Thursday 3 July 2014

honey trap

Making Memories, Gallery Oldham

The art of conversation means not only talking, but listening. Out of conversation comes first trust, then engagement and then all of the wonderful memories that are the backbone of our work.


Photo © Lois Blackburn


This poetry session in Oldham was a case in point. I brought with me a packet of mints and we discussed sweet jars in the sweet shops of memory, while crunching peppermint. Out of this flowed a conversation that roamed from mint humbugs to a police raid on a brothel to stealing lead off a roof. It's a pocket history of childhood in a tough northern town. It's my job to have a pen in my hand and jot down these moments, using people's exact words and listening out for the most ear-catching phrases. They're often rambly and rough-hewn, but to my ears these pieces are poetry. They will be revisited and participants will often strip out individual phrases or sections, but the heart of what we do beats here – if you choose to hear it.




honey trap



en masse


humbugs, humbugs, humbugs


indoors, in jars


coltsfoot in slices to buy


go to a herbalist quarter pound


sarsparilla in bottles in George Street


back to me mam's to claim


toffees for bonfires


(I'm an old bugger now, a fogey)


all the old ladies sitting outside


give you a threpenny bit for errands


they're living on snuff and extra strong mints





I've led a frivolous life


toffee apples


Fry's peppermint crème all down your shirt and


up your elbows, oh chocolate lick


a jar to catch the monkey


boiled sweets and bullseyes


fire them with a catapault at your sister


the old ladies gave you a mouthful


pineapple chunks, cola cubes


the miners send you and your bike to buy


baccy twist


to chew





up Gas Street 


down again across Bottomley


(honey trap


brothel on the corner, 101 Waterloo


full of Councillors and Dignitaries


snatched when the Vice Squad did a swoop)


then the market hall for gingerbread eunuchs


with smarties for buttons


old ladies


90 years old farting and growling at the kids


mints, dolly mix, vanilla milkbottles


take the lid off and dip your hand in.





Group poem


Gilbert, Geoff, Ida, Julie, Harry, Sydney


For more information about the Making Memories Project please visit arthur-and-martha.blogspot

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