February 2004 Interview: Ian Stephen (1)

Waterlines

Ian Stephen, Stornoway's seafaring poet

Stornoway poet IAN STEPHEN is an artist in residence at this year’s Stanza Poetry festival in St Andrews, where his work will explore poetry and the sea. PETER URPETH caught up with the sailor home – if only temporarily – from the sea

ON A RECENT sea voyage in the mouth of the River Ex and the coastal waters off the English West Country county of Devon, Stornoway poet Ian Stephen sat on the deck of the yacht, busy at his notebook. His friend and fellow sailor, the artist Graham Rich, on whose boat the two were sailing that day in Graham’s home waters, asked the poet what it was he was sketching.

The poet replied that he hadn’t been sketching at all but taking notes.

“Oh,” said the artist with some surprise, “I thought you were sketching because you were looking the way that any visual artist looks when they are sketching something. You were looking at it and then writing, looking again and then writing, looking at the subject just like someone who’s sketching.”

“Now,” says the poet on reflection, “I never really thought about that before Graham made that suggestion but, for example, when you are making a voyage at sea you make a log of the journey and even if it is not a formal log you are noting what time the tide is going to turn and you notice when you’ve passed a marker and how long it’s taken you, so you’re doing that all the time anyway.

“What that’s about is observing, it’s simply observing, and that, of course, is in some ways what art is doing, whether it is visual art or writing.”

And in many ways, given that the chosen themes of this year’s festival are poetry and the sea and poetry and art, it is not at all surprising that Ian Stephen is the poet in residence at this year’s Stanza Poetry Festival in St Andrews.

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Waterlines

Stornoway poet IAN STEPHEN is an artist in residence at this year’s Stanza Poetry festival in St Andrews, where his work will explore poetry and the sea. PETER URPETH caught up with the sailor home – if only temporarily – from the sea

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