Peter Kenny
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Still, um, standing
Popped into my doctor’s surgery this morning, after over enthusiastic snorkelling in the Ionian left me with a blocked ear. In the waiting room I discovered what must be my best example of marketing priapism. A sensitively worded leaflet I wrote for Pfizer some ten years ago when erection problems were first being broached with…
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A note on formats: Free Verse – The Poetry Book Fair
Popped into the Conway Hall in Red Lion Square on 6th September to meet Robin Houghton and have a mooch around the stands at this year’s Poetry Book Fair together. We found it heartening to chat to dozens of poetry publishers from around the UK, and see evidence of a thriving scene. Poetry’s tendency to experiment with…
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‘The Nightwork’ launch, and Poetry from Telltale Press & friends
A hectic time for Robin Houghton and myself is upcoming, as Telltale Press starts its inexorable rise to poetic world domination with three showcase readings. I launch my pamphlet The Nightwork and Robin will showcase her just-published, The Great Vowel Shift – and we will be joined by some amazing poets over the three shows. The first two…
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‘A Return to Sarnia’ has its premiere
Chiara Beebe’s piece A Return To Sarnia, was given its premiere by the Guernsey Sinfonietta on Wednesday 6th August in St Peter Port’s Town Church. It was conducted by Sebastian Grand, and featured an authoritative young baritone Casey-Joe Rumens. It was spellbinding. It made my hair stand on end. It was an amazing thing to…
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Norwegian Airlines make me think of kittens
Passing through Gatwick Airport last week, I saw a norwegian.com aircraft. As someone whose responsibility it is to stare fixedly out of the window to prevent an aircraft falling from the sky while aboard, I like anything that helps me reframe the experience of flying. I have done work with Air France in the past, and their…
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Whoah! This Click Bait Will Make Your Head Explode! Number 4 Will Stun You.
Like a fish that never learns, I’ve lost count of the times I have swallowed this kind of click bait headline. Here is the click bait headline formula in five easy stages. 1. Opening ejaculation. This mimic the reaction of crazed, bug-eyed excitement the person who has just seen this list of images must emit. Sometimes these…
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Chiara Beebe, and ‘A Return to Sarnia’
August 6th sees the premiere of a new piece by Chiara Beebe. She is a 22 year old composer, cellist and singer born on Guernsey, whose piece A Return to Sarnia, based on a poem by Peter Kenny, will be performed as part of Terra Nova, an evening of modern and new music, by The Guernsey…
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La Gran’mère, a Guernsey goddess
I am an idolater. This is not something many of us can say in this godless age. My Goddess is somewhere between three and five thousand years old. She was hewn from a large lump of granite until, around the time of the Romans, she was carved again, adding the garments and, possibly, the face she wears now. She…
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Forking paths and unknown territory
Two books can clink against each other like flints. Tho books from the 1940s produced a spark that has set me thinking about the staleness lurking in contemporary writing. Beguling Borges and his forking paths The first is Fictions (1944) a collection of short fictions by Jorge Louis Borges, which collected the splendidly-titled The Garden of…
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Stanza Bonanza – 25th June, Poetry Café, Covent Garden
I find myself pulling on the jersey for Brighton in a Brighton vs Palmer’s Green event, a ‘Stanza Bonanza’ at the Poetry Café near Covent Garden. Entry’s free and everyone is welcome. It starts at 7:00 and poets will be bludgeoning one another with their deathless poems till about 9.30pm. I for one am looking forward to it. Full event details…
Peter Kenny: a writer's notebook 