My Polaroid Poets and Other Pomegranates ...

::: Guitarist and Singer Danny Shevlin :::

::: Poet Tom Royston :::
::: Poet Laureate of England Andrew Motion :::

Above me and below me and on my
left and on my right and in front of me
and behind me all I could see and
hear were poets of various distinct
note from the Poet Laureate of
England to the Poet Marginalized.
So I "polaroided" them poetically in
my first photographic essay by the
use of polariod media only.

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One poet had the face of a of walter-
melon when he spoke, another was all
so whimiscal, yet another seemed more
poet than poet, and while I write I would
never try writing poetry even if what I

write is called poetry by some.

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Poetry I leave to those who profess
to be poets or the poetically-inclined.
The only poetry I know is what I see
in my lens and I try to capture that
whenever I can in the images I take
no matter of who or of what
I am photographing ...

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Andrew Motion seems to be an
emotionally man to me. Perhaps even
a little bit strange in how he comes over.

Some say he's punctilious and supercilious

and others say he's superb as the Poet
Laureate of England that entails him
writing to mark the Queen's official
birthday and for state occasions

requiring a poet like him. When I first
approached Andrew himself he was
engrossed in his poetry, I guess. I intro-
duced myself, but I soon realised he was too

engrossed in his appointed task as the lead
poet and guest of honour at the Euston

charity event to which I attended ... So I

backed off and bid my time to approach him
again so that he could "polaroided" by me

for my photographic essay. That I did, has

seen in my above caption polaroid of him.

He pretty much leered at me as I explained

to him that I don't take mugshots, I take

photographs. What's the difference, he may

have asked? I would have answered "you."

Frankly, I wasn't comfortable with the man.

I don't know why. Not that Andrew Motion

did anything wrong. I think it was the lack

of any personal chemistry between us.

Whatever, he was the first Poet Laureate I

had met and also the first I photographed.

Poet John Sheehy (shown above) is nitty-gritty in

his poetry coming from his roots of South Western

Ireland. I enjoyed his presentation and his lack of

artifice in what I heard of his moving words. He

was simply plain and simple and to the point ...

To have "polarioded" him was my good chance to

also have spent sometime just chatting with him

about his poetry ... and about him.

I was delighted to bumped into Rt. Rev'd James Land-

staff, the Anglican Bishop of King's Lynn, who I

promptly "polaroided" among the poets, artists,

and other pomegrantes at the charity do. I seem to

have a knack for meeting various ecclesiastic figures

ranging and ranking from cardinals, patriarchs,
archbishops, bishops, archdeacons, monks and

seminarians. Bishop Landstaff was an easy subject

to photograph and even easier to talk with as he

and I did as fellow Anglicans ... No, the bishop

did not read any poetry nor does he write such.

He was there as a trustee of the charity of Housing

Justice, which organised the evening event

under the heading of "Connecting Voices."

Living in an government-funded hostel for the

homeless at Cambridge is Danny Shevlin, who

is talented beyond words to me. With those

classic guitars of his and his unique style of

singing, I don't see why he needs to be in any

kind of hostel for he could earn a small fortune

from the musical and stage talents I saw of him.

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Danny Shevlin was the highlight of the charity

event. He is with ''Creative Futures," that seeks

to empower maginalised artists and writers. All I

can say is more power and more success to Danny,

who I took a number of polaroids of with his Pete

Doherty-like looks and his incredibly photogenic

face and body posture. I just hope the Shevlin

boy doesn't imitate the Doherty diaster ... Also,

note the lead polariod I took of him at the top of

this online report of mine ...

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Look at Danny's face and at what age would

you think he was? Okay, 16, 17, 18 or 19?

Hold on, this guy is age 35 and I think I

asked him two or three times to be sure I

got his age right. Most of the women at his

performance, of course, just swooned all

over him ... Lucky him. And, good luck to him.

I'm no expert on poetry, but John Paul O'Neill

most certainly is. His name is widely known

among the poetry curcuit of England and Eire.

An afforable man, Poet O'Neill stands on his own

two feet and delivers his own brand of poets

that enables him to earn his keep by writing

and reading his own poetry. You'd have to be an

idiot or a goon not to relish his poetic persona

that I clearly saw in John Paul O'Neill, who was

billed as pretty much a top dog poet by the

charity sponsers ... So he should be. I've in-

cluded the single polaroid above for you to see

him that I took of him at the very end of the

evening's almost three hour programme ...

Ingrid and Laurence I happily "polarioded," has
shown above, as part of my overall photographic
essay via the media of polaroid of the poets and
artists and other pomegranates I met during
the evening. Ingrid is the poetess and Laurence
is the "pianist," so to speak, with the harmony
of his soothing mandoline ...
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Hope you've enjoyed
my storyline from "Connecting Voices,"
which was brought to us be the dedication of
Alison Gelder and Alistair Murray among others
at the registered charity of Housing Justice ...

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=My+Polaroid+Poets+and+Other+Pomegranates+...+&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

Truly, Monty. +The Vigil of Candlemas, 2008.