Tributes to Ric Hool included in A Landscape Pulsing with Life (one from me)

I’m pleased to say a poem of mine finds its humble place in A Landscape Pulsing with Life: Some tributes to the life and work of Ric Hool, edited by Ian Brinton, and published by the Red Squirrel Press that has also published six of Ric’s books. 

I first met Ric with Lee Harwood in Lewes, Sussex, I don’t know when, and also at a reading or two, including the launch of Lee’s New Collected Poems – but it wasn’t until June 2024 that I read Upstairs at the Melville in Abergavenny, a blistering hot day. Or the next day was, after a late night drink at Ric’s, and coffee and breakfast in the rising heat. I travelled back, overwhelmed by his kindness and enthusiasm (detailed amply in personal responses to Ric in the book), and carrying a lot of Ric’s books, and a CD of his rather accomplished music. (See video below!) As several contributors to the book suggest, it is Ric’s imagistic eye for detail that characterises his poems, although he is slyly witty (as he is in person). A decent bloke, with an infectious smile.

So, there lots of tributes to him as an organiser as well as a poet, from John Freeman, Phil Maillard, Allen Fisher, to Elaine Randell (whose Collected Poems I am incidentally enjoying at the moment), Kelvin Corcoran, and some of the regular audience to the Melville, like Chris Hall, Jeremy Hilton and Lyndon Davies. Others, like Clare Potter and Melisande Fitzsimmons, add to the mix. Etc.

I didn’t reminisce in my piece (which is why I am here, a bit). I offered one of the sections of Holme Fell, my current collaboration with photographer Trev Eales, because it compares the vision of the ‘cathedral cavern’ of the Hodge Close quarry (I never call it that!) with a sudden memory of Ric’s native North East: of walking under a supertanker when I was on a school Economics Field trip in 1973. (We stayed at the Rex Hotel, a salubrious establishment in Whitley Bay. It appears in Ric’s poems, though I don’t think I’ve ever broached the subject with him: did he witness the Ugly Bug’s Ball on a Thursday (I’m guessing!) night?) The section seemed immediately appropriate – and the dedication to Ric will remain in any subsequent publication.

 Thanks to Ian for editing; Sheila Wakefield for publishing.

Ric’s poetry books are listed here: Red Squirrel Press | Poetry Pamphlets & Collections. 

This tribute volume seems not yet to have been added to the site, so here’s the home page: Red Squirrel Press | Publisher of poetry, short stories, novels. I'll update if it appears.

Ian Brinton read the following at the launch of Ric's most recent book, a appraisal that could well have been in the book. (Ian has a different piece there) : Ian Brinton - A talk given at the launch of Ric Hool’s Shook Up! | Litter

Ric read one of Lee’s poems at the launch I mentioned; see here.

Pages: Lee Harwood New Collected Poems launched and on sale now

Here’s my set list from the 2024 visit ‘Upstairs’. I conclude: ‘It was a wonderful atmosphere, it was good to see old friends, and read to unknown people. It's a great series, too, if you are local.’ Ric is one of those old friends, even though we’ve not met that often.

Pages: Poetry Upstairs at the Melville reading 25th June 2024 (set list)

Update March 2026: Ric has been busy recording new songs with James Bell. Here's a recent one, 'That was my mistake' with video added:

Poetry Upstairs at the Melville reading 25th June 2024 (set list)

(Set list) I opened by saying something like this: 'About two weeks ago I was putting this set together - and I thought to read from the first two books out of three of (mainly) transpositions of traditional sonnets - Wyatt to Drayton, Charlotte Smith to Mary Robinson. They take for theme the caperings of a character called Bo, and deal with the hubris of brexit colliding with the mismangement of Covid. I've copies for sale. [I was referring to the 'English Strain' project, specifically to the two books currently in print: see  Pages: Poetic Evidence for the COVID Inquiry from British Standards (temporary post, with videos) (robertsheppard.blogspot.com) ; this is, with its videos, an alternative 'reading'.] BUT I realised that a) most people by this date would be exhausted with UK politics, and b) I don't want the poems to be thought electioneering.

SO I'm only going to read just one sonnet, not a transposition at all, but an elegy for Lee Harwood, who I know was a favourite poet of Ric's, and read in this series, several times, I think.'

I read 'The Evening Star', from The English Strain (see Pages: My THE ENGLISH STRAIN is published today by Shearsman (robertsheppard.blogspot.com).

I then read two long poems that I deliberately wrote (partly) to get sonnets out of my system. Composed in very different means at the same time, they are probably both 'about' cognition and recognition. 

The first was 'The Area', which has appeared in The Long Poem Magazine (which I write about here, 'Pages: My poem THE AREA is published in The Long Poem Magazine number 30 (background and links) (robertsheppard.blogspot.com) ).

The second was 'As a Rule', as yet unpublished. 

I sampled a short poem from Doubly Stolen Fire, my most recent self-penned book. This was 'The Lowry Lounge'. A surprisingly large number of the attentive audience (I asked them!) had read Under the Volcano. (See Pages: Doubly Stolen Fire (a new book of hybrid texts) is now OUT (robertsheppard.blogspot.com). The book was published locally, and the publisher, Lyndon Davies, was present. 

(Video of 'The Lowry Lounge')

I finished with a new(ish) poem called 'Radio Therapy', half a poem about radiotherapy and half a poem about Jimi Hendrix' 'Voodoo Child' (as it is now spelt), heard on the radio during radiotherapy (hence the title). 

It was a wonderful atmosphere, it was good to see old friends, and read to unknown people. It's a great series, too, if you are local. (Phone number above.)

My fellow readers were:

Abigail Parry spent seven years as a toymaker before completing her doctoral thesis on wordplay. Her poems have been set to music, translated into Spanish and Japanese, broadcast on BBC and RTÉ Radio, and widely published in journals and anthologies. Her first collection, Jinx, published by Bloodaxe Books in 2018. Her second collection, I Think We're Alone Now, is published by Bloodaxe Books in 2023. She is currently a lecturer in creative writing at Cardiff University. And: Gareth Writer-Davies is from Brecon, Wales. Publications include: Bodies, Cry Baby (2017) Indigo Dreams, The Lover's Pinch (2018) The End (2019) Wysg (2022) Arenig Press.