The Grail Roads
Rob Hindle introduces and reads poems from The Grail Roads at the Centre for Contemporary Poetry and Poetics, University of Sheffield, 1 May 2019.
Flights and Traverses
On Sunday 2 June, Rob Hindle led a poetry walk criss-crossing the central Sheffield territory bounded by Lady’s Bridge, Kelham Island and the Wicker, with Rob reading and discussing poems inspired by one-way journeys made at different points in the city’s history (ranging from the Flood of 1864 to the bombing runs of the German Luftwaffe). In this excerpt, Rob concludes the walk near Alma Street in Kelham Island, close to the site of the former workhouse on the edge of the (old) city (and one of the areas affected by the Flood); the first poem is ‘The Workhouse: 3’ (from Some Histories of the Sheffield Flood) and is followed by the closing section of his sequence ‘Dore Moor to the Marples Hotel’, which reimagines the Blitz (and its aftermath).
Princess Street to the Wicker, April 1925
The journey made by members of the Park Brigade, a notorious gang, following the murder of a soldier, April 1925. One of five sequences and long poems in Rob Hindle’s Flights and Traverses (from the Longbarrow Press anthology The Footing).
Dore Moor to the Marples Hotel
A descent in the traces of the first bombing raid on Sheffield, 12 December 1940. One of five sequences and long poems in Rob Hindle’s Flights and Traverses.
Sea Battle off Cape Trafalgar
From XII Fragments, a collection of poems included with Rob Hindle’s 2009 sequence The Purging of Spence Broughton, a Highwayman. Recorded at Hill Top Chapel (aka Attercliffe Chapel; built in 1629), Attercliffe, Sheffield, 25 June 2012.
The Purging of Spence Broughton (live)
The introduction (performed by Rob Hindle and Ray Hearne) and first poem (‘Manufacture of the Gibbet Iron’, read by Rob Hindle) from the 2009 sequence The Purging of Spence Broughton, a Highwayman (Longbarrow Press). Recorded at Hill Top Chapel, Attercliffe, Sheffield, 19 June 2009 (as part of the ‘Spence Broughton’ launch event).
Another Visitor
From the 2009 sequence The Purging of Spence Broughton, a Highwayman (Longbarrow Press). Performed by Rob Hindle and Ray Hearne. Recorded at Hill Top Chapel, Attercliffe, Sheffield, 19 June 2009 (as part of the ‘Spence Broughton’ launch event).
The Early History of Spence Broughton
From the 2009 sequence The Purging of Spence Broughton, a Highwayman (Longbarrow Press). This recording was made in Sheffield, autumn 2008, and released as part of the Longbarrow Press CD anthology The Field.
Kinder Downfall, 24 April 1932
The mass trespass on Kinder Scout, in which 400 ramblers walked onto the plateau in defiance of the landowner, the Duke of Devonshire, was the key catalyst of the Right to Roam movement and the establishment of the National Parks. (Rob Hindle) Commissioned by the artist Paul Evans for the 7 Wonders exhibition at the Cupola Gallery, Sheffield, spring 2010. This poem accompanies the drawings and paintings titled ‘Downfall’. Click here to view the poem and a painting.
Cuckoo / Warbler
1: ‘Listen: the cuckoo / has returned, the woods haunted / with her dark stories.’
2: ‘The warbler is still, / head cocked at an old nickname. / Mother. Mother.’
Posted on Day 7 of Call & Response (@Callhaiku, 20-30 September 2012). Recorded near Damflask Reservoir, Sheffield, 16 August 2012.
Barrio de Córdoba (Federico García Lorca, trans. Rob Hindle)
It’s all here: the death, the rose (of blood), the birds, the guitars’ whisper; above all, the romantic desperation of the opening lines. Duende in spades, in ten lines. (Rob Hindle)
Juan Breva (Federico García Lorca, trans. Rob Hindle)
What drew me to this one was the imagery. The wine-dark sea, the lemon groves above Málaga, this giant, blind man singing with a child’s voice. And Pena: is the capital a typo in my edition? Or is it something so fundamental that Lorca must name it? (Rob Hindle)
Longbarrow Press 