Index Page - TracksnTrains

Starting with the Goostrey Arts Fringe Installation on both sides of the track at Goostrey Station  (02-20 October 2010) the Railway Word Invasion began.

It continued with  The Ghost Train (27 October 2010) working from Stockport to Chester and back.

Click the links below -  and watch this space.
Ghost Train - Stockport-Chester-Stockport
Goostrey Arts Fringe - on Goostrey Station

Main site
Poetry site
Song site
Child Poems site
Protest poems and songs
When this Delightful Dawning Ends
Exhibition photographs
CV & Review & Comment

Ghost Train - Stockport-Chester-Stockport

On 27 October 2010, The Ghost Train ran from Stockport to Chester and back. Ghost stories were told all the way, by Jan (of Ghost Tours) with ghost poem stories and story songs by me.  There was wonderful face painting - by Lily of Chester, for the children and goodie bags - and all for the standard rail fare.

In Chester, a short Ghost Tour. by Jan and Tom, walked us round the city of shadows and ghosts

All the way back to Stockport  I related and sang poem-stories and story-songs about ghosts - even to some startled people who had not realised they were catching the Ghost Train. Cat stories were added by Judie Collins and the guard.

The event was organised with Northern Rail by

Mid Cheshire Community Rail Partnership Officer, Sally Buttifant, who also took the photograph below

Charlotte telling ghost stories

A small selection of Ghost stories follows:

(It should be made clear that these short pieces are not written to be 'read', but to be performed, with due atmospheric menace)

Peggy's Shade

Along the Rows moves Peggy's shade

In ankle boots and cloak and gown

A lacy bonnet holds her hair

These last three hundred years its grown

From copper brown to streaming white

From rich to sparse her hair has flown

Collecting heartache with her years

She drifts and moans - an ancient crone

For where her 'darling' once caroused

She yet caught sight - or she was shown

That he had mistresses around

She took his gun and shot him down

In Gallowgate she swung in air

But as she swung - her hair of brown

Turned white and sparse - and on her face

Her laughing face - she wore a frown

Since then she searches round the town

For him she loved - who let her down

Her loss the greater - she agrees

Because she shot her 'hand-me-down'

So nevermore can she move on

Nor cease her grief nor once atone

But must in agony remain

Upon the street where she alone

Must pay the price for death she made

Must frighten us - must moan and groan

15Oct2010

The 'heap'

Shadowed by the Roman Wall

The 'heap' flowed slowly along

Muttering gutteral sounds drifting

Above - in misty dusk - the child

Walking nervously behind his dog

Peered forward and - anxiously

Backward

The dog - a wire haired terrier mutt

Sensing anxiety and something

Else

Growled low - his hackles raised

Feeling the threat

He stopped moving

The child

Frightened of

Something

Whimpered

His hand

On the dog's collar

Growling

Whirling away

Behind

The dog

Snapped ferociously

Into air

The air cleared

Dog and child

Moved on

Behind them

Low whining ululated

The 'heap' drifting sadly back

Below the wall

In deeper shadow

Gutteral again - Rising and falling

Whimpering

Waiting

For the next

15Oct2010

Baby Ghoul - Blue

There once was a baby ghoul - Blue

Who said: "I've a haunting for you"

So he threw down his bones

Practiced groaning and moans

And then vanished - with no more ado

25Oct2010

Head hunters

They found a little carving worn by time

A copy of a long gone warrior=s head

A trophy-token carried by a Celt

The spirit of an enemy now dead

The Celt believed each human attribute

Of enemies  could make the victor strong

So chopping off and carrying the head

Protected him from foes he walked among

But heavy heads are ghoulish in the home

They rot and smell and make the children ill

Attracting rats and boars to forage in

A carving was reminder of a kill

Made head-sized or the size of human thumbs

Set high on posts or mantels in his den

Or warding evil spirits on a belt

The hunted heads of Britain stared again

13May1997



The Beast

The beast - he said - was striped

And really bigger than you'd think

Its teeth - he said - were sharp

Its claws were honed

It sat - he said - all day

Just trying to work out

If it was live or not

And couldn't tell

It sometimes filtered through

Perched high upon a branch

It worked out what to do

And watched what they did too

It thought it wouldn't stay

It bared two rows of teeth

And as it smiled away

Its colour faded slow

Its elbows and its knees

Were followed by its tail

Its face and ears were next

Until - with just a smile

It vanished

21Oct2010

Goostrey Arts Fringe on Goostrey Station
Index Page - TracksnTrains


Main site
Poetry site
Song site
Child Poems site
Protest poems and songs
When this Delightful Dawning Ends
Exhibition photographs
CV & Review & Comment
posted by Charlotte Peters Rock - charlottepetersrock@tiscali.co.uk - 0156 5722738 - Main site: http://charlottepetersrock.blogspot.com

Goostrey Arts Fringe appeared on Goostrey Station 02-20 October 2010

The Goostrey Rail Platform installation
A part of my Goostrey Arts Fringe, it was arranged via Mr Nik Matuszczak of Crewe to Manchester Community Rail Partnership,with the agreement of Northern Rail.

Around 100 A4 sheets were placed on each side of the track for more than 2 weeks. Together, they comprised around 160 poem-stories and song-stories, based on trains, history, local and worldwide and opinion pieces. Fastened to the fences, trees, and the buildings, they stayed put remarkably well, as an entertainment resource for local people and travelling passengers, who seemed to enjoy reading the stories - and who made very positive comments.

This was a part of my Goostrey Arts Fringe, designed to run at the same time as the very lively and successful  Goosfest.

Goostrey Community Primary School
Other parts of the Fringe were installations all around the outside classrooms and playgrounds of both the Junior and the Nursery and Infant Schools, complementing various parts of the school curriculum, but in particular, the extensive and very exciting studies which the Junior School has made of South America.

The Trading Post
With permission of the owner, a small installation was mounted inside the Trading Post, in Goostrey. This comprised poem-stories to fit with the ethos of the store.

Main Road
There was also an extensive display of poetry and pictures of The Amazon (see Amazon poem-story below) which was set up in the heart of the village on a fence and hedgeline by kind permission of two Goostrey Residents. 

Showing the end wall of the - closed - Station Booking Office

In window embrasures of Booking Hall

In window embrasures of Booking Hall

In window embrasures of Booking Hall

On fence at Manchester-Crewe side of the line

Inside the Waiting Room at Manchester Crewe side of the line

Inside the new waiting area Crewe-Manchester side of the line

25.7.96.bk21.41/environm

Amazon

where Wai-wai warriors wear

beads and feathers in their hair

hanging in a single pig-tail

down their arching back

Pudding-bowl Xavantes serve the mass

Escaping basilisks run like little men

upright in their fleeing to the water

Giant anacondas loop

Flower-kissers flying backwards

sip the nectar from a fringe of petal

Fish swim high along the forest floor

when rainy season floods about

Out of time the condors fly forever

Steamers ply along the river

buoyant long beyond the rubber boom

Where the Negro meets the Amazon

dolphins play in clear tea water

Rafts of cattle float above the ox-bow

until the land comes flooding back

driving piraruca fish away

Vulture kings inspect

beyond their orange feature

Macaws hang down a line liana

like bright-washed jewels

screeching blue and red and green

Fiery orange cock-of-the-rock patrol

helmeted as Roman soldiers

Toucans bill and couple in the canopy

Nomadic hunters sporting lip-discs

slash and scar their naked bodies into beauty

Kamayura artists decorate with paste

crushed from urucu seed and kneaded

bodies needing vivid patterns set in red

Jivaro still hide shrunken heads of enemies

to keep possession power

Kayapo brandish war cudgels

wooden like their spears dancing

to claim the help of forest spirits

Orchid flowers in waxy languor

lavender and mottled red

with red and yellow throats

linger on a line of stem

groups of brightness here and there

high above the forest floor

Heliconias beaked like parrots or macaws

dangle long their redness and their yellow

Sloths hang beneath a branch

considering slowly if moving is an option

On the Orinoco shanty towns

stilt above the water

sheltering behind canoes

painted startling forest colours

Mud skippers hop around the mangroves

where scarlet ibis gather flapping into air

Silent ghostly giant egret wait for fish

Crocodiles smile smiles of smugness

Manatees float gentle in the water

A goldminer taller than his mule rides into El Callao

gold hung across the saddle

  

Butterflies drink liquid from the eyes

of yellow spotted side neck turtles

Black piranha dagger teeth at vegetation

Vampire bats poised pig-nosed above

wounds they open

fan gentle wings in frenzy

White Uakari monkeys

apoplectic in the gloom

rest on branches in the shade

like Englishmen in clubs  snoozing

Naked in the river shallows children play

cooling where the water rushes

Jaguar women  wearing whisker-spines

stare beneath black fringes

at human meat

Mayoruna people used to eat

A shaman calls the spirits

to drive the sickness out

as women  bunching herbs near breathing

practice what the shaman claims

Swarming butterflies  twin petals fly

flocking in to fruit  Armadillos work

burrowing  and floating in the water

Where once a wilderness

brought only life

and death to generations of the tribes

where feathers were the wealth

which people took

values forsaken

in a headlong rush to promise

progress into silent forest

Slash and clear to take the best

leaving all the rest as debris

Butterflies and hyacinth macaws

trees to choose the best canoe from

strangler figs without a palm to climb

Herbs and tortoises all die

Cultures vanish into Coca-cola

Anacondas wither in the sun

Arrow-poison frogs are lost

and tiny monkeys taught to die

to leave the human breast alone

For this the priest returns in white

dons his red and spreads his Master's wing

The banker brings his box to fill

The woodsman brings his saw

The doctor brings The Western Way

The Amazon brings its self

25July 1996

Ghost Train Stockport-Chester-Stockport
Index Page - TracksnTrains

Main site
Poetry site
Song site
Child Poems site

Protest poems and songs
When this Delightful Dawning Ends
Exhibition photographs

CV & Review & Comment

by Charlotte Peters Rock - charlottepetersrock@tiscali.co.uk - 0156 572 2738 - http://charlottepetersrock.blogspot.com