Haiku for Autumn

autumn colours glow
red, yellow, gold; berries, leaves
plastic bags in trees

Callanais

Last year my partner and I had a wonderful holiday in the Western Isles. We were shocked to hear of the proposal to develop industrial scale windfarms on the island of Lewis (381 wind turbines in total, including over 100 on the Eisgein Estate, each 125 m high, covering an area of 78.3km². Every turbine will have a foundation and hard standing area 45m x 65m cut out of the hillside. There will be 77km of roads wide enough for heavy plant, 22 quarries and 10 construction/batching compounds). The development will irretreviably damage the unspolt environment and the natural beauty of the area. The elctricity produced by this development wouldn't be used locally but exported to the mainland, meaning that pylons would need to be built across the island. I'm all in favour of small scale windfarms built and owned by local communities, who can then benefit from the electricity generated (there's a very good one on the island of Gigha). However the propsed development in Lewis is appalling! Mointeach gun Mhuileann (Moorland without Windmills) is a campaigning group opposing the proposed industrial windfarms and encouraging sustainable, renewable energy developments for the Western Isles. Visit: http://mwtlewis.org.uk for details.

(This item also appears at my website: http://julietwilson.mysite.wanadoo-members.org.uk/. The photo is by my partner.)

Five: five short films of the sea

Imagine Italo Calvino's Mr Palomar (see 'what am I reading?' below) is given a video camera and sent off to the beach. This is what he would come up with. Abbas Karostami shot this film on hand held video cameras in five long takes. In film 1 the sea plays with a piece of wood. In film 2 we are on a promenade with lots of people walking past - interesting here how no-one stops to look at the sea, most people barely give it a second glance (or even a first glance) and only two people go down onto the beach - are we really all that alienated from the powerful force and presence of the sea? Film 3 is shot down on the beach, where a group of dogs are sitting by the ocean. The colours of the changing light on the water are beautiful and it is fascinating and restful to follow each wave as it comes towards us and breaks on the shore. Film 4 is the comedy break with a constant procession of ducks waddling across the screen at ever increasing speeds. Film 5 is pure abstract art as we watch the moon's reflection in the water as it is broken by ripples and clouds and then a storm. So - this is beautiful even if it does feel more like high quality video art than cinema.

Favourite films about poetry

There aren't too many films out there dealing with poetry. One of my favourites though is Slam. This came out several years ago now, but was a vibrant film about the power of poetry to change people's lives. A performance poet working in prison helps one of the inmates to develop as a poet and as a person.

The other one that springs to mind is the film about Samuel Taylor Coleridge, that I can't remember the name of. It was not factually accurate but had a wonderful dreamlike quality and portrayed Taylor Coleridge as a real environmental visionary.

Any other excellent films about poetry?

This is crafty green poet!

Crafty Green Poet looks at environmental issues through poetry, recycled crafts and reviews of arts related to the environment.

I am a widely published poet and this blog contains some of my poetry on environmental themes. This blog also contains reviews (mostly published for the first time here) on art exhibitions, books and films on environmental and related themes. I'm not a professional crafter - I'm concerned about the environment and creative by nature. How to combine the two - simple - create attractive gift items and greetings cards from 'waste' materials! I want to share my ideas and hopefully stimulate some discussion about creative re-use.

All poetry, photos and blog entries copyright to Juliet Wilson, unless otherwise stated.