The Zen Bruiser

ONE UPRIGHT ARM

We move together along the disused railway track
towards the top of the Swannington Incline.

“Don’t look the dog in the eyes. He don’t like it”

one upright arm
sustains the cheek
come walk with me

when things go wrong
there’s always the hedgerow

Paul Conneally 2011 

From ‘Health Walk’ with Nita Pearson ‘Whitwick to Swannington and Back’ May 2011

Previous post in this series “So Looked Cecilia’

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Notes

The line:

‘one upright arm sustains the cheek’

Is a fragment from “HOW RICH THAT FOREHEAD’S CALM EXPANSE” by William Wordsworth. Wordsworth tells us that the poem HOW RICH THAT FOREHEAD’S CALM EXPANSE was inspired by a print at Coleorton Hall, North West Leicestershire. Mrs Wordsworth’s impression was that HOW RICH THAT FOREHEAD’S CALM EXPANSE was also written at Coleorton Hall despite William’s note that it was written at Rydal Mount in the Lake District.

Word Map Circle of Fire

word map tracing the route of the Grow Sheffield / Off The Shelf Renga Ramble from Mushroom Lane (Weston Park Museum) to organic gardening guru Richard Clare’s allotment on Crookes Quarry Allottments. The piece was conceived and led by artist / poets Anne-Marie Culhane and Paul Conneally and explores what happens when the renga process is taken from its normal ‘one space’ setting to travelling through an area stopping at various points to write, read and select the poems that go to form what became the ‘A Circle of Fire’ renga. This renga combined the walking/writing process with the one space process - the first 6 stanzas being written during the walk to the allotments where the last 6 stanzas were then written in situ. The renga form used is an adapted Junicho form - a 12 stanza renku form with the schema with its seasonal, moon and love positions written by Culhane & Conneally. The experience of writing a renga, keeping to schema, linking and shifting and walking through ‘this place’ from here to there is a very different experience to writing in one space one place and highlights how the environment the surroundings and people influence the writing process and how the writing - the renga process itself - transforms the space the place in which - and when renga rambling across - that the poem is written. The walking through public space - in this case from a central city location through residential areas to Sheffields urban edge - and the stopping to write, read out loud and the master poet selecting the next stanza before moving on again - highlighted the performative aspect of the process of renga perhaps differently to when in one space where the process is still performative but different. A Circle of Fire embraced both with the last 6 stanzas written in a greenhouse on Richard Clare’s allotment. Nine poets performed / made A Circle of Fire: Paul Conneally (master poet) Anne-Marie Culhane (host poet) Felicity Stout Nadine Wills Joseph Conneally Vanessa Senger Jenny Laird Andrea Allsopp Su Walker

nuns out for a stroll

Participants in the  Fruit Routes tree planting weekend across Loughborough University campus share some of their thoughts about Fruit Routes. The film was shot entirely on iPhone by Paul Conneally.

Fruit Routes is an artist led initiative that started in 2011 to develop the university grounds as an edible landscape anchored around fruit tree planting, increasing the foraging opportunities on campus and sharing knowledge with the university and wider community through events, participation and mapping. Fruit Routes aims to create a legacy of several hundred fruit trees on site which will bear fruit for years to come for people to harvest, share and enjoy.

Fruit Routes was conceived by Anne-Marie Culhane and is supported by the Sustainability Team at Loughborough University and is in partnership with the Landscaping Our Society Group.

Fruit Routes Artists Include: Miriam Keye, Paul Conneally,  Jo Salter, David Blayze, Ways of the Wyrd Border Morris, Bob Levene, Stephen Watts, Gillian Whiteley

Fruit Routes sends out a big thanks to: the Landscaping Our Society (now called The Landscaping and Gardening Society) team,  the tireless LU staff Karen, Mark and Amy and student volunteer Laura Senior.

Circle of Fire
Paul Conneally & Anne-Marie Culhane

Divide
Paul Conneally
2011

Eagles Walk
Paul Conneally

EAT YOUR CAMPUS

Landscaping Our Society Shed

Paul Conneally 2011

Loughborough Students Landscaping Our Society Shed during Fruit Routes (Autumn 2011).

Fruit Routes is a piece conceived and led by artist Anne-Marie Culhane for Loughborough University Sustainability.

Other artists working with on Fruit Routes with Anne-Marie Culhane include Bob Levene, Gillian Whitely, Miriam Keye, Jo Salter and Paul Conneally.

Pedestrian Zone
Paul Conneally

Private Land - Peak District

Paul Conneally

2011

A Circle of Fire, a set on Flickr.

A Circle of Fire is a 12 verse Junicho form renga written during the Grow Sheffield Renga Ramble.as part of Sheffield’s festival of reading and writing ‘Off the Shelf’ 2007.

A Circle of Fire was conceived and led by poet / artists Anne - Marie Culhane (host poet) and Paul Conneally (master poet).

A Circle of Fire takes the process of renga (collaborative linked Japanese form) from where it is usually performed in a fixed space to movement through a space (stanzas 1- 6) from Weston Park Museum through Crookes to Sheffield’s urban edge on Crookes Quarry Allotments where the last 6 verse are written.

Full text here:
littleonion.posterous.com/a-circle-of-fire-a-twelve-tone-…

Nine Poets:

Paul Conneally (master poet)
Anne-Marie Culhane (host poet)
Felicity Stout
Nadine Wills
Joseph Conneally
Vanessa Senger
Jenny Laird
Andrea Allsopp
Su Walker

Food for Free - Paul Conneally 2012

First Juice - Paul Conneally 2011

first juice
a lone wasp explores
the apple press

The first juice from the apple press set up as part of artist Anne-Marie Culhane’s Fruit Routes project which looks to create the first edible universoty campus. I’ll be giving a walk and talk exploring the idea of artist as forager along with artists Bob Levene, Gillian Whiteley and Anne-Marie on Monday the 10th October late afternoon early evening - all welcome.

Circle of Fire

Renga Ramble Map

Anne-Marie Culhane & Paul Conneally

2007

I want you to go out and walk. Do what it says on the sign. When you come to lights turn left and then first left. Share back what you found, pictures and words, just pictures or just words. Interpret lights however you want. Share here and / or send to little.onion@ntlworld.com.

CLICK HERE FOR MERVYN DAY’s VIDEO RESPONSE