The Sheep's Intestine and the Human Sestina

Linda, Mark, Andy and I met on Friday morning and discussed which poems to send, when to do the reading, and how to get through the work.

We'll be sending the poems over the weekend -- each of us sending 10 to everyone. But we'll bring books too, in case other pieces suggest themselves as better options. We discussed how this book could be a conscious reflection of A Balkan Exchange, with us providing mini-selecteds that were both indicative of recent work, and snapshots of the way writers from the NE exemplify certain aspects of poetry in the UK.

What exactly those aspects are will no doubt become clearer when I post the selections on here -- or at least will become debatable.

We agreed with Nadya's most recent email that the reading should come at the end, on the 24th, in Sofia -- that way it can be a celebration of work done, rather than an anticipation of work to be attempted. We noted with badly-concealed snickers that it would be in a bar called The Sheep, hence fulfilling the requirement of being a sort of Burns Supper, since much of that is concerned with the innards of the ovine.

(Now I feel obliged to put in my most recent Burns poem from the Polygon book for our friends to strachil with my Scots...)

We also had a discussion about how to work, given Georgi is only present by email/chat. We wondered whether anyone else would be there, as Boris was in Newcastle? If not, we wondered about trying one to one, a la Poet to Poet's translating sessions, with the 'spare' UK poet sitting in on sessions throughout the day, and everyone coming together to discuss progress in the evening.

Georgi could 'sit in' on sessions via chat, and receive working drafts at the evening session to feed back to us all on. We'd alternate who was the spare UK poet on a daily basis, and also who was working one to one with whom.

Nadya replied last night as follows:

'I agree with the idea of working in two-s, not in four-s. Just I have a suggestion to change couples every half a day. For example: in the morning session (10-13) Kristin and Andy, Vassil and Linda, me and you, Mark-free; in the afternoon session (14-17) Kristin and Mark, Vassil and you, me and Linda, Andy-free; in the evening session (17.30-19) - general discussion. Since we have five days for work, it means that each of the British poets will have approximately 8 sessions, which might cover most of the work that has to be done...'

I thought we could make pattern out of this almost like a human sestina:

eg Day 1

Kristin/Andy, Vassil/Linda, Nadya/Bill, Mark,
Kristin/Mark, Vassil/Andy, Nadya/Linda, Bill.

and so on...