTRONG</b></span>The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-75919437817226549822020-06-21T08:03:00.003+01:002020-07-07T14:52:18.841+01:00HAPPY 270TH BIRTHDAY THOMAS SPENCE!<br />
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<a href="http://keithyboyarmstrong.blogspot.com/2020/06/thomas-spence-270th-birthday-born_19.html">http://keithyboyarmstrong.blogspot.com/2020/06/thomas-spence-270th-birthday-born_19.html</a>The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-89740813499080027232020-06-05T13:02:00.006+01:002020-06-05T13:04:25.875+01:00FOR PETE<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">FOR MY MATE AND LONG TERM COLLABORATOR PETER DIXON ON HIS BIRTHDAY </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">POEM FOR PETE</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The lines on our faces<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> show us testing times<br /> we survived,<br /> scrbbling poems and drawings <br /> often against brick walls,<br /> pleading for the funds<br /> to make our crazy dreams happen.<br /> Down the back lanes of home,<br /> in Spencean Holborn,<br /> tacky Amsterdam<br /> and surreal Den Bosch,<br /> we have trudged <br /> with our artistic gifts;<br /> on to the ancient boulevards of Prague,<br /> inside the boozy nooks of Tuebingen,<br /> on Isle of Man steam trains,<br /> we fearfully hawked our pamphlets<br /> hoping that they’d make<br /> someone’s little life a little better.<br /> Now, catching a moment of oral history<br /> in the sunshine of our days,<br /> we drink for the moment<br /> to be done with pain,<br /> brief as a kiss<br /> in a sudden poem <br /> or life-sketch.<br /> Expressing ourselves endlessly <br /> in a way that lights up others’ lives<br /> we carry on planting<br /> bolts of joy<br /> on the banks of the sloshing Tyne.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">KEITH ARMSTRONG</span></div>
The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-7925236548692906032020-05-21T10:37:00.002+01:002020-06-02T12:55:12.555+01:00DOWN MEMORY LANE IN THE LOCKDOWN!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-39585604469858783532020-05-15T10:45:00.002+01:002020-05-15T10:46:00.963+01:00I WILL SING OF MY OWN NEWCASTLE<br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">I WILL SING OF MY OWN NEWCASTLE</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of my home city</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of a true geordie heart</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of a river swell in me</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of a sea of the canny</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the newcastle day</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of a history of poetry</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the pudding chare rain </span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the puddles and clarts</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the bodies of sailors</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the golden sea</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of our childrens’ laughter</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the boats in our eyes</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the bridges in sunshine</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the fish in the tyne</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the lost yards and the pits </span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the high level railway</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the love in my face</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the garths and the castle</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the screaming lasses</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the sad on the side</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the battles’ remains</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the walls round our dreams</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the scribblers and dribblers</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the scratchers of livings</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the quayside night</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the kicks and the kisses</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the strays and the chancers</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the swiggers of ale</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the hammer of memory</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the welders’ revenge</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of a battered townscape</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of a song underground</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of a powerless wasteland</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of a buried bard</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the bones of tom spence</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the cocky bastards</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of a black and white tide</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the ferry boat leaving</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of cathedral bells crying</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the tyneside skies</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of my mother and father</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of my sister’s kindness</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the hope in my stride</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of a people’s passion</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">sing of the strength of the wind </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">KEITH ARMSTRONG </span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">(as featured on BBC Radio 4) </span>The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-89240261444344866452020-05-02T10:47:00.002+01:002020-05-02T10:47:28.829+01:00THOMAS SPENCE 1750-1814 - 270TH BIRTHDAY
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<b><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbrlAM9pBg3CVIwDmcSzOwqCbyYS_9PjteXXP5DOWnONqzat0TgtFYtTjxT7R81Ag2Zt5-XZMkEfV_M-EhMwTCtbpefRhhCBk-gbGDCoIhmtoqtCGZlzm7AgetlfVwWqWKrdBgwYT4_MFA/s1600/spenceplaque.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="486" height="632" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbrlAM9pBg3CVIwDmcSzOwqCbyYS_9PjteXXP5DOWnONqzat0TgtFYtTjxT7R81Ag2Zt5-XZMkEfV_M-EhMwTCtbpefRhhCBk-gbGDCoIhmtoqtCGZlzm7AgetlfVwWqWKrdBgwYT4_MFA/s640/spenceplaque.jpeg" width="640" /></a></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwOebj4qKHk-FqKuPvTUc_zXEtX0ClLfgudb3ZgZ4HcDRaPQC4EJCHoeftjuaWjUywCYdIuvJSc_6TrnTXcIZB-JvKst8p3ZBi2xkJc-ldKxTI85ymja0j3RVuWFOs45qdxqXuZq1eJ3lT/s1600/LTCF2769.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="972" data-original-width="1600" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwOebj4qKHk-FqKuPvTUc_zXEtX0ClLfgudb3ZgZ4HcDRaPQC4EJCHoeftjuaWjUywCYdIuvJSc_6TrnTXcIZB-JvKst8p3ZBi2xkJc-ldKxTI85ymja0j3RVuWFOs45qdxqXuZq1eJ3lT/s640/LTCF2769.JPG" width="640" /></a></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>(In loving memory of Professor Malcolm Chase 1957-2020)</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrN-KPBRTis16umWsToBWLotvqGAXF1USypwDWnMrBYAU6sZHq2a-xnEuT_EsXuefN-4RHJWwXytQljfEnDs51RUvM8FR2pZ4ghtI3ujU_cVigP7pM_Gkeo1KCbnsIcrajOgdTfpPFae_E/s1600/malcolmchase.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="400" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrN-KPBRTis16umWsToBWLotvqGAXF1USypwDWnMrBYAU6sZHq2a-xnEuT_EsXuefN-4RHJWwXytQljfEnDs51RUvM8FR2pZ4ghtI3ujU_cVigP7pM_Gkeo1KCbnsIcrajOgdTfpPFae_E/s640/malcolmchase.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>(Malcolm in the Red House, Newcastle, in 2010 celebrating the unveiling of the plaque in Spence's memory on Newcastle Quayside)</i></span></span>
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<b><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: large;">THOMAS SPENCE'S 270TH BIRTHDAY!</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br />It's worth celebrating the birth in Newcastle upon Tyne on 21st June 1750 of radical fighter for human rights Thomas Spence.<br /><br />Happy
birthday Tom from everyone at The Thomas Spence Trust, responsible for
the commemorative Spence plaque on the Quayside and an extensive series
of events and publications dedicated to him over the years.</i></span><br /> </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: medium;">THE HIVE OF LIBERTY<br /> </span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: medium;">(AFTER THE NAME OF THOMAS SPENCE’S BOOKSHOP AT 8 LITTLE TURNSTILE, HOLBORN)<br /> </span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-size: medium;">I am a small and humble man,<br />my body frail and broken.<br />I strive to do the best I can.<br />I spend my life on tokens.<br /><br />I traipse through Holborn all alone,<br />hawking crazy notions.<br />I am the lonely people’s friend.<br />I live on schemes and potions.<br /><br />For, in my heart and in my mind,<br />ideas swarm right through me.<br />Yes, in this Hive of Liberty,<br />my words just flow ike wine,<br />my words just flow like wine.<br /><br />I am a teeming worker bee.<br />My dignity is working.<br />My restless thoughts swell like the sea.<br />My fantasies I’m stoking.<br /><br />There is a rebel inside me,<br />a sting about to strike.<br />I hawk my works around the street.<br />I put the world to rights.<br /><br />For, in my heart and in my mind,<br />ideas swarm right through me.<br />Yes, in this Hive of Liberty,<br />my words just flow like wine,<br />my words just flow like wine.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />KEITH ARMSTRONG<br /><br /><br />THE THOMAS SPENCE TRUST<br /><br />35 Hillsden Road, Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear NE25 9XF<br /><br />Tel. 0191 2529531<br /><br />It’s
good to welcome the establishment of The Thomas Spence Trust, founded
by a group of Tyneside activists intent on celebrating and promoting the
life and work of that noted pioneer of people’s rights, pamphleteer and
poet Thomas Spence (1750-1814), who has born on Newcastle’s Quayside in
those turbulent times.<br /><br />Spence served in his father’s netmaking
trade from the age of ten but went on later to be a teacher at Haydon
Bridge Free Grammar School and at St. Ann’s Church in Byker under the
City Corporation. In 1775, he read his famous lecture on the right to
property in land to the Newcastle Philosophical Society, who voted his
expulsion at their next meeting.<br /><br />He claimed to have invented the
phrase ‘The Rights of Man’ and chalked it in the caves at Marsden Rocks
in South Shields in honour of the working-class hero ‘Blaster Jack’
Bates, who lived there.<br /><br />He even came to blows with famed Tyneside
wood-engraver Thomas Bewick (to whom a memorial has been recently
established on the streets of Newcastle) over a political issue, and was
thrashed with cudgels for his trouble.<br /><br />From 1792, having moved
to London, he took part in radical agitations, particularly against the
war with France. He was arrested several times for selling his own and
other seditious books and was imprisoned for six months without trial in
1794, and sentenced to three years for his Restorer of Society to its
Natural State in 1801.<br /><br />Whilst politicians such as Edmund Burke
saw the mass of people as the ‘Swinish Multitude’, Spence saw creative
potential in everybody and broadcast his ideas in the periodical Pigs’
Meat.<br /><br />He had a stall in London’s Chancery Lane, where he sold
books and saloup, and later set up a small shop called The Hive of
Liberty in Holborn.<br /><br />He died in poverty ‘leaving nothing to his
friends but an injunction to promote his Plan and the remembrance of his
inflexible integrity’.<br /><br />The Thomas Spence Trust organised a
mini-festival to celebrate Spence in 2000 when it published a booklet on
his life and work, together with related events, with the aid of Awards
for All.<br /><br />Trust founder-member, poet Keith Armstrong has written a
play for Bruvvers Theatre Company on the socialist pioneer which has
been performed at St. Ann’s Church and other venues in the city.<br /><br />Now
the Trust has successfully campaigned for a plaque on the Quayside in
Newcastle, where Spence was born. The plaque was unveiled on Monday June
21st 2010, Spence's 260th birthday, with a number of talks, displays
and events coinciding with it.<br /><br />A book 'Thomas Spence: The Poor
Man's Revolutionary', edited by Alastair Bonnett and Keith Armstrong,
was published by Breviary Stuff Publications, with launch events, in
2014, the 200th anniversary of Spence's death.<br /><br /><br />Further
information from: Dr Keith Armstrong, The Thomas Spence Trust, 35
Hillsden Road, Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear NE25 9XF. Tel. 0191 2529531.<br /><br />SPEECH BY DR KEITH ARMSTRONG AT UNVEILING OF SPENCE PLAQUE<br /><br />On
behalf of The Thomas Spence Trust and Newcastle City Council, I’m
delighted to welcome you here today to unveil a plaque in honour of that
great free spirit, utopian writer, land reformer and courageous
pioneering campaigner for the rights of men and women, Thomas Spence.
Myself and other members of our Trust, especially Peter Dixon and Tony
Whittle, with the support of people like Professors Joan Beal, Alastair
Bonnett and Malcolm Chase and activists like Michael Mould, Alan Myers
and Councillor Nigel Todd, have campaigned for well over 10 years for
some kind of memorial to Tom Spence and it is with great pride that we
assemble here with you today.<br /><br />We know that Spence was born on the
Quayside on June 21st 1750, 260 years ago to this the longest day and
Summer Solstice. We know that his father Jeremiah made fishing nets and
sold hardware from a booth on Sandhill and his mother Margaret kept a
stocking stall, also on Sandhill, but it has not been possible, all
these years on, to pinpoint the exact location of Thomas Spence’s
birthplace, which is why this plaque has been installed here at Broad
Garth, the site of his school room and debating society and where he
actually came to blows with Thomas Bewick because of a dispute over the
contentious matter of property. Bewick gave Spence a beating with
cudgels on that occasion but, surprisingly enough, they remained
lifelong friends. As Bewick said of Spence: ‘He was one of the warmest
Philanthropists in the world and the happiness of Mankind seemed, with
him, to absorb every other consideration.’<br /><br />In these days of bland
career politicians, Spence stands out as an example of a free spirit,
prepared to go to prison for his principles - the principles of grass
roots freedom, community and democracy, for the human rights of people
all over the world.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />FOLK SONG FOR THOMAS SPENCE<br /> </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: medium;">Down by the old Quayside,<br /><br />I heard a young man cry,<br /><br />among the nets and ships he made his way.<br /><br />As the keelboats buzzed along,<br /><br />he sang a seagull’s song;<br /><br />he cried out for the Rights of you and me.<br /><br />Oh lads, that man was Thomas Spence,<br /><br />he gave up all his life<br /><br />just to be free.<br /><br />Up and down the cobbled Side,<br /><br />struggling on through the Broad Chare,<br /><br />he shouted out his wares<br /><br />for you and me.<br /><br />Oh lads, you should have seen him gan,<br /><br />he was a man the likes you rarely see.<br /><br />With a pamphlet in his hand,<br /><br />and a poem at his command,<br /><br />he haunts the Quayside still<br /><br />and his words sing.<br /><br />His folks they both were Scots,<br /><br />sold socks and fishing nets,<br /><br />through the Fog on the Tyne they plied their trade.<br /><br />In this theatre of life,<br /><br />the crying and the strife,<br /><br />they tried to be decent and be strong.<br /><br />Oh lads, that man was Thomas Spence,<br /><br />he gave up all his life<br /><br />just to be free.<br /><br />Up and down the cobbled Side,<br /><br />struggling on through the Broad Chare,<br /><br />he shouted out his wares<br /><br />for you and me.<br /><br />Oh lads, you should have seen him gan,<br /><br />he was a man the likes you rarely see.<br /><br />With a pamphlet in his hand,<br /><br />and a poem at his command,<br /><br />he haunts the Quayside still<br /><br />and his words sing.<br /><br /><br /><br />KEITH ARMSTRONG<br /><br /><br />(from the music-theatre piece ‘Pig’s Meat’ written for Bruvvers Theatre Company)</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>SPENCE IN LONDON:</b></span><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IMy-h2re3g">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IMy-h2re3g</a><br /><br />
The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-88319311145060410982020-04-20T15:05:00.003+01:002020-04-20T15:08:08.706+01:00OUR ISLE OF MAN TOUR<span class="caption"></span>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>MY LASSIE FROM THE ISLE OF MAN<br /><br />(inspired by Patrick Kavanagh)<br /><br />(for Shelley)<br /><br />I met this wild woman across the Isle of Man,<br />she touched me where a railway was.<br />She took me down to Port Soderick<br />to lay all her dreams on the line.<br />She was a raving girl from Ballasalla,<br />with a compartment for each of my moods.<br />By the time she laughed in Ronaldsway,<br />I was out of my depth with her love.<br />In Ballabeg, she ran over my ricketty words,<br />made me sing with an anxious refrain.<br />Now, I’m missing the great beauty that’s gone,<br />all that warmth and the light in her eyes.<br />If ever I’m back in that Port Erin sun, <br />I’ll chuck her the flowers from this poem.<br /><br /><br /><br />KEITH ARMSTRONG</b></span><br />
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The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-7512469753375908322020-04-13T14:37:00.002+01:002020-04-13T14:37:45.265+01:00THE LACK OF MUSIC ON A DEN BOSCH ESTATE<h3 class="post-title entry-title">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>In a tide of yellow and red,<br />I staggered with a brass band mob<br />at the surging Carnival.<br />I felt the sound of drums<br />and the thud of my head<br />as the girls lifted up their skirts<br />and laughed<br />at me.<br />Crammed into the Bonte Palet<br />with booming frogs,<br />I supped the pouring ale of centuries;<br />I tore myself away from the prancing,<br />leapt into a cab with a cackling driver<br />to make it to the dimmed suburbs.<br />Across this field,<br />you could barely feel<br />the joy and antics<br />of the Brabant people <br />in the town.<br />Down Palestrinastraat, <br />Vivaldistraat,<br />I groped.<br />Along Mozartsingel,<br />past Bachstraat<br />and Chopinstraat<br />to Wagnerlaan,<br />my heart began to ache<br />with the lack of music<br />and dancing.<br />On to Beethovenlaan<br />and Verdistraat<br />to Brucknerstraat,<br />the curtains twitching<br />as I staggered,<br />with folk songs gone<br />and my tongue<br />emptied of lyrics.<br />To Schubertsingel<br />and, at last,<br />Cesar Francklaan, <br />the sudden silence<br />of a drowned village,<br />an orchestra shot dead<br />with the bullets of icy tears<br />from blind windows,<br />sullen neighbours<br />and their droning hymns.<br /><br /><br /><br />KEITH ARMSTRONG</b></span><br />
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The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-3653994634171913692020-03-29T07:51:00.000+01:002020-03-29T07:51:31.473+01:00LANGE GASSE 18<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-59950189412303331082020-03-08T07:58:00.003+00:002020-03-08T07:58:42.944+00:00HOTEL UTOPIA<h3 class="post-title entry-title">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3UtUmuORAOVryiL5nYA59yYR7db33wKFNIMm1mp0Trxyrg9gho_UYWuFu3vSOQ-s_1uX80TJ7q097MC_AjPvEhhrbF0s-4wrXuII4IbIfMvE-UYoYI589FiM7rZSJgGDj6JniwyIsd2c/s1600-h/Centraal_station.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5451012088413577490" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3UtUmuORAOVryiL5nYA59yYR7db33wKFNIMm1mp0Trxyrg9gho_UYWuFu3vSOQ-s_1uX80TJ7q097MC_AjPvEhhrbF0s-4wrXuII4IbIfMvE-UYoYI589FiM7rZSJgGDj6JniwyIsd2c/s400/Centraal_station.jpg" style="float: left; height: 303px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; width: 400px;" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqdmPiOSwfETU89CEmEm7jPmFaBFw_3CqlXaMUK_XaW-PxOCJzlu8-fm34pllp2y1swlhbQ1tqMwdTxu-f3tPzqAHsyavUVlSNlcSA_hH2hfm1fNlSvbCCCAYIVLBG0JUujyD86HipVo8/s1600-h/video.cgi.jpeg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450735693267623730" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqdmPiOSwfETU89CEmEm7jPmFaBFw_3CqlXaMUK_XaW-PxOCJzlu8-fm34pllp2y1swlhbQ1tqMwdTxu-f3tPzqAHsyavUVlSNlcSA_hH2hfm1fNlSvbCCCAYIVLBG0JUujyD86HipVo8/s400/video.cgi.jpeg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 300px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 400px;" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHWPYVjbYqEcjzc5J8Pa77qeyBHh4C39XpU4HUuq9LCGHqUDxDDAp1dUKjf4tPUeJ0NArl6yhER4f8od8QfsZwttxf0mhIxojZ8XM4dr8_NzZ5MoJmZVtDiBkqvPkyYBJeDIwekD_QzUQ/s1600-h/amsterdam.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450652126710779218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHWPYVjbYqEcjzc5J8Pa77qeyBHh4C39XpU4HUuq9LCGHqUDxDDAp1dUKjf4tPUeJ0NArl6yhER4f8od8QfsZwttxf0mhIxojZ8XM4dr8_NzZ5MoJmZVtDiBkqvPkyYBJeDIwekD_QzUQ/s400/amsterdam.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 300px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 400px;" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMr7vUJGPtSBi9JinhXgqqi8vGqt6MrzF9-iaPfNbrTpavtpCtDvfy35gCF-qFf87PHEVsleYtEQLfTzJIW1MhY_mHW3dtKnjp8WkhSvS3tBBwEqpbb3WZ5h6jcbahRlO7y95FEAF3XCU/s1600-h/amsterdam-big.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450652122302168162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMr7vUJGPtSBi9JinhXgqqi8vGqt6MrzF9-iaPfNbrTpavtpCtDvfy35gCF-qFf87PHEVsleYtEQLfTzJIW1MhY_mHW3dtKnjp8WkhSvS3tBBwEqpbb3WZ5h6jcbahRlO7y95FEAF3XCU/s400/amsterdam-big.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: left; height: 333px; margin: 0 10px 10px 0; width: 400px;" /></a></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i>(for Tony Whittle)</i></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In the Hotel Utopia,</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">we’re as happy as mortal sin.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">You can hear an old man crying</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">through the city din.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There’s a tap that’s always dripping</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and walls that are paper thin</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and, in this Hotel Utopia,</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">we’re really dreaming.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There’s a picture in the bathroom</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">of a resort miles away</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and the stairs creak like the old man’s lungs</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">as he lives another day.</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Outside, the trams go tumbling past</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and a young girl lights the glass.</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">It’s Amsterdam and more days lost</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">on the streets that run so fast.</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Yes, here in the Hotel Utopia,</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">we’re as happy as mortal sin.</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">You can hear an old man crying</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">through the City din.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There’s a tap that’s always dripping</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and walls that are paper thin</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and, in this Hotel Utopia,</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">we’re really dreaming.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Remember Anne Frank passed this way</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">so you could grab some Speed,</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">get high on Sex and learn tp pray</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">for this City of Eternal Greed.</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Take a canal boat, a Rembrandt Ride,</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">take a hippie down a diamond mine.</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">I’m a happy man but this City’s sad</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and we’re running out of time.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Here, in the Hotel Utopia,</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">we’re as happy as mortal sin.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">You can hear an old man crying</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">through the City din.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There’s a tap that’s always dripping</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and walls that are paper thin</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and, in this Hotel Utopia,</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">we’re really dreaming.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">You can lose your eyes in a haze of dope,</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">you can drink your life to death.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Lying down, in these days of hope,</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">you’re running out of breath.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">So pack your bags and fly away,</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">through the crowds on these Amstel streets.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Just one last whiff of a Tulip Day</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and the weight is off your feet.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In the Hotel Utopia,</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">we’re as happy as mortal sin.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">You can hear an old man crying</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">through the City din.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">There’s a tap that’s aways dripping</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and walls that are paper thin</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and, in this Hotel Utopia,</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">we’re really dreaming.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">KEITH ARMSTRONG</span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span></b><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">'Well Keith your beautiful poetry melts my heart, you know that don't you?</span></b></i></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Good
to see you writing about current politics, don't stop, our country may
be depressing politically but the things that are happening are still
brimming with meaning and young people today especially need to believe
that poetry can be powerful.'</span></b></i></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="font: 12.0px Helvetica;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">(</span></b></i></span><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Jen x)</span></b></i></span></b><br />
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</span></b>The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-90715688128663525032020-02-25T13:57:00.002+00:002020-03-12T09:38:00.346+00:00PARK LIFE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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PARK LIFE:<br />
CELEBRATING GREEN SPACES IN NORTH TYNESIDE<br />
Local people are invited to send written contributions to our new anthology Park Life - celebrating green spaces in North Tyneside. Poetry, prose and lyrics all inspired by local parks (see information below) and a green agenda generally are welcome to reach us by the end of April 2020. Contibutors may email several written pieces to us as our aim is to ensure that all parks in North Tyneside are celebrated in the writing. <br />
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The anthology, published jointly by North Tyneside Council and Northern Voices Community Projects, will be launched in September as part of this year's Heritage Open Days events.<br />
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We look forward to hearing from you soon.<br />
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Best wishes,<br />
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Doctor Keith Armstrong,<br />
Northern Voices Community Projects,<br />
35 Hillsden Road,<br />
Whitley Bay,<br />
Tyne & Wear NE25 9XF.<br />
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Tel 2529531<br />
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<a href="mailto:k.armstrong643@btinternet.com"> k.armstrong643@btinternet.com</a><br />
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Northumberland Park<br />
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Nestled between Tynemouth and North Shields, Northumberland Park has attracted visitors to its woodland paths, gardens, lake and bowling green since it was opened in 1885.<br />
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Northumberland Park offers a tranquil green space with a variety of landscapes, providing a mixture of Victorian elegance and urban wilderness. <br />
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Resting on the medieval site of St Leonard’s hospital and chapel – which has been explored using archaeological digs – today it hosts scenic walks, a herb garden, tea room, bandstand, sculpture trail, children’s play area and BMX pump track.<br />
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Marden Quarry - Whitley Bay<br />
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10 minutes walk from Whitley Bay town centre is Marden Quarry Park – with mature woodland and limestone grassland. It offers an unusual landscape, as virtually the only exposure of magnesium limestone north of the River Tyne. <br />
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It is a local nature reserve too, with a large wildfowl lake supporting breeding birds such as the mute swan, mallard, moorhen, coot, tufted duck and seasonal migrating birds.<br />
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The quarry park celebrated its 40th anniversary in November 2017. <br />
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Richardson Dees – Wallsend<br />
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Wallsend Parks are a group of three public parks, close to Wallsend town centre.<br />
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They form a resource for wildlife and people in three unique, connected green spaces over 16 hectares in size.<br />
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The grounds are adjacent to the Green which was the site of the original Wallsend village in medieval times. In the 19c two large houses stood to the north of the Green; Wallsend Hall and The Red House which both had substantial ornamental gardens now incorporated into the park.<br />
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To the south east of the site was the 'C' Pit, an extension of Wallsend Colliery, which was closed in 1854.<br />
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Wallsend Parks is made up of:<br />
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Wallsend Civic Hall Grounds – a quiet parkland with formal walks and points of historical interest, dating back as far as 1790<br />
Prince Road Arboretum – an open grassland area, sloping down to a natural burn with a mixture of open spaces and beautiful views<br />
Richardson Dees Park – a Victorian park dating from 1900, incorporating formal planting with a wide range of facilities:<br />
multi-age play area<br />
Verandah Café<br />
bandstand<br />
community pavilion<br />
bowling greens<br />
outdoor gym<br />
tennis and basketball courts<br />
skate park<br />
multi-use games area<br />
lakeside and woodland walks<br />
sculpture story trail<br />
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Rising Sun Countryside Park<br />
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The Rising Sun Country Park is now a site in Benton that once housed one of the world’s largest coal mines. It has been transformed into a 400 acre natural green oasis. The Park is a site of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI) and the lake is designated as a Local Nature Reserve (LNR).<br />
The Rising Sun Country Park is a green oasis of 162 hectares, set in the heart of North Tyneside.<br />
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Boasting a nature reserve with ponds, woodlands and extensive grasslands; a farm and Countryside Centre, the site is a haven for wildlife and an ideal place to relax and enjoy the great outdoors.<br />
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Benton Quarry<br />
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A quarry of some sort has been here since Roman times and it is said that when the quarry came into full production in the 1800s – the age of the industrial revolution – the sandstone was used to help build some of Newcastle’s famous buildings.<br />
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The unfenced quarry became worked out and filled up with water in the 1930s, with the exception of an island known by locals as ‘Froggy Island’ – suggesting it was a haven for frogs.<br />
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In the 1960s, the council of the time used the quarry for disposal of building rubble and the quarry basin was filled in. Lime, sycamore and horse chestnut trees surrounded the quarry and it was fenced off. The land inside was basically grassy scrubland and a local farmer used it to feed his goats.<br />
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Then in the late 1970s and 1980s trees were planted with the help of local volunteers and Scout groups. The park was left to develop naturally and little more was done until 2003 when North Tyneside Council reintroduced Park Wardens. The old pathways were then reclaimed and the park started to look as it is now. <br />
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Silverlink Biodiversity Park<br />
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Silverlink Park LNR incorporates Silverlink Biodiversity Park and West Allotment Pond, and occupies approximately 18 hectares in the centre of Cobalt Business Park, just off the A19.<br />
As part of a new development scheme in 1996, a new country park was created on the site of a former rubbish tip.<br />
This 'Biodiversity Park' together with the pond at West Allotment was declared a Local Nature Reserve in 2005.<br />
The reserve holds significant biodiversity value, with woodland, scrub and hedgerow, grassland and tall herb, wetland and exposed rock habitats.<br />
In particular, the site is of note for its amphibian and invertebrate population. The ponds and ditches are teeming with invertebrates such as pond skaters, blue-tailed damselfly and whirligig beetles.<br />
Roe deer, fox, brown hare and rabbit can all be discovered in the park's grassland, whilst kestrels are regularly seen hovering overhead.<br />
The grassland is also home to many species of butterfly such as meadow brown, common blue and small white.<br />
A giant sundial sits on top of the central hill, and for this reason the site is sometimes referred to as the 'Sundial Park'.<br />
Free parking is available on site, directly opposite the Village Hotel on The Silverlink North.<br />
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Killingworth Lakeside<br />
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Killingworth Lake is a popular man-made lakeside park. The highlight is a small colony of Mute Swans which attracts a great deal of interest. At times Whooper and on rare occasions Bewick Swans can also come to visit. There are two lakes, either side of a main road. There is a patch of open grassland on the southern shore and there are patches of woodland along the edges of the park which are home to singing Warblers such as Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler in the spring/summer months.<br />
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Close to the road which separates the two lakes, Cormorants and Grey Herons can be seen on some wooden platforms. The site remains a good site for Common Terns and Great Crested Grebes in the summer.<br />
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On occasion Black Terns have also been recorded visiting this site. <br />
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Royal Quays/ Chirton Dene/ Parks, North Shields<br />
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A recently developed park, part of the Royal Quays regeneration. The name comes from the Chirton Burn, previously a culverted burn which ran into the Tyne, but has been restored and integrated into a series of water features. A lake attracts swans, gulls, ducks and wildfowl. To the north it connects with the Parks Centre which was originally a recreation area for Smiths Docks Company workers. To the south it meets the Royal Quays Marina, formerly the Albert Edward Dock.<br />
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Weetslade Countryside Park <br />
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This is reclaimed from the site of the old Weetslade Colliery which closed in 1966 and can found up near Dudley.<br />
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The sinking of Weetslade Colliery began on the 6th of August 1900 and the colliery opened in c.1903. Weetslade had workings connected with the nearby Burradon Colliery, though the two mines had separate ventilation systems. The colliery was on a branch of the Seaton Burn Wagonway. In the 1910s Weetslade Colliery was owned by the Burradon & Coxlodge Coal Co. Ltd., and then in the 1940s by the Hazlerigg & Burradon Coal Co. In 1947 Weetslade Colliery was recorded as producing 160,000 tons of coal for household, manufacturing and steam production. By 1960 there were 638 people employed at the colliery (488 working below ground and 150 working on the surface). Weetslade Colliery closed on the 10th of September 1966. The site continued to be used as a washery until 1980 before being left abandoned. Many years later the site was landscaped to become Weetslade Colliery Country Park, which opened in 2006<br />
<br />The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-26423502318358579002020-02-17T09:41:00.001+00:002020-02-18T07:39:43.706+00:00THIS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>this<br />used to be countryside <br />shapely acres of land and now it's<br />ground for genocide<br />the sheep jostle with exploding tanks<br /><br />townsfolk<br />use our land to plan in <br />clean out their minds and <br />leave us<br /><br />all their rubbish<br />tins and tanks<br /><br />listen<br />to the weekend artists stumbling mumbling in their cottage country haunts running free<br />between the gunbursts<br /><br />tins and taunts and<br />towns and tanks<br /><br />yes this used to be countryside<br />shapely acres of land and <br />now it's<br />ground for genocide <br />the sheep drift in city waste<br /><br />artists amongst tanks<br /><br /> </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Keith Armstrong</b></span>The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-69998706011242295372020-02-06T08:04:00.002+00:002020-02-06T09:59:13.860+00:00KEITH ARMSTRONG - LIST OF PUBLICATIONS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Books:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Shakespeare and Company. Erdesdun Publications, Whitley Bay 1975.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Giving Blood. People's Publications, Newcastle 1977.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Pains of Class. Artery Publications, London 1982.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Love Poems. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 1984.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Dreaming North (book & LP). With Graeme Rigby. Portcullis Press, Gateshead Libraries 1986.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Jingling Geordie: Selected Poems 1970-1990. The Common Trust & Rookbook Publications, Edinburgh 1990.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Poets' Voices. With Cynthia Fuller, Michael Standen & others. Durham County Council & Tuebingen Cultural Office, Tuebingen 1991.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Big Meeting: A People's View of the Durham Miners' Gala. TUPS, Newcastle 1994.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Darkness Seeping: The Chantry Chapel of Prior Rowland Leschman in Hexham Abbey. With introduction by historian </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Colin Dallison & illustrations by Kathleen Sisterson. Northern Voices & Crowquill Press, Belfast 1997.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Innocent Blood: the Hexham Riot of 1761. With historian Tom Corfe. Northern Voices & Crowquill Press, Belfast 1996.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Old Dog on the Isle of Woman. Cold Maverick Press Legend Series Number 1, Sunderland 1999.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Our Village. Memories of the Durham Mining Communities. The People's History, Durham 2000.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Bless'd Millennium: The Life & Work of Thomas Spence. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 2000.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Town of Old Hexham. The People's History, Durham 2002.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Imagined Corners. Smokestack Books, Middlesbrough 2004.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Out to Sea. With artist Rolf Wojciechowski. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 2004.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Sweet Heart: Erotic Verse. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 2006.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Angels Playing Football: Newcastle Poems. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 2006.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Hive of Liberty:The Life & Work of Thomas Spence. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 2007.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Hermann Hesse in the Gutter: Tuebingen Poems (1987-2007). With translations by Carolyn Murphey Melchers. Northern Voices, </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Whitley Bay 2007.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>A Blush in Staindrop Church. Christopher Smart (1722-1771) in Durham. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 2008.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Common Words & the Wandering Star: Jack Common (1903-1968). University of Sunderland Press, 2009.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>From Segedunum to the Spanish City. North Tyneside's heritage in words and pictures. Northern Voices Community Projects, Whitley Bay 2010.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Grand Times. The story of the Grand Hotel, Tynemouth. Grand Hotel, Tynemouth 2010.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Spanish City. Northern Voices Community Projects, Whitley Bay 2010.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Light in the Centurion. The story of Newcastle’s historic bar. Northern Voices Community Projects, Whitley Bay 2011.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Splinters: Poems by Keith Armstrong. Hill Salad Books (Breviary Stuff Publications), London 2011.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Month of the Asparagus: Selected Poems by Keith Armstrong. Ward Wood Publishing, London 2011. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Still the Sea Rolls On. The Hartley Pit Calamity of 1862. Northern Voices Community Projects, Whitley Bay 2012.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>North Tyneside Steam. Northern Voices Comunity Projects, Whitley Bay 2014.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Thomas Spence: The Poor Man’s Revolutionary. With Alastair Bonnett. Breviary Stuff Publications, London 2014.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Follow the Sun. Northern Voices Commmunity Projects, Whitley Bay 2016.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Pitman Poet of Percy Main: Joseph Skipsey. Northern Voices Community Projects, Whitley Bay 2017.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Wallington Morning. Poems by Keith Armstrong. Wild Boar Books, Lincoln 2017.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Wooden Dollies of North Shields. Northern Voices Community Projects, Whitley Bay 2018.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Tyne Anew. Celebrating Public Art in North Tyneside. Northern Voices Community Proects, Whitley Bay 2019.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Magazines:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Including: Revival,True Faith, Toon Talk, Red Pepper, Poetry Review, Iron, Aesthetica, The Poetry Business, The Ranfurly Review, The Penniless Press, Citizen 32, Morning Star, The Recusant, Kenaz, The New Statesman, Other Poetry, Poetry Scotland, True Faith, Dream Catcher, Episteme, Northern Echo, Newcastle Evening Chronicle, Sand, North East History, North East Life, The Informer, StepAway, Northern Review, X magazine, Poetry Salzburg Review, Ash (Oxford University Poetry Society), The Cheviot, The Galway Review, Culture Matters.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Recent anthologies:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Golden Girl. Poems on Newcastle upon Tyne. Credo, Newcastle 2001.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Seven Deadly Sins. University of Groningen 2002.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Mein Heimliches Auge Erotic Yearbook. Konkursbuch, Tuebingen 2002.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Red Sky At Night: Socialist Poetry. Five Leaves Publications, Nottingham 2003.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>War On War. Sub, Breda, 2003.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Paging Doctor Jazz. Shoestring Press, Nottingham 2004.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Microphone On. Poetry from the White House Pub. White House Press, Limerick 2005.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Paint the Sky with Stars. Re-Invention UK, Rayne 2005.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Miracle and Clockwork. Other Poetry, Durham 2005.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>North by North East. Iron Press, Cullercoats 2006.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Revival. White House Poetry, Limerick 2006, 2007 & 2009.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Both Sides of Hadrian’s Wall. Selkirk Lapwing Press, Selkirk 2006.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Wilds. Ek Zuban, Middlesbrough 2007.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Two Rivers Meet. Poetry from the Shannon and the Tyne. Revival Press, Limerick 2008.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Kemmy’s Limerick Miscellany. Limerick Writers’ Centre 2009.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Fishing and Folk. Life and Dialect on the North Sea Coast. Northumbria University Press, Newcastle upon Tyne 2008.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Emergency Verse. Poetry in Defence of the Welfare State. Caparison, Brighton 2011. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Robin Hood Book. Verse Versus Authority. Caparison, Brighton 2012.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Anthology for a River. Danu Press, Limerick 2012.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Blue Max Review. Rebel Poetry. Fermoy, 2012.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>View from Zollernblick. Regional Perspectives in Europe. Grace Note Publications, Ochteryre 2013.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>How Am I Doing For Time? Five Years of Poems, Prose and Pints. Harrogate 2014.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Spirit of Tolpuddle. Citizen 32, Manchester 2014.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Anent. Hamish Henderson: Essays, Poems, Interviews. Gracenote Publications, Ochtertyre 2015.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>More Raw Material: Work Inspired by Alan Sillitoe. Lucifer Press, Nottingham 2015. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>De grote dikke hobbyrockencyclopedie. Uitgevers Passage, Groningen, 2016.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Half Moon: Poems about Pubs. Otley Word Feast Press, Otley 2016.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>1916-2016, An Anthology of Reactions. Limerick Writers’ Centre, 2016.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Voices from the Cave. Revival Press, Limerick, 2017.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Word Sharing: A Literary Anthology. Kulturamt, Tuebingen, 2017.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>CDs:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Bleeding Sketches. With The Whisky Priests. Whippet Records, Durham 1995.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Out to Sea. With The Ancient Mariners, Jim Mageean, Ann Sessoms. Northern Voices Community Projects, Whitley Bay 2007.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Sound City. With Rick Taylor, Bruce Arthur, Pete Challoner, Ian Carr & Bob Fox. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 2007.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Elvis Diaries. With Jim Nunn. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 2007.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Poetry of Percussion. With Bruce Arthur. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 2008.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Mad Martins. With Gary Miller. Whippet Records, Ferryhill 2017.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Sing a Song for Henshaw. With Chris Ormston. Northern Voices Community Projects, Whitley Bay 2018. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Cassette:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>The Pitman Poet from Percy Main:The Life & Times of Joseph Skipsey (1832-1903). North Tyneside People’s Centres 1991.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Further information: Northern Voices Community Projects, 35 Hillsden Road, Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear NE25 9XF, England. Tel 0191 2529531. Email: k.armstrong643@btinternet.com </b></span>The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-44027145118479135992020-01-21T07:43:00.004+00:002020-01-21T07:43:28.021+00:00MY FRIEND JACK COMMON<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
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<b style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></b><b style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></b><b style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></b><b style="font-size: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></b><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></b>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></b><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></b></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Ever since the sixth form,</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">when I found you, </span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">a kindred Novocastrian</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">in a library book,</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">I seem to have followed in your steps,</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">stumbled after you </span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">in rain soaked lanes,</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">knocked on doors</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">in search of your stories.</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">For over forty years,</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">I have tracked</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">the movement of your pen</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">in streets you walked</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">and on cross country trains</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">from your own Newcastle</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">to Warrington</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Malvern,</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Newport Pagnell,</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Letchworth,</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Yetminster,</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Wallington </span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">and back again.</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">I have given talks about you,</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">supped in your pubs,</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">strode along your paragraphs </span></b></span></div>
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</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">and river paths</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">to try to find</span></b></span></div>
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</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">that urge in you</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">to write </span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">out of your veins</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">what you thought of things,</span></b></span></div>
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</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">what made you tick</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">and your loved ones </span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">laugh and cry.</span></b></span></div>
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</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">I tried to reach you in a thesis,</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">to see you as a lad in Heaton,</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">but I could never catch your breath</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">because I didn’t get to meet you</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">face to face,</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">could only guess</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">that you were like me:</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">a kind of kindly </span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">socialist writer</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">in a world</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">too cruel for words.</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div>
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</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div>
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</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">KEITH ARMSTRONG</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
<span class="Apple-style-span"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: "helvetica","arial","lucida grande","tahoma","verdana","arial",sans-serif; line-height: 15px;"><span data-reactid=".3j.1:3:1:$comment714077233=210152073150797234=263_10152073165177234:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.$author"><a class="UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=1736220635&extragetparams=%7B%22hc_location%22%3A%22ufi%22%7D" data-reactid=".3j.1:3:1:$comment714077233=210152073150797234=263_10152073165177234:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.$author.0" dir="ltr" href="https://www.facebook.com/peter.common.1?fref=ufi" style="cursor: pointer; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;">Peter Common</a></span><span data-reactid=".3j.1:3:1:$comment714077233=210152073150797234=263_10152073165177234:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:0"> </span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".3j.1:3:1:$comment714077233=210152073150797234=263_10152073165177234:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".3j.1:3:1:$comment714077233=210152073150797234=263_10152073165177234:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".3j.1:3:1:$comment714077233=210152073150797234=263_10152073165177234:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1:$comment-body.0.$end:0:$0:0">Well said Keith!</span></span></span></span></i><b><br /></b><b><br /></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Dear kindly socialist writer - this is great - thanks a lot for sending it</span></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Love</span></b></i></span></div>
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</span><div style="font-family: Helvetica;">
<span style="font-size: large;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Pat</span></b></i></span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></b></div>
The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-89328176959884502782020-01-07T17:25:00.005+00:002020-01-07T17:25:45.277+00:00TUEBINGEN DREAMS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtH4XzjiFTDW1KfgKlaMhEVOzTNKnbBRoZa9chclXsCtzCmS1scXNVD9bZgYDLnUpuv12n46vVGILkeqbXSYVgHEF5S3MxAc5dfqwd9ImZGp-nKSaWy2dT30QtDYh5vDYiqNqfn9Jlz7k/s1600/hirschgasse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1068" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtH4XzjiFTDW1KfgKlaMhEVOzTNKnbBRoZa9chclXsCtzCmS1scXNVD9bZgYDLnUpuv12n46vVGILkeqbXSYVgHEF5S3MxAc5dfqwd9ImZGp-nKSaWy2dT30QtDYh5vDYiqNqfn9Jlz7k/s320/hirschgasse.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><b>Happy New Year! Tuebingen Dreams - photographs by Ulrich Metz; words by Keith Armstrong! <br /><br /> </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>I will sing again in Tuebingen.<br />I will kick out the glass on Melancholy Street. <br />I want to hear Uhland breathe in the daft breeze,<br />see Hoelderlin brood on a raft.<br />This world is crazy<br />and my mind <br />rejoices in it.<br /><br /><br />KEITH ARMSTRONG<br /><br />(FROM 'TUEBINGEN WEBCAM')<br /><br />Hi!<br /><br />Very best wishes for the New Year!<br /><br />I expect to be back in Tuebingen in July 2020!<br /><br />Cheers,<br />Keith<br /><br /><br />ps Here's a link to my new project with Tuebingen photographer Ulrich Metz!:</b></span><br /><br /><a href="https://keithyboyarmstrong.blogspot.com/2019/12/tubingen-dreams-photographs-ulrich-metz.html">https://keithyboyarmstrong.blogspot.com/2019/12/tubingen-dreams-photographs-ulrich-metz.html</a><br />
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<br />The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-90119753053962899962019-12-19T08:36:00.003+00:002019-12-19T08:37:59.617+00:00CASTLE KEEP<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Keep, <br />this history by the river.<br />Keep, <br />the stairway to the past.<br />Keep,<br />the memories singing folk songs.<br />Keep,<br />the cobbles wet with blood.<br />Keep,<br />those ballads down the centuries.<br />Keep,<br />the ancient voices in your head.<br />Keep, <br />these stones alive with music.<br />Keep,<br />the wind howling in the brick.<br />Keep<br />the days that speed our lives. <br />Keep,<br />the rails to guide you there.<br />Keep,<br />the people that you meet.<br />Keep, <br />the children's faces dancing. <br />Keep,<br />the devil in your fleeting eyes.<br />Keep,<br />the bridges multiplying.<br />Keep,<br />the moon upon the Tyne.<br />Keep,<br />the flag of lovers flying.<br />Keep,<br />your feet still <br />Geordie hinny.<br /><br /><br /> </b></span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>KEITH ARMSTRONG</b></span>The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-34527532333314409062019-12-02T07:34:00.001+00:002019-12-02T07:34:36.703+00:00I WILL SING OF MY OWN NEWCASTLE<br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">I WILL SING OF MY OWN NEWCASTLE</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">sing of my home city<br />sing of a true geordie heart<br />sing of a river swell in me<br />sing of a sea of the canny<br />sing of the newcastle day<br /><br />sing of a history of poetry<br />sing of the pudding chare rain <br />sing of the puddles and clarts<br />sing of the bodies of sailors<br />sing of the golden sea<br /><br />sing of our childrens’ laughter<br />sing of the boats in our eyes<br />sing of the bridges in sunshine<br />sing of the fish in the tyne<br />sing of the lost yards and the pits <br /><br />sing of the high level railway<br />sing of the love in my face<br />sing of the garths and the castle<br />sing of the screaming lasses<br />sing of the sad on the side<br /><br />sing of the battles’ remains<br />sing of the walls round our dreams<br />sing of the scribblers and dribblers<br />sing of the scratchers of livings<br />sing of the quayside night<br /> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";">sing of the kicks and the kisses<br />sing of the strays and the chancers<br />sing of the swiggers of ale<br />sing of the hammer of memory<br />sing of the welders’ revenge<br /><br />sing of a battered townscape<br />sing of a song underground<br />sing of a powerless wasteland<br />sing of a buried bard<br />sing of the bones of tom spence<br /><br />sing of the cocky bastards<br />sing of a black and white tide<br />sing of the ferry boat leaving<br />sing of cathedral bells crying<br />sing of the tyneside skies<br /><br />sing of my mother and father<br />sing of my sister’s kindness<br />sing of the hope in my stride<br />sing of a people’s passion<br />sing of the strength of the wind <br /><br /><br />KEITH ARMSTRONG</span></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms";"><i>(as featured on BBC Radio 4) </i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span>The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-78909858470586738482019-11-19T07:34:00.002+00:002019-11-19T07:35:14.683+00:00AFTER THE UK<span class="caption"></span>
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;">AFTER
THE UK</span></span></span></div>
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<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>Shreds
of the UK</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
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</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>flapping
in the downturn,</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
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</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>decayed
Britain</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>broken
into smithereens.</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>No
Kingdom now,</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>no
United State.</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>We
are</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>citizens</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>with
no obligation</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>to
genuflect</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>in
front of an overstuffed Queen.</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>Get
the UK out of your system,</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>no
going back.</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>We
take the power</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>to
rule ourselves,</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
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</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>make
community,</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>build
our own spaces.</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>Break</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>the
hegemony</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>of
dead parties,</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>lifeless
institutions,</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>let
debate flower,</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>conflicting
views rage.</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
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<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>We
want to breathe</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>and
strip away</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>executive
power,</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>share</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>the
beauty and culture</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>of
these islands</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>around.</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>Make
good things,</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>good
love.</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>Empower
ourselves</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>with
an autonomous freedom</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>in
a new England,</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>in
a new Europe,</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>in
a New World</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>of
real ownership</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>and
delicate emotion.</b></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="color: red;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
</span>
</span><br />
<div align="LEFT" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , serif;"><b>KEITH
ARMSTRONG</b></span></span></span></div>
</div>
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The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-35147790310950337852019-11-11T17:06:00.000+00:002019-11-11T17:06:00.260+00:00A PRAYER FOR THE LONERS<span class="caption"></span>
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<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span"><br /></span></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">The dejected men,</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">the lone voices,</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">slip away</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">in this seaside rain.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Their words shudder to a standstill</span></b></span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">in dismal corners.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Frightened to shout, </span></b></span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">they cower</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">behind quivering faces.</span></b></span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">No one listens</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">to their memories crying.</span></b></span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">There seems no point</span></b></span></div>
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</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">in this democratic deficit.</span></b></span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">For years, they just shuffle along,</span></b></span></div>
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</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">hopeless</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">in their financial innocence.</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">They do have names</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">that no lovers pronounce.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">They flit between stools,</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">miss out on gales of laughter.</span></b></span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Who cares for them?</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Nobody in Whitley Bay</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">or canny Shields,</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">that’s for sure.</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">These wayside fellows</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">might as well be in a saddos’ heaven</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">for all it matters</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">in the grey world’s backwaters.</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Life has bruised them,</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">dashed them.</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">Bones flake into the night.</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">I feel like handing them all loud hailers</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">to release </span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">their oppressed passion,</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">to move them</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">to scream </span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">red murder at their leaders -</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">those they never voted for;</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">those who think they’re something,</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">some thing special,</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">grand.</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">For, in the end,</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">I am on the side of these stooped lamenters,</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span>
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<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-synthesis: weight style; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">the lonely old boys with a grievance</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">about caring </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">and the uncaring;</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">about power,</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">and how switched off</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">this government is</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">from the isolated,</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">from the agitated,</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">from the trembling,</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">the disenfranchised </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">drinkers of sadness.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span">KEITH ARMSTRONG</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: #444ca7;"><b>Kenny Jobson</b></span> absolutely excellent</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: #444ca7;"><b>Davide Trame</b></span> This is a great, powerful poem</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: #444ca7;"><b>Libby Wattis</b></span> Brilliant poem x</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: #444ca7;"><b>Gracie Gray</b></span> Very evocative Keith. x</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: #444ca7;"><b>Sue Hubbard</b></span> Very strong</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><u>Mo Shevis</u><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"> Another powerful poem Keith! The photograph is heartbreaking too! Sad for the victims , angry about the system!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: #444ca7; font-family: "helvetica"; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>David Henry</b></span><span style="color: #565656; font-family: "helvetica"; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> Fantastic! </span>A powerful and very moving poem </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span style="color: #444ca7;"><b>Strider Marcus Jones</b></span> A great poem full of so many truths.</span></span><span style="font-size: small;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Dominic Windram Great stuff Keith... always a vociferous voice for the voiceless! </span></span><span style="font-size: small;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span">Siobhan Coogan Beautiful Keith you give a voice to the lonely </span></span></div>
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The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-43422642291784023192019-10-20T08:46:00.001+01:002019-10-20T09:41:45.602+01:00WILLIAM BLAKE IN THE BRIDGE HOTEL<br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>A few pints of Deuchars and my spirit is soaring.<br />The child dances out of me,<br />goes running down to the Tyne,<br />while the little man in me wrestles with a lass<br />and William Blake beams all his innocence in my glass.<br />And the old experience sweats from a castle’s bricks<br />as another local prophet takes a jump off the bridge.<br /><br />It’s the spirit of Pat Foley and the ancient brigade<br />on the loose down the Quayside stairs<br />in a futile search, <br />just a step in the past,<br />for one last revolutionary song.<br /><br />All the jars we have supped<br />in the hope of a change;<br />all the flirting and courting and chancing downstream;<br />all the words in the air and the luck pissed away.<br />It seems we oldies are running back<br />screaming to the Bewick days,<br />when a man could down a politicised quip <br />and craft a civilised chat<br />before he fed the birds <br />in the Churchyard.<br /><br />The cultural ships are fair steaming in<br />but it’s all stripped of meaning - <br />the Councillors wade <br />in the shallow end.<br /><br />O Blake! buy me a pint in the Bridge again,<br />let it shiver with sunlight<br />through all the stained windows,<br />make my wit sparkle<br />and my knees buckle.<br /><br />Set me free of this stifling age<br />when the bland are back in charge.<br />Let us grow our golden hair wild once more<br />and roar like Tygers <br />down Dog Leap Stairs.<br /><br /> </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>KEITH ARMSTRONG</b></span>The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-8322824597789917142019-10-08T16:43:00.003+01:002019-10-16T09:34:34.401+01:00ASSEMBLAGE: PERSONS AND LOCATION<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">POEM FOR PETE<br /><br /><br />The lines on our faces<br />show us testing times<br />we survived,<br />scrbbling poems and drawings <br />often against brick walls,<br />pleading for the funds<br />to make our crazy dreams happen.<br />Down the back lanes of home,<br />in Spencean Holborn,<br />tacky Amsterdam<br />and surreal Den Bosch,<br />we have trudged <br />with our artistic gifts;<br />on to the ancient boulevards of Prague,<br />inside the boozy nooks of Tuebingen,<br />on Isle of Man steam trains,<br />we fearfully hawked our pamphlets<br />hoping that they’d make<br />someone’s little life a little better.<br />Now, catching a moment of oral history<br />in the sunshine of our days,<br />we drink for the moment<br />to be done with pain,<br />brief as a kiss<br />in a sudden poem <br />or life-sketch.<br />Expressing ourselves endlessly <br />in a way that lights up others’ lives<br />we carry on planting<br />bolts of joy<br />on the banks of the sloshing Tyne.<br /><br /><br /><br />KEITH ARMSTRONG</span></b>The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-32958272337390720512019-09-21T07:44:00.003+01:002019-09-21T07:46:46.540+01:00CARRY ON TWINNING!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">TUEBINGEN/DURHAM LITERARY/ARTS TWINNING<br /><br />The partnership with County Durham and the City of Tuebingen in South Germany was established in 1969. <br />Poet Doctor Keith Armstrong, who gained his doctorate at the University on Durham in 2007, following on from Bachelor's and Master's degrees there, first visited Tuebingen in November 1987 to give readings and talks for a period of three weeks. Since then he has travelled to the city over 40 times and helped arrange for Durham and North East poets, musicians and artists and their counterparts in Tuebingen to visit their respective cultural twins.<br /><br />TO HELP CELEBRATE THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE OFFICIAL TWINNING, KEITH RETURNED TO TUEBINGEN FROM JULY 3RD TO 7TH 2019 AT THE INVITATION OF THE CULTURAL OFFICE IN TUEBINGEN WHEN HE APPEARED AT THE BOOK FESTIVAL TO READ FROM HIS LATEST TUEBINGEN POETRY AND FROM THE TUEBINGEN/DURHAM LITERARY ANTHOLOGY ‘WORD SHARING’.<br />HE TRAVELLED WITH NORTHUMBRIAN PIPER CHRIS ORMSTON AND WAS JOINED BY TUEBINGEN PERFORMERS AND FRIENDS FOR THE OCCASION.<br /><br />WITH 2020 IN MIND, KEITH'S NOW WORKING ON A COLLABORATION WITH TUEBINGEN PHOTOGRAPHER ULRICH METZ<br />AND DON'T FORGET HIS UPDATED COLLECTION OF TUEBINGEN POEMS (1987 TO DATE), HERMANN HESSE IN THE GUTTER, IS NOW AVAILABLE AT £5 FROM NORTHERN VOICES COMMUNITY PROJECTS.<br /><br />THE STORY SO FAR:<br /><br />Keith returned to Tuebingen in September 2016 for readings of his poems inspired by his visits to Tuebingen over the years, including a literary promenade around the old town and along the Neckar accompanied by accordionist Peter Weiss. <br />He was also there in November 2017 with fellow poet Paul Summers and folk musician Gary Miller to attend the launch of a new anthology, Word Sharing, published by the Cultural Office in Tuebingen and edited by Carolyn Murphey Melchers and Michael Raffel in Tuebingen and Keith Armstrong in Durham to mark 30 years of the literary twinning between Tuebingen and Durham and featuring a selection of poetry by some 22 writers from Tuebingen and Durham.<br />The anthology had its Durham launch as part of a World Book Day event on Monday 23rd April 2018 at the University of Durham. Special guests at the event were writers Andrea Mittag and Matthias Kaiser from Tuebingen who read alongside Durham poets Jackie Litherland, Katrina Porteous, Paul Summers, Rob Walton and Keith Armstrong, with Durham folk music from Gary Miller and Mick Tyas - all in all, a memorable occasion with wine, poetry and song! Andrea and Matthias also appeared at specially arrranged seminars in the English and German Departments of the University of Durham.<br /><br />Before this, Tuebingen poets Anna Fedorova and Yannick Lengkeek came to Durham in November 2015 for readings and discussions, with Manuela Schmidt and Florian Neuner following suit in April 2017, and Eva Christina Zeller returned to Durham in November 2017 as part of the exchange programme for readings and workshops at the University.<br /><br />Looking further back, a special celebration of the literary/arts links between the cultural partners was held on May 17th 2015 at Tuebingen’s Club Voltaire as part of the Tuebingen Buecherfest. This was arranged by poet Tibor Schneider, Michael Raffel of the Buecherfest and Doctor Armstrong. Those featured included Gary Miller, singer/songwriter from Durham band ‘The Whisky Priests’, poets Carolyn Murphey Melchers, Sara Hauser, Anna Fedorova, Yannick Lengkeek and Tibor Schneider and rock musician Juergen Sturm with Mary Jane.<br /><br />Keith Armstrong was also in Tuebingen from Tuesday 11th November 2014 to Saturday 15th when he performed his poetry in the legendary Heckenhauer’s Bookshop, one of his favourite bars The Boulanger, at the Carlo-Schmid-Gymnasium (school) and at Weinhaus Beck for a poetry breakfast. He was joined by Tibor Schneider, Sara Hauser, Yannick Lengkeek and Anna Fedorova with Peter Weiss on accordion and Juergen Sturm on rock guitar and vocals.<br /><br />Before this, he was in Tuebingen from Wednesday 2nd to Saturday 5th April 2014 with artist/photographer Peter Dixon for readings with Tuebingen writers Eva Christina Zeller, Sara Hauser, Tibor Schneider and Florian Neuner at Weinhaus Beck, a school visit and other networking initiatives. This followed on from his visit from Monday 4th November to Thursday 7th 2013 when he took part in a major symposium on the theme of writer Hermann Hesse who lived and worked in Tuebingen from 1895-1899. As well as joining in with the discussions and giving a reading from his poems on Hesse and Tuebingen, Keith met with poets, academics, teachers, musicians, cultural and media workers. <br /><br />Sara Hauser visited Durham from Monday 12th to Thursday 15th May 2014 for sessions at the University's English and German Departments and meetings with local writers, artists and musicians.<br />So the twinning continues to go from strength to strength. Looking back on things, Armstrong and folk rock musician Gary Miller, lead singer of Durham band the Whisky Priests, travelled to Tuebingen at the end of March 2012 for performances in pubs, cabaret venues and schools where they performed with Tuebingen poet Tibor Schneider who visited Durham in October of that year as part of the ongoing exchange. <br />Tibor joined his Durham counterparts for readings at Durham University and at the Half Moon Inn. He was also interviewed on BBC Radio Tees concerning his Durham visit.<br /><br />Keith Armstrong and Gary Miller returned the compliment with a trip to Tuebingen in March 2013 where they performed again in bars, cafes and schools with poets Tibor Schneider, Sara Hauser and Tuebingen musicians. <br />In 2011, Tuebingen rock musician Juergen Sturm jetted in with his music partner Mary Jane at the end of October for pub gigs, including a twinning event in Durham on Monday 31st October featuring Juergen and Mary Jane with Durham folk musicians and poets. That followed on from a visit to Tuebingen in South Germany in early April 2011 by Keith Armstrong and photographer/artist Peter Dixon. The intrepid pair worked together on a touring display featuring Armstrong's poems and Dixon's photographs documenting the unique link between Tuebingen and Durham which was staged initially in the Durham Room at County Hall, Durham in November. Armstrong performed his poetry in cafes, bars and schools and met up with Tuebingen friends, old and new, with the multi-talented Dixon capturing all of it on film. <br /><br />This trip reciprocated a visit to Durham in November 2010 by Tuebingen poets Henning Ziebritzki and Carolyn Murphey Melchers, when Juergen Stuerm also took part in a series of pub performances. There was a special event at Clayport Library, Durham City on Monday November 1st with the Tuebingen poets and special guests from Durham, followed by a rousing session in the Dun Cow when Juergen, with Mary Jane, and his Durham counterparts, Gary Miller and Marie Little belted out their lively songs.<br />Armstrong was also in Tuebingen in May 2010 with Gary Miller for performances in his favourite Tuebingen bar ‘The Boulanger’ and at a local school. This followed a special guest appearance in 2009 at the biannual Book Festival, a reading with Tuebingen counterpart Eva Christina Zeller and a visit to local schools. Eva visited Durham for readings in schools and at a special event on May 13th 2009 at Clayport Library which also featured poets Katrina Porteous, Jackie Litherland, Cynthia Fuller, and William Martin, as well as Doctor Armstrong and music from the Durham Scratch Choir and Andy Jackson.<br /><br />A highly successful series of events were held in 2007 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the literary/arts twinning established by Keith Armstrong when he first visited Tuebingen in 1987 for a month’s residency, supported by Durham County Council and Tuebingen’s Kulturamt. Since then, there have been readings and performances in pubs, universities and castles, schools, libraries, book festivals, jazz and cabaret clubs, even in Hermann Hesse’s old apartment, involving poets, writers, teachers and musicians from the twin partnerships of Durham and Tuebingen.<br />Tuebingen’s music duo Acoustic Storm, poet/translator Carolyn Murphey Melchers and Cultural Officer visited Durham and the North East in October/November 2007. The musicians performed in Durham schools and pubs and there was a special evening in Durham’s Clayport Library to celebrate the twinning, with Keith Armstrong launching his new Tuebingen poetry booklet and performances by poets Carolyn Murphey Melchers, Katrina Porteous, William Martin, Michael Standen, Ian Horn, Cynthia Fuller, Hugh Doyle and musicians Acoustic Storm, Marie Little and Gary Miller. Margit Aldinger of the Kulturamt in Tuebingen and Brian Stobie of the International Department, Durham County Council, also addressed the audience.<br /><br />For the record, here's a list of those who have made it happen so far:<br /><br />Tuebingen visitors to Durham since 1987:<br /><br />Carolyn Murphey Melchers, Karin Miedler, Gerhard Oberlin, Uwe Kolbe, Johannes Bauer, Eva Christina Zeller, Simone Mittmann, Florian Werner, Juergen Sturm, Mary Jane, Wolf Abromeit, Christopher Harvie, Eberhard Bort, Marcus Hammerschmitt, Henning Ziebritzki, Andy and Alessandra Fazion Marx, Otto Buchegger, Tibor Schneider, Sara Hauser, Anna Fedorova, Yannick Lengkeek, Manuela Schmidt, Florian Neuner, Andrea Mittag, Matthias Kaiser.<br /><br />Durham visitors to Tuebingen since 1987:<br /><br />Keith Armstrong, the late Michael Standen (Colpitts Poetry), the late Julia Darling, Andy Jackson, Fiona MacPherson, Katrina Porteous, Marie Little, Ian Horn (Colpitts Poetry), the late Alan C. Brown, Linda France, Jackie Litherland (Colpitts Poetry), Cynthia Fuller, Margaret Wilkinson, Jez Lowe, the late Jack Routledge, Gary Miller, Matthew Burge, David Stead, Hugh Doyle, Peter Dixon, Paul Summers, Chris Ormston.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />FURTHER INFORMATION: NORTHERN VOICES COMMUNITY PROJECTS TEL. 0191 2529531.<br /></span></b>The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-1613470370186651602019-09-08T20:09:00.002+01:002019-09-08T20:09:55.488+01:00BACK AT ON THE NAIL, LIMERICK<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4086335770241551690.post-85966819656631637732019-09-07T14:32:00.003+01:002019-09-07T14:33:49.717+01:00BYKER HILL<h3 class="post-title entry-title">
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<b>Poems by Keith Armstrong<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />FIRST PUBLISHED BY INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT CO. LTD. (NEWCASTLE) ARTS CLUB 1972<br /><br /><br />byker<br /><br /><br />antique mart of memory’s remnants<br /><br />glad bag of fading rags<br /><br /><br />bedraggled old flag<br /><br /><br />blowing in the wind over newcastle<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <br /><br /><br /><br />we stand on street corners shivering in the winter<br /><br />like birds sheltering from the wind<br /><br /><br />we do not rattle loose change in our pockets<br /><br />only the nuts and bolts of poverty<br /><br /><br />we are splinters<br /><br />ill-shaven<br /><br />our clothes droop on us<br /><br />using our bones for hangers<br /><br /><br />we avoid mirrors and images of ourselves in shields road doorways<br /><br />we do not look through windows<br /><br /><br />we draw curtains of beer across our eyes<br /><br />we sleep/place bets<br /><br /><br />every week on dole day hunger prods us awake<br /><br /><br />it is instinct<br /><br /><br />it is a fear of never waking<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />yesterday’s records in a raby street window<br /><br />yesterday’s news<br /><br />revolving today<br /><br /><br />pictures of byker trapped in a camera<br /><br />yesterday’s photos<br /><br />developed today<br /><br /><br />yesterday’s headlines<br /><br />today’s wrapping paper<br /><br /><br />yesterday’s wars are bloodless today<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />snot drips nose<br /><br />wailing ragman drags a foot<br /><br />and sniffs<br /><br /><br /><br />any old rags<br /><br />any old rags<br /><br /><br /><br />hair like straw<br /><br />homespun<br /><br />snot runs<br /><br />licks cracked mouth<br /><br /><br /><br />any old rags<br /><br />any old rags<br /><br /><br />as raby street<br /><br /> declines<br /><br /> into<br /><br />water<br /><br /><br /><br />any old rags<br /><br />any old rags<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />watson’s toffee factory<br /><br />wrapped in mist<br /><br />melts in the watering mouth of the dawn<br /><br />another byker child is born<br /><br /><br />another byker son assumes<br /><br />the dusty jacket of a byker man <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />and this is the truth<br /><br />the wind-ripped reality between the grave and the womb<br /><br />the aimlessness<br /><br />the weary broken people<br /><br />shuffling through the measured lines of architects’ reports<br /><br /><br />the cripples<br /><br />the dying streets<br /><br />behind the brash and snatching shops<br /><br />the coughing strays<br /><br /><br />this is all the small print<br /><br />the drifting words<br /><br />beneath the glossy covers<br /><br /><br />and this is mother byker now<br /><br /><br />a wasteland of schools<br /><br /> churches public houses<br /><br />a frail old woman<br /><br />her mouth and eyes bricked over<br /><br />tilting<br /><br /><br />on her last legs<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />change<br /><br />creeps like a lizard over the face of byker<br /><br />dragging behind it its retinue of planners<br /><br /> wreckers <br /><br /> builders and<br /><br /> visionaries<br /><br /><br />tomorrow<br /><br />you will wake from your years of sleeping<br /><br />and find what you knew to be yours being hauled away<br /><br />over byker bridge on the backs of lorries<br /><br />your yesterday<br /><br />in clouds of dust<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><i><br />byker folk are living still<br /><br />byker folk on byker hill<br /><br />fading flowers on a window sill<br /><br />byker folk<br /><br /> hang<br /><br /> on</i></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Futura-Medium;">*As an
industrial librarian at I.R.D., from 1968-72, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Futura-Medium;">Keith was christened
'Arts & Darts', organising </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Futura-Medium;">an events programme in
the firm incuding poetry </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Futura-Medium;">readings, theatrical
productions, and art exhibitions by </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Futura-Medium;">his fellow
workers, as well as launching Ostrich poetry</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: Futura-Medium;">magazine
using the firm's copying facilities and</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Futura-Medium;">arranging
darts matches between departments!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Futura-Medium;">He also organised a Byker Festival in 1972 whilst </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Futura-Medium;">working at I.R.D.. </span>The Armstrong-Dixon Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05281965644127927516noreply@blogger.com0