Around this time last year I won the Out-Spoken award for innovation in poetry. I was so chuffed to meet Brian Patten as well as Joelle Taylor, Salena Godden and Anthony Anaxagorou – their performances were exceptional – made me really want to up my game with it all, in a good way. Fran Lock won the overall award, deservedly so – I am now a fan.
Anyway, a proper film has now been made of this poem that was originally written at National Theatre Wales Summercamp 2015 where I met so many talented and inspiring artists including the beautiful movement artist Eunjin Choi from Seoul, South Korea. Eunjin wanted to create a piece of work protesting her government’s handling of a ferry disaster that had happened the year before resulting in over 300 deaths. It’s not usually a topic I’d approach but as we discussed approaches and collaborated further the framework came together. I wish you could see the movement piece she created for this.
People who don’t know the backstory sometimes think this poem is about the refugee crisis – which makes me realise how little control we have over our art once it’s out there, but also how universal art can be, even if the artist thinks they’re being particularly specific.
There are a lot of echoes with what we see and hear about refugees at sea: miscommunication, bureaucracy, and refusal of those in power to do anything other than to tell people to stay where they are. And then there’s the way in which these events affect the wider population – Eunjin is right when she said ‘I search for the action in my body’.
Huge thanks to Leighton Cox, North Wales Filmmaker for making a tricky poem look great. He’s wonderful to work with and it all came together so quickly and professionally.
Filmed at Undegun, Wrexham.
Poem text below: