MY FRIEND JACK COMMON (1903-1968)

Ever since the sixth form,

when I found you, 

a kindred Novocastrian

in a library book,

I seem to have followed in your steps,

stumbled after you 

in rain soaked lanes,

knocked on doors

in search of your stories.

For over forty years,

I have tracked

the movement of your pen

in streets you walked

and on cross country trains

from your own Newcastle

to Warrington

Malvern,

Newport Pagnell,

Letchworth,

Yetminster,

Wallington 

and back again.

I have given talks about you,

supped in your pubs,

strode along your paragraphs 

and river paths

to try to find

that urge in you

to write 

out of your veins

what you thought of things,

what made you tick

and your loved ones 

laugh and cry.

I tried to reach you in a thesis,

to see you as a lad in Heaton,

but I could never catch your breath

because I didn’t get to meet you

face to face,

could only guess

that you were like me:

a kind of kindly 

socialist writer

in a world

too cruel for words.

KEITH ARMSTRONG

Peter Common Well said Keith!

Dear kindly socialist writer - this is great - thanks a lot for sending it

Love

Pat

TUEBINGEN (AND A TRACE OF COFFEE)

Tuebingen (and a trace of coffee)

invades the edges of my agitated tongue

as I glide through the empty stools

of the moments gone

and the sensational waitress

picks at the tips

of those forgotten days,

the wasted breath

of political song.

I have lost something

that poems can’t define:

the warmth of my mother’s smile in the shivering moonlight,

the love of a lifetime

and the ways my young feet

ran along in the summer breezes.

But my friends (those who stand by me) I tell you 

I shall rise,

I shall rise again at Newcastle Airport

and greet the runways of Europe

with kisses fresh

with longing

for the ache of adventure,

an air hostess’s hand in mine

as I cling to the sunshine in her eyes

and the golden memories 

return

to force me to laugh again.

KEITH ARMSTRONG

What a moving poem. Hope to see you back in Tübingen in spring.

Take care, 

Love

Karin 

IN A PALACE BAR AFTERNOON

‘When I first came to Dublin in 1939, I thought the Palace the most wonderful temple of art.’ (Patrick Kavanagh)

Dead conversations

and dud cheques

litter the gaps

between the gawping portraits

in this literary back room.

Here in the afternoon of Irish culture,

I hear the creak of Kavanagh’s knees

going down the steep bog stairs

pissing words away,

holding another conversation

in his clumsy hands.

So what’s a poetry boy to do?

Sozzle through another day,

dance betwen the lines of pints of plain,

wallow in the crevices of Beckett’s genius,

creep around the Palace floor,

scraping for scraps of dead oral histories?

For today, 

I’ll put away my pen

worn out with trying 

to trap the City of Limerick

in groping poems.

I’ll sit back

and crack with Duffy,

Lonsdale and the lads,

let Bertie Smyllie’s barking patter 

wash over my weariness.

Leave it to the shawlies 

in the huddled snug

to set things right,

I’m flying without a passport today,

buzzing along with Jimmy Joyce on board

this Ryanair Ulysses jet,

At Swim Two Birds.

And what’s the point

of lies in ink

when real poetry

should make a woman come

with the touch

of bird song on the lips of this hour?

Give your tongues a break,

Behan and Houlihan

and the rest, 

we’re dust

on a skin of Guinness.

And yet 

and yet,

the twinkle of light

through the old smoke of patter

does make the breath

in the lungs 

of a Dublin dancing day

as worthwhile

as the sweeping kiss

of that gull’s wings 

stroking the mouth of the Liffey.  

KEITH ARMSTRONG

HEXHAM RACES

We'll be going to Hexham Races on Wednesday - when Armstrong's racing poems will be published in the racecard!




UNSTABLE GIRLS






I am drawn to them
by the luck of the draw:
unstable girls
who roll me in the hay
and romp
across the bolts of lightning in my head,
their hair flashing
through all my racing
uncertainty.










KEITH ARMSTRONG

DIAL THE SUN

A new project for next year's Heritage Open Days (September 8th to 11th) to mark the bicentenary of George Stephenson's sundial at Dial Cottage, Killingworth.

We will be encouraging local writers and schoolchildren to come up with poems, songs, stories and artwork to celebrate the sundial and for the end products to be displayed in a touring exhibition to be launched at the White Swan Centre and Dial Cottage with events to coincide with it when a booklet of the written material and artwork, together with an historical background, will be promoted together with a souvenir poetry poster featuring Keith Armstrong’s sundial poem with artwork by Peter Dixon.

TUEBINGEN/DURHAM POETRY & MUSIC NIGHT AT THE ELM TREE, DURHAM

PHOTOS BY PETER DIXON & CYNTHIA LONSDALE

TUEBINGEN/DURHAM LITERARY/ARTS TWINNING

The partnership with County Durham and the City of Tuebingen in South Germany was established in 1969.  

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, with the support of the County Council and the Kulturamt in Tuebingen, to give readings and talks there for a period of a month. Since then he has travelled to the city over 30 times and helped arrange for Durham poets, musicians and artists and their counterparts in Tuebingen to visit their respective cultural twins.

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.

Tuebingen poets Anna Fedorova and Yannick Lengkeek came to Durham from 11th to 14th November 2015 for readings and discussions.

And Keith Armstrong will return to Tuebingen from April 12th to 15th 2016  for readings of his many poems inspired by his visits to Tuebingen over the years. A film will also be made of the readings at several locations around the city. 

Keith 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.

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.  

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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

For the record, here's a list of those who have made it happen so far:

Tuebingen visitors to Durham since 1987:

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.

Durham visitors to Tuebingen since 1987:

Keith Armstrong, Michael Standen, Julia Darling, Andy Jackson, Fiona MacPherson, Katrina Porteous, Marie Little, Ian Horn, Alan C. Brown, Linda France, Jackie Litherland, Cynthia Fuller, Margaret Wilkinson, Jez Lowe, Jack Routledge, Gary Miller, Matthew Burge, David Stead, Hugh Doyle, Peter Dixon.

The literaryr/arts exchange has been supported by Tuebingen’s Kulturamt and Durham County Council.

FURTHER INFORMATION: NORTHERN VOICES COMMUNITY PROJECTS TEL. 0191 2529531.

DURHAM

JAZZ POETRY!