The Poetry Society Annual Lecture by Rita Dove - and other Poetic Events

It has certainly been a poetic few days!

I was in London last night, listening to Rita Dove as she delivered The Poetry Society Lecture for 2015. Rita served as Poet Laureate of the United States and Consultant to the Library of Congress from 1993 to 1995 and as Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2004 to 2006.

'How does a shadow shine?' ... such an evocative title

Rita Dove preparing to begin at King's College, London, 13 October 2015

Taking questions at the end, helped by Judith Palmer

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Last weekend included a lunch event at The Wentworth Hotel in Aldeburgh to celebrate the 2015 winners of The Crabbe Memorial Poetry Competition organised by the Suffolk Poetry Society. Here are the winning poets, with Caroline Gilfillan taking First Prize. Robert Seatter was the judge.

Overall Winner, Caroline Gilfillan with the Rose Bowl; Robert Seatter on the right

In addition to a lovely lunch, we were treated to a reading of the winning poems. Robert Seatter also read us a poem from each of his three collections.

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Some days ago I attended a stimulating poetry workshop led by Gregory Warren Wilson on the theme of Textiles. I came away with work to polish and at least one poem still to write, though it just might be the beginning of a series.

I took a piece of my Scottish family tartan to the workshop as a prompt. I saw more tartan and other Scottish items yesterday at the current exhibition at the British Museum on the 'Celts - Art and Identity'. I was excited, but not surprised, to find displays relating to the poetry of 'Ossian', linked, of course, to James Macpherson (1736–1796), who came from the same Kingussie area of Scotland as my ancestors. You may well have read in the press about the recent discovery of the Kingussie time capsule, dating from a century later.

The remains of Ruthven Barracks (built from 1719), edge of Kingussie

And finally, working back in time to National Poetry Day, I had a Haiku on the theme of 'Light' in the Paper Swans online presentation, which you can watch and read here.  

• Current reading: The Face of It by R.F. Langley (Carcanet).

Stanza Bonanza ~ Suffolk Poetry Society and Poetry Swindon

Arriving at the Poetry Cafe - with Elizabeth Bracken

Six poet members of the Suffolk Poetry Society were invited to take on a team from Poetry Swindon at the Poetry Society's monthly Stanza Bonanza. Paul McGrane from The Poetry Society was our host. Maurice Spillane (Poetry Swindon) and David Gill (SPS) acted as MCs for the teams. 

Reading my set, largely from The Holy Place

Team Swindon and Team Suffolk

Back: Maurice Spillane (Poetry Swindon poet and MC)
Middle: Kate Foley (SPS), Elizabeth Bracken (SPS), Hilda Sheehan (Poetry Swindon), me (SPS), Cristina Newton (Poetry Swindon), Sam Loveless (Poetry Swindon), Louise Crossley (Poetry Swindon)
Front: Florence Cox (SPS), George Morehead (Poetry Swindon) and Cro Page (SPS)

SPS Reserve poet: Sue Wallace-Shaddad

... with Paul McGrane, host and organiser from The Poetry Society

David Gill, MC for Suffolk Poetry Society

Maurice Spillane, MC for Poetry Swindon

Thank you, Paul and The Poetry Society, for a riveting evening!

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• Previous post: Poetry in the Realms of Gold at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace
• Wild and Wonderful Wildlife blog: Margaret Atwood at The Norfolk Festival of Nature

A Poetry Evening at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace

MUCH have I travelled in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen ...

'On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer'
John Keats (1795–1821)

The Poetry Society laid on a glittering event, In the Realms of Gold, in The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace last week. We were given the opportunity of hearing Forward Prize-winner and Next Generation Poet, Kei Miller, and his supporting cast of Poetry Society poets whose work on the theme of 'gold' had been selected by Kei.

We enjoyed a private view of the Gallery's current exhibitions, Gold and Cairo to Constantinople. I had spent a birthday book token on Kei's latest collection, The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion (Carcanet 2014), so was familiar with the poems 'on the page', but it is always fascinating to hear the same poems 'from the stage'. You can read Carrie Etter's Guardian review of the book here.