Mr Vilday’s View

Views from a latter-day Viking

Welcome to my world. If this works then I hope to share thoughts, ideas, whatever bit of interest happens to be passing my way at the point of writing. One thing I am quite passionate about is poetry. Strangely enough, I don’t go home each day, pull out a book of sums and sit doing Maths all evening. I love walking, playing my guitar badly, painting, engraving glass and photography amongst other things. I like to think of myself as being creative and one way that I do that is through writing, particularly poetry. Poetry might not seem the right fit for a descendant of the mighty Vikings but when they weren’t ravaging, fighting and generally killing things, the Vikings built up a large collection of tales, based on their history and mythology. These were collected together in what are called the Eddas. They wrote these so the listener could imagine what it was like to be in those times and to fight and to love and to live and to die.

Now it has to said, I don’t tend to write poems about battles and slaughter, but I do use poetry as a way of releasing thoughts and feelings that I have and often find it quite therapeutic. My favourite poets would include Wilfred Owen, Sylvia Plath, e e cummings and John Keats. I would also regard a number of bands and singers as being very poetical – Nigel Blackwell, Shane McGowan and Finneas all write songs whose lyrics could also be described as poems. Recently my love of reading and writing poetry was reawakened by a new poet called Sabina Laura. I have three volumes of her poems, but I also bought a journal she published in which she sets challenges. It might be a theme for a piece of prose or to write a poem containing certain words. This got me writing again after a bit of a break and I then found it tied in with my love of walking. I find that as I’m out and about, covering anything from 15 to 40 miles, there’s a rhythm that I build up as I walk. My footfall produces a backbeat and I find myself fitting words to that staccato. I always carry a notebook with me so I can record lines before I forget them.

Viking verse “We fought with swords, before Boring-holmi. We held bloody shields: we stained our spears. Showers of arrows brake the shield in pieces. The bow sent forth the glittering steel. Volnir fell in the conflict, than whom there was not a greater king. Wide on the shores lay the scattered dead: the wolves rejoiced over their prey.”

Back to the journal. One of the challenges set was 'Write a poem entitled : a new beginning". This is what I came up with. A new beginning My journey should be starting, A voyage to a place of dreams: A new beginning. Yet I'm not departing, Anchored to this dock it seems My past is winning. We all hold on to memories: Reminders of a place we used to be And a person too. But they aren't necessities, Their weight needn't be too heavy And hold like glue. Each reminder I will hold And softly let it go onto the breeze, In this I'm winning. The anchor's raised, my paths unfold. From this dock I glide with ease To a new beginning.

So, here’s a challenge to you, if you’d like to try writing to a theme. Write a poem about school that contains all 5 senses i.e. sight, taste, touch, hear and smell. Print your poem off and hand it to me, Mr Vilday, by the end of May and the best ones will be in the June issue.