Weekly Newsletter - 31st March 2024
The week I encouraged you to get competitive
The end of March means two things for me. The first is my Dad's birthday, which is today, so happy birthday to him! I’ve taken a break from my usual activities this week to travel to see him over this time, along with some school friends who have not long ago bought a house not too far from where we grew up. As this trip will also extend into next week, things will be a little quieter from me on Substack, although I do have a much more light-hearted poem than my usual affairs lined up ready to be published in my absence, so it' won’t be a completely quiet week. And I’ll still have time to get a Tribe Podcast out in keeping with my Tribe-exclusive content schedule (more on that later). But I’m looking forward to having some space to re-energise a little, ready to bring you some big things in the coming months!
And with that, the second thing the end of March signifies to me is the need to set some goals for April. So far, I have the following in mind in terms of my writing:
Get an audiobook version of “Born Anew” made.
Launch a YouTube channel as another place to house the videos for my poems, as well as short excerpts from interviews and Tribe Podcast recordings
Run some sort of live-streamed event
Collaborate with another writer or an artist for a poem in multimedia format
Share some exciting non-poetic work I’ve been quietly attending to with you all (although it has very much benefited from a poetic lens!)
We’ll revisit these towards the end of the month to see how well I’ve been able to accomplish them.
And of course, I’m still making sure I’m reading a healthy amount of poetry too so that I’m able to bring you something…
From Poets Past
Time for the first war poem of these newsletters, and another poem I was introduced by way of Dr Iain McGilchrist’s lockdown poetry readings. I’ve included McGilchrist’s reading and the text of the piece in this newsletter.
Keith Douglas’ “Vergissmeinnicht” paints a haunting picture of a dead soldier, discovered by the narrator, with a “forget-me-not” note from his lover. It is a reminder of the real lives that are lost by wars waged by those engineering the conflicts from afar. It’s made all the more painful to read by the knowledge of Douglas’ life; like other war poets, Douglas died during the Second World War, in particular during the D-Day landings at Normandy. He was just 24 when he died.
Three weeks gone and the combatants gone returning over the nightmare ground we found the place again, and found the soldier sprawling in the sun. The frowning barrel of his gun overshadowing. As we came on that day, he hit my tank with one like the entry of a demon. Look. Here in the gunpit spoil the dishonoured picture of his girl who has put: Steffi. Vergissmeinnicht. in a copybook gothic script. We see him almost with content, abased, and seeming to have paid and mocked at by his own equipment that’s hard and good when he’s decayed. But she would weep to see today how on his skin the swart flies move; the dust upon the paper eye and the burst stomach like a cave. For here the lover and killer are mingled who had one body and one heart. And death who had the soldier singled has done the lover mortal hurt.
Vergissmeinnicht - by Keith Douglas
From Poets Present
The next poem came to me just after I had finished up last week's newsletter - and its a great one.
's poem, “I am not Sorry” is a fantastic lesson in not saying sorry when its not right to do so. Here's what I had to say about the poem when I originally restacked it for my Notes:One of the most powerful lessons I learnt from a mentor of mine was not just to say “sorry” for the sake of trying to comfort others. Sorry is only reserved for when I have genuinely and knowingly done wrong to someone else and I realise that I have. That doesn't mean I don’t care - far from it - and this piece by
captures this perfectly.The other piece to the “not saying sorry” puzzle is using “apology declined” to anyone else who tries to say sorry to me when they have done nothing wrong, then saying why I don’t accept it to them. I’m finding that its bringing me closer to the people I use it with. Just don’t use it when there is a genuine reason for someone to [apologise] to you - that might not be the best idea!
Go check out the poem below:
From Me
Introducing Referral Benefits
I held off on introducing referral benefits on my Substack, mainly as I wasn’t willing to commit the time initially in working out the best way to use them. Now that this Substack is really getting off the ground, and I feel I can use the system to bring worthwhile benefits to all who engage in it, now feels like the time to introduce it.
Here are all the ways that a referral will be credited to you:
Someone subscribes through a post you shared with them via the “Share” button
Someone subscribes as a result of you using a “refer a friend” button
Someone subscribes through your unique share link on the Referral Leaderboard
Someone subscribes through you restacking a post
You buy a gift subscription for a friend or give out some gift referrals
Here’s what you can get out of it:
If you get 5 people to subscribe to my Substack, you’ll get a free digital copy of my poetry book, “Born Anew” and one month as a Tribe member (paid subscriber) for free
If you get 10 people to subscribe, I’ll give you 3 months free as a Tribe member (paid subscriber).
If you get 25 people to subscribe, I’ll send you a signed physical copy of my book, “Born Anew”.
The highest referrer each month will also get a short poem written exclusively for them. They’ll then get to choose if they’d like me to include it in my weekly newsletter with links to some of their own work, or if they just want to keep it for themselves!
Existing Tribe members will either have additional months added on to their existing subscription, or have the option to “gift” those months to a friend as a gift subscription.
I’m really excited about using the referral system as a means for people who aren’t able to give a financial contribution in recognition of my work a chance to meaningfully support my process of creation - committing your time to help me out can be just as valuable for me as money.
So if this sounds like this is something you can get behind, then why not give it a go using the button below?
A New Poem
I have one new poem for you this week, entitled “It Was No Accident”. I’ve written a little bit about this piece on the poem’s page, so feel free to go and read it to find out more.
I’ve also used this piece to experiment with doing purely audio versions of poems - not every poem I make specifically needs a video version to accompany it, but I do think there is a benefit to having some sort of audio recording to accompany most of the pieces I write. Let me know what you think of this one!
Tribe Updates
I’m very much learning as I go along when it comes to maximising the benefits that my Tribe members (paid subscribers) get. Now that I've had a month to try out the new 4-month rotating schedule, its now clearer what is working and what isn’t.
The Podcast and Tribe Essays I would class as successes, so they will be staying for the foreseeable future, with a new podcast with
due out next week!Both the Poetry Jam and Zoom Gathering, however, did not work so well as I’d hoped, with little-to-no uptake. I suspect that these formats really need a large volume of entries, or minimum number of people respectively, to make those sorts of things a success. It also might have helped if I’d advertised these things a bit clearer - but at least I know know that Substack’s Chat threads don’t seem to be the most effective way of getting messages to my Tribe members!
As for the Gathering, I’ll give that another go at the end of April before re-assessing any further, as I suspect part of the downfall of the first Gathering’s limited attendance pool was the date falling on Good Friday at a potentially awkward time for some.
But, with no Poetry Jam, it does mean there’s a gap in the schedule now, and I’m tempted to fill it with another Podcast or Essay for the meantime. But, rest assured, there will definitely be something. I’ll have things finalised and listed on my About page by the time we get round to next week’s newsletter, so make sure you’re subscribed so you get notified when that’s out!
And Finally…
Thank you for continuing to follow my progress. If you want to support my work, there are numerous ways you can doing that, including:
Becoming a Tribe member (paid subscriber)
Sharing the poems that resonate with you most with others
If you enjoy my poems, or are looking for poems on different subjects and of different natures, consider checking out my book, “Born Anew”, which you can find out more about below:
It's incredibly heartwarming to know you are here and believe in the work I'm doing, and I can't wait to be able to share more with you and the rest of the world soon.
With gratitude,
Tom