Tag Archives: writing

The Bury Poems 3: The Rock

Posted on by

Image copyright The Frances Frith Collection.

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.

The rock

Dark night, full moon

A burning trail across the night sky

A meteorite, big as a house

Slams into ancient Bury.

The Rock.

The druids gathered

Dark night to bright morning

The chants raising to a crescendo as the sun peeks perfectly over the holy stone.

It is summer, the solstice

The Rock.

Tied fast with both hands.

Guilty as charged.

A thief and a drunkard.

Three days, publicly shamed.

Like Prometheus tied.

The Rock.

“The Romans brought it”

“No I heard the Celts”

“There is no rock on the rock, the rock was a road, or a river or something”

But the stories?

Just rumours,

But the tales

They will tell.

Look now – and the story is you.

Every shining glass surface,

Reflects us now.

Who we are.

Our head briefly and awkwardly poised on mannequins before we move on,

Their outstretched hands

 welcome us, but don’t know us,

As we pass between,

Buy,

And leave.

Never noticing the path, the river, the road or the route

That brought us here

The foundation that everything was built upon

The Rock.

So when the bags are not too heavy,

Or you have a moment to spare,

Find the gravestones they left.

The stone road,

That will lead you back,

To the heart, the centre

The Rock.

The Bury Poems.

Posted on by

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. 

Dads+Carers+Kids+ Art= communities of support.

Posted on by

It has been a real pleasure to work with MATCH (Men and Their Children) in St Helens to produce a booklet to support other new dads and carers. Meeting every two weeks at Family Hubs in St Helens we have created art, talked and shared the ups and downs of being a new dad. Making something and having a drop-in activity for the kids was a great structure to allow space and time to share and a part of my practice I will continue to develop. Dads talked about their uncertainty, health worries and concerns about children and partners, and the conflict of wanting to help raise their kids while also working to provide for them. I was really bowled over by the welcome I received and how willing these men were to talk about how they were feeling; good and bad. I never felt that support was there when I was a new dad and it’s really encouraging that these spaces exists and that the men there want to do something to help others; there is hope and positivity there and evidence of people building the communities of support they need around them and welcoming all in. They have produced a helpful and tangible guide for other dads (which will be distributed at schools, hospitals, doctors surgeries and beyond) which might just provide a link for someone struggling to a community who are ready, willing and able to pitch in and support each other. The staff at the Family hubs are fantastic and made us all feel at home and the whole project was made possible by Wonderarts (especailly Emma wh worked with me on every sessions and was a constant source of support and excelletn chat and Danny who did such a great job creating the booklet) supported by the National Lottery Community Fund

If you are interested in starting a group like this, and cleary these is a need for this, or need someone to lead sessions with an existing group, shout out…this dad is ready to help.

200 hundred years of history…in three poems!

Posted on by

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.

Vigilantia: Artists respond to Mogwai

Posted on by

I am really proud to have joined a massive range of artists in writers on responding to the music of Mogwai in a fantastic collection VIGILANTIA: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ARTISTS AND WRITERS PAY ATTENTION TO MOGWAI . The collection was produced by David Banning at the wonderful Chroma Edition who continue to release a wide range of really interesting books as well as supporting a number of exhibitions. This collection is wide as it is deep, with each artist or writer taking a song title and responding to it in some way. Some pieces are directly linked to lyrics or title while other work is much more abstract. I was really pleased to produce an art work and a poem responding to the the song “The Precipice” and feel I captured the building momentum of the music somewhere in the art I created. There is also a gripping story by my good friend and sometime collaborator Lee Ashworth (his blog is a bit quiet at the moment but you can find him out there if you so desire). The book is available now and it is not only a beautifully produced object but also sits in a real sweet spot between art, music and writing. You can also listen along to a playlist of tracks responded to in the book on Spotify.