Poets of place

 Charles Bennett

Christopher Somerville

A lovely evening on Sunday - with the Cheltenham Poetry Festival now in full swing, I spent a fascinating hour at The Strand listening to Charles Bennett and Christopher Somerville. Christopher is a travel writer and has worked for both the Telegraph and the Times. His poems took us on a whistlestop tour from Northumberland to Crete via Ireland and Gloucestershire. Charles - who was recently poet in residence with the National Trust at Wicken Fen - described himself as "also a poet of place but a little more static"! His poems were no less magical and conjured up such vivid images of the natural world, so much of it in need of support, sustenance and protection.

And now the end of the month - and therefore of NaPoWriMo! - is only a couple of days away. I still can't quite believe that I shall manage it, but I am now twenty seven poems down with three to go. They are for the most part brief and very much at first draft stage but I hope that several might see the light of day in a wider sphere in the not too distant future. It has certainly proved an interesting challenge.