Poems in Unusual Places ~ The Plastic Palace, Minsmere

I was reading a post on the Giraffe Head Tree blog about litter on our beaches worldwide when I remembered my photos of The Plastic Palace installation, which is situated between the shore and the bird reserve at Minsmere. We were able to enter the palace, where there was a box containing a book for thoughts, pictures and poems. 

I composed a quick Haiku, which David was kind enough to write in the book for me ... as he could bend down to sit on the seat.

The Plastic Palace has been created under the auspices of the RSPB by Minsmere's Environmental Artist-in-Residence Liz McGowan. It was quite a revelation just how many types of non-degradable plastic wash up on our shores, from a toy camel (quite appropriate for a sandy site) through to detergent bottles and, of course, all those rubber gloves. I think the Wombles would have enjoyed The Plastic Palace as their holiday residence ... and, who knows, they might just have done a little beach-combing and re-creating of their own! 

Calendar Corner: World Poetry Day 2013

A world of poets: the First Swansea International Poetry Festival (2011)

Today

is

 UNESCO World Poetry Day

Many celebratory activities seem to be overflowing into other days of the week, making it a time of celebration for all involved. You may like to read about the UNESCO beginnings of this day by clicking here. For some more up to date poetry news from UNESCO, you can click here and here.

Naturally, not all the activities that go on in the poetry scene are organised by or officially affiliated to UNESCO, although many would represent the same cultural aims. There are many independent events, and I, for one, seem to be having a busy poetic time!

Last night I attended the first of a series of poetry workshops, organised jointly by students at University Campus Suffolk and members of the Suffolk Poetry Society. It was a great opportunity to hear and offer poems in progress and to give and receive feedback.   

I shall be at the Ipswich Poetry Workshop this afternoon in Gainsborough Community Library, where we will be reporting back on the writing-related books we have been considering over the last week. My chosen book is The Bridport Prize 2012: The Winners.

Some of my work (a copy of my chapbook, The Holy Place, co-authored with John Dotson along with an audio mp3 of one of my poems and a hardcopy of the recent multicultural and multilingual Antologia from Orizont Literar Contemporan, Romania) has been selected for inclusion in an Installation created and curated by Antlers Press. The project is called Invisible Architecture, and the Installation, comprising a nomadic and international library of poetry books and audio files, will be up and running from 2pm to 5pm this weekend at The Roundhouse in Camden, London as a continuing celebration of World Poetry Day. Invisible Architecture is 'a library and listening station forging international links and creative collaborations between writers and publishers, swapping stories from around the world as they build their cities through what they say.'

I hope you will be able to engage with some poetic activity. Here are a couple of events ('A' then 'Z'), in the hope that you may feel tempted to look out for something in your corner of the world.

• World Poetry Day in Armenia, where The Writers' Union of Armenia will host recital of Hrachik Tamrazyan’s poems.

• Poets will come together tomorrow (Friday) for Zimbabwe's maiden World Poetry Day commemoration at Book Café. Kundai Marunya reports on this event here.

And did you know that today is also the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimation and the International Day of Forests?

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Postscript ... you might also enjoy

• a feature for World Poetry Day on young poets in India
• Milton Keynes Poet Laureate, Mark Niels, is to visit nine libraries in Milton Keynes, UK
• World Poetry Day in Jamaica 
• Regina Mayor challenges cities to recognize World Poetry Day in Canada