Paula Peters (Claire) – One Hundred Field Names of Oxfordshire
One of our SENDRA neighbours, Paula Claire, has recently been awarded the prestigious Cholmondeley Award for her concrete, visual, sound and performance poetry over 60 years. On Saturday afternoon 10 July about 20 of us gathered outside the gates of Number 11 Dale Close to hear Paula talk about her career in poetry, her work with children and her current activities. What fun it was to listen to her tell her stories so enthusiastically and then join with her in reciting her 1980 poem “One Hundred Field Names of Oxfordshire” as a group. We started slowly and then got faster and faster – first Andante, then Moderato and finally Prestissimo – enjoying the rhythm of the words. We laughed and laughed.
Since we adopted the Common Agricultural Policy when we became part of the EU many of the old field names have been lost and replaced with numbers. This is so sad because the names are wonderful and many go back to Saxon times: Dean Pightie, Pinx Heron, Clatterpits, Sturt …. It is so good that they are being preserved in poems like Paula’s.
Many of us stayed on after the recital to look at Paula’s latest work: “Our Kingfishers Pathway” – a visual poem about the wildlife, flowers and willow trees along the banks of the Castle Mill Stream, behind many of the Dale Close and Trinity Street houses, up to the bridge on Thames Street, a pathway that many of us walk along every day. What a beautiful spot this is.
A note from Paula –
“The display in my garden was of 20 double-page spreads from my artist’s book limited edition of 10, OUR KINGFISHERS PATHWAY. Artist’s books limited editions are a special genre, they take many hours to design, printed in high resolution on acid free paper, signed and dated, aimed at Special Collections and book Collectors. If anyone would like to download the 3-page introduction to the book you can see this by clicking on this link
It would be nice if someone in SENDRA could collate neighbours’ sightings as time goes on, adding to my article. I claim our wildlife is exceptional in a town centre.
Please read what has now become a famous ecological poem BINSEY POPLARS written 1879 by Gerard Manley Hopkins, graduate of Balliol College. He laments the felling of a row of these trees and warns against the wanton destruction of greenery – done in a moment but taking many years to replace.”
SENDRA 