Poetry

By

John Mingay

under any time

after I heard

your name again

spelled out

letter by letter

audibly shimmering in the air

like the message

which rang

from the end

of every such silenced frailness

you and I long knew before

when I heard it

then was the moment

for the idea of reality to become a ghost

one I could trouble

though never escape

and all the while

not knowing what it was

you really wanted

days endlessly balking

getting nowhere

on a simple refusal

to take the same way

at that fork in the road

parting

without even as much

as a backward glance

so

that

will

be

that

then

over

and

done

done

and

dusted

that

will

be

that

for

now

forever

done

John Mingay

Born and raised in Paisley, Scotland, John Mingay spent the late 1970’s working at The Citizens’ Theatre in Glasgow. After returning to study at Durham, England, he went on to become managing editor of internationally acclaimed Raunchland Publications from 1984 to 2009 and, following several years (1985-90) as Writer-in-Residence and Writer-in-the-Community in Darlington, Co. Durham, during which time he had three plays produced by local touring companies* and initiated a variety of drama/performance projects, returned to live in Scotland.

Additionally, he was editor of 3×4 magazine, 1989-95, and the Lung Gom Press, 1995-97, and has been widely published in the UK, Europe and the US in literary magazines, anthologies, collaborative projects and in over forty individual collections. John is also regularly called on to write poetry book reviews for several digital and paper-based literary journals, such as Stride and Litter.

From 1990 to 2000, whilst continuing with personal creative projects, he worked in rural community arts development with Fife Council. Since 2007, his dramatic work has been attracting attention in Spain, with Saltarrano Teatro, Badajoz, having initiated a series of twelve Hispanic historical plays covering the period from the Roman occupation to the 1970’s and incorporating the thoughts, words and deeds of many of Spain’s writers, artists, clergy, politicians and royalty.

In addition, for John, music-composition continues to be an extension of poetry, and, being shorn of the meaningfulness of words, John often finds it a freer medium in which to work improvisationally and intuitively. He has always brought this same attitude to his artwork over the years in a variety of media, seeing it also as an adjunct to his literary work, and often, through publishing and exhibiting, as complementary to it.

John has collaborated in many mail-art projects around the world since the 1980’s when, while undertaking the residencies and community projects mentioned above, he began encouraging others to understand merits of this process and become involved.

For a selection of John’s artwork and poetry, along with that of the others he has edited, see the Raunchland Archive at http://website.lineone.net/~johnmingay/raunchland.htm

A comprehensive catalogue of his musical work is available for free download from The Internet Archive at http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=john%20mingay