Martin: I had originally wondered if Jason and my common place might be the Midlands, what with him coming from Wolverhampton and me from Nottingham, and we did explore that idea of being from the middle of the country in our first conversation. But, as conversations do, the idea took us somewhere else. For me, the Midlands is about being somewhere liminal, neither the North or the South, and as it happens, Jason's preoccupation creatively at the time we first spoke was  with beaches, a pure liminal space, between land and sea. We'd found our common place, and we then doubled down on it by thinking of twilight, the junction of night and day. 

 

It was Jason's brilliant idea to make a virtue out of the lockdown by physically sending each other work in the post, and my working space became surrounded with scrolled early prints of his, and his studio had my hand written drafts and notes pinned up on his wall. It was a wonderful way to communicate, simultaneously old school but also fit for the contemporary moment as well. 

 

What we're left with is a poem and artwork we're both happy with and that has arisen directly from collaboration - the process was the parent to the output. 

 

 

Samdyha, by Martin Lee

 

This is rare thrill.

 

To watch this sky

   cleave light and dark -

      the eternal skirmish

         that always goes to night.

 

Meanwhile feet are

   sucked, pulled down,

      mould and moulded

         by sly sand.

 

Incoming fresh wave

  dapple of whites and greys

      full of belief, but,

         surprised by land,

            retreats.

 

I am the twilight beach,

   slipping between

     implacable rock,

        insistent sea.

 

Being that border.