JIM BENNETT – Articles, reviews and all things Poetry
Somewhere in Liverpool by Jim Bennett
I wrote the poem “SOMEWHERE IN LIVERPOOL” 25 years ago. It was about a time much further back, 1967 and my early forays into performing poetry. The poem appeared on my CD “DOWN IN LIVERPOOL” in 2001.
You can hear me read the poem from the CD here https://poetrykit.org/27.wma
somewhere in Liverpool
we were poets we were scousers
and it was the Summer of Love
now as I write this it is the end of the century
thirty years on from the days
when long haired rough spoken poets
wandered into O’Conners
and screamed their poems above the bar noise
now hairy academics look back on our lunacy
see the shadows left in books
but can never grasp what t was really all about
but they still tell us what we felt
why we did it say that we don’t matter
we were never a movement never relevant
we were just performance poets
café and barroom entertainers
as if that is something less important
than book published poetry
read quietly self consciously
to yourself on a bus to Speke
or studied under anglepoise
in a musty prep room
our poetry was different
it came alive when the lights went off
they tell us that we were second rate
that we were stoned
on psychedelic hallucinogens
well some things you just cannot argue with
but poetry was the new thing
it gave us a voice
in Leece Street there was a club Monday night
poetry read at your own risk
you could get up and read whatever you wanted
and in the reading of poetry
we wrote the manifesto for a new world
I suppose we must have had brain damage
the poems were good the poets were better
Roger Clive Adrian Sylvia
three Johns two Daves and two Marys
and all the other name forgotten faces
whose nasal voices echoed through the streets
and how we all loved words real words
to be used with energy portmanteau words
like scaffoldills new metaphor and simile
that slopped around the walls
like jelly and sticking to us forever
and when we found a word it was treasure to be horded
and I still have my notebook of gems
my vocabulary of dissent
my own often read little red book
and every word has a subtext texture
that echoes with the moment it was first said aloud
in a smoky room or bar corner
somewhere in Liverpool
somewhere in Liverpool
where we are poets
we are scousers
and it is still the Summer of Love
Gladsongs and Gatherings, The Story of Poetry in Liverpool and its social context since the 1960’s Edited Stephen Wade. Extract from a chapter by David Bateman.
“Another new figure was Jim Bennett, a veteran of the 1960s live poetry scene who’d been going to O’Connor’s back in the days when he was too young to. Beat[1]influenced and very prolific, he was also doing readings in the USA under the cryptically crude pseudonym of Richard Dripping. He also wrote and sang songs and played guitar but was mostly too shy about it for his own good. In August 2000 Long Neck Media released Jim Bennett’s CD Down In Liverpool. At times reminiscent of Adrian Henri and Andy Roberts, it’s a nice bunch of poems and songs.”
“That’s it then.”
“Any chance of slowing down.”
“Not a hope sir. I think that’s it.”
“We… we’ll crash into this unknown old rock then.”
“I suppose so.”
“Communications, let the crew know.”
In the background a siren and a recorded message, “brace for impact” repeats.
“Turn that noise off on the bridge.”
“Check auxiliary power again , anything?
“No sir, not a spark.”
“Okay. That’s it then.”
“What a way to go.”
“Well at least it will be quick.”
“I just hope that it won’t hurt. I don’t want it to hurt.”
“For goodness sake man, pull yourself together. You will be crying next.”
“Sorry sir. Just feeling a bit… you know.”
“No I don’t know, and what’s more I don’t want to hear it.”
“I feel sorry for the crew in the explorer, just the two of them and no way back.”
“Well there are two of them and they will get lots of time to think about survival.”
“I hope that they do. “
“Oh Adam and that girl who likes snakes, what’s her name. Oh, I don’t know but that rock looks liveable. They could do well.”
“Ok 20 seconds to impact.”
“Sir there was something I always wanted to say to you. Since we have flown together. I always wanted to say…”
In September 1972 I won my first ever contest. It was for longer narritive poems and this was it. The 1972 winner of the McMillan Prize worth was at the time a staggering £50. (Quite a bit in those days.)
THE WATCHMAN
(1)
it’s not the cobweb curtained wood beams
or the peeling plaster
it’s not the familiarity
there is something odd about this place
with which the smell greets you
or the noises that sound like footsteps
or the wind that creaks old timber
or the drips of last night’s rain
dropping into pools collecting on the dance floor
it’s not the smell of burning wood
or the broken charred tables and chairs
or the stairs collapsed in the corner
or the holes in the roof
that capture sky
it’s none of those
but it is odd
this place is my Titanic
my ocean bottom ruin
brought onto land
and left to rot on the harbor side
it was the place we met
and the place we parted
and you haunt it still
living in the shadows
crack wood or flick a stone
always just out of sight
but I know you are there
and I frighten the children away
so that we can be alone
night crashes in through the veranda window
the moon reflects from the wet leaves
of the Rhododendron
and your shadow flickers in the corner
while I watch content to know you are close
outside the bulldozers wait
for morning
(2)
I can measure
the time we where together
in nights punctuated by
the red glow of a cigarette
after we had sex
and an occasional moon slicing through
a curtain gap
reflecting off sweat stained skin
so much of our time
spent in the dark
and in the morning
as I watch you change the sheets
to take away the carnal damp
and the smell of me
I hear you hum
the drunken street songs from the night
when I thought you were asleep
that’s how it was
but although I always hoped
you would wait for me to leave
before you changed the sheets
you never did
(3)
when it was new
the silver tiled ceiling
above the dance-floor
reflected a thousand
broken fly-eye images of you
you danced alone
arched back
to smile at leering faces
and I watched
content to admire
the swirling sweating body
that would later lie with me
later
your laughter
woke me
before
it turned to screams
in the morning
the bulldozers
will wipe my sheet clean
(4)
you lay quiet
once you knew
I could never let you go
you should not have tried to leave
no word
no note
just going
without me
and laughing when I said
we could be together
you stopped screaming
as my hands tightened
around your throat
small in death
sleeping under the dance floor
you emerge each night
to dance for me
then hide in dark corners
and even when I bring fire
to flush you out
you still avoid me
tomorrow
the bulldozers come
to wipe you away forever
I hear you creeping round
bone footed
clattering as you dance
sometimes I feel
the touch of your cold hand
the warmth of life left you
cold and hard in death
I hear you
moving through the building
moving closer
and there
there are other sounds
others moving
I cannot see them in the dark
but catch a hint of movement
and the smell of rot
like something decayed
outside the bulldozer
engines wind into life
headlights cut
through the dirt
and soot stained windows
sending shadows fleeing
(5)
there is something odd about this place
the polished wood beams
the mirror tiled ceiling
and you dancing
head back laughing
at the familiar
leering faces
while I watch
content to admire
the swirling sweating body
it’s none of those
but it is odd
the way morning
never comes
a cabin by the lake by Jim Bennett
The Enfield Poets organised a fine ekphrastic exhibition in
the Culture Palace, Palace Exchange Shopping Centre
29, Palace Gardens Shopping Centre, Enfield EN2 6SN
The exhibition was in place for two weeks from 3rd April 2022
Anthony Fisher with Katherine Stockton who curated the exhibition
DEVON, THE DEMON SLAYER
PART ONE
Hazel rode along the path at the edge of the wood, her horse, Packet, following the familiar trail. To her right the moorland dotted with sheep ran down towards the river Axe and the fields beyond with their signs of the first of the year’s growth. A couple of miles ahead the lane turned up the hill and through the trees and it would lead up to the gates of Devon Castle where Staunton would be waiting to see what she brought back from her hunt and forage. It had been being a bad day and she had little to show for it apart from some herbs, berries, and a skinny Moorhen.
As she was busy making up an excuse when a horse stopped and started to back up, immediately she pulled her bow and knocked on arrow, expecting an ambush at any moment. Instead the ground began to shake and from the trees came a sound like thunder, so loud and so close that she pushed her hands over her ears. It was followed by the sound like wood burning. Her horse was wanting to turn and run but she controlled her with a familiar voice of reassurance. Packet settled but still anxious was encouraged to move forward.
As she moved, still with bow ready, could smell something that reminded her of a blacksmith’s forge. She could not understand what had happened but encouraged Packet on and they made it to a clearing in the wood leading to the castle. They moved on causiously and Hazel was aware of the silence that had fallen on the wood. All of the familiar sounds, the rustles in the undergrowth , the screeching calls of the birds were all absent and along the ground was a creeping mist. Hazel carried on but eventually Packet stopped as they moved to the edge of a largeclearing that had never been on the path before.
Hazel looked around at an almost perfect circle with tree trunks lying around broken and flat against the ground not splinted but looking almost cut through. The branches stripped and flung into a mass of twigs at the edge of the clearing it was as if some giant hand had done this. In the centre smoke was still rising from what looked like a burned circle. Hazel, still on Packet, sat uncomprehending , just looked at the scene before her. And as she looked she realised that all the fallen trees were pointing to the dark burnedheart of the circle. “What do we make of this, Packet? Lightning perhaps?” she answered herself. “Perhaps it was lightning.” She said, patting Packets neck. She was about to move on when she saw something else. In the burned centre of the clearing something was moving.
DEAS FOR WINTER 2021
Here are some choice poetry reading and music ideas for those Winter nights.
The first is ON THE ROYAL ROAD by James Bell from Shearsman Publications
James Bell the poet who wrote “On the Royal Road” died earlier this year. He left behind him a body of work that many would be proud to put their name to. His final publication from Shearsman is the very beautiful volume of ekphrastic poetry based on the etchings of Hiroshige. The book places the poems alongside some of the reproduced etchings. James Bell was for many years a member of the PK Poetry List and these poems first saw the light of day as occasional posts. They were always admired, and it was hoped that they could be brought together in a single volume, so everyone who knew the poems were pleased to see the publication of this book. Here is what several other people had to say.
On The Royal Road brings together poetry and art to create something very special. James Bell’s fine poems enriched my enjoyment and understanding of Hiroshige’s Tokaido Road illustrations. I would highly recommend this book. Jan Harris
We, on the Poetry Kit list, had the pleasure of watching this collection grow, although the poems appeared out of sequence and we looked forward to seeing them in the order of Hiroshige’s 53 Stations. Shearsman have done a wonderful job in presenting the poems alongside the images. It’s a beautiful book that James would have been so pleased with. Lesley Burt
See James Bell – On the Royal Road (shearsman.com) £14.95 from Shearsman Publishing
The Enfield Poets have a distinguished history starting out life as the Salisbury House Poets in 2000 and eventually moved to the Dugdale Centre becoming the Enfield Poets and poets in residence at the theatre, where they held a number of notable events. With the onset of the Covid pandemic they moved online and into popular monthly Zoom events. But not wanting to sit still the Enfield Poets have now produced an anthology of poetry.
It is beautifully produced and cunningly entitled Enfield Poets First Anthology. It is well designed and has a strong card cover which gives it a feeling of substance, and this complements the poems. And what poems, there are some outstanding poets included and this is a collection that repays rereading. The anthology has poems from over 40 poets with a diversity of subjects and styles.
For details contact Anthony Fisher acuf@acufisher.com The anthology costs £6
Two music choices
The first is Dean Friedman’s new offering called AMERICAN LULLABY. Dean has produced some excellent songs over a long career. He tours each year, Covid permitting, and has a big and supportive fan base that many would be proud of. He is an outstanding performer, and this album is one of his best ever. In the songs here he looks at what has been happening in the USA and around the world in recent years. This is a timely review by a great songwriter. So, this is my first choice and I recommend it highly. See Dean Friedman’s Official Music Web Site
My second choice would be the album from Bob Dylan “Rough and Rowdy Ways”. Although this came out in 2020, it is the resumption of Dylan’s Never Ending Tour after a Covid break that brings this to the forefront again. This is arguably one of Dylan’s best albums and he is performing tracks from this album on his tour, and doing so to great acclaim.
Albums | The Official Bob Dylan Site
Magazines to subscribe to in 2022
ACUMEN – Now under a new editor and still going strong after being founded by Patricia Oxley in 1985. This is one of the leading poetry journals and well respected by everyone in the poetry community. It is worth saying that Patricia and Acumen were very worth winners of the Ted Slade Award for services to poetry in 20015. Subscribe
Subscriptions :: Acumen (acumen-poetry.co.uk)
Magazines from Indigo Dreams Publishing. There are three great magazines from this publisher, and I could not decide which I should recommend, so better for you to have a look at their website and their three magazines to see which you might prefer, of course you might realise like I do that they are all equally good value for money and there is some great reading in every issue. The two editors are also past winners of the Ted Slade Award for services to poetry. See https://indigodreamspublishing.com
An Interview With Paul Williams By Jim Bennett
When Barbra Streisand stepped up onto the podium to receive an Oscar for Best Song from Neil Diamond, at her side was Paul Williams. It was Paul who provided the words for Barbra’s melody and turned it into Evergreen, a song that has been described as, “the worlds most perfect love song.”
Paul is an internationally famous songwriter who wrote, or co-wrote many great songs including, Old fashioned Love Song, We’ve Only Just Begun, Rainy Days And Mondays and the theme to the tv series The Love Boat. He has also written movie scores including, Bugsy Malone, The Muppet Movie, Ishtar, The Muppet Christmas Carol, A Star Is Born. While pursuing a laudable, and much acclaimed career as a songwriter and singer, he has pursued a parallel career as a movie and tv actor.
He, brilliantly, played the role of Swan, in the movie, Phantom Of The Paradise. Though he is probably best known to film audiences for his hilarious portrayal of Little Enos in the Smokey and The Bandit series of films, he appeared to critical acclaim in the movie The Doors.
________________________________________________________________________
JB – You are a very successful songwriter and have enjoyed huge success in that field. What came first for you, acting or song writing?
PW – I came to California, being a realist, to become a movie star. My first movie, in about 1964, was called The Loved One. I played a boy genius, I was a twenty three year old playing a thirteen year old. A year and a half later I did a movie called The Chase, with Marlon Brando and Robert Redford. I worked five months on it, basically I had a small part, but it was throughout the picture. So I had ver limited success as an actor and began actually fooling around with a guitar on the set of The Chase. I bought a guitar and began kind of doodling. At the time I had no idea that I had a career waiting for me as a songwriter.
While I was doing this I actually wrote a couple of songs and went to a publisher, a man called Laseef, who had a company called Whitewell records. Their biggest act was a group called the Turtles. he signed me as a writer and after about a month he let me go and told me that he did not believe that I had a future in the music business. I was devastated.
About that time I got a very brief acting job and met a guy named Biff Rose who was writing comedy songs, he had a melody that he hadn’t written any lyrics to. I told him that I thought it was pretty and proceeded to write lyrics to about four of his melodies. I thought no more about it, but Biff Rose went to A&M Records, Herb Alperts company, and played several songs for them, they especially liked the ones that I had written the lyrics to. After he got an advance for the songs he got an attack of honesty. He went back the next day and said, “Look I’ve got to tell you I didn’t write these lyrics, I just wrote the melodies,” They said “Well we want to meet the man who wrote the lyrics. I’ve always joked that I arrived at A&M in a stolen car and found a career there.
JB – Where any of those early songs that you wrote with Biff successful?
PW – The only song that I wrote that had any success at al, as far as being recorded, is a song I wrote with Biff called, Fill Your Heart. It has been recorded to my knowledge twice. the first was by Tiny Tim as the B side to his hit record, Tiptoe Through The Tulips. But the recording of it that I was thrilled about was by David Bowie. it was the first outside song that he had recorded and it was on his Hunky Dory album. talk about a diversity.
JB – You started writing in the late sixties, and reached the charts in a big way in the early seventies after you teamed up with Roger Nichols. When you first started to write with him did you find it difficult to get your work accepted?
PW – No. Everything that Roger and I wrote, was recorded, it was a spectacular time. It seemed like we went through a period where everything that we wrote was being put on albums, but we simply weren’t having chart hits. After two or three years of writing together we wondered if we would ever hear anything of ours being played on the radio.
It all changed for us as a writing team with the Carpenters releasing, We’ve Only Just Begun and for me writing alone, or with other people, with the group Three Dog Night, who recorded a song that I wrote alone called Old Fashioned Love Song, and another called Family of Man, which I wrote with Jack Conrad that was also a top ten record.
JB – You have mentioned the song We’ve Only Just Begun. It has enjoyed a huge success, and has been recorded many times, including a cover by Barbra Streisand, which appeared on her For the Record set. For all of its success I believe that the song had a humble beginning?
PW – That song started life as a few verses in a bank commercial. Those verses Roger Nichols and I wrote to accompany footage of a young couple getting married, going to the reception and then driving off into the sunset. The copy read, “We’ve got a long way to go, we’d like to help you get there, the Crocker Bank.” So I sat down and realised that I had to describe a wedding in about three lines. So I came up with: “We’ve only just begun/ White Lace and promises/ A kiss for luck and we’re on our way.” Then they drive off and the song goes on, “Before the rising sun/ We Fly / So much of life ahead.” It was basically the first two verses and then we completed it. We didn’t think that there was very much chance that anyone would record it. it was very sentimental and a throwback to earlier times. I think a lot of stuff was. The number one album at the time that the Carpenters had a hit with it was In A Gadda Da Vita. So I suppose that in a sense the Carpenters, Roger and I were really alternative at the time.
JB – As well as writing songs for other artists, you recorded yourself. Over the years you have issued some beautiful albums. Where they at all successful for you?
PW – You know I had one of the most unspectacular recording careers as an artist in the business. I never sold a lot of records. there were some core fans who bought them, I don’t think we ever sold in great quantities, well maybe the album called, Old Fashioned Love Song, is close to gold now after twenty years.
I’m in recovery, I was drinking and using drugs for many years. In September 1995, I will celebrate 6 years of sobriety. One of the tasks we have when recovering is to be rigorously honest. So for me to maintain rigorous honesty with you, I would have to say describe my career as a recording artist as very successful, in the sense that it filled a niche in my career as a songwriter and entertainer, but certainly nothing to write home about. it was limited.
So, I was never a very successful recording artist. I think that the albums became kind of demos for the songs. Other people would pick them up and record them, for which I and my children are eternally grateful.
JB – Paul, you have written songs in collaboration with quite a number of people over the years, are there any particular problems with writing with other people?
PW – Well you know collaboration requires an amount of trust. I just got back from Nashville where I wrote a song with a fine writer named Gene Nelson. It’s the first time that I’ve sat in a room with somebody in ages and just let the ideas roll out. When I was drinking and using I got very isolated, and I got very isolated at work, and they kind of went hand in hand. I would stay up all night, and lock myself into my office, and work, it became a kind of habit. Part of what has changed in my life in sobriety is that I am rediscovering, how to get out and live amongst people, and how to trust. So my goal, if I have a goal as a writer, is to put the fun back into writing and that is what I am kind of experiencing right now. I’ve been writing with a guy named Kenny Herch as well, we’ve just sent a tune to Luther Vandross.
PW – Even when I write both words and music, I generally write in my head. Then, eventually, after I have got the song started I will go to a keyboard and find the chords and write them down. I find I also have this whole orchestra in my head. I can imagine Garth Brooks, or Justin Hayward or Steve Winwood singing, anyone I want. When I have the song, then I have to cut a demo that matches it.
JB – It’s interesting to hear you say that you can imagine the artists singing the song. Do you write with a specific artist in mind?
Pw – Sometimes I do quite the opposite. most writing has been directed towards specific projects, like films. when writing the Muppet Christmas Carol, I don’t think I was writing songs thinking about a pig and a frog singing them. you kind of write for the character and then adapt.
JB – Do you have a favourite song among those that you have written?
PW – You know I wouldn’t pick amongst the hits for my favourite songs. Amongst the hits, my favourite would be, The Rainbow Connection, – from The Muppet Movie. I feel that it is very representative of something Jim Henson – who created the Muppets – stood for. It is a very spiritual message that I am very proud of. As far as my favourite songs are concerned, they are usually not really the hits. I wrote a song that Ray Charles recorded, called A perfect Love. I am really proud of that song. A song that Sinatra recorded called Dream Away, that I wrote with John Williams. There’s the song That’s Enough For Me, one of my favourite love songs that I wrote but not a well known song. There’s another song from Phantom of the Paradise called Old Souls.
JB – Most of the songs that you mentioned are thoughtful songs with a spiritual message, is that important to you?
PW – It is. You know, recovery is about finding a spiritual life, and its interesting for me to look back on my work before I got sober. I can see that I had a spiritual connection and I feel in a lot of ways that’s what saved my life.
JB – Travelling Boy was another beautiful song.
PW – Well thank you Jim, I like it also. Did you ever hear Art Garfunkles version? I saw Art about two months ago and we were talking about that. I told him that I close my stage show sometimes with Travelling Boy , and that I had totally ripped off his arrangement.
JB – It’s nearly twenty years since you were involved, as musical supervisor, with the film A Star Is Born. How did you come to be involved in it?
PW – Its interesting because Barbra Streisand called me, and I didn’t know it was a matter of my own grandiosity, or ego, or what, I heard what I wanted to hear, rather than what she said. She had recorded a couple of songs of mine, I Never Had It So Good on the album Lazy Afternoons, and I Won’t Last A Day Without You – on the album Butterfly – so she knew my work. When she phoned, the ending of the picture – after the Kristofferson character had died – was to be where she found a song that he had written for her, and she was going to sing it. so what she was saying to me on the phone, was that she would be interested in me writing that song. What I heard her say was, I’m going to send you the script, and I want you to write all of the songs for this movie.
Later I went in to have a meeting with Barbra, and Jon Peters I walked in and sat down, and before either of them could open their mouths, I had started this diatribe. OK this is where the first song should go, This is what it should be about. I went through the entire script, showing them where the songs would go, and what they should be about. I told them what I thought Kristofferson’s style should be as a writer – in the movie – and what I thought hers should be like, I said how the two of them would effect each other’s writing, and possibly the one big love balled. I just went on and on.
They just kind of looked at me like I was stoned or something. Then asked if I could step out of the room so that they could discuss it. So I stepped out of the room, they asked me back in and Barbra said, “You are not intimidated by this at all are you?” I said “No. It’s what I do for a living. It’s what you asked me to do.” They were impressed by that and they hired me as music supervisor for the movie. I said that I would like to bring Kenny Asher in to write, – we were writing together at that time – I felt that he would bring a quality of composition that the piece required. Then we set off with only nine weeks to write all of those songs. One of the most exhausting, frustrating, exhilarating experiences of my life. Ending with winning the Oscar.
JB – It has been well documented that there were tensions between you and Barbra during the making of A Star Is Born. What sort of terms are you on now?
PW – I’ve had a very little contact with her, and only since I have re-emerged, have I cleaned up some relationships. I wish her the best, I think that she is a brilliantly talented lady.Paragraph
Through the years I have had to make amends to various people. I called and made amends to Barbra about things that I had said about her, that weren”t very kind. I though that they were very funny, at the time, – in fact they were – but they weren’t very kind. She was very sweet about it, a terrific lady.
JB – In the aftermath of the movie the soundtrack was released. At the time it became the biggest selling soundtrack album of all time, selling in excess of 6 million copies. Evergreen has been recorded by over a hundred artists, it was a world-wide hit for Barbra as a single and it earned you and Barbra an Oscar. looking back at it now, in spite of the problems of trying to score a movie in nine weeks are you pleased with the end result?
PW – We have both been very fortunate, and Barbra has recorded it again and again. The song has made us both a lot of money and I am very grateful.
I always joke that I think Barbra got bored with songwriting quite quickly because she got the Oscar first time out. Where can you go after that?
c Jim Bennett 1995