Category Archives: Dark Angels

Dreams and imaginings

Posted on November 8, 2020 by Jamie Jauncey

My friend and musical collaborator, Dave Amos, slight of stature, mighty of voice, had a dream. He and I and Aretha Franklin were playing a gig together. In a folk club. In Fife. I had gone missing. ‘Where’s Jamie?’ Aretha … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Tagged Aretha Franklin, Don Quixote, Joe Biden, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Stevie Wonder, The Queen's Gambit | Leave a comment

Good news from the front line

Posted on April 3, 2020 by Jamie Jauncey

(Also available as a podcast here) Front lines are on all our minds right now. I think of poetry as language’s front line, the place where things can at once be at their most considered and their most intense, raw … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Tagged Lumb Bank, Moniack Mhor, National Poetry Competition, Poetry Society, Simon Armitage, Susannah Hart | 2 Comments

Making sense

Posted on January 7, 2020 by Jamie Jauncey

You can now listen to each new post, including this one, as a podcast. I am also gradually adding selected posts from the archive. Click here. If we look for milestones to prompt reflection and personal stocktaking, few come better … Continue reading →

More Galleries | 7 Comments

Seeing what I say

Posted on November 1, 2019 by Jamie Jauncey

Next week I’m going to Moniack Mhor, the Scottish writing centre in Inverness-shire. It will be the twelfth time I’ve been since 2005 when we ran what was the second-ever Dark Angels course there, and the first one I took … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Tagged EM Forster, Moniack Mhor | 3 Comments

Moon journeys

Posted on July 26, 2019 by Jamie Jauncey

Fifty years ago last Saturday, in the crowded and sweltering public room of a cheap hotel, with an ancient fan creaking and whirring overhead, I watched the televised moon landing. I was in downtown Tehran. The commentary was in Farsi. … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Tagged John Muir, Moon landing, Tehran | 3 Comments

Dark Angels on Writing

Posted on July 4, 2019 by Jamie Jauncey

Over the years I’ve come to believe that people are sometimes drawn to Dark Angels courses in answer to an unspoken, perhaps even unacknowledged, need. They may not know it but at the moment they hear about our programme there … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Leave a comment

Three cities

Posted on April 12, 2019 by Jamie Jauncey

Place matters. It shapes thoughts and emotions. We have always encouraged people who come on our Dark Angels courses to connect as strongly as they can with the place where the course is held. We want that heightened awareness of … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Tagged Auckland University of Technology, John Simmons, Merton College, Oxford University, Richard Pelletier, Seattle, Ted Leonhardt | 3 Comments

Paying attention

Posted on November 30, 2018 by Jamie Jauncey

Birnam, the village where I live, and neighbouring Dunkeld, across the river, have a combined population of just 1,100 souls. For our size we’re unusual in having an arts centre, fully equipped with a 150-seater auditorium, studio and meeting spaces, … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Tagged Birnam Book Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Peggy Seeger | 1 Comment

Hawks and angels

Posted on June 29, 2018 by Jamie Jauncey

Nestled into steep woods on the slopes of a Cotswold valley stands a manor house built of stone the colour of pale honey. It has tall chimneys and gothic windows and a walled garden full of vegetables and fruit trees … Continue reading →

More Galleries | Tagged Hawkwood College | 3 Comments

Spirit of place

Posted on April 6, 2018 by Jamie Jauncey

It’s fifteen years since I first started to work with my Dark Angels partner John Simmons, and it must now be nearly a decade since we both started our regular blogs. We have a lot in common and it would … Continue reading →