the anxious poet’s podcast

This episode explores the twin phenomena of vulnerability and resilience. Adrian uses five poems, Keel Hauled from The Call of The Unwritten, All At Sea from A Night Sea Journey, When Will You Be ready and There is a Certain Kind for Vow from Arriving in Magic, House Martins in the Eves is a new piece. The rest are available on www.adriangrscott.com Brenee Brown's work can be found at  https://brenebrown.com 

In this episode Adrian speaks of Christmas and the Solstice Season. With his own poetry and that of Charles Causley, Kristian Evans, and Dylan Thomas he leads us into the season of the Holly King and the dark of winter. 

In this podcast Adrian is working with the poetry of Dylan Thomas the welsh prophet who lived in the middle part of the 20th Century. Using his own and Dylan's poetry he explores the ways in which we wrestle with the dark and the light, with life and death, with innocence and experience. The pain we experience that creates many of our mental health issues is faced, both head on and avoided with addiction in Dylan's tempestuous life. This allows us to explore these issues through the lyrical and mysterious lines of this enigmatic poet. 

In this episode Adrian explores the life of someone who was and is a great friend to him in his travails with anxiety and mental health issues. Although Francis of Assisi lived 800 years ago Adrian shows just how relevant his life is now. Especially when he is stripped of some of the religiosity and hagiographic accretions that have but up around him over the years. The poems come from Adrian's last collection - A Night Sea Journey available on Amazon or at www.adriangrscott.com The Leonardo Boff book mentioned is St.Francis: A Model for Human Liberation. Also check out the new film about his visit to the Sultan - https://www.sultanandthesaintfilm.com 

Helen Mort's latest novel is Black Car Burning published by Chatto & Windus. Her website is http://www.helenmort.com She read Mountain and The Fear from No Map Could Show Them again published by Chatto and Windus. I read The Tremor of Silk and Rivelin Valley Vespers from A Night Sea Journey published by Authorhouse, The book by Sarah Wilson is First, We Make the Beast Beautiful published by Corgi 2019 a great read for anxious people and those who live with us! 

The first piece I recite is the title poem from The Call of the Unwritten available on Amazon or from my website www.adriangrscott.com The second poem 'A Fairytale Ending?' is, as yet, unpublished.  Email me at [email protected] for a copy. The piece of the prelude is available at https://wordandsilence.com/2018/05/24/william-wordsworth-need-i-say-dear-friend-that-to-the-brim-my-heart-was-full/ . This is the website of Mobile Power that my good friend Jono West is part of https://www.mobile-power.co.uk This is the link to the book by Sarah Wilson on Anxiety I mentioned http://www.sarahwilson.com/books/ 

Thanks to all the people who have recently listened to these offerings and given such generous and vulnerable feedback. I look forward to more conversation around anxiety, poetry and vulnerability. 

Adrian explores the Vincent Cycle of poems from his last collection - A Night Sea Journey. Drawing out the implications for our mental health and creativity he delves into the life of this solitary, visionary, trouble and prolific artist. The films mentioned are At Eternity's Gate 2019 - Loving Vincent 2018 - Exhibitions on Screen https://exhibitiononscreen.com/films/vincent-van-gogh-a-new-way-of-seeing/ . You can buy A Night Sea Journey at www.adriangrscott.com 

Apologies for the length of this podcast but it seemed a shame to edit it as the conversation was a rich one. This is a seminal theme for me and it was great to explore it childhood loss with a friend who had a similar test different experience. 

In this episode Adrian explores the way the natural world has a curative effect on us. He looks at the way we interact with that world and that, after all we are animals ourselves and we are an integral part of the ecosystem we live in, especially if we are prepared to listen to it, rather than ignore it. We will then find our place in the family of things.

There is a bonus song on this podcast, a Donavan composition for the Zeffirelli Film Brother Sun and Sister Moon. It is sung by Wilma Scott; Adrian's wife. The books mentioned are, Wild Signs and Star Paths: The keys to our lost sixth sense by Tristan , Becoming Animal by David Abrams, Rewild Yourself: 23 Spellbinding Ways to Make Nature More Visible by Simon Barnes, The Reluctant Saint by Donald Spoto. My third collection of poetry is called A Night Sea Journey and is available with my other works at www.adriangrscott.com. 

Phil is currently appearing in Trial By Laughter at the Lowry Theatre in Manchester and on tour with the play. I first met him when he was training at LAMBDA (London Academy of Dramatic Arts) with my eldest daughter Eva Scott. They were in a Terrance Rattigan play called Flare Path and I was really impressed with his work. He contacted me having listened to the my first two podcasts to say how good it was to hear someone talking about anxiety, mental health and the arts. So here is an anxious poet talking to an anxious actor. The piece off Music Phil refers to is Arbakkinn by Ólafur Arnalds from the 2016 album Island Songs. Here are links to Phil's work. http://www.jessicacarneyassociates.co.uk/philippe-edwards/ https://britishtheatre.com/trial-by-laughter-tour/ Thanks to Phil for a great chat.