Gold from the Stone. Lemn Sissay

      

      Also by Lemn Sissay

       Perceptions of the Pen

       Tender Fingers in a Clenched Fist

       Rebel Without Applause

       Morning Breaks in the Elevator

      The Fire People (ed.)

       The Emperor’s Watchmaker

       Listener

      Refugee Boy (play adaptation)

      Published in Great Britain in 2016 by Canongate Books Ltd,

      14 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1TE

       www.canongate.tv

      This digital edition first published in 2016 by Canongate Books

      Copyright © Lemn Sissay, 1985, 1988, 1992, 1999, 2008, 2016

      The moral right of the author has been asserted

      British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library

      ISBN: 978 1 78211 909 8

      eISBN: 978 1 78211 910 4

      Typeset in Sabon 9.25/12.25 pt by

      Palimpsest Book Production Limited, Falkirk, Stirlingshire

      To Dawn. Thanks for being there.

      ‘How do you do it?’ said night.

      ‘How do you wake and shine?’

      ‘I keep it simple,’ said light.

      ‘One day at a time.’

      Contents

       Introduction

       From PERCEPTIONS OF THE PEN (1985)

       Well ‘I’

       Mother

       Ain’t No

       Scream

       So Near and yet So Near

       As Is Life

       From TENDER FINGERS IN A CLENCHED FIST (1988)

       African Metaphor

       Listening

       Nursery Rhyme

       Some Quotes from Neatherton Man found in Deepest England Somewhere between 1974 and 1980

       Negotiations

       Englabetween

       What Have We Got

       Moods of Rain

       Wasita

       Sing a Song of Sick Penance

       The Black Writers’ Workshop

       Understanding Difference

       The Day Will Come

       The Invasion of the Mancunoids

       The Red Death of Edgar Allan Poe

       Trying Me

       Dead Wood Poetry

       Fell Off and Fell Out

       Bad Trip – L.S.D.

       Burn My Book (Burn In Illusion)

       Tense Tattered Tortured Tried Tested and Torn

       Mother Thatcher

       Today Will Pass

       Spell Bound

       Gold from the Stone

       Everything Is Rhythmical

       Sleep Is a Songbird

       Director’s Notes (For the Daily Shun and Daily Killer)

       She Read as She Cradled

       City Sigh

       Spell Me Freedom

       Interim and Cost

       Ace Under My Sleeve