Brave Faces & Other Smiles E-Book

Beth Calverley

• Herausgeber: Verve Poetry Press
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Seitenzahl: 47

Beschreibung

'…I told you/ I really like your smile./ And to my surprise/ you gave it to me.' This astonishing debut by Beth Calverley takes the umbrella theme of the smile and shares it out – with great generosity and care - among a multiplicity of subjects, moods and meanings. Smiles can be brave, shy, sad, or a lighthouse beam of joy. They can be a mess of countless other things. This subject seems so appropriate to a poet whose presence, way of reaching out to every member of her audience, and most of all her smile, seem to create smiles all around her. Her leaps of imagination take the breath away. Her use of recurring imagery draws a safety-net of light around her listeners and readers. Some of the smiles that inspired poems in this collection are contributed by people whom Beth has met on her adventures with The Poetry Machine. These poems are worthy of your great attention. We dare you not to smile as you read. 'This is a rich, absorbing, heart-warming collection, sensitive to life's pleasures and pains. Beth Calverley makes us attend differently to ordinary things - a single look can be 'a glass of cold water', a room 'a tangle / of buttery light', a smile 'a too- / tight scrunchy'. We should all smile more, and we should all read more poetry. This collection covers all bases!' - Helen Mort Content Warning Go gently. This collection is home to all kinds of smiles. Many of the poems in the collection look at how smiles adapt to challenging times as well as positive ones. They explore experiences of mental ill-health, physical ill-health, grief, loss and trauma as well as joy and connection. There is a full list of content warnings at the start of the book and Beth will share CWs during the event.

Leseprobe

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Beth Calverley is a poet, creative coach and founder of The Poetry

Machine. Her poetry lives and breathes, holding your hand through crisp

emotional landscapes.

Beth co-creates poems with people via her supportive practice, The Poetry Machine. She collaborates with places of work, learning, care and play, helping people to express what matters to them most.

One of Rife Magazine’s 2018 influential young people in Bristol, Beth was a Roundhouse Slam Finalist 2018 and a Bristol Life Awards Arts Finalist 2020. She is Poet in Residence at UH Bristol & Weston NHS Foundation Trust and was published in These Are The Hands, the NHS anthology endorsed by Stephen Fry and Michael Rosen.

Beth has performed at iconic venues such as Birmingham Hippodrome, Bristol Old Vic and London Roundhouse. She has worked with the BBC, Sky, Oh Magazine and The Prince’s Trust, among many other brilliant local and national organisations.

Beth is also part of House of Figs, a music and poetry duo, and co-produces Milk Poetry, a nurturing platform for spoken word in Bristol.

www.thepoetrymachine.live

Instagram: @poetrymachine

Twitter: @BethCalverley

CONTENT WARNING:

The poems in the collection look at how smiles adapt to challenging times as well as positive ones. They explore experiences of mental ill-health (including trauma), physical ill-health, grief and loss. The book contains references to:

abuse

accident

alcoholism

anxiety

blood

bullying

childbirth

death

depression

divorce

eating disorder

hospitalisation

loneliness

loss of a loved one

memory loss

mental illness

pain

physical illness

PTSD/trauma

violence

PUBLISHED BY VERVE POETRY PRESS

https://vervepoetrypress.com

[email protected]

All rights reserved

© 2020 Beth Calverley

The right of Beth Calverley to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

No part of this work may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, recorded or mechanical, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

FIRST PUBLISHED DEC 2020

Printed and bound in the UK

by ImprintDigital, Exeter

ISBN: 978-1-912565-40-5

ePub ISBN: 978-1-912565-88-7

Cover Design & Interior Illustrations by Kieran O’Shea

for all the smile-bringers

CONTENTS

Foreword

Spellbound

Wriggle

Eye Test

Hindsight is a Playground Water Fountain

Early

Sing-Along

Measuring

Jack-in-the-Box

Lavender

Now you see it, now it’s ...

Keeping Busy

Activist

Enter!

The Problem of Solving

Baddies

Who is it for?

I’ll Hide, You Seek

Teatimes

The Girl with Feet for Teeth

11 Weeks Since the Accident

A Climb Too Far

Meeting an Acquaintance on an Anxious Day

In Formation

How many reasons do you have to smile?

Chickpeas con Chorizo for Thanksgiving

At the Birthday Party

Sketch

Crying in Front of the TV

Service with a Smile

The Startling Impact of Shoes

Keep Searching

A Distant Signal Flickers

S i mile

After School

First Class

A Solo Rescue Mission to Weston-Super-Mare

Falling Over at the Festival

Face-Planting

Prototypes

The Politics of Washing Up

Sexy Recycling

On Indecision

Life Experience

Dancing on the Patio

Baby Steps

The Umbrella Debate

Clifftops

Thankyous

FOREWORD

When I wrote Spellbound, the first poem in this collection, I noticed that smiles burrowed their way into most of my poems; perhaps because it took me a long time to feel confident in my own smile.

I investigated the science behind smiling, intrigued by its privileges and paradoxes. Studies show that people who smile are perceived as more trustworthy and competent. They even live longer. So, what happens when our smiles are pressurised? In human interactions, smiles can be windows into each other’s worlds or doors swinging shut between us.

As a collaborative poet, I felt it was important to invite others to contribute their experiences of smiling, as well as my own. You’ll notice that some of the poems have a dedication beneath them. With thanks to so-and-so’ means that the poem is inspired by a smile story that someone has chosen to contribute. ‘For so-and-so’ means that the poem is unconsciously inspired by a close friend or family member and included with their blessing.

Even so, this collection does not attempt to cover every type of smile. There are many that don’t feature (pun intended), including the fascinating cultural nuances of smiling. If you’re interested in further exploration, I suggest starting with Why Smile? The Science Behind Facial Expressions by Marianne LaFrance and the references at the end of her book.

Thank you so much for picking up my collection of smiles. I hope they keep the rain at bay.

Take care,

Beth Calverley

NB - Many of the poems in the collection look at how smiles adapt to challenging times as well as positive ones. They explore experiences of mental ill-health, physical ill-health, grief, loss and trauma. See Page 3 for details.

Brave Faces

& Other Smiles

Spellbound

Amidst the silver clouds and spectacles,

I met you:

lady with the loveliest smile I’ve ever seen.

History rippled your cheekbone map from lip to ear,

cauldrons so clear

I knew straight up

you were magic.

Silence slurped at your cup,

a tiny trick that gave you substance.

Spellbound, I edged closer.

Back then, I was invisible;

too shy to smile without looking for the pieces

of pushed luck in my soul’s reflection,

too shy to risk cracking my face in case it caved.

To me, your laughter lines were loud, sudden.

They drew me in.

The purr of your perfume,

the sheathed claw of your beauty

hinted at a life not read to girls at bedtime.

Your smile was the shock

of near-bad luck turned good.

A black cat walking the right way.

A magpie, joined in the end

by the flutter of a friend.