Poetry Wivenhoe Reading - Come and Join Us!

My thanks to Poetry Wivenhoe for this invitation. I shall be reading from The Holy Place (with a few other poems thrown in). Do come and join us if you are in the area.

• Poetry Wivenhoe
• Martin Malone, editor of The Interpreter's House
• The Seventh Quarry Press (Peter Thabit Jones, Swansea publisher of my chapbook, The Holy Place)
• Cross-Cultural Communications, New York (The Holy Place was published in conjunction with this NY publishing house)
• John Dotson, co-author of The Holy Place

21 March: Celebrate World Poetry Day

Happy World Poetry Day

21 March 2015

Dylan Thomas Boat House, Laugharne, Wales

"As a deep expression of the human mind and as a universal art, 
poetry is a tool for dialogue and rapprochement. 
The dissemination of poetry helps to promote dialogue among cultures 
and understanding between peoples because it gives access 
to the authentic expression of a language."

 Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO,  

Message for World Poetry Day

A decision to proclaim 21 March as World Poetry Day 
was adopted during UNESCO’s 30th session held in Paris in 1999. 

• An article on the wonders of Children's Poetry from Australia can be found here. A day after our solar eclipse, my chosen article includes a wonderful quotation of Valéry via Sartre. The article is written by Damon Young and comes from The Sydney Morning Herald.

• An article from the USA by Jane Hirshfield on restoring amazement in Poetry can be found here. 

• And finally, is your poem worth a cup of coffee? See what The Guardian has to say about the World Poetry Day initiative here.

RSPB - a poem in: a poem out

This is not a good photo, I'm afraid, but Waxwings are hard to find this year!

I have donated a hand written copy of my Waxwing poem, 'Red Letter Day, Lattice Avenue', to the RSPB in the hope that they may be able to sell it and raise some funds for wildlife. My poem was first published in 2014 in Reach Poetry (Indigo Dreams Publishing).

By the same token, we bought a hand written copy of Professor David Morley's poem about Goldcrests. I am looking forward to its arrival from the RSPB. The Society had a file of bird poems (well, wildlife in general, but mainly birds) at the Norfolk Festival of Nature. Matt Howard, RSPB Eastern Region Community Fundraiser has been coordinating the venture. Poets who have donated work include Matt Merritt, Kathleen Jamie and Heidi Williamson. Wendy Cope had given a Haiku, which I expect will find a home before long.

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!

*

• 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. 

'Poems for a Liminal Age'

My poem, 'Weddell Seal at the Ice Edge' has been accepted for a new anthology, Poems for a Liminal Age. The book will be edited by Mandy Pannett and published by SPM Publications (Sentinel Poetry Movement). Profits will support Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

• Weddell Seals (National Geographic)
• James Weddell, Antarctic explorer

Assynt Poem in Reach Poetry

 Fin Whale's jawbone

My poem, 'Notes from the Netting Station', has just been published in the February issue of Reach Poetry. The inspiration came from the windswept beach at Clachtoll in Assynt in the north of Scotland, where there is a salmon bothy dating from 1846, and a netting station. Clachtoll was once a crofting township, with a large population of sheep. The abandoned netting station is strange place. Salmon fishing was carried out in the past by a process known as 'bag-netting'. The netted fish were kept cool in a nearby ice house. A jawbone and part of the skull of a Fin Whale can be seen outside the bothy, and it was the sad sight of these 'bare bones' that sparked my poem.

The beach at Clachtoll (Clach = rock; toll = hole)

Net-drying Poles at Clachtoll for bag-net fishing

The Netting Station (complete with large drops of Assynt rain!)