I woke this morning 7am in my hotel in Calgary to the invasive shout of my mobile telephone. “Hi, It’s Robyn Hunter from the world service and I’d like to talk about your childhood.” Considering I had been riding a wild elk through the snow capped forests of Canada , aka Indiana Jones, and considering I was being chased by a a herd of angry (but comical) pygmies and halle berry was clinging to my waist I did good by saying “Um Okay”. Read more [...]

Some artists - poets - despise reading their works to audiences or in schools. I don't and here's why. Every now and again - each time, hopefully - it becomes crystal clear why one does what one does in terms of work in schools. Today I performed at two theatres in two schools. One high school had approximately 2,500 pupils, a big school in any country. I did a forty minute reading to about four hundred pupils in the schools theatre that would be the pride of any city. The technical sound is pitch perfect At Lord Beaverbrook High. This means that each nuance, each note inside a note, that urges from my mouth is picked up and projected with care to each member of the audience. It was time to begin my reading. It is important to set the tone. I set mine by saying “. It is really an honour to be here. It’s my first time in America”. Read more [...]

Phoenix airport is a buzzing hive of spiky intercom bleeps and indecipherable tanoid announcements. It is South Park on hallucinogenics. The problem with the post-performance drink is it invariably starts late at night. I have a hang over. I can just about keep a handle on what’s in each of my five bags. And doing a good impression of a vagrant I spend half an hour exploring every single pocket in every single case until I find the ticket. The check in lady - I AM SORRY SIR ONLY TWO BAGS ALLOWED ON THE PLANE AND TWO BAGS IN THE LUGGAGE HOLD. yOU HAVE FIVE. The number five echoes through my head. Sesame streets famous purple caped Dracula character The Count appears behind the check in counter FIVE CASES OF LUGGAGE he says with slight reverb HAHAHAHA HARr. I spend another half hour squeezing zipping pushing and harrumphing to get to the requisite four. Please let it end. Read more [...]

Lightening strikes. At 5.30am I am awake. Same as it has been for the entire two weeks of my visit here. I write my morning pages. Morning Pages are an invention of Julian Cameron. Her book The Artists Way is one that I can recommend to you whether you are an artist or not. The morning pages are one cornerstone of Ms Cameron's teachings. Three pages a morning as soon as you wake. The pages can be about everything and anything or nothing. They are not to be re-read, not to be edited and not to be improved upon. They set the tone of the day for the artist. Engage. Read more [...]