Alan Gillott

Biography

Alan Gillott is a poet, writer, composer, and singer who performs in the UK and USA and is well known throughout the North East. His most recent book is Beyond the Window (Fighting Cock Press); he has a following as a music and art critic and is known for his lyrical style based on internal structures. His observational poetry often highlights injustice and institutional irresponsibility. He was born in Edinburgh to a Scottish mother and Yorkshire father from whence, at the tender age of six weeks, he was whisked off to live in Bury and from thence the Bowland Forest. He was educated mainly in Kent while travelling extensively to Iraq and India. Though he started writing poetry as a teenager it wasn’t until he was living in Dulwich, South London, that he met and was mentored by Alasdair Aston who instilled in him a love for form and the power of performance. Alan’s career took him throughout Europe, back to India and on to Singapore and Japan, with jobs based in various locations in the United States: in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Florida. In the USA he began featuring regularly at poetry venues and founded with his wife, Rose Drew, a popular open mic in Wilton Connecticut. Together they began publishing anthologies of their poets’ best work under the imprint of Stairwell Books. Returning to England, Alan and Rose founded The Spoken Word open mic; they continue to publish anthologies and collections as a way of encouraging excellent but otherwise unpublished writing. Their success led to their taking on responsibility for the Dream Catcher literary journal. His publication credits include poems in The Nightcap Book, Blue Dragon Press, Community of Poets Issue 20, the Connecticut Poetry Society’s Long River Run, Turn of the River Press’ Wednesday at Curley’s and the University of Toledo’s Poems for Peace Project. He has broadcast on cable TV, pirate radio, Radio Ryedale, University Radio York, Chapel FM and Radio York. His books Beyond the Window and Except we Teach are published by Fighting Cock Press. Both of these books are edited by Pauline Kirk, known nationally as a poet in her own right and as an excellent and discerning editor. Beyond the Window, loosely follows his travels and points out that all is not always as it seems: Except we Teach picks up on some of these ideas but reminds us that we can teach as much as we like, but achieves little without learning. He continues to look under the human carpet and into our proverbial cupboard. He has participated in a number of collaborative projects including a Keats retrospective in Rome, participation in the TEDx programme, and a series of Poetry talk shows, The Poetry Show, broadcast as podcasts. Alan also works with classical music composers as part of the Sounds Lyrical Project and his poems have been set by composers Edd Caine, David Power, David Lancaster, Peter Byrom-Smith, Tim Brooks, Steve Crowther and James Last and have been performed regularly in concert including part of York’s long running Late Music Series. .

Samples

Momentary Couple That momentary moment Preceding the moment Where uncertain of certainty Quells certain uncertainty Compressed in a moment Is the turn of a moment Where force and momentum Makes a couple a couple Like a polarized magnet’s Uncertain polarity It’s not ‘till that moment You bring them together For whether they’ll join Or whether repel It’s not ‘till that moment That either can tell. ©Alan Gillott, New Jersey, June 1997 Still Still, in the moonlight Glowing silent stirred By rippling fluster And rhythmic shore This peaceful lake Belies the force Of feeding streams And draining rivers’ Rushing ever churning fall While deep below the placid Skein of silver skin The chain of danger Feeds life on life In an Ever changing flow Still, in the moonlight Glowing silent stirred Her rippling chest And rhythmic breath Sound perfect peace Belie the force Of new cells formed As others waste away In churning alimentary fall While deep below the placid Skein of perfect skin The chain of danger Feeds life on life In an Ever changing flow ©Alan Gillott, Norwalk, September 2002 Silver Tree How do I measure the life of a silver tree Stark against the dark green cover Branches akimbo in rigid surrender Leaning perverse against the wind How do I measure the sway of a silver tree Scarred stem witness to a thousand storms Shavings curled to reveal fresh white Bark perverse this now lifeless trunk How do I measure the reach of a silver tree In whose shade the fires of passion flared The brief span of coupled animation Moves perverse in arboreal years How do I measure the span of a silver tree At whose feet a virile stripling grows Afresh to witness summers yet to pass Waxing perverse of nature’s eternal sylvan measure ©Alan Gillott, Shrewsbury, NJ, June 1997

Publications

Between the Lines - Fighting Cock Press Except We Teach - Fighting Cock Press Alan is also, With Rose Drew, the publisher of Dream Catcher

All poems are copyright of the originating author. Permission must be obtained before using or performing others' poems.

Blog entries by Alan Gillott

Moon invited to launch of Pressed by Unseen Feet (23/08/2012)

Feria - A Spanish Comedy (08/07/2012)

Our Ghost Anthology is at last ready to go (07/07/2012)

Beyond the Window (22/02/2012)

More day to day stuff (14/11/2011)

York Poet Rose Drew named No. Nine in Top Twenty Individual Collections for 2011 (12/11/2011)

Congratulations to Tim Ellis (11/11/2011)

Neophyte (10/11/2011)

Blog link: https://www.writeoutloud.net/blogs/alangillott