Poetry

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TONY MORRIS
Poetry

Tony has written poetry for most of his life, returning to serious writing in 1975. His first poem to be published at that time was in ‘The Field’. Over the next fifteen years his work was widely published in poetry magazines and read on local Radio Humberside and on Tyne Tees Television.

A full collection of Tony’s published poems is to be found in the archives of St. Peter’s School, York, including two rare pamphlets, one containing some of his early poems written whilst at the School and one containing poems about York.

BOOKS PUBLISHED:

‘Comments’ 1983, AM Press (supply controlled)
At the time of this publication Tony was the Artistic Director of The York People’s Festival and the book, though compiled from poems already selected by Edna Game, Leslie Richardson and Ursula Wadey, was hurriedly printed for the Festival. Nevertheless, it contains some significant poems, some published later elsewhere, some exclusive to ‘Comments’.

‘Poems for an Exhibition’ 1993 AM(West)Press (out of print)
This was another book published in connection with an event, in this case the opening of an exhibition of Tony’s watercolours, ‘Dream Landscape Flowers’ at the York Arts Centre, containing poems performed on that occasion and a poem written specially for the Exhibition, ‘Escape Attempts’. The performance was interlaced with music played by the solo flute player, Karen Grieveson.

This performance was significant in Tony’s return to poetry performance and musical development [see ‘More about Tony Morris (Music)]

‘Viking Echoes’ 1994 Woodman Press ISBN 1 897920 07 (out of print)
The significance of this work is that the bulk of it was written in 1983 at the time of the Falklands war and that it lay unpublished for ten years. In connection with Tony’s revival of his interest in poetry performance and the opportunity to experiment with this at Adrian Spendlow’s ‘Culture Share’ events at the York Arts Centre Tony met a Small Press publisher, Jay Woodman who asked to look at the manuscript and, having done so, said she would like to publish ‘Viking Echoes’ under her imprint.

With her editorial input this was a success and led to a writer/publisher partnership that lasted till Jay left Yorkshire for Hampshire in 1998.

‘Light Box – food, fun, music’ 1995 Woodman Press ISBN 1-897920-27-X
This book was published as a light counterbalance to the rather sombre ‘Viking Echoes’. It contains mainly performance pieces and, though the Publisher was less happy about it from a literary viewpoint than ‘Viking Echoes’, the poems have generally proved popular in performance.

‘Poet in Residence’ 1996 Woodman Press ISBN 1-897920-42-3
Tony Morris was Poet in Residence at the Theatre Royal, York chronicling all aspects of the three and a half months of the production and performance of Liz Lochhead’s adaptation of the York Cycle of Mystery Plays, directed by John Doyle. The Book was to be out for first night so the sixty seven poems in it were chosen from the seventy written in the first five weeks of rehearsal, plus a lightly honed version of ‘Hugh’ written originally in 1984 as one of twelve poems requested by a producer of Tyne Tees Television’s ‘Highway’ programme as ‘insurance’ in case the planned recording of the Plays in that year did not work. The recording was a great success as planned so the poems were never used. Returning to 1996, in all there were one hundred and three poems, some of the additional post first night poems being included in the five performances that Tony gave at the Theatre during the run, of course, accompanied multi-instrumentally. [see ‘ More about Tony Morris (Music)"]

‘Farewell to Friends’ 1997 Woodman Press ISBN 1-897920-47-4
This is Tony’s most important book to date and the one with which, since ‘Viking Echoes’, his Editor/Publisher was the most satisfied.

In the autumn of 1995 a funeral director friend of Tony’s was asked for a collection of poems suitable for reading aloud at a funeral. Tony was consulted and was unable to find one. About the same time Tony’s bookseller Daughter, then with a large London retail chain, said she had received a similar request with a similar lack of success. After discussions with the funeral director friend it was decided that Tony should write/compile a book of his own poems for this purpose and that it should be especially useful to those who worked in homes for ‘Seniors’ as such carers were often asked to take part in funerals where the deceased had outlived friends and relatives able to attend.

The book was ready for publication in 1996 but it was considered unwise to publish two books in the one year and, as Tony was bound to the publication of ‘Poet in Residence’ in that year, ‘Farewell to Friends’ was held back a year. When it was published it had been expanded by further poems written for it.

‘Farewell to Friends’ is a collection of over one hundred of Tony’s poems suitable for reading aloud at funerals and memorials. The poems are largely secular and a unique feature is that the user is invited to adapt them to the circumstances of their own occasion. There is sadness. There is hope. There is humour. The poems are so many-facetted that the book may be of use to the bereaved for personal reading and contemplation. Some poems are incisive, some robust, many tell stories. Although the poems are a product of the twentieth century they are for use in the twenty-first.

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Tony has recently written a suite of ten poems, 'Street Sounds'. This grew out of his progressive, free form style of improvisation on guitar and now includes several other instruments. Music is not only an integral but also the major part of the suite which is descriptive of various streets at different times of day, in different places, some from the perspective of people who are differently abled. He is currently seeking a suitable venue for its World Premier