{"id":244277,"date":"2019-12-28T01:35:38","date_gmt":"2019-12-28T01:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spiralbound.online\/?p=244277"},"modified":"2019-12-28T01:38:02","modified_gmt":"2019-12-28T01:38:02","slug":"forgot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/susakpress.com\/spiralbound\/forgot\/","title":{"rendered":"I Forgot To Tell You I Really Enjoyed That Sandwich"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">by\u00a0Martin Gayford<\/span><\/p>\n<p>=&gt; [concrete \/ shape poetics]<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 1px solid #777;\" src=\"https:\/\/indd.adobe.com\/embed\/18bcde84-f8e3-4949-a747-b3d9ae18012f?startpage=1&amp;allowFullscreen=true\" width=\"1100px\" height=\"500px\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h6>Martin Gayford\u2019s \u201cevocative, compelling and direct\u201d collection of poems<br \/>\n\u2018<em><strong>I Forgot To Tell You, I Really\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><em><strong>Enjoyed That Sandwich<\/strong><\/em>\u2019<br \/>\nwas published in July 2015 by <strong>Spiralbound \/ Susakpress<\/strong>.<br \/>\nMartin agreed to discuss\u00a0the book with Alex Norris, a comedic artist<br \/>\nwho has known Martin since 1984. The interview was conducted\u00a0by text<br \/>\nover 2 days following the launch at <strong>Studio1.1<\/strong> in London, July 2015.<\/h6>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>Alex Norris:<\/strong> Did you use your logbooks (diaries of everyday events) when writing \u2018I Forgot To Tell You, I<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Really Enjoyed That Sandwich\u2019?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Martin Gayford:<\/strong> No, I used various sources as starting points and expanded on some; others I kept more or<\/p>\n<p>less as they were. Quite a few were written as mini stories, starting as one line and developing my own lines<\/p>\n<p>of dialogue. Lots of references and dialogue are real, some lines taken from text messages or recordings.<\/p>\n<p>How Was The Test consists mostly of texts between my mum and I (mostly mine). Things like the doughnut<\/p>\n<p>and the dog dialogues are developed from things I overheard in public.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> Who is being thanked for the sandwich?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> That was a text from my mum.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> How much is about Bon (Martin\u2019s mother)?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> I was almost compulsively recording memories after she died suddenly in 2012, in case I\u2019d forget them.<\/p>\n<p>I compiled them into a collection of ideas later and only began thinking of them as poems after John and<\/p>\n<p>Daniel (of Spiralbound \/ Susakpress ) approached me about making the book. Initially, I wasn&#8217;t thinking about<\/p>\n<p>writing anything publishable.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> Why aren\u2019t there any images in the book?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> At one point we considered including a selection of the images I\u2019ve collected for paintings. As time went<\/p>\n<p>on though, the poems took centre stage. I\u2019m making a book of the images with no text at some point soon.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> Are you quoting Ivor Cutler in Shortly Before Or After?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> Not consciously, but I\u2019ve just checked and it is Ivor. It was written as reference to the version of I\u2019m<\/p>\n<p>Going In A Field\u00a0 by the folksinger Nic Jones; I had forgotten Ivor wrote it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> Who poured coffee on the dog?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> It was something I overheard at a Farmer\u2019s Market. I made my own version of what might have<\/p>\n<p>happened.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> Why \u2018yurself\u2019 in Look After Yurself?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> That\u2019s how my mum texted it.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> Why are there at least two references to The Cure?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> That\u2019s a coincidence. One is to do with writing a song for our band; the other is describing a trip we had<\/p>\n<p>to Bath, where I bought \u2018Standing By The Sea\u2019. Is that the name? I think it had just come out.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> I think so. When did I collect the ketchup?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> I think you went to get it from my mum\u2019s house because we didn\u2019t have any, or it could have been when<\/p>\n<p>she cooked lamb for us and you and Samuel asked for some. Sorry I can\u2019t be more precise about that.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> Which comic annuals are being read in \u2018A Pale Building On The Corner\u2019?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> A Flemish series called Suske en Wiske , who I think were crime fighting kids.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> How much of the book relates to Lynn?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> I think she\u2019s quietly present throughout, but there aren\u2019t many direct references to her.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> Why David Lynch?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> I love his films and was reading a lot about him at the time.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> \u2018Missing a Person\u2019 obviously relates to the time we looked for the location of the adult cinema in \u2018An<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">American Werewolf In London\u2019, but is the first part of the poem connected to that?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> The \u2018Werewolf\u2019\u00a0 part is related only in that I had started writing the first section of the poem earlier, on the<\/p>\n<p>day we went looking for those locations.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> Were you tempted to slip in an Ed quote?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> I think Ed quotes would have broken the mood. They deserve a publication in their own right.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> Are there any poems you regret including?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> No.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> Is \u2018Not Allowed Phones At Lunch\u2019 about school?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> No, it\u2019s about a hospital recovery unit.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> Which is the most personal poem?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> Probably \u2018Sat And Held Shoulders\u2019 , as it describes the morning I found my mum in the midst of a brain<\/p>\n<p>hemorrhage.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> How does the writing relate to your painting?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> I often approach painting with similar ideas about memory, nostalgia and a simple, poignant mood.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> If you could only publish one, which would you choose?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> Maybe the first one, \u2018I Can Come Over tonight\u2019 .<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> Thinking about \u2018Sat And Held Shoulders\u2019, \u2018Death Disco\u2019 by PIL deals with similar themes. John Lydon<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">has said he sometimes finds it hard to perform as he was so close to his mother.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> Can you send me the lyrics?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> Seeing in your eyes<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Seeing in your eyes<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Words can never say the way<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Told me in your eyes<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Final in a fade<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Never no more hope away<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Final in a fade<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Seeing in your eyes<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Seeing in your eyes<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Never really know<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Never realise<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Silence in your eyes<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Silence in your eyes<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Never really know<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Till it\u2019s gone away<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Never realise<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">The silence in your eyes<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Seen it in your eyes<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Seen it in your eyes<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Never no more hope away<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Final in a fade<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Watch her slowly die<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Saw it in her eyes<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Choking on a bed<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Flowers rotting dead<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Seen it in her eyes<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Ending in a day<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Silence was a way<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Seeing in your eyes<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Seeing in your eyes<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Seeing in your eyes<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">I\u2019m seeing through my eyes<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Words cannot express<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Words cannot express<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">Words cannot exp\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> It makes a great poem. Some of those lines could have been in mine. Do you have the album?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> Yes. It\u2019s not nearly as accessible as \u2018Rise\u2019; a lot of it is abstract, scratchy dub.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> Sound good. Do you have \u2018Rise\u2019?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> Yes, it\u2019s one of my favourite albums. Should I ask more questions?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> Ask as many as you like. I think it\u2019s going really well.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> Did you surprise yourself with the writing?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> No, but I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve written dialogue like this before. Maybe that\u2019s a bit surprising.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> What do you want the audience to take away with them?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> To connect with certain pieces in a meaningful way; for the poems have a life outside of their<\/p>\n<p>relationship with me.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> Why is communication through poetry important to you?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> I like reading other people\u2019s poetry and that\u2019s important to me. It seems to be a suitable medium for the<\/p>\n<p>material.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> What conditions help the writing process?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> Peace and quiet, being alone. No deadlines. Memory is a useful starting point; memories of<\/p>\n<p>conversations, and I can focus on things like that when I\u2019m by myself.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> Where do you write?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> Anywhere I have a pen, laptop, on my phone if I don\u2019t have anything else. I\u2019ve always written here and<\/p>\n<p>there, in notebooks and journals.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> How important is humour in the work?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> It\u2019s very important.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">AN: What\u2019s the relationship between your spoken and written voices?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> I tend to speak with pauses, or stops and starts. I seemed to be doing that in the writing to some extent,<\/p>\n<p>so I made that element more explicit in some passages in the way I divided lines up.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> How important is \u2018meaning\u2019 in the work?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> I think I often rely on the response of readers to enlighten me.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><strong>AN:<\/strong> Are you into food?<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>MG:<\/strong> Very much so.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #808080;\"><em><strong>Alex Norris &amp; Martin Gayford 2015<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/susakpress.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/sp_DSC00990.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-5012\" src=\"http:\/\/susakpress.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/sp_DSC00990.jpg\" alt=\"sp_DSC00990\" width=\"707\" height=\"1000\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3286\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3286\" style=\"width: 366px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/susakpress.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Martin-Gayford-7.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3286 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/susakpress.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Martin-Gayford-7.jpg\" alt=\"Martin Gayford\" width=\"366\" height=\"500\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3286\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">I Forgot To Tell You, I Really Enjoyed That Sandwich<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3457\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3457\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/susakpress.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/dan.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3457 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/susakpress.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/dan-300x230.jpg\" alt=\"dan\" width=\"300\" height=\"230\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3457\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">meeting in Nunhead<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by\u00a0Martin Gayford =&gt; [concrete \/ shape poetics] &nbsp; &nbsp; Martin Gayford\u2019s \u201cevocative, compelling and direct\u201d collection of poems \u2018I Forgot To Tell You,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":192,"featured_media":244280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[528,526,524],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-spiralbound-art","category-spiralbound"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susakpress.com\/spiralbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susakpress.com\/spiralbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susakpress.com\/spiralbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susakpress.com\/spiralbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/192"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susakpress.com\/spiralbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244277"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/susakpress.com\/spiralbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244279,"href":"https:\/\/susakpress.com\/spiralbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244277\/revisions\/244279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susakpress.com\/spiralbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susakpress.com\/spiralbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susakpress.com\/spiralbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susakpress.com\/spiralbound\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}