Yes I Wrote This For You...for my Valentine

Because this piece is quite long I have made it available for download to experience it as intended. I hope it works for the listener as a creative piece in terms of its subject 'transformation'.
As a watercolour artist I would often be drawn to the off-cut paper that I would test my colour mixes on. As the main painting progressed these purposeful 'colourings' would seem so fresh compared to the often laboured attempt of the cohesive painting itself. I would sit and stare at the abstract nature of the colour notes, the nuances of the watery paint, overlaid or blended, with a life of their own. They would give me new ideas. I would see fresh things in them, learn from them to be receptive, want to replicate something of their freshness, contemplate them.

So it can be with words and sound I believe but, as opposed to colour notes, I have learned to use sound and words more deliberately. Short incisive statements can, I believe, open wider vistas, haiku is a bit like this. Words communicate suggestively as well as explicitly. This has been my mind-set here with words and sound. I hope they can stimulate, create fresh ideas in people, and maybe people can derive something of their own learning from them too. A great deal can emerge in the subconscious from looking at the juxtaposition of colours, Constable knew this with his touch of red against the greens of a landscape. I believe their is a response to be had from sound and words in a similar way.

I would describe this as a kind of personal-sound-installation. It's born out of creative writing, sound enhanced poetry and my desire to offer something of a journey to someone else out there. It's a fusion of one new piece and pieces I've previously completed but which I always wanted to link .

This work features recordings gathered by me, rain, clock, the sea, the shingle, wind-chimes, bells, waves and wind for example are all field recordings.

I think words and phrases can act like signposts, doorways to walk through, even the abstract, and in that way words don't always have to offer syntactical sense, as in a sentence, they may just suggest a direction. They may at first appear abstract but develop context at closer study. It's all about resonance I feel, and offering something that hopefully will find its listener, someone receptive to it, as I am myself. I hope you are such a listener. It is a fraction over twenty minutes long and needs a quiet place and definitely earphones or headphones. Peace to all....Neil

Transformation

Original poem by me, Neil William Holland aka Soloneili.
I'm always looking to explore poetry-fusions with other genres, intending to strengthen or compliment a poem if I can. This poem, a mix of the slightly historical and the contemporary, is written through the eyes of someone who grew up on a council estate, (me in social housing when younger) and for many people of working class origins there is a certain repetition to life. Sometimes a kind of resignation to it and I kind of wanted to capture it. I found the perfect foil for my poem I think, and the hip hop presents a form of today's escapism, in my mind anyway. I see two outlooks running parallel in this arrangement and I ought to stop now as a I could probably write a dissertation on it lol. Well, that is my creative intent, and I hope it finds itself a sympathetic listener. Peace to all....Neil

Council Estate... Poetry fusion(New Version)

When Jimmy uploaded his beautiful track  'Ode To Our Fallen Soldiers' I have to admit I was unashamedly affected by a groundswell of sentiment. I wrote a poem instantly and sent it to Jimmy, principally to show how his music had moved me.

Jimmy invited me to put the words to music, but, after numerous takes I opted just to use some phrasing from the poem and let Jimmy's gorgeous and emotional melody breathe just as it should.. The melody and instrument choice of Jimmy isn't (to me) about any heroic narrative, it speaks of love. Out there are someone's children, someone's brother or sister. I think this piece should be about love for those who give so much, even the ultimate gift so that others may know love and life.

The moon is both symbolic and physical, it's ability to connect people is ever-present. I'd like to think that somewhere out there is a mum and dad, a brother and sister, or girlfriend or boyfriend, or indeed anybody, who can simply connect with a loved one under the same moon.

Peace to all...Neil
..............................................................................

Tribute To The Fallen… a poem directly inspired by the music Tribute To The Fallen by J. Rivas on Soundcloud.

Under the same moon wherever you are, we all know love tonight.
Under the same moon wherever you are we know you fight for right.
Under the same moon wherever you are the world is ours tonight.
Under the same moon wherever you are our love for you stays bright.

Take care our loves wherever you are we think of you tonight.
You are the moonlight in our hearts and know our love tonight.
If you should fall you never will fail to be in our hearts tonight.
Under the same moon wherever you are we love you all tonight

To All Our Soldiers Wherever You Are (collab with J.Rivas)

This is the second piece of writing I have married with the wonderful piano melody of J. Rivas, Jimmy. For me there is something about relationships between music and the spoken word, the music undoubtedly gives colour and mood that is over and above the words alone. The poem is also coloured within the writing itself by the child's voice I had in my head when writing it ; I wanted it to surface in the narrative. I remember it all through my child's eyes, even though I narrate it from my adult self.

I'll leave it for others to judge how well Jimmy's melody fits the piece but in my own mind they were meant for each other, the slightly melancholic piano mirroring the melancholic reflection of the poem. It's a true account, one that I've carried with me all my life, and one that perhaps helped shape who I am today. 
I hope you enjoy it for whatever reason. Thanks and peace to all. Thanks especially to Jimmy, a wonderful and skilled musician and vocalist.

Neil

Clouds And Trees (collab with J.Rivas)

This is a prose-poem based upon real experiences I have shared on special nights with my father. Some things you feel as much as you think about them and I wanted to try and create and preserve something of that special and magical time which has left its mark upon me.  Especially as age and health won't allow him to do it any more.

One of the difficult things is to place the words into the right sound context and create (hopefully) the synergy and unique relationship that can exist between sound and words. After much searching I identified the right sound and played it on the keyboard in a way I hope bonds it and the words together. 

I've written and re-written this so many times now but I keep coming back to this original recording I first did. Somehow I don't think I can replicate it again, and it needs to simply 'be' I think. I hope you feel something too, maybe you are my listener.
Peace to all...Neil

Under The Stars....(a prose poem)

See my wordpress blog for extensive notes

Poem. Looking At An Arthur Berry Exhibition

A version of this was first performed at Colourscape in London with Sound Artist David Stevens. I continue with my love of, and fascination with whales and all I can say is peace to all and hope you enjoy my poetry. Cheers...Neil

I Met a Whale.. poetry by Neil William Holland

Love Is a Guess,      a poem by Neil William Holland

Love is a fingertip journey
around a wine glass.
Love is a ringtone
but it’s all right.

Love is when you’ve got
too much love.
Love is empty
like an empty glass

until you put the wine in.
Now the fingertips journey
and all the nights party.
Love is yes

to flying your kite.
Love is a guess,
a fingertip around the glass,
Love is turning out, the light
on.
............................................


I hope you enjoy this. They say you should never write poetry in abstractions, so I pursued metaphor for this in some parts and looked for the concrete image. The qualities of 'Love' are however, quite abstract, so therefore simile has to work to establish the image and indeed the feeling. Love is after all about resonance, and too much, and emptiness and being care free in many ways. 
In the poem as it transfers to the music and sound, I wanted to provide semiotic phrases, signposts, that a listener can ponder. That way the statements are non linear and the listener can be free to make interpretations relating to the prompts. They say you should never explain a poem. It just happens that I personally love notes on poems, it opens them up sometimes.

Ever exploring digitally enhanced poetry I composed a ring tone to represent the word 'ringtone' in the poem, and explored other analogous sounds too. I think it is what this genre can do, what it is capable of. The strictly printed word cannot do that fusion. It is my way of further opening up poetry to the senses.

Peace to all....Neil


Love is a Guess,

It's a long time since poet Karin Tarabochia (Augenmerk) and I proposed to do a collaboration but we have finally got there. Translation was a problem but by listening to, and reading Karin's other works I let myself surrender to the tone in her words and voice. Karin has written the poetry and allowed me to shadow her beautiful words with my interpretation in places. Sometimes it is literal and sometimes I have improvised slightly but always going from the poem Karin sent to me. 

The format is as it was proposed by Karin, her wonderful and sensitive reading followed by my reading. Once both recordings had been done by ourselves it was my job to place a musical context to the readings. I was so in love with the natural voices I wasn't sure about what music to blend with it but as soon as I realised that a previous work I had done felt right I brought it all together.

I am thrilled to work with Karin, and hope you may enjoy our collaboration. Two voices, two poets, and a desire to bridge the language difficulties such a task brings to poetry.

Original poem, Karin Tarabochia, aka Augenmerk
shadow poetry and interpretation, myself Soloneili
Music composed and played by myself.
Throat chant courtesy of DJ Griffin, Project Freesound.

Einfach Sein (collab with Augenmerk)

Quite some time ago Jimmy Rivas sent me a splendid, but melancholy soundtrack called Stalingrad and enquired if I could write a poem to it. I spent many a while researching the battle of Stalingrad and trying to get a real feel for what had happened there. The suffering was immense, the losses awful. Jimmy was moved by this and so was I, especially by Jimmy's haunting soundtrack he had composed and given life to. It has taken me a long time to find the right feel and tone for the words, but here it is.

Stalingrad - collab with J. Rivas

They Walk Among Us. poem by Neil William Holland

They walk among us
but you cannot see their wings
nor do halos hover over them.
They just do their job for
all misfortune brings.
They walk among us.

They all have loved ones
just like you and I.
and it is for us and them,
they try... and try...and try.
They walk among us

facing their fears shedding their tears
the same as you and I.
They sacrifice and risk their lives,
without complaint or asking why.
They walk among us.

Who are these people, brave and selfless,
as to our aid and side they fly?
They are our nurses, doctors, workers,
who give their lives and gift of life
or try...and try...and try.

Now I believe in angels.
They walk among us.

Poem  for Our Healthcare Workers

http://neilwilliamholland.bandcamp.com/album/alternate-words

http://neilwilliamholland.bandcamp.com/album/sound-waves

If you would like to hear plain readings of poetry by some of my favourite poets then click on this link http://soundcloud.com/neil-reads-poems


Hi there, as you see I'm interested in poetry and music. In general I'm interested in sound itself and would describe myself as a sound-comber. I like the way the sounds of words work as well as their overall meaning and to this end I see poetry in all aspects of the aural world, such as the bird wing beating, the sound of broken glass synthesised, the musical beat of a modern track, to name but a few things, and I like the general feeling these sounds impart to a listener.

Who doesn't want to move to a great rhythm, or melt into the sound-motion of an orchestral piece that lulls like the ocean, or to quietly relect on some well chosen poetic words? I happen to think that we all have a need to infuse ourselves with the rhythms of life, however they occur. I hope you find a track to enjoy or download. I work with a number of DAWS and play some elements on keyboard, incorporate loops and synthesise sounds too. I also record my own sounds with a portable recorder and of course I write my own poetry perform and record it. Thanks for reading and my sincere best wishes to you. Neil.............p.s. you might like to visit my blog too at www.thepoetinthecar.wordpress.com You will be most welcome.

Soloneili

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