More than pancakes (I take mine old school with lemon juice and sugar) I'm looking forward to hearing Roy Bayfield read from his new publication Desire Paths: Real Walks to Nonreal Places on (Pancake) Tuesday night at Edge Hill University's Arts Centre. To someone who loves walking, especially with my family and our two dogs, poems offering thoughts on walking are of particular interest. I’m also intrigued by the description ‘mythogeographical’ - can’t wait to find out more! Details of the event here The Desire Paths reading takes place on Shrove Tuesday and there are references to Easter in Roy Bayfield’s book of poems Bypass Pilgrim which I read back in 2010. In his introduction he describes this collection of poems as ‘a gift, love-letter, apology, self-portrait, account, waystation on a journey towards writing other things, and escape plan.’ After I’d read it in 2010 I showed Bypass Pilgrim to a relative who’d recently had a heart bypass - as they read, from the first page, they frequently nodded and smiled - that’s it exactly. It was good, they said, to find that someone else had had a similar experience, and had written about it.
‘Outpatient Appointment’ in particular reminds me of taking my Nan (pre-2010) to Broadgreen Hospital for her post-op check: None of us had been brave enough to come in person, at least not in full. During those pre-op visits the consultant had very much included me in his explanations - aware that anyone facing this operation (a triple bypass in my Nan’s case) does well to maintain their capacity to listen, being overwhelmed with the fear of the procedure they are facing and everything else that’s bound up in that. My Nan’s operation went ahead without a hitch and after a recovery time, she was much better as a result. Reading through Bypass Pilgrim again today renews my sense of her journey and how brave she, and all those others are.
2 Comments
Roy Bayfield
4/9/2017 08:47:56 am
I hope the lack of poems in Desire Paths wasn't too disappointing :-)
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Joanne
4/10/2017 04:14:29 am
No disappointment at all Roy - having known you as a poet is was a nice surprise to find out that you write prose too! Thanks for your entertaining and engaging reading from, and talk about the writing of, Desire Paths that evening.
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