Words

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 Music Limited
to 47 Castle Road, Cookley, Kidderminster DY10 3TE

"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

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

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 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

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.