The Poetic Lens, with Gordon Meade

For this episode we had the honour of hosting the wonderful poet, Gordon Meade. We were thrilled Gordon reached out to us for a collaboration! Gordon is a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow and the author of numerous books, including Singing Seals, The Private Zoo, and most recently, Zoospeak which features the photography work of Canadian photojournalist and animal activist Jo-Anne McArthur. Gordon also delivers creative writing courses to vulnerable young people in a variety of settings. We talk about Zoospeak, Gordon’s newest project called Exposed Animal Elegies, and how his life led him to speaking for animals through poetry. Gordon also kindly read three of the poems from Zoospeak, offering us the opportunity to hear them as they were meant to be heard. 3:46 Brown Bear, Germany, 2008 - p26 8:49 Macaque, Laos, 2011 - p52 18:48 Lynx, Denmark, 2016 - p94 We highly recommend viewing the video format for this episode so that you can experience the vivid imagery of Jo-Anne McArthur’s photographs alongside Gordon’s words. You can also find a link to the book *Zoospeak: Poems and Photography* below. Meet the episode hosts: Tiamat Warda - www.tiamatwarda.com | @TiamatWarda Rebecca Madrid - www.rebecca-madrid.com | @RebeccaLMadrid   https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poet/gordon-meade https://joannemcarthur.com https://weanimalsmedia.org  Gordon’s work: - *Zoospeak: Poems and Photography* (Enthusiastic Press, 2020) ISBN 1916113044 https://www.enthusiasticpress.co.uk/post/zoospeak - *The Private Zoo* (Arrowhead Press, 2008) ISBN 1904852106 - *The Singing Seals* (Chapman Publishing, 1991) ISBN 0906772338