‘…Wind (which is the word that flicks through words / Searching for itself)’
From ‘A Wind-Blown Dictionary’, from Conversations with the Wind by Alice Oswald
press release:
For the next eight weeks, starting on Thursday, 7 June, poetry lovers will have online access to a literary treasure trove.
Eight specially commissioned poems by internationally renowned poet Alice Oswald will be hosted on the Battle for the Winds website, with one new poem being added each week until Thursday, July 26.
Readers will also have the chance to win a beautifully illustrated, signed copy of all eight poems. Produced by typographer Kevin Mount, the hand printed text has been laid out to fit into a specially designed air mail envelope.
Entitled Conversations with the Wind, the poems are being used as a core text for Battle for the Winds, a unique theatrical event that marks the opening celebrations of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Sailing events. Unprecedented in scale, Battle for the Winds tells the story of a quest to gather the winds from across the South West to power the sailing events in July.
Extracts from Conversations with the Wind will be woven into performances across the region between now and July, culminating in three days of spectacular outdoor theatre in Weymouth and Portland from July 26 – 28. Students from Weymouth College are also using the poems for a typography project, working with schools to produce banners of illustrated letters inspired by the poems.
Limited copies of Conversations with the Wind will be on sale in Weymouth and Portland during the final events of July 26 – 28, but we have three complete sets signed by the author to give away.
The competition will run on the Battle for the Winds website, where we will be posting one new poem from Conversations with the Wind every Thursday in the eight weeks running up to the July events. Winners will be drawn in August.
The first poem will go up on Thursday, June 7 so go to the ‘Poems’ page at battleforthewinds.com from June 7 onwards to find out how to win.