Biography

William Alderson had his first poems published when he was 18, and has since been published in more than 20 journals, including Acumen, Envoi, Orbis, The Rialto, and Poetry Salzburg Review. He appears in three anthologies, and been shortlisted or won prizes in several competitions. He has also reviewed poetry occasionally for The Interpreter’s House magazine. He is joint organiser of the Cambridge Pub Poets (https://www.facebook.com/CamPubPoets/), and a regular at the Songwriters and Poets group in Downham Market (https://www.facebook.com/dmfopo/). In 2018 his poem 'May Days' was performed at The Playground Theatre. Five actors were directed by Simone Vause. See http://williamalderson.wixsite.com/williamalderson/may-days-extras for more information and audio and video recordings. 'May Days' is a poem about today inspired by Shelley's 'The Masque of Anarchy', and it was started just 2 days before the Grenfell Tower fire, so that tragedy became the pivot of the poem. 'May Days' was published in pamphlet form by Chandler Press in 2017, and first published online in July 2017 by counterfire.org (http://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19120-may-days-poem). His collection 'A Moment of Disbelief' was published by Poetry Salzburg in 2017 (http://www.poetrysalzburg.com). In 2017. Counterfire has published an excellent review of both 'May Days' and 'A Moment of Disbelief' at http://www.counterfire.org/articles/book-reviews/19321-a-moment-of-disbelief-poems-on-war-terrorism-and-refugees-book-review. Write Out Loud has also reviewed the collection at https://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=73045. In 2016 he was commissioned to write 'Somewhere Else', a 15-minute poem for two voices, which was performed outside Peterborough Cathedral as part of a Future Floodlands event (https://easternangles.co.uk/archive/future-floodlands & http://williamalderson.wixsite.com/williamalderson/single-post/2016/08/14/Somewhere-Else-in-performance). William worked in BBC Television News for 25 years, mainly as a film, video and computer editor. He has been an active trades unionist, campaigned for the right of asylum seekers to remain in the UK and was a founder of King’s Lynn Stop the War in 2003 – he is still one of its organisers (https://www.facebook.com/KingsLynnStoptheWar/). He is also a letterpress printer, and has created designs for the Bodleian Library, BBC Radio 4, Seven Stories and others. He is currently producing a growing series of hand-printed ‘poem cards’ (http://williamalderson.wixsite.com/williamalderson/poem-cards). A graduate of Bristol University Drama Department, he has been a key figure in Lynx Theatre and Poetry since 1987 (https://www.lynxtheatreandpoetry.org). In 2005 he qualified as a homeopath and has campaigned extensively in defence of this therapy (http://www.hmc21.org), winning an award from the Society of Homeopaths in recognition his work.

Samples

In Gaza My child asked for food. They said “Eat rubble”. My child asked for water. They said “Drink dust”. My child asked for a future. They gave her ten minutes. She went to school, but the school was bombed. She came back home, but her home was bombed. She begged for peace, and they gave her silence. Silt Road A slip of the ear and I’m in Samarkand, a road through wheat fields flushed with poppies, fluttering like silken banners over spears, shimmering heat which coalesces in a mirage of water and voices from the East. A ripple to the south the Romans marched where silting water settled to a bodied land, a causeway on a waterway that was, beside a waterway that was, as land and water struggled like a pod of eels. The past, exotic tales, a foreign land are barely covered by the web of fields, each road, each dyke a silken thread drawn tight – the new land woven from the marsh and peat. Beside the Roman farms the eagle hovered, poised to stoop and kill, and still the kestrels glide the margins of the fields. The Fenmen fished and walked across the water melting into mist, the mist in which the drained land drowned, its liquid language foreign to Dutch engineers. Of wealth and distant markets selling cloth this land knew nothing. Down the rivers and the roads drained crops and slaves and gold to feed the fashion of the times. The noble wives of Rome clothed naked wealth in fabric barely seen but worth its weight in gold; the Eighty now may strut the catwalk of their wealth but underneath the poor and refugees still flood, the stream of affluence is silting up, and though they’ve raised the banks, the water rises still. The merest tissue of a Chinese moth flew over Caesar’s triumph, but these banners brought Rome down. Luxuriant display did not feed armies, farmers or the land; the picturesque does not pump water. These fields grew fruitful by the plough and those who labour; with foreign tongues or from the East, they share one truth: the Silk Road is a mirage stealing joy from poppies, sustenance from wheat. Like us, on leaving Nordelph, Silt Road shrugs it off. "One of the most striking poems in the anthology [Cloudburst III] is 'Silt Road’ by William Alderson",Greg Freeman, WriteOutLoud, 4 February 2017 Speaking to Power There is never a moment when autumn begins; Never a day when summer ends. The sun on which your power depends Will lower and weaken, for winter always wins. Before, the chestnuts held their candles to the breeze; But now they have let their hands fall. Now StoptheWar has the final call The evening vigils start to bring us peace. The keys grow thicker on ashes and sycamores, Yellow and too heavy to hold. You cannot bind us with laws and gold; The people are assembling and they will be conquerors. It cannot be long now before the fire ignites Maple and rowan and sumac. The power you grip we will take back, And nurture a fallow ground with human rights. This poem was written for a video, on YouTube at:

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