It’s National Poetry Day time and I’ll be running a workshop and sharing some favourite poetry at Normanton Library in Wakefield on the actual day. I love engaging with other writers and there’s something about the joint creativity that can be generated which is very inspirational.
The support and joy I get from other writers can’t be matched. One brilliant creative pairing I have is with acclaimed writer Joolz Denby; our thirty-year friendship has been full of fun and mutual support. We were chatting over lunch one day and talked about what our elegies might be after our deaths.. with a kind of glee we decided to write one for each other. I don’t think we were ready for what happened.
I received this from Joolz via WhatsApp [of course] a few days later:
James
The path through the forest is long and
Overhead the trees lace their branches
against the starfields’ distant glimmer,
We walk quietly in beauty taking care
Not to disturb the silence of its grace:
James, our friend, walked in the dappled
Shade with care, with love and with joy,
He was our beloved companion on the journey,
He was our light in the dusk and our shelter
From the hard winds that sometimes blow
Carrying the iron scent of snow;
He walked beside us, his strength the strength
Of the woods green growing and becoming,
Of words and poetry, of God and prayer.
Now he walks the path of souls
To join those who came before him,
To become stardust and the legacy of memory,
And we who wait to join him know he
Will be there to greet and guide us as he always did.
In the knowing of things there is comfort,
In the memory of him there is love,
And the peace of the deep and beautiful
Places in the world where his voice still echoes.by Joolz
Moved beyond measure I responded very soon after.
You are gone – for Joolz
You are gone now, limping warrior bright
Who took us to worlds of story and song
And unblinking gazed into the very light
That exposed injustice, showed up the wrong.
Your sagas of the life you lived and knew
The urban tangle in and around your heart
Your empathy and anger poured out so true,
To call out the bullies and the heroes, in your art.
But then the kindness, the warmth and wit
Championing women in their choice,
You fought so hard, and gave not one shit
We knew you, so let us witness and rejoice,
See your helmet glinting in the darkening air
We thank you now, for all you had to share.
I think we were both astonished at the depth of feeling we had discovered, and how positive this experience was for both of us.
Joolz Denby (born 9 April 1955) is an English poet, novelist, artist, and professional tattooist based in Bradford, West Yorkshire. She first rose to international fame as a prominent underground punk performance co-founding the Ranting poetry movement, publishing several collections of poetry such as Pray for Us Sinners, often exploring gritty realism, dark folklore, and complex human survival and touring as a poet with the band New Model Army (for who she has also been creative director for over 45 years). She later gained wide acclaim as a literary novelist publishing acclaimed novels including Stone Baby, Corazon (Winner of the Crime Writers’ Association New Crime Writer Award), and Billie Morgan, which was shortlisted for the 2005 Orange Prize.
She has released seven spoken-word music collaborations with artists like Jah Wobble and Justin Sullivan and will shortly release her latest album with German composer Henning Nugel on Edel Records.
Joolz is also an internationally collected fine artist, and has a respected career as a bespoke professional tattooist. She is noted for having integrated her distinct visual style and counterculture background into her body art, illustration, and design work and literary explorations.
