Transcript
Speaker: You are listening to Something Rather Than Nothing. Creator and host, Ken Valente. Editor and producer, Peter Bauer.
Speaker: Hey, something rather than nothing listeners. We're here with Dai Slaney. Poetry collection coming out September 21st, 2026, entitled Heart Graph.
Speaker: Dai, tell us about this new collection. So it's a book in four parts and it's health related poems mostly and it's coming out of my experience of being diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2019 my experience of working with elderly, disabled and other health issues, animals at Manifarm Charitable Trust. So it's looking at what happened to me in the context running the sanctuary and my connection with the animals and how working with them has actually helped me through managing my own situation as well. so So there's that part of the book. And then there's looking at other people and their own health issues and dealing with grief, people I've loved and lost and what they've meant to me and how that process has kind of informed my poetry as well. And then there's a lighthearted section towards the end, which looks at reasons for living, you know, things that we enjoy doing, things that make us laugh, the ridiculous things in life that, you know, really do, you know, give us those those moments where, yes, this is joy and this is what we should remember. This is in amongst hardship, whatever hardship there is, you know, there is always joy to be found.
Speaker: Love it. Everybody hard graft. Yeah.
Speaker: Great collection. Di Slaney, welcome to the podcast. I'm so pleased to have you on. Thanks so much, Ken, for inviting me. I'm really looking forward to the chat. Yeah.
Speaker: All right. So I'm going to put you and in my headspace, right? So I'm ah um i'm an American. You're over there in England. ah I'm reading the names of, of yeah I'm reading about your 400-year-old house and the connection to nature. And I see Nottinghamshire and Sherwood Forest.
Speaker: And my simple pea brain, there's a whole bunch of fantastical, beautiful things ah popping ah popping ah up there. All right. I'm reaching you where you are. And could you tell us about um your home in the land, which has been so important to you right there?
Speaker: Absolutely. I mean, we we moved here in 2005, trying to escape from um a suburban way of life and trying to find a different way of being that was a little bit more connected to nature.
Speaker: So we bought this lovely 400 plus year old farmhouse. and At the time it was it had been renovated thankfully because we haven't got that kind of skill set but so it had been renovated and and was beautiful and we just had a garden at the time but then a few years later we had the opportunity to buy the land that used to be attached to the farmhouse and by that land And my plan then was to, you know, become really more of a custodian of the house and the land and to put it to use, but not in an exploitative way, not not in a way that would um do anything to damage the history of it. So that was when I had the idea for the animal sanctuary. So it started with four hens in the garden and ended up with over 150 animals out on quite a small parcel of land but but we make that parcel of land work for us and we've brought back kind of little parcels of land to reattach them to the farm so that it has still got some of its legacy attached and as ah obviously as a writer
Speaker: that whole history connection to the land, the beautiful history of the house is very stimulating. I knew when we we moved in here, I knew that I would be able to write here because of the the sense of peace and the sense of distance from things that don't really matter, you know, the everyday buzz, things that you can, you know, lose lose yourself in your head. You can step away those and, you know, get get into something a little bit deeper here.
Speaker: Yeah, I, um you just thinking about, you know, the elements and what was around you and thinking about, i talked to a lot of writers and, you know, you know, just the environment in which you able to produce creatively, which I think it is kind of like the underbelly of the show as I've done it over the years. Like how, how's this, what I see as magic, like how's this magic happen? And what do we do when we're looking at this magic? I don't know over offhand, but, um, I just i had the experience, my partner and I moved to, uh, moved to new a new town, the capital of Oregon, Salem, Oregon. And,
Speaker: we had this really ah intensive two week period where I was off from work and we were in our parcel, like reclaiming, raking, seeding. i have a worm farm, which is one of my side quests. And ah just both of us really synced up in our hands. And it so like when I was reading about is a synchronicity in my head of reading about your experience because it's been transformative to us. I talked to a colleague of mine and they're like, ah how you been doing? And I was like, I'm doing great.
Speaker: You know, my fiance and I moved. And we're putting the home like the home together. It's been one of the most fantastic periods I've had in my life. And she was floored. She was like, first all, I've never heard anybody talk positively about a move. And say you know and went on from that. I said, no, my experience is what it is. i don't have to modify it for others. It was it was it was brilliant.
Speaker: it was It was fun. Yeah. So where you are in like your relationship to it, like you said, not in an exploitative way for me, like in our simple, ah and in my simple way of thinking about it was just like the fecundity of ah living here in the Willamette Valley is like the fertile crescent of, you know, this, this hemisphere, as far as I'm concerned, I know if scientifically it's the case, but everything grows here and some magic that I'm around. So um anyways, I just wanted to just have a chance to talk like out loud about like that, that, that, that great experience.
Speaker: Tell us, ah tell us about the Manor Farm, ah the charitable trust and, and, and the farm. I went out to Instagram and ah met a lot of the animals and I'm in my life and very, I've been,
Speaker: vegan for 31 years and been very interested generally in the welfare of animals. ah So it was very sweet to read about um these these animals with their own personalities having the life that you provide. Can you take us in there and then talk us talk to us about that real feel that's in there?
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, it's to give animals that wouldn't have ordinarily a very long life or a very good life, so farm animals, give them something that we would usually try to give to a pet. um Because for me, all animals are equal, no matter what. um And also to maybe take the animal's that nobody else would take, you know, in terms of rescue. So the the hard to rehome animals, the ones that have got, um you know, that may be a little bit wonky, maybe have some behavioural issues, and or maybe you don't have very long to live, you know, they're they're elderly and they've perhaps only got another year to live and to take those animals and to give them a really
Speaker: fabulous end to what might otherwise not have been a very great life. And I think, I mean, that started by accident. It started by taking in some of those types of animals I've just described, yeah you know, the the the very elderly or the very wonky ones and discovering that that's something that we could do here really well.
Speaker: And that it's it's it can be heartbreaking because, you know, you love with all your heart, you love you love what you can do for them and to help them and you become very attached to them. And sometimes that's a very short relationship but you know that you've done your very best by that animal and they've had you know a very worthwhile few months or your or a year with you so that's what it's all about really is to create a proper sanctuary for animals and to to give them a wonderful life whatever length of life that is and whatever health issues they might be dealing with
Speaker: So what's a day look like on the on the farm amongst like ah you know folks who are volunteers? I think you have some volunteers. I'm not familiar exactly with the structure, but what's what's what's a day like on the Manor Farm look like?
Speaker: So we have a small employed team of part-time um sanctuary workers and a sanctuary manager and a team of volunteers. So the the day starts at half seven when the team lock a clock on. And they will first of all go out and get all the animals up and do some medication. So we get the medication done first to make sure all of the oldies or anybody who's suffering with any particular ailments has got the meds on board. and We use that as a chance to check whether anybody needs a vet visit because we we try and get that logged in first thing in the day.
Speaker: and yeah And from there, the cleaning round starts. So they then start doing all the cleaning of the shelters and any grooming that needs to be done or any special exercise regime. And that normally goes on until about one o'clock.
Speaker: um And then
Speaker: shift working pattern. So the team rests in the afternoon and then comes back in the evening to put the animals to bed, to do any final medication, to put the chickens and geese and ducks away so that they're safe from any predators.
Speaker: That's wonderful. Thank you. ah Thank you for that. For that trip in. What's it like living in a 400 year old house? what whats what's what's what's what's What's going on there and in in you know your home and your your place for creativity? What's what's the vibe?
Speaker: The vibe is good. The vibe is like sit for me. It's like it's not for everybody. and We face a graveyard. We face the church. So you look out of our front bedrooms and, you know, you're staring at the graves of of the very long deceased. So that's not not not a view that everybody would like, but I find that quite comforting.
Speaker: you know I would find it comforting myself. so I like that sense of connection to what's gone before. And the house itself is, oh you know, it's timbered. We've got beams everywhere. Everything is a little bit crooked. note There's no steps that are even. The floor slows. Yeah.
Speaker: there's cracks and things everywhere and But I love it because it's not perfect. You know, people aren't perfect. I don't like perfect buildings. i You know, I like things to be a little bit used, um a bit battered, showing signs of having, you know, lived and loved and been enjoyed. So i'm fortunate to know some the people who lived here before. They've been very kind and shared a lot of their family history with me here. So in my head, i have a picture of what their life was like when it was a proper farm. not just a a farm sanctuary. So that's really nice to have. And they've shared some of their old family photos and some old maps of the land. So it's like having a connection to the past inside my head all of the time, you know, no matter what room of the house I'm in how technologically advanced the computers are, you know, you've still got 400 plus years of history sitting around you, which is, which is just great.
Speaker: Yeah. Incredible. i yeah I um live out in Oregon, the most stunning place i've I've seen. I'm originally from the East Coast of the United States in Rhode Island, which is tiny little state and flat, lot of the oceans right there in Atlantic Ocean.
Speaker: I think the tallest point in Rhode Island is actually the landfill. ah Very flat. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm out on the West Coast now in Oregon and just, oh my gosh, just, ah just you know, it's not perfect. It's not a but ah the land is immense and beautiful and I'm i'm i'm blessed with the job. You do union organizing where I covered a state, a lot of the state, and it's it's just really a beautiful thing in the forest. um
Speaker: every Here's Sherwood Forest. like what's What's the forest over by you in my simple mind? Well, it's a couple of mine miles away where we've got the the main Sherwood Forest Visitor Center with the the poor major oak, which is now now sadly dying, but you've got all of that remnant of of history around there. And I've started writing about the trees of Sherwood Forest as another little side project because this is not just the major oak. There are other named oaks, very ancient oaks in there with all their own little histories attached. So that's quite interesting to to write about. I've written about... Oh, I'm sorry, i'm the not to just jump right in there. That's all right.
Speaker: I'm... ah I'm really excited to hear about your your writing about that because um I don't know. i think i I got I watched the the show Twin Peaks prior to like coming out the Pacific Northwest and this adoration of like the trees and what they are and have the Douglas firs on this side. And I was over on the eastern part of Oregon, which is a lot of ponderosa trees. So. like I wouldn't even recognize the way that I talk now, but it's just um hearing about you know you know ancient forests and these ancient oaks and that you'd be relaying that. this
Speaker: I'm excited. to hit i'll I'll keep my eyes peeled. know and So so writing you know writing about the land and you know the trees and you know we we have got we've got a ah moat that borders our field.
Speaker: So again, thinking about what that was used for and I've given voice to the moat, so created a voice for that thats And, you know, of having it look back over the years of its history. So, you know, interesting ways of looking at the things around us and animating them, giving them a voice, trying to walk in their shoes, if you like, as as a piece of nature rather than the other way around.
Speaker: Yeah, just a really nice feel. Very exciting. All we're going to do some of our legit questions for the show. Okay. we know you know we got to do our We got to do a couple of big ones just to make sure you know we're we're framing things up.
Speaker: um Everybody might not exactly know this yet, but Dye is an incredible poet. I'm new ah to Dai's poetry, but um ah a work, Grief, ah that she wrote ah captured the power of poetry for me. um the There was a massive mental twist, and beauty in the words, but a massive mental twist that could really
Speaker: mess up your head to think about grief in a different way or a more open way. That was my interaction with that poem. So you're a creator, you're an artist. um When did you see yourself as an artist? When did you inhabit the space of being a creator artist think I've only really allowed myself to think of myself as being a writer for the past I don't know 15 years or so because I had a creative business so I have I ploughed a lot of my creativity into into that and so I was writing but kind writing commercially before that I had dabbled a little bit in poetry and I'd done an English degree and written some stuff then, but then walked away from that, as I say, to kind of set up a creative business. So then I had to give myself permission to go back to that and to remodel myself as a writer. And I did that as a very conscious thing. So I did a master's in creative writing with the sole purpose of forcing myself into the mindset of being a writer. And absolutely worked. It was the perfect thing. So for me, it wasn't about the qualification. about the process and, you know, that conditioning myself to step away from the commercial person that I was before and then allowing myself to have this creativity just for me.
Speaker: You know, it has no utility. It's it's not saleable, you know, it is something that's precious and and just for me so that happened let's say about 15 16 years ago and from then you know I framed myself as as a writer rather than as a poet I guess I don't know why that is that might just be something oh yes something about me but um but yeah so so that's been that's been lovely as a process to do and then having had these opportunities to use the house and the move and the land as as springboards into um themes of writing.
Speaker: And then obviously my health issues, then that gave me permission to write about other things. So, so I think it's been an organic process is probably the long winded way of answering your question.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. No. What, being a writer yeah yeah no um what Would you have been able to write in the suburbs or like in the way that you want? I mean, would that have been possible?
Speaker: Not at all. i think place is really important for me. Yeah. And actually having a you know a dedicated space to write in. So I'm talking to you now in my work office at home because we had a little bit of a systems failure in my creative space up in the attic. But that's where I give myself permission to be creative. Failures in the creative space. yeah That's like a recommendation. Yeah. um So the tech failed up there. But that's kind of a good thing because, you you know, that's where it's more about pencils and paper and experimentation. And yeah, but absolutely the the location of being apart, being, you know, on the edge of something on the edge of Cushwood Forest, on the edge of this village, away from things that I knew from my childhood. That's really important to stimulate my mind, i think.
Speaker: well situated and I'm glad, I'm glad. Yeah, i've been I've always thought a lot about place and and, you know, particularly with creativity, even my own space, you know, where you are mentally, physically and, you know, what you can do with that. I i do think it's special because i have to tell you a little story that's happened off camera. I have my youngest a kitty cat.
Speaker: um His name is Yuri Gagarin from the famous ah Soviet in space. This cat is, um, ah needs us, has needed us since the moment he was born. So his mama was a stray, rolled onto our property, had eight kiddos, eight little kitties.
Speaker: um My partner delivered them. And this little guy from like right the beginning, he would stumble over to us. Every time being like, why is this kitty coming to us? Like little baby nurse did it all the time, walked over to us and then went like, okay, we're going to keep one. We get to keep, we get to keep this guy.
Speaker: and he had the most needs. ah He immediately was in the process of losing an eye um because there was some the deformity. um He's lost an eye. He's doing very well. The other one is imperiled, which worries us. So we take him to the best eye, kitty eye doctor. that you can find. um I think he's coming here right now onto the screen because he knows we're talking. Fantastic.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I had to bring him in because with what we're talking about, he's part of the story. um Yeah. he and and Now, I've never had a cat like this. People talk about orange cat energy, or I've been reading about it since we got this guy.
Speaker: he is... um about 10 months old he's enormous i i think he's i mean like it's like disney movie simba like for me i'm like this cat like i've had regular cats this cat's a big cat big limbs everything sweetest guy sweetest guy in the world uh and he keeps jumping up here so everybody on the podcast introducing to Yuri Gagarin, um whose sister is Ripley, a name from the movie Aliens, the famous protagonist. And ah Mrs. Mia Wallace is my old ah older kitty cat from the film Pulp Fiction. So Yuri Gagarin's the newest member. He had to meet you die. So like that's everything that just happened here. lovely to see him. Podcasts or or whatever whatever you're doing online is always so much better with an animal in the background.
Speaker: ah Really, really fun. But, um you know, just even reading about the manor farm, like, i don't have to explain to You know, your heart goes out. Like, I've adopted old kitties because I think, like, man, like, what's wrong? Like, what's wrong going out really well, right? We have finite lives. What's wrong going and having a two- fucking in really good years like at the end. and you know I get that. that's ah That's great. All right. We're going to kick back to ah art. um and um oh
Speaker: What is art? ah wo What do you think art is? think it's creating something from yourself to share with others that somehow transmits a part of yourself but a part of something that would be relevant to other people as well, and tries to make that beautiful or tries to make it accessible.
Speaker: So that's that's what it is for me. It's ah it's a communication device, um but with a little bit of magic fairy just sprinkled in. Because, you know i don't know where that comes from. I don't know where those's but those um ideas come from. You know, the things when you were laboring late at night and all of a sudden something beautiful or magical or something really weird comes from your mind and into your pencil or onto the screen. So there's a little bit of magic going on there as well, I think.
Speaker: yeah But there's definitely and a need to create something. And I am really happy when I'm writing. Even if what I'm writing isn't very good or I can't see where it will go, just that process of writing makes me happy. And I like to think that maybe if what I've written is, you know,
Speaker: available to other people, if they if they find it accessible, it might make them happy too, or give them some comfort or make them you know give them something to share, perhaps.
Speaker: So think you know I don't don't think of it as being anything very grand. I think of it more as a very human communication need. Yeah, ah thank you.
Speaker: um The role of art. I've been of two minds, or whenever ask this question, I'm of two minds. One is, like for human beings, like the world's always going to end. It's like some part of like in our Lego blocks of our head or like as a society. like It's always going to end. like um But I also thank and talk to people where they're like, no,
Speaker: Shit's different now in 2026. Like in the US, our politics are absolute shite. Never seen anything like it in my life. Wild zone. um Climate change, you know, fascism, v you know, like hard politics, like all these type of things.
Speaker: So where what is the role of art? And now, you know, we're chatting here, September 2026. twenty twenty six is What's the role of art and has it changed?
Speaker: I think um it can give hope, can't it? You know, it can create different worlds for people, no matter what the genre of art, where if it's visual art, you know verbal art.
Speaker: I think it can take you out of yourself into a completely different realm, which sometimes, as you said, you know it is very much needed because what around you is terrible, whether it's your own terrible situation or you know globally.
Speaker: nationally what you're looking at is is awful So it can give you another little world to inhabit that gives you hope and maybe gives you some impetus to do something different for yourself, whether it's to change where you live or to change how you do things or change your job or or whatever. You know, people are always looking for inspiration and consolation, aren't they, you know, around you. that's that's what we're we're kind of looking for with other people, whether it's in our leaders or literature, that's what we're really trying to find, i think.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. um Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much. um Wrote a poem, a poem ah Dolly Parton's Wig,
Speaker: which won an award. Dolly Parton passed away here. Yes. Much deep sadness, much deep sadness over here on stateside.
Speaker: um I was in the town of Astoria, Oregon, beautiful place. um Everybody was doing karaoke. It was the third night after Dolly had passed and every song is a Dolly Parton song for days. And Tim Curry and Tim Curry as well. And as we recently passed both of them, but there's a special poem I understand from the outside for a late friend, a poet.
Speaker: um Could you tell us about that award-winning poem, Dolly Parton's wig and Yes. Particularly now when people are thinking, really thinking a lot about Dolly.
Speaker: So my friend, Catherine Bevis, was still alive when I wrote the poem, but had terminal breast cancer. And um she had been writing poem poetry for a relatively short period of time, but in that time had written some really amazing poems and was for, which was shortlisted for a major award. And because she had gone through chemo and lost her hair, she was making a joke about choosing a wig and channeling her in a in a dolly parton and that's where that poem
Speaker: came from and I was just thinking it's not just it it's not just the hair, you know it's it's the spirit of Dolly, the the the feisty, loving spirit of Dolly that Catherine was trying to tap into. And in many ways, lots of similarities, you know beautiful, Dolly's beautiful lyrics, heartfelt lyrics, that warmth from Dolly and Catherine also, very warm person, very supportive of other other people, endlessly supportive of other writers.
Speaker: and had a beautiful, rich voice. So again, you know, similarities of of voice and the power of their imaginations also very similar. So those things were running through my head when I wrote the poem. And I'm thinking about Catherine being so brave standing in front of an audience reading her a fabulous poem, wearing a wig, um and everyone who loved Catherine, you know, rooting for her, cheering cheering her on, knowing that her life was going to be very short. But what ah what a beautiful contribution she's made and to literature and leaving her poems behind.
Speaker: Wow. Thank you so much. um
Speaker: And that won the Write Out Loud competition? It did, yes. they They had a competition on the theme of echoes. So I entered that poem because it was all about echoes, the echoes of of one artist to another, and also yeah had the echoes from them to me. So that seemed to be really on the theme, and I was delighted that it won that competition.
Speaker: Fantastic. Hey, everybody. We're talking with Di Slaney. um
Speaker: ah Over in England, Nottinghamshire, host Ken Vellante, something rather than nothing here. On this side, Salem, Oregon, capital of the beautiful state of of Oregon.
Speaker: um ah You do so many things. dying Like I had hinted, I watch a lot of Twin Peaks. That's in my head. There's a lot of doppelgangers, more than one people. It seems like there might be more than one of you. I'm assuming it's just ah just just the one of you. One of the things you also have and do is the candlestick ah press. And I'm always deeply interested when...
Speaker: Just love the written word, love books, obviously. But when you have you're publishing or somebody's publishing and they have a press, always this kind of deep like like the why, you know, like what's going on. So can you tell us a bit about Candlestick Press?
Speaker: Yes, so Candlestick Press is an and small independent publisher that produces lots and lots and lots of mini poetry anthologies on a sea So it's its sole purpose really is to get poetry into the hands of people who wouldn't ordinarily read poetry. So, for example, there are 10 poems about cats for people who love cats and who may be frightened of poetry, but they would love to read a poem about a good poem about a cat.
Speaker: And because it's only 10 poems, it's not too daunting. So if you were frightened by poetry at school or you've always thought it's not for you, then just 10 poems should be enough not to scare you off too much. And also within that selection, which I try to choose a good mix of writers and different poet styles. So you should find one thing at least within those very few pages that will talk to you and make you think that, you know, that's for you. The format is is a gift format. So it's a slim pamphlet or chapbook, I think you would call them in the States, with a bookmark that you can write a message on to somebody if you're gifting it to them. and it's supplied with an envelope and a little seal sticker for the back of the envelope and it says instead of a card so the premise is you send that instead of a card it's a little mini book it's giftable it's on a scene that somebody will relate to so we've got poems about sheds we've got poems about rubbish we've got poems about vegetables and gardens and weather um cricket football all those kind of art so things that are people's enthusiasms we try to create a little pamphlet of about those so that people will be brought to poetry by devious means. They'll be able to kind enjoy them because they like football or because they love cats.
Speaker: Lulled into it. Lulled into the area. i yeah Yeah. i yeah that that is That is incredible. um Place where you are, you mentioned the graveyard, gravestones across the way that people tell you stories connected ah to the land.
Speaker: What coming coming out of that place there, what type of... what's a What's a story that that came through the from from the graveyard, from those folks that really stuck with you?
Speaker: I think the graveyard stories are more about people's lives, everyday lives, so not really so much about history, but they're about their own troubles, you know, because I've got dogs and when we walk the dogs, you you often get into some really deep conversations very quickly with people about, particularly when they're visiting the grave, you know, they may have their own dog there, I've got my dog and then they'll start to say well this is their husband or their their mum and and the whole you get a very deep insight into their life and it then it's ah it's over it can just be a one minute two minute conversation so that's again as a writer is really interesting to to have that very rich um information and makes you feel very connected to
Speaker: to people though you wouldn't ordinarily think about, you know, you get such a range of of different conversations. But there's plenty of historical stories about the house that we've been told as well, which, you know, is too much too too much too much um imaginative stimulus, really. I mean, I'm lucky to live here. There's no end of things to to write about and be curious about. You know, and I don't have to travel very far. I would never need to leave here to have enough to write about it for books for the rest of my life.
Speaker: as sit's I'm very lucky. it's it's It seems so. I i encountered the and something that art can do is kind of give you permission for ideas that you thought were wrong. There's just this title of this you know kind of eccentric magazine.
Speaker: was put out by ah Lauren Rhodes, who I also had on the on the podcast. It was called Morbid Curiosity Cures the Blues. Yes. And it was these, you know, just bizarre stories or the peeking in where you're like, I'm not, you know, for while, like, I'm not sure I should be doing this. This is weird. This is strange, but morbid curiosity gets at it. You know, we can be sad, down people. and And looking at that death, that finality, that gloom, that fog,
Speaker: Yeah, and I think you have to be really curious, I think, to be a writer. You know, you have to have that curiosity about things, history, stuff, stories, people, um you know, you kind of pick at things that maybe other people would leave alone. You think, oh, that's really, really interesting. I want to know more about that. And then in the knowing more, there comes the story or the poem or whatever.
Speaker: I wanted to ask ah the big question of the show that always seems a little bit stilted when I throw it out there. The titular are question is, Dyslany, why is there something rather than nothing?
Speaker: Because if there wasn't something rather than nothing, we wouldn't have a reason for existence, would we? I mean, that's what Manor Farm Charitable Trust is all about. We are trying to do something rather than nothing for animals who haven't had anything much, let ah you know, less than nothing sometimes. And you could say...
Speaker: And I know people in animal rescue do get overwhelmed. You know, you can get burnt out very quickly by the fact you can't do enough. You know, you can't save all the animals. You can't you can't rescue everybody.
Speaker: But isn't it better to do something rather than nothing? you can't you can't just say it's too big i can't fix it I won't make any impression you can make an impression on one animal's life you can save one blind duck you know you can help one arthritic sheep you can help one elderly goat have a really good end to the life and that is something rather than nothing and that's why I think it's worth doing that know I think it's I'm not trying to be a hero i just think for me it's a way to contribute and if, you know, at the end of my life, it's something I would be very proud to have done, I think, to have to have tried, even in in a very small way, to do something rather than there's nothing.
Speaker: Heck yeah. um It's the curiosity question, speaking to a writer, artist, um in in in just books. I've gone through my book collection and just moving, which was, I let a ton go where i look to use books differently at the lending library in the corner and made sure it went to this independent bookstore and then kept things.
Speaker: Super curious as far as whether it's poetry or novelists and otherwise like the the writers, the writers that have been important to you um in writing.
Speaker: um quite a lot, as you would imagine, particularly because i run ah poetry press and um have access to a lot of poets through that. um I really love the work of Ted Couser, American poet. I think his his work located in place um and the observations of the small everyday are very inspiring to me, and particularly because it's an agricultural setting for his work.
Speaker: um I'm also enjoying reading Elizabeth Strout at the moment. I find her dealing with the everyday stories of people, again, really comforting and inspiring, but lots of of famous writers from Auden and Tony Harrison, R.S. Thomas, Norman McCaig, poets that I've really known and loved for a long time. Their work I go back to all the time for for inspiration.
Speaker: Yeah, i've been been blessed to have ah some really amazing poets, including yourself, on the on on on the show. and For me, it's been a rediscovery. you know I'm 54, so there's different phases of my life with my intense curiosity and study or whatever where i drop into particular forms. It's been a little while for me on the poetry, you know reading it, seeing new poetry, but um and doing the podcast, it's been a great like immersion back in. and I found... like
Speaker: I'm still pretty inarticulate, even after all this time at like describing the experience, but there's something like poetry can do in like absolutely cutting through things with words that just blows my mind each time. It's like capturing that feeling when you were talking about, I think I was mentioning this about poem grief where it was about that, but there was a,
Speaker: ah flipping around of the whole thing. And it's tough to do that in other forms. So like I go back to poetry sometimes it's like this, this flip that you do with words.
Speaker: um It's been great to tap back into that energy and also to say, like I said, to be pretty inarticulate like in response to the power of, of, of words. So anyways, I love my poets.
Speaker: Thank you. I think poetry does do that, which is you try to find the most condensed form of words that you can, to but still to be able to communicate whatever it is you're trying to communicate. But it's that distillation of the emotion or the storyline. That's the trick, isn't it? That's what makes a poem a poem and and not a piece of short fiction.
Speaker: So I think that's that's what we strive as poets to do all the time, which is to try to get that little bit of magic in there. where it becomes that intense distillation of the thing you're trying to talk about.
Speaker: Beautiful, beautiful. Dai, I want to talk about a few different things here and just like so people can come in contact with your art, but it's kind of like the best way for people to interact with you and the work that you do. Starting with the Manor Farm Charitable Trust, is there a place people can go, um contribute or what way they can they can help hearing and about the great work you do there.
Speaker: Thank you. Yes, we we're we're quite active on Facebook. We've got um an active Facebook page there and also on Instagram. So we put up the animal stories on there and any any fundraising we do for any particular animal or any cause. where' We've got some lovely calendars available at the moment for 2027. I saw those. Those are so wonderful. beautiful animal faces. So, you know, they always do quite well for us and they're really nice gifts as well. so And they they're produced by one of our supporters who gives her time for free and designing those. And one of our team is a fantastic wildlife photographer and she does the photos for free for us. So again, it's a great combination of support for us and then the fabulous faces of the animals who who live here. So that's that's great. But yes, you follow all the stories on social media. and help us that way. And even even if it's just giving us a like and a thumbs up and a nice comment, that's always really welcome.
Speaker: You know, it's nice to know that we're touching people in the work that we do. It impacted my research, di because like I said last night, I was going in and I was like, oh wait a second. I'm going on the complete manor farm. like I wanted to come in contact with more things that you had done. And I'm like, these animals, like i I can't get away from looking at the pig video. like i can't but Yes,
Speaker: um And about ah your your your work, ah your art, your poetry and candlestick press, a good spot. Where can people go to so find your work and et cetera?
Speaker: Same again, I've got a very out-of-date website, which I keep threatening to update but never get around to it. So most of my current stuff is on Facebook now. or on Instagram and Blue Sky as well, a little bit on Blue Sky. And again, same for Candlestick, it's Instagram and Facebook, but a very good website for Candlestick. So you can find out all about the different poetry pamphlets we have, all the different themes, what's coming up, what's new.
Speaker: um And obviously you can you can buy from there, although we do now have some stockists in the States as well.
Speaker: Absolutely wonderful. um I got to tell you, ah just um just so focusing on on on on land and in in animals and in in place there has been our a really inspiring and a great connection point for me, like I said, even where I am right now. um I've completely revived my connection with reinvigorate my connection with plants that have existed since my mom would always show me how to take care of ah plants. And when we as humans can interact and put our fingers on things and they flourish,
Speaker: It's isn't
Speaker: it? People look at me and it's like, oh what do you there is a magic in there. it' like you know We've got hundreds of plants here and because of the conditions we've created and the love and everything you try to put in there, a couple have passed on. But like... um so uh that power is is is really fun and part of it it's in my head too there's a ah just to mention out loud um in the podcast space there's a a great podcast called rooted r-o-o-t-e-d yes rooted and it's about like each episode it's only like 10 to 15 minutes uh it's done by host m grebner gaddis and
Speaker: quickly you get like you learn about the plant and where it is and also like some of the mythology behind it or its important social significance and um Just really, ah I started listening that again because now I've got my hands on these plants that are in my yard. I put there, I'm like, I got to remember you know how to interact or why this is just like my connection to it. So um I just wanted to give that plug thinking about plants and plants.
Speaker: And rooted and um i wanted to thank you so much, Di, for coming on to the show and in in sharing your great work. in And listeners, i I encourage you to connect with um this energy if it it matches up with you. And ah for...
Speaker: the the animals that the Manor Farm, the charitable trust is is helping out. And just the idea at the end of life that there's a whole different reality given to these animals by Manor Farm to, like I was saying, like,
Speaker: end of your life. Let's, let's do it up. Right. Lots of love and care. And who's that not going to go towards? So, um, thank you deeply for, um, for your care and love, uh, to the world. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Speaker: Great to reach you from Oregon over there. Uh, Sherwood forest, Nottinghamshire. Look forward to all the art you create and a big thanks here from Something Rather Than Nothing for coming on the show.
Speaker: It's been lovely talking to you. Thanks ever so much.
Speaker: This is Something Rather Than Nothing.
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