Glasgow School of Art at Sunset

I went to hear Alastair Cook do a Filmpoem masterclass tonight at the CCA in Glasgow tonight.
I took this picture of Glasgow School of Art - the building Alastair described as 'the old girl' - after his talk.
I first heard about Filmpoem from Alastair when I began working with the Absent Voices community project in Greenock.
Alastair is one of eight artists working on Absent Voices, which is telling the story of Greenock's once mighty sugar industry using the historic sugar sheds as the narrative trigger.
Alastair is a man of many talents. Filmpoem is just one of the strings to his artistic bow but it's one which I'm fascinated by.
He showed several short Filmpoems, which are exactly what the title suggests; filmed poems, usually - but not always - narrated by a poet. It's a simple format and it works.
Scotland's Makar, or national poet, Liz Lochhead was there and she's very interested in the whole concept.
I love Liz's work. It's so honest. She was one of the first poets I read who I felt was saying something which related to my life. This week, I've been re-reading the poem she wrote about artist, Lys Hansen.
I was saying to her afterwards that I'd love to see Filmpoems on her poems about artists. She's also written about George Wyllie, Michael Marra and Jacki Parry. A seed sowed...
Both Alastair and Liz attended Glasgow School of Art. They both looked very wistful as they stared at this view of 'the old girl'.