'Remembrance 100' and 'With Remembrance in MIND'

I have been running and judging a poetry competition in and for my local community as part of the programme of 'Remembrance 100' events in our church to mark the centenary of Armistice Day. The image above forms part of the cover of our competition pamphlet of poems. I have added a blue border to this screen image as, not surprisingly, white failed to show up on white!

The winners have been announced, and I am greatly looking forward to our Prize-giving Reading later this month.  

I shall be at a different church tomorrow evening, reading my Christmas Truce poem from Towards the light (Kapaju Books, 2018) ...

Poetry in Aldeburgh, 2018

I can hardly believe how quickly Poetry in Aldeburgh has come and gone this year. The weather was largely bright and fresh, and I'm guessing more poets braced the icy waters of the North Sea than on previous years, though I only actually saw one swimmer emerging over the shingle bank as I savoured my chips. 

I attended two workshops. They were both excellent, but very different from one another. My Friday workshop was led by Helena Nelson of HappenStance Press, and concerned the 'Ps' of having poetry published. My Saturday one, led by Pascale Petit, encouraged us to venture out of our comfort zones into the world of 'wild' and 'dangerous' writing.

So what did I buy during the weekend? Well, I was fairly restrained this year, having made a number of poetry purchases recently; but two volumes I could not resist were Mama Amazonica by Pascale Petit (having attended her 'wild' workshop) and a secondhand copy of The Trumpet and Other Poems by Edward Thomas. I added Kathleen Jamie's Collected Poems to my wishlist, perhaps with Christmas in mind, though I doubt I will feel I want to wait that long...

There is always a buzz in Aldeburgh during the days of the Festival, and it is always good to meet up with friends and to make new ones. The task now is to return to my notebook and attempt to tidy up those workshop drafts...