Scottish Poetry Library Podcast

Lights! Camera! Action! Poetry!
 
This is the second episode of Nothing But The Film Poem podcast from the Scottish Poetry Library, which is released into the wild 3 times per year. In this episode Sam Tongue from the SPL chats with poetry filmmaker Steve Smart about 3 poetry films that caught their attention.
 
Poetry films featured in this show
 
i carry your heart with me by e.e.cummings, film by Kapou Opa
Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-PAYrroWQU&t=90s 
Also brief notes at https://theinstitute.info/review-awards-international-video-poetry-festival-2025/ (search for "Kapou Opa” on page)
 
The Big Push by John Glenday, film by Laurie Harris and Xin Li
Poem, notes and video at https://poems.poetrysociety.org.uk/poems/the-big-push/ 
Video alone at https://vimeo.com/170790586
 
Innisfree by William Butler Yeats, film by Don Carey
Video at https://vimeo.com/105003356 (best animation: 2014 Royal Television Society awards)
Some notes at https://www.movingpoems.com/filmmaker/don-carey/
 
Other notes for this show
 
The Spoken Verse YouTube channel, featuring the voice talents of “Tom O’Bedlam” is at https://www.youtube.com/user/SpokenVerse In his channel notes, “Tom” says: "I am not looking for Voice-Over work. It's just a hobby.” (!!)
 
About the C17th poem “Tom o’Bedlam” see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_o%27_Bedlam
 
Sir Herbert James Gunn’s painting “The Eve of the Battle of the Somme”: The Fleming Collection furthers an understanding and awareness of Scottish art and creativity through exhibitions, events, publishing and education with an emphasis placed on initiatives outside Scotland. You can see a picture of the painting, and read more about it at https://flemingcollection.com/collection/search-the-collection/the-eve-of-the-battle-of-the-somme-1916-401

The SPL's resident podcast host Sam Tongue takes a deep dive into two poems by one of Britain's most beloved poets, Imtiaz Dharker.

Imtiaz Dharker - a Pakistani-born poet who grew up in Glasgow, then moved to Bombay as an adult before returning to Britain - was awarded the Queens' Medal for Poetry in 2014. Themes in Dharker's poetry include questioning what is meant by home, personal freedom, geographical and cultural displacement, communal conflict and gender politics.

Carol Ann Duffy said, "Whether Imtiaz Dharker writes of exile, childhood, politics or grief, her clear-eyed attention brings each subject dazzlingly into focus. She makes it look easy, this clarity and economy, but it is her deft phrasing, wit and grace that create this immediacy.”

The two poems savoured, discussed, examined in some depth in this podcast, are from her 2018 collection Luck is the Hook and can be read here:

Bairn

Stitch

For the first time in 75 years the Commonwealth of Nations appointed a Poet Laureate in Selina Tusitala Marsh, the former Poet Laureate of New Zealand, who lives on the NZ island of Waiheke. Selina, who has Pasifika ancestral roots, was made Poet Laureate in 2025 by the Commonwealth Foundation, for the inaugural two year post. Her work as Laureate aims to use poetry to connect the 2.7 billion Commonwealth citizens throughout 56 nation states.

British Council New Zealand & the Pacific and British Council Scotland partnered to support Selina's visit to Scotland for a curated programme of exhibitions, talks and performances produced by the Scottish Poetry Library and the Games Festival's Watershed initiative. While in Scotland Selina recorded a podcast at the Scottish Poetry Library with Scottish Makar, Peter Mackay. She brought her official hand-carved New Zealand Laureate tokotoko stick with her, which accompanies her at all her public events. Selina and Peter's wide-ranging conversation will be catnip for poetry lovers, an absolute joy to listen to, beginning with Selina reading her poem Tusitala, and where her middle name comes from. And yes the tokotoko stick is discussed!

Our regular podcast host Samuel Tongue, after meeting with the Friends of the SPL group, rolls up his sleeves for one of his favourite poets, Selima Hill, examining two poems from her 1997 collection, Violet (Bloodaxe).

Please Can I Have a Man

Why I Left You

What they said about Selima Hill's poetry:

"Every page reveals her unique ability to invert the world and shake it, until it reveals its truth" - Kathleen Jamie & Maurice Riordan (PBS Bulletin)

"She is truly gifted. She invests mundane things with visionary, delirious brilliance." - Graham Swift (Sunday Times)

"Hill is a unique voice in British poetry, handling central subjects with wit, metaphorical beauty, and deep clarity. Her two most characeristic features, the off-the-wall images, and no-holds-barred straight talk, work flawlessly together." " - Ruth Padel & Sean O'Brien (PBS Bulletin)

Lights! Camera! Action! Poetry!
 
Nothing But The Film Poem is a new podcast from the Scottish Poetry Library which will be released into the wild 3 times per year. In this first episode Sam Tongue from SPL meets poetry filmmaker Steve Smart. They talk film poems - or poetry films - just what are they? - and discuss some interesting examples.
 
Poetry films mentioned:

 

Do not go gentle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOZjrkfWIlM

 

La Plage by Alastair Cook

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/filmpoem-4-la-plage/

 

Acknowledgements

https://www.arvideriksson.com/acknowledgements

 

Additional Resources

 

Poetry Film Workshop web page (wide variety of many poetry film related resources)
https://artsci.co.uk/poetryfilmworkshop/

 

Charles Olsen’s 2023 essay on ‘How to film a poem’
https://newsroom.co.nz/2023/06/13/how-to-film-a-poem/

 

Helen Dewberry’s book ‘How to make a Poetry Film (a handbook for poets)’

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/helendewbery/how-to-make-a-poetry-film/