Tag Archives: poems

The Bury Poems.

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Back in 2021, I was commissioned at part of Bury’s Town of Culture to create a series of poems in responses to the history of the town- I realised recently that although they were performed and displayed at Bury Art Museum, they were never published anywhere so I am going to post all five over the next few weeks. Each one involved walking these places I am familiar with, reconnect with them and then digging deep in the archives to find hidden stories

Here is the first: Kay Gardens

Roll UP Roll UP 

Step right this way! 

Come and dance in the gardens 

Come out and play! 

Kay Gardens and the communion of cabs, 

In endless procession.  

A carousel of cars, 

Around this crossroads, 

These moments. 

These interchanges of stories. 

Where past and present collide, 

To fight over the future. 

Roll UP Roll UP 

Step up to the ring! 

Jump in with our boxer 

If fighting’s your thing! 

A tale from the past is calling to you.  

With a roar! 

For once, 

The story goes, 

A man fought a bear here and died.  

And not too many steps away, in the belly of the museum, in an old dusty box 

Are a pair of bear’s feet. 

If the tale is to be believed.  

Roll UP Roll UP 

The circus is in town! 

 Come all to join us, 

Come on down! 

Spaces have stories, 

That belong to those who tell them. 

And if you listen you will hear them 

Fighting against the calling of pigeons 

 the mods said, then the punks said, then the goths said, and the skaters said… 

Then and then. 

The next hat’s in the ring. 

Around and around they go. 

Roll UP Roll UP 

You won’t believe your eyes 

Play for the fun sir 

Play for the prize! 

Taking centre stage, 

Is the momument to Kay, 

Whose shuttle changed the world. 

But the bronze figure on top is not fame, 

It is an angel. 

Carrying a barrel-chested bear fighter 

Who was bested, broken and beat, 

On one final journey 

Around and beyond.  

While the cabs in reverential black 

Bear a silent witness. 

All poems © Josef Minta 2021. 

200 hundred years of history…in three poems!

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It was a real pleasure to have been commisioned by the It Started With a Seed International Storytelling Festival as part of the 2024 Manchester Histories Festival to write a sries of poems in response to the 200 Year annivesary of Manchester Metropolitan Univesity. When I first saw the shout out for this project, I knew it would give me the opportunity to engage with not only the archive history of the university, but also its growth and development alongside Manchester, its current position in the city (spatially and historically) and what the future of its presence in the city might look and feel like. READ ALL THE POEMS HERE

The process of writing involved a combination of archive resarch, visits to the amazing staff at MMU Special Collections (who were so generous and helpful with their time) and a series of site vists and walking tours- one of which I led with a group of fantastic architecture students.

This vast hoistry was almost duanting in its scope so to structure the response, I conceptualised three phases and three poems: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Yestedray was focused on the origns and legacy, Today looked at where the university sits as part of the current make-up of Manchester and Tomorrow as a more speculative view of the possible future.

Finding hidden histories in archives and developing a better understanding of where the univesity came from (aided in a massive way by two fantastic books Many Arts, Many Skills: Origins of Manchester Metropolitan and Manchester Metropolitan University: images of history) and what it became while having time to explore the site on foot and really engage with the pysical space of the campus was really inspirational and helped me write three poems I was really very proud of. This culimated reading all three poems at the launch of the festival in the iconic Central Library– the right words in the right place at the right time; a real dream. It was also amazing to hear and see the responses of the other comissioned artists too- what an amazing range of work looking at the same subject from a multiplicity of angles. I also produced three sculptures inspired by my research; bricks which matched the building of the campus etched on their “spines” with titles of books from the special collections. The poems will be published later this year and there may yet be some more events and opportunities to share. A small fragment of the whole though which I feel captures the essence of the commission.

The solution to the puzzle of the future

Is within you.

Nestled spark to burning ember,

Guiding light to flaming torch,

bringing clarity, showing us the way

Out of the darkness.