Raw Light: poetry & opinion since 2005

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Retreating

The inside of my mind right now ...

Posted by Jane Holland at 11:07 AM

Email This BlogThis!Share to X Share to Facebook Share to Pinterest

Labels: photos, writing novels, writing retreat

No comments:

NEW for 2015

On Warwick Castle (ebook only)

"a Modernist piece de resistance" (David Morley)

Followers (walk this way ... )

The Queen's Secret: Victoria Lamb

Published Autumn 2012

That's the kind of poet Jane Holland is, a superb thinker-ahead, a person who always knows where the poem is going to go, even before the poem has been written; and that's not in any reductive way, that's in a way that makes you raise your fist and go YESSSS!'

Ian McMillan, Poetry Review

Buy this newly REVISED poetry collection as an ebook on Amazon. Read it on computer, phone or Kindle.

Fun Tudor Fiction for Kids

Stories for Kindle or your computer, written by an eight year old.

"If Jane Holland didn't exist it would be necessary for us to invent her."

Poet, editor and literary commentator, Jeffrey Side

Click this pretty picture and make Jane's day!

Subscribe To

Posts

Atom

Posts

Comments

Atom

Comments

And those who saw/raw light ...

Main blog photograph courtesy of Chiltern Railways, 2008.

Kissing the Pink

My first novel (Sceptre, 1999)

Boudicca & Co. (Salt Publishing)

The Brief History of a Disreputable Woman

My first poetry collection (Bloodaxe, 1996) out of print but still available from me. Alternatively a revised Second Edition exists as an ebook on Amazon entitled "Disreputable".

'Jane Holland's Boudicca & Co is a book of adventurous, resonant inventions. As the title suggests, it offers a new view from the interior - of both country and psyche - in which history and geography are co-opted in effortless interplay. It's a work of synthesis, and of poetic and emotional maturity, in which Holland emerges as a true craftswoman, a supple and graceful thinker with an effortless grasp of line, at the heart of the English lyric tradition.'

Fiona Sampson, Editor of Poetry Review

Facebook Badge

Jane Holland

Create Your Badge

On Warwick Castle: a "modernist pièce de résistance" (David Morley) and "one of the more ambitious works of public poetry generated through a local laureateship" (David Floyd, Sphinx 10). Available to buy from Amazon and Nine Arches Press.

Matt Merritt on Jane Holland's LAMENT OF THE WANDERER: 'an original and moving re-imagining of one of the great works of medieval literature.'

Available as a chapbook with Introduction from Heaventree Press, or in CAMPER VAN BLUES (Salt Publishing, 2008).

Email Me

j.holland442@btinternet.com

Boudicca & Co: 'I reached the fourth section of the book, the Boudicca sequence, and everything went electric ... There's a touch of Vicki Feaver about the violence and the cool delight in blood and innards, but the work is quite distinctive ... I was dashing from poem to poem, completely compelled.'

Helena Nelson, Ambit 2007

Praise for Boudicca & Co

'Extremely powerful and varied ... Holland has both the clarity for the reader and the mastery of language to say what she means in a way that makes the brain tingle with both shock and pleasure ... This collection is outstanding.'

Angela Topping, Stride Magazine, April 2007

Twitter Updates

follow me on Twitter

Blog Archive

► 2022 (1)
- ► October (1)

► 2019 (1)
- ► July (1)

► 2018 (1)
- ► September (1)

► 2016 (1)
- ► October (1)

► 2015 (4)
- ► November (1)
- ► September (1)
- ► March (2)

► 2014 (18)
- ► October (2)
- ► August (2)
- ► July (1)
- ► June (2)
- ► May (4)
- ► April (6)
- ► March (1)

► 2013 (16)
- ► November (2)
- ► October (2)
- ► September (1)
- ► August (2)
- ► July (1)
- ► June (1)
- ► May (2)
- ► February (2)
- ► January (3)

► 2012 (23)
- ► December (1)
- ► November (1)
- ► October (2)
- ► September (3)
- ► August (3)
- ► July (2)
- ► June (2)
- ► May (1)
- ► April (2)
- ► March (2)
- ► February (2)
- ► January (2)

► 2011 (63)
- ► December (3)
- ► November (1)
- ► October (3)
- ► September (9)
- ► August (8)
- ► July (10)
- ► June (9)
- ► May (2)
- ► April (2)
- ► March (5)
- ► February (2)
- ► January (9)

► 2010 (63)
- ► December (2)
- ► November (4)
- ► October (1)
- ► September (4)
- ► August (2)
- ► July (6)
- ► June (7)
- ► May (5)
- ► April (8)
- ► March (10)
- ► February (2)
- ► January (12)

► 2009 (93)
- ► December (8)
- ► November (5)
- ► October (11)
- ► September (3)
- ► August (8)
- ► June (4)
- ► May (11)
- ► April (9)
- ► March (10)
- ► February (15)
- ► January (9)

▼ 2008 (122)
- ► December (11)
- ► November (8)
- ► October (8)
- ► September (15)
- ▼ August (16)
- ► July (4)
- ► June (11)
- ► May (11)
- ► April (9)
- ► March (14)
- ► February (10)
- ► January (5)

► 2007 (100)
- ► December (11)
- ► November (6)
- ► October (13)
- ► September (9)
- ► August (9)
- ► July (17)
- ► June (22)
- ► May (5)
- ► April (2)
- ► March (2)
- ► February (3)
- ► January (1)

► 2006 (66)
- ► December (3)
- ► November (2)
- ► October (7)
- ► September (5)
- ► August (5)
- ► July (4)
- ► June (3)
- ► May (5)
- ► April (3)
- ► March (8)
- ► February (7)
- ► January (14)

► 2005 (42)
- ► December (10)
- ► November (10)
- ► October (11)
- ► September (11)

Read "Camper Van Blues"? Review it on Amazon!

Camper Van Blues on Amazon.co.uk

Before the Wrinkles but After the Gregory

'... we need only compare Holland's work with the anti-war 'poetry' of Harold Pinter to gain some indication of how rich and rewarding her response to modern conflict is - by shifting methods towards the imaginative and narrative elements of poetry, rather than the rhetorical and political. In this sense, the 'Boudicca' sequence has a great deal in common with David Harsent's Legion, which represents a similar attempt by a non-combatant poet to engage intelligently with the realities of war. This is, frankly, an outstanding collection, and Holland, as a result, can now count herself amongst the front rank of contemporary British poets.'

Simon Turner, Gists and Piths, 2007

Blog Network:

Name:
Raw Light

Topics:
literature, poetry, writing

Join my network

Blog Networks

Portrait of a Hustler

I was a world-ranked snooker player in a former incarnation. I still occasionally play pro 9-ball pool.

'Extremism was the last gasp of the Modernist movement ... The stakes now are smaller and poetry is milder, less adventurous.'

Al Alvarez, 'The Writer's Voice' (Bloomsbury, 2005)

Now Let's Play Spot the Obsessions

writing poetry (68)
poems (54)
blogging (52)
poetry readings (45)
Camper Van Blues (27)
Salt Publishing (25)
reviews (24)
Horizon Review (21)
London (19)
Warwick Laureateship (18)
criticism (18)
poetry magazines (18)
writing prose (17)
poetry (15)
a short season of other poets (14)
reviewing (14)
writing novels (14)
Anglo-Saxons (13)
A Short Season of Aphorisms and Other Nonsense (12)
Old English (12)
Poetry Workshop (12)
new poetry (12)
photos (12)
translations (12)
tudor historical (12)
Warwick University (11)
creative writing (11)
David Morley (10)
book launch (10)
commissioned poems (10)
poem sequences (10)
radio (10)
sir gawain and the green knight (10)
victoria lamb (10)
writing poems (10)
Kindle (9)
The Wanderer (9)
first drafts (9)
prose fiction (9)
Books (8)
Mslexia (8)
Poetry Review (8)
Warwick Castle (8)
You Tube (8)
making revisions (8)
women poets (8)
Don Paterson (7)
Moving House (7)
Poetry Society (7)
gawain sequence (7)
poetry politics (7)
Boudicca (6)
Charlotte Lamb (6)
Cornwall (6)
Creative Redrafting (6)
Geoffrey Hill (6)
Latin (6)
Nine Arches Press (6)
On Warwick Castle (6)
TS Eliot (6)
buy poetry (6)
languages (6)
music (6)
my kids (6)
the queen's secret (6)
Festivals (5)
Forward Prizes (5)
Poetrygate (5)
Poets On Fire Forum (5)
Ted Hughes (5)
Warwick Words (5)
arvon foundation (5)
birthday (5)
buying poetry (5)
epicentre magazine (5)
fiction (5)
launch (5)
magazines (5)
poem (5)
6th birthday celebration (4)
Aldeburgh Festival (4)
Alice Oswald (4)
Bloodaxe (4)
Coventry (4)
Disreputable (4)
Embrace Books (4)
Gerard Manley Hopkins (4)
Midlands (4)
National Poetry Day (4)
Poem Forum (4)
RawLightRepeats (4)
Transworld (4)
Witchstruck (4)
articles (4)
awards (4)
ebooks (4)
editing (4)
epic poetry (4)
essays (4)
his dark lady (4)
interview (4)
literary agents (4)
mediaeval literature (4)
online workshops (4)
poetics (4)
poetry competitions (4)
politics (4)
publication day (4)
publishers (4)
romantic fiction (4)
self-publishing (4)
warwickshire (4)
writing fiction (4)
Ancient Greek (3)
Annie Freud (3)
Birmingham (3)
Bodleian Library (3)
Boscastle (3)
Brief History of a Disreputable Woman (3)
Christmas (3)
Daljit Nagra (3)
Elizabeth Moss (3)
Fiona Sampson (3)
Heaventree Press (3)
Isle of Man (3)
Mario Petrucci (3)
Middle English (3)
Mimesis (3)
Night Blue Fruit (3)
Open University (3)
Polesworth (3)
Random House Children's Books (3)
Raw Light Repeats (3)
Sean O'Brien (3)
TS Eliot Prize (3)
Thomas Wyatt (3)
anthologies (3)
buy my book (3)
climate change (3)
environment (3)
feminism (3)
fourth collection (3)
holidays (3)
how to write (3)
identity parade (3)
internet (3)
muse (3)
my family (3)
photography (3)
poets (3)
publication (3)
reading poets (3)
research (3)
short stories (3)
the long poem (3)
third collection (3)
workshops (3)
writing a novel (3)
writing plays (3)
writing retreat (3)
2011 riots (2)
BBC (2)
Blade (2)
Board of Trustees (2)
Boudicca and Co (2)
Christopher Logue (2)
Clare Pollard (2)
Doctor Who (2)
FLASH BANG (2)
Girl Number One (2)
Godiva Festival (2)
Hodder and Stoughton (2)
Horizon (2)
Horizon Review Archive Project (2)
Jane Holland (2)
Judith Palmer (2)
Luke Kennard (2)
Lust in the Tudor Court (2)
Melanie Challenger (2)
Mina Loy (2)
Modern Poetry in Translation (2)
New and Selected Poems (2)
Oxford (2)
Oxford University (2)
Penelope Shuttle (2)
Picador (2)
Poet Laureate (2)
RNA (2)
RNA Awards (2)
Raw Light (2)
Raw Light magazine (2)
Roly Drower (2)
Romantic Novelists Association (2)
Stephen Spender translation awards (2)
Tom Chivers (2)
Tudor Witch (2)
Young Adult (2)
avant-garde (2)
beginning novels (2)
blog layout (2)
cars (2)
creative writing classes (2)
ecopoetry (2)
editors (2)
eviction (2)
finishing your novel (2)
flannel (2)
funerals (2)
hotel writing (2)
indie authors (2)
katy evans-bush (2)
literary festivals (2)
male poets (2)
manuscript submissions (2)
mark gwynne jones (2)
new(ish) poetry (2)
non-fiction (2)
notebooks (2)
novels (2)
open mic (2)
overheard (2)
performance (2)
poetry book society (2)
poetry cafe (2)
poetry collections (2)
poetry events (2)
poetry wars (2)
promotion (2)
riddle poems (2)
shakespeare (2)
small publishers (2)
snooker (2)
story structure (2)
stratford upon avon (2)
stress (2)
stride magazine (2)
submission guidelines (2)
sylvia plath (2)
talk (2)
the line-break (2)
the poetry society (2)
thimblerig books (2)
thrillers (2)
titles (2)
verse palace (2)
writers (2)
13 Ways of looking at the Novel (1)
2010 projects (1)
21 ways to write a commercial novel (1)
52 ways to write a novel (1)
80s (1)
9-ball pool (1)
Adam Thirlwell (1)
Allison Fisher (1)
Alvarez (1)
Amarjit Chandan (1)
Amazon (1)
Andrew Motion (1)
Andrew Philip (1)
Angela Topping (1)
Anne Boleyn (1)
Areté 22 (1)
BDSM (1)
Barbara Smith (1)
Baroque in Hackney (1)
Bernard O'Donoghue (1)
Blakes Seven (1)
Booker Prize (1)
Brighton Pilgrimage (1)
Cambridge poetry (1)
Canzoni (1)
Carol Rumens (1)
Caroline Carver (1)
Carrie Etter (1)
Catherine Smith (1)
China Miéville (1)
Chloe Poems (1)
Chris Jones (1)
Commissioning Editor for Salt (1)
Craig Raine (1)
David Hart (1)
EGM (1)
Egyptians (1)
Eleanor Blackwood (1)
Eleanor Rees (1)
Eva Salzman (1)
Faber (1)
Falmouth University (1)
Festival Summer (1)
Frances Leviston (1)
French stuff (1)
George Szirtes (1)
Gladiator (1)
Guardian (1)
Hand+ Star (1)
Happy Birthday (1)
Hard and Unusual Words (1)
Homer (1)
How Potatoes Saved the Queen (1)
I don't call myself a poet (1)
Ian Duhig (1)
Ian McMillan (1)
Indigo (1)
Jacob Polley (1)
Jamie McKendrick (1)
Jane Commane (1)
Joanne Limburg (1)
Joe Dunthorne (1)
John Burnside (1)
John Keats (1)
John Masefield (1)
Jorie Graham (1)
Kate Clanchy (1)
Lavinia Greenlaw (1)
Linda Cash (1)
London Book Fair (1)
Luigi Bonomi (1)
Mark Burnhope (1)
Matt Nunn (1)
Ms Baroque (1)
NEW WEBSITE (1)
Neil Astley (1)
Novel Rank (1)
Nuala Ní Chonchúir (1)
Paul Farley (1)
Paul Violi (1)
Penguin (1)
Pennines (1)
Peter Dickinson (1)
Plumly on Keats (1)
Po Mo (1)
Premier Inn (1)
Proust (1)
Q and A (1)
Read an E-Book Week (1)
Ride the Word (1)
Rik Roots (1)
Rob Mackenzie (1)
Robert Bringhurst (1)
Roddy Lumsden (1)
Sea (1)
Sheenagh Pugh (1)
Simon Turner (1)
Siriol Troup (1)
Sleepers (1)
Songbirds (1)
Southern Writers Conference (1)
Start the Week (1)
Stereophonics (1)
Tamar Yoseloff (1)
Taylor Johns (1)
Tescos (1)
The Brief History of a Disreputable Woman (1)
The Crucible (1)
The Drowned Book (1)
The Snowboy (1)
Thomas Blount (1)
Throckmorton's Bookshop (1)
Tin Angel (1)
Todd Swift (1)
Tom Paulin (1)
Tony Williams (1)
Tourettes Syndrome (1)
Tudor poetry (1)
US poetry (1)
Umbra (1)
Uncut Poets (1)
Vicki Feaver (1)
Virginia Woolf (1)
WB Yeats (1)
Will Self (1)
Wolf Bride (1)
York Festival of Writing (1)
Zeeba Ansari (1)
a new dawn for poetry (1)
a room of one's own (1)
adventure sky (1)
alex y robert (1)
alison lock (1)
alzheimer's (1)
angela france (1)
aphorisms (1)
archive post (1)
arts funding (1)
astrology (1)
authors (1)
being a poet (1)
ben wilkinson (1)
beth good (1)
billiards (1)
birmingham book festival (1)
blogg (1)
bookselling (1)
carol ann duffy (1)
catharsis (1)
child prodigy (1)
childhood (1)
children's poetry (1)
churches (1)
claire crowther (1)
colin dick (1)
collaboration (1)
collaborative work (1)
competitions (1)
computer virus (1)
computers (1)
confusion (1)
cryptic posts (1)
cuesports (1)
curtis brown (1)
cyber-bullying (1)
cynicism (1)
dangerous writing (1)
deadlines (1)
depression (1)
diagnosis (1)
diary (1)
digital poetry (1)
dylan (1)
easter (1)
eco-poetry (1)
ecology (1)
ecopoems (1)
egotism (1)
email lists (1)
emine ahmet (1)
exeter (1)
ezines (1)
fights (1)
final revisions (1)
fishing (1)
fisticuffs (1)
five things you need before writing your novel (1)
flowers (1)
follow me on twitter (1)
followers (1)
forgetting to remember (1)
francis leviston (1)
french poetry (1)
gay (1)
get writing conference (1)
getting paid (1)
helen ivory (1)
herding cats (1)
holland's miscellany (1)
humour (1)
illiam dhone (1)
in memoriam (1)
in the news (1)
influence (1)
ink sweat and tears (1)
integrity (1)
jane smiley (1)
john skelton (1)
kd lang (1)
labour (1)
landscape (1)
leamington spa (1)
legends (1)
links (1)
lists of things to do (1)
live poetry (1)
london review of books (1)
longhand (1)
loose muse (1)
love poems (1)
mainstream (1)
mainstream nonsense (1)
major poems (1)
manifesto (1)
matt merritt (1)
messages (1)
metaphors (1)
modernism (1)
mood (1)
multi-tasking (1)
my books (1)
my house (1)
nature poetry (1)
non-women poets (1)
notecards (1)
occult (1)
open letter (1)
panel discussion (1)
paperback poetry (1)
paperbacks (1)
penzance literary festival (1)
petition (1)
pitching (1)
podcasts (1)
poem for alzheimers (1)
poem in progress (1)
poem-a-day (1)
poetic ambition (1)
poetic justice (1)
poetry awards (1)
poetry bundle (1)
poetry festival (1)
poetry film (1)
poetry forums (1)
poetry history (1)
poetry in performance (1)
poetry trail (1)
poets on fire (1)
pool (1)
post-it notes (1)
prolific (1)
psychicbread (1)
quote of the week (1)
reading poetry (1)
reblog (1)
reblogging (1)
red wheelbarrow (1)
regency celebration day (1)
reinstate Judith Palmer (1)
rejection (1)
relatives (1)
relaunching Raw Light (1)
requisition (1)
resignation (1)
respect (1)
revolution (1)
rhcb (1)
rhyme (1)
river anker (1)
rna conference (1)
rna winter party (1)
robert mckee story seminar (1)
rock-paper-scissors (1)
rose bride (1)
saboteur awards (1)
sale (1)
saumur (1)
sci-fi (1)
science (1)
shopping (1)
sideshow (1)
simon armitage (1)
singing vegetables (1)
smoking ban (1)
snow (1)
social unrest (1)
stamina (1)
stephen hawking (1)
stickies (1)
submit work (1)
synopsis (1)
taking risks (1)
thanatos (1)
the battle for london (1)
the cell (1)
the dark horse (1)
the dream of the rood (1)
the morning star (1)
the poetry voice (1)
the song of the hare (1)
this week (1)
three hares (1)
throwback post (1)
to do lists (1)
tom raworth (1)
toothache (1)
top ten bestseller (1)
torbay poetry festival (1)
tories (1)
travelling (1)
truro (1)
twitter (1)
verse drama (1)
vidyan ravinthiran (1)
waterstones (1)
websites (1)
wena poon (1)
whiteboards (1)
whoso list to hunt (1)
winning (1)
witchfall (1)
women's prisons (1)
wordplay (1)
writer's block (1)
writers' block (1)
writing course (1)
writing exercises (1)
writing scripts (1)
writing the synopsis (1)
yorkshire (1)

Pollard on 'Boudicca'

"Boudicca & Co. is a bold re-imagining of Britishness. Steeped in myth and medieval poetry, this is a land of 'ruins under rain,' hares, oaks, gargoyles and the Green Man. At the heart of it, embodying both Britain's fierce beauty and its bloodied past, is Boudicca, and her voice is a startling achievement: modern, pitch-black, funny, and yet hauntingly lyrical."

Clare Pollard, poet

Jane Holland

JANE HOLLAND
Jane Holland

Jane Holland at Dhoon Glen, Isle of Man

Photograph by Roly Drower

'Sleeping with your own muse is an almost unpardonable breach of male literary protocol; but to sleep with a friend's, and tell him about it, is to do him the greatest favour as an artist.'

Don Paterson, The Book of Shadows, Picador 2005

Isle of Man, 2005

'Reading in silence is the source of half the misconceptions that have caused the public to distrust poetry.'

Basil Bunting (1966)

Jane's Pick of the Blogs

The End Times *NEW!
Women Rule Writer *NEW
The Expulsion of the Blatant Beast
David Morley
Sean Costello's Roving Editor
Sparks from Stones
Brando's Hat
Shit Creek Review
Baroque in Hackney
Silliman's Blog
Surroundings (Rob Mack)
Gists and Piths
Poetry in Progress
Poets On Fire

More available to search by autumn 2007: scroll to end of sidebar to see random book covers

Nearby 'Old Nun Wood'

'There are limitations associated with female poets' espousal of the lyric 'I' ... If it is even able to move beyond the specifically personal and individual, it is only allowed to become the voice of a female collectivity.'

Vicki Bertram, Gendering Poetry, Pandora 2005

Other Cool Places To Visit Online

Poets On Fire - FORUM for Live Poetry
Roz Hall, Essex poet - NEW!
Rachel Fox on poetry & life
Heart of Albion Press (folklore & more)
Salt Publishing, Cambridge, UK
Arvon Foundation
Aldeburgh Poetry Festival
Ledbury Poetry Festival
Poetry Library, magazines online
Poetry Society, London
Heaventree Press & Avocado Poetry Magazine, Coventry

'The more women adored poetry, the less able they were to write it.'

Slip-Shod Sibyls: Recognition, Rejection and the Woman Poet by Germaine Greer (Viking, 1995)

Hunting for clues as to when tea will be ready ...

Because Mummy is busy writing again!

Shh, step quietly and follow me ...

French discussion forum

Boudicca & Co.

New poetry by Jane Holland, out now from Salt Publishing.

Click on any title to visit Amazon

'Oyster'

I cruised the coast road alone
that summer; metallic sea
was all I knew, sirocco
blowing hot and southerly.
One afternoon, sweltering
through the low gears
I stopped the car, stared out
from my carapace
and the sirocco blew, wedging
a pearl-like piece of grit
under one stubborn eyelid
blurring the horizon
to an accumulation of light,
a working within, to you
coming to me, triumphantly
prising open the oyster.

Pages

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Retreating

No comments: