3. Paul Brookes
Poet, Photographer, Curator of The Wombwell Rainbow
Paul Brookes is a shop assistant. He lives in a cat house full of teddy bears. His first play was performed at The Gulbenkian Theatre, Hull. His debut chapbook - The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley, was published by Dearne Community Arts in 1993. His other collections include: A World Where and She Needs That Edge (Nixes Mate Press, 2017, 2018), The Spermbot Blues (Op PRESS, 2017 - Sci-Fi poetry), Please Take Change (Cyberwit.net, 2018) and As Folk Over Yonder (Afterworld Books, 2019).
A poetry collaboration with art worker Jane Cornwell resulted in Wonderland in Alice Plus Other Ways of Seeing (JCStudio Press, 2021). He has recently had three sonnet collections published; As Folktaleteller (ImpSpired, 2022), These Random Acts of Wildness (Glass Head Press, 2023), and Othernesses (JCStudio Press, 2023).
His first imagist collection is a pocket book from Red Ceilings Press called WolfEye. He is Editor of The Wombwell Rainbow a website which contains Interviews, book reviews challenges and a multitude of resources for poets.
Paul has had work broadcast on BBC Radio 3s The Verb and, videos of his Self Isolation sonnet sequence featured by Barnsley Museums and Hear My Voice Barnsley. He also does photography commissions.
This year, his work has been broadcast on BBC Radio Sheffield. He does not believe in competitions, but has been nominated for the Rhysling Prize, and three times for the Pushcart Prize. Recently, he guest edited Setumag’s Some British Working Class Poets for a second year.
Hidden River, or River Dearne
On Bird's Edge Clayton West The Black Barnsley Monk Bretton By Bolton on Dearne At Barnborough Mexborough
On Bird’s Edge
Out of the Quakered silence migrant streams enrich flow down valley carded and spun wool waters weave out from hidden beneath moor trickles down to make a village some meaty pie. All rivers are forever moving migrants. Millpond mallard, moorhen waterwheel and grind flour of its flow and verve out from an ancient forest choired into when by tawny owl, flycatcher, tree creeper and goldcrest, hairy northern wood ants nest on woodland floor, grey squirrel limb skitter, up sycamore and beech once felled for best rollers in textile mills so the world turns. The word Dearne means hidden. Muted it learns. <<<
Clayton West
The word Dearne means hidden. Muted it learns. Long linen fibers parallely flat, a sliver, put in a spin, that rollers churn into rovings, spun on the swirl and fast spinning frame of the current passed over by packhorse bridge, road and rail. Coal dust strands interweave, kneels and pickaxes loads river bank, for steam driven onward it demands, enters landscaped grounds of education and culture passed shaped holes and carved items, temporary respite, then into sun less dark, hot, small gap in earth, shook all time, cut and advance, shovel, blast, bore, hammer home a soot ingrained face, a coal culture. <<<
The Black Barnsley
home, a soot ingrained face, a coal culture. Now river adds a current of mock clinkers, braggs and sparrables, it laps a hammer to make nails in its flow, iron tinkers. Before coal seams got deep river spun, sowed, pulled, dried, retted, broke, scutched, hackled, drew, carded, span, bleached, weaved, mended, cropped, mangled, wash, rove, plain weave, three/four leaf twill, ticks, calendered, huckabacks, dobby, Jacquards, sheetings, ducks, damasks, towelling, fancy Hollands. Now tall flowering reed mace topped by brown tuft, oval-shaped broad-leaved pond weed float. And see how abandoned coal mines seep orange iron ochre threatens all with its keen poison. <<<
Monk Bretton
Ochre threatens all with its keen poison. River intertwines the silent remains of the priory as it passes on, glints black glass, marble stoppered, reclaims dead waters, revives a basket of trout, Bleachcroft clean white cloth laid out bright in the fields beside tree lined walk about of memories. Kingfisher flash blue light, green woodpecker tap, water vole paddle, aquatic buttercup drawn by glide, clear-felled forests for pit props when battle stopped supplies woven into swirl and ply, impel forced, another recovery, decided outside the community. <<<
By Bolton on Dearne
decided outside the community. Mining subsidence dropped these fields below the water table into wetlands, free, river expands beyond its banks so wheatear, yellow wagtail, winter whooper swans, and duck join heron, snipe, redshank, lapwing, tufted duck and bittern boomer. River recalls Benedictine boats, monks from Monk Bretton Priory tend their ponds of fish, here. Ebenezer’s corn law rhymes roil words into writers roll who respond to this river’s voices with their own time. See effect of outside/inside control on the cost of life that takes its high toll. <<<
At Barnburgh
on the cost of life that takes its high toll. Great estate owners, the Montagues, made sure that the eyesore pits they owned were all hidden by trees from their nearby estate at Melton Hall. Thus, Barnburgh village stays much as it has always been, while pitsite Industrial communities maintained at Bolton-on-Deame and Mexborough. Cite mallard, great-crested grebe, tufted duck, teal, mute swan, coot and moorhen. Wintering visitors wigeon, goldeneye, pintail. Manvers pit now parkland, golf course, boating lake. A balance pool for river flood when not vandalised. All flow which never ends. <<<
Mexborough’s
not vandalised. All flow which never ends. The confluence where this river mingles with the great river Don, stories that blend Hughes, Massingham, Parks all poetical in fields and hills, battle of Maisbelli against invaders, against enclosure, against mine owners, against poverty, against conditions, against mine closure, River voices that work to be heard, sandstone becomes white limestone all mixed in the swirl of image and words, woven, hammered, mined, turned and blown. River ever regenerates itself. River held in the sky falls on Bird’s Edge <<<