Nick Parker & Abu Leila
To explain
What we did:
We met at the Barbican and decided we would write about how to be kind: we were interested in taking a clichéd subject and slicing it open, making it new.
We decided we’d write then and there, and quickly. We each wrote a centena, then swapped them. Then we wrote a second centena, soaking in each other’s influence.
What it was like:
For Abu: Nick’s imagery struck with me and reappeared in my poem. Nick’s first version had boxes and houses and people going outside with a box. These images held the much more abstract thing I’d written really well – thanks Nick!
For Nick: I loved our speed-inspiration session Abu 🙂 I remember the fierce directness of your first centena, and an image of ‘many hands’ that exploded in my head. I took these into my final poem. The ticking clock meant more images, less thinking. Reading my centena now is like meeting a stranger. I love that.
For you? The organisers said our essay was a bit ‘sparse’ 🙂 Which is true, but we didn’t want our talking about the centenas to go on longer than the centenas themselves.
The poems are being displayed as part of the 26 Connections exhibition during the Bloomsbury Festival and until mid-November. The exhibition features interpretations of the poetry by artists from the Lettering Arts Trust. The exhibition is free at the Building Centre, 26 Store Street, London WC1E 7BT