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"I can't believe it's already 13 years since Heather Wastie published her first volume of poetry, Until I saw your foot. Now, its successor, The Page-Turner's Dilemma, draws richly on the experiences of that interim period both personally and professionally, and the result is a bran-tub of goodies which are funny, quirky, ironic, probing, and often, because Heather has such a big heart and therefore can perhaps feel pain more acutely, touchingly poignant."
An extra layer of insight is added by the cartoonist Jules, whose sketches complement the poems with wit, sympathy and tenderness."
Christopher Morley
Chief music critic, Birmingham Post
Assessor, Arts Council of England
“A wealth of wit, warmth and wisdom wings its way through Heather Wastie's words. Grounded in her life as a professional musician and as a teacher of music; detailed by her own keen observation of people and illustrated by carefully designed cartoons by Jules ~ cartoonist, created especially to accompany these poems - this book offers us a cheeky wink at the world we live in. A few poems resonated minor chords but most were written in major keys which lifted my spirits in such a way that laughter sang out loud. Poems written particularly for specific children also resonated their own amusing truths and I hope one day we will see a full collection of Heather Wastie's children's poems.”
Julie Boden Poet in Residence at Town Hall and Symphony Hall, Birmingham
“I defy anyone to read this without a smile on their face."
Jo Ind The Birmingham Post
Available price £7.50 plus postage & packing from www.lapalbooks.co.uk
Performance reviews, January 2010
And so to Heather Wastie - or possibly Lily Bolero, the performance was, by her own admission, rather schizophrenic. Her poems were not just well written and extremely funny but brilliantly performed. ..... she didn't read, she recited, freeing her to perform. As she went through the set she took on a whole range of different characters and voices to great effect. I especially liked the one where she "interviewed" the members of the audience at a classical concert, becoming character after character each one with their own peculiar and annoying, concert-going habits and each one critical of other members of the audience. .... she finished with a song, complete with a taped backing, an instrumental break and a dance routine. It was hilarious.
Extract from The Hitting the Road Again Blues by travel writer, Bob Hale
Performance reviews, February 2010
Rhymes - Mixing Bowl Theatre, The Custard Factory, Digbeth
February 2010
“... a clever, sophisticated, and humorous performance by the multi-talented Heather Wastie and her alter-ego “Lily Bolero”. Her wry observations on Concert Hall etiquette were very well received, as was her closing song.”
Kay Dents - Behind the arras
Comments from audience:
“Just to say how much I enjoyed your performance last night. You can write, you can act and you can sing. What talent! Well done."
John Goss
“Excellent - glad to have heard you.”
“ ... you were amazing. Your poetry and performance were second to none.”
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Heather Wastie
Poems of the Head in Dynamic Relation to F M Alexander
A collection of poems and photographs created during an intensive Alexander Technique course in 2006 which gives an insight into its life-changing possibilities from the perspective of a total beginner.
Let go,
lengthen
like a swan,
smile
like a human.
24pp £5.50 + £1 p&p
Send cheques payable to Mind's Eye Limited
to 47 Castle Road, Cookley, Kidderminster DY10 3TE
also available through Poetry Monthly Bookshop at:
www.poetrymonthly.com
under NOVELS, THEMED POETRY, SPECIALITY AND OTHER PUBLICATIONS
"A beautiful little book .... Many congratulations!"
Estella Cauldwell, Teacher of Alexander Technique
Heather Wastie's books are always interesting. As a singer, musician and composer, her previous collection of poems concentrated on witty observations about the music world. It was aimed at musicians and knew its audience. This new collection takes Alexander Technique as its subject and explores the 'life-changing experience' that she found the technique. Learning to communicate with your body and concentrate on your poise.
The poems are a diary of the experience, with the whole process of having to learn to do things differently summed up in poems like Handwriting Unlesson. However, rather than wanting to intone the words in a meditative way as the title A Mantra for Walking suggests I might, I found myself wanting to sing (no, I was singing it but as a person with no singing voice, under my breath) the words. But there again, the first lines are 'Alexander/ Smiles are wider'.
There is much use of the visual possibilities of the words. In Postcards the lines 'I've gone/ to a non-place/ and have to send postcards/ to communicate' are followed by two photographs of landscapes with the words referring to a sense of place printed over them. And talking of landscapes, in The Wrong Way the idea of doing something your way after being told that someone else's way is better, and wishing ' ... I had tried the wrong way/ more often' is emphasised by printing the text landscape, or 'the wrong way' as some might say.
Finally, as this collection concerns itself with the way we hold ourselves, with the way the head sits on the body, with poise; it is worth considering the way that the title relates to the rest of the text. For me it's one of those titles that, had I been asked, I'd have suggested was changed, that maybe 'it was worth looking at this again'. Heather knew the audience for her last book and I'm sure she knows her audience for this. It says what's inside the covers: I say 'What a title!' and shake my head at the poise of it.
Dave Reeves, Raw Edge Magazine
Until I saw your foot
I thought this music was in four,
Until I saw your foot.
But now I think it must be three,
Or maybe five, I can't quite see.
Or six? Or maybe not.
I thought this piece was rather slow,
Until I saw your foot.
But now I think it's double speed -
Sometimes it's very fast indeed.
And other times it's not.
I thought conductors gave the beat,
Until I saw your foot.
But now I think it rather neat,
To look at all the tapping feet,
And choose the speed that I prefer,
And play along with him - or her.
I find it helps a lot.
I thought my timing was all wrong,
Until I saw your foot.
Conductors beat both east and west,
But we don't play with all the rest:
We've found a tempo of our own,
And bar by bar, our love has grown.
O I was feeling so alone,
Until I saw your foot.
© Heather Wastie
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from Until I Saw Your Foot - poetry and tales from behind the music stand, published by Lapal Publications in November 1997. Available price £6.00 plus p+p from the author.
“Fresh, honest, funny and tender, and with John Greaves Smith’s illustrations brimming with life, Heather Wastie’s poetry and tales from behind the music stand will strike a chord not only with musicians, but with anyone who has a heart.
Christopher Morley, Birmingham Post
“ … a collection of well-observed, witty and excellently illustrated poems and notes transcribed from life as a professional musician, a book clearly demonstrating that it is music makes the word go round.”
Dave Reeves, Editor, Raw Edge Magazine
Review of UNTIL I SAW YOUR FOOT, The Recorder Magazine, March 1998
In the Recorder Magazine of September 1994 was published Heather Wastie's amusing poem "Until I Saw Your Foot". It now opens and gives its title to a collection of poems and musical tales by a musician well-known in the recorder world.
Within the poems there is whimsy ("The vacuum-cleaner tuner") pathos ("Singer on the line" - a lady jazz singer expects that her big break is always just round the corner) and much humour. Heather seems to be able to bring a touch of sanity to the everyday things that fill our lives (bitten fingernails, bumps in the car, visiting the dentist or slugs in the garden) by committing them to wryly observed verse.
The poems are interspersed with some of the comments and stories that Heather has collected during her musical instruction both to children and adults. The recorder features often and there is much to relate to here also.
Throughout the collection John Greaves Smith's lively drawings complement and capture the mood of the poetry ideally.
This book contains Heather Wastie's first published collection of poems, but as a winner of a number of poetry prizes, including the first prize in the Poetry Digest 1996 Love Poetry Competition, it is hoped that others will soon follow.
The appeal of Heather's poetry is wide, not only to those who are musical, but to all of us who see the humour in simply getting on with our lives - much to enjoy.
JANUS
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Winning poem,
Ina Carlyle Love Poetry Competition 1996:
Last Kiss
Did you feel the kiss
of my hand
on yours
Did you hold it in your fingertips
and plant it like a seed
in the welcoming earth
Did you fold it in your bosom
like a child
wrapping it with your slender body
Did you wear it like a ring
on your white finger
smiling down at its shining beauty
Did it light your way
in the darkness
and warm you like a glowing hearth
Somewhere in the distance
did I catch the last spark
of your life and hold it
for an instant
and did you feel the kiss
of my hand?
© Heather Wastie
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Butterfly voices
For want of a voice
a note was lost.
For want of a note
a tune was lost.
For want of a tune
a song was lost.
For want of a song
a voice was lost.
© Heather Wastie
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Black Country Reminiscences
Heather is editor of two books of reminiscences, Any Road Up, memories of life in Tipton, for Murray Hall Community Trust and The Bit Between the Lanes, for the Lyng History Project, West Bromwich.
She also recorded and compiled reminiscences for The Black Country Museum's Thos Trevis Smith Cooperage Project.
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