Poetry, pastries and projects

Unfortunately, life is too busy at the moment to manage more than two days at this year's Ledbury Poetry Festival - a real shame, as there are some great events I would have liked to have got to. But Sunday and Monday both saw really good sessions which I much enjoyed.

Our "Poetry Breakfast" (with some fabulous pastries) saw poets from all over the country and from as far afield as Vermont reading the "hill" poems selected for Ledbury's on-line project begun by Jean Aitken, the "Troubadour of the Hills". The event was held beneath Ledbury's famous black and white Market Hall; although the weather brightened up later, it was an early session and several of us almost lost contact with our toes - we had to repair to a coffee shop afterwards to warm up! Later I went to hear Hannah Swingler reading from her debut collection; although performance poetry is not really my thing, I was very taken with some of her work, especially "Mrs. Tiggy Winkle has fallen off the shelf again", a moving tribute to a grandmother living with dementia. Then it was a "Walking Workshop" with Phoebe Power after lunch, looking at walking and poetry - which definitely is my thing!

I loved this in a shop window display!

Hannah Swingler

As with last year, I really enjoyed yesterday's Community Showcase, with readings from members of several groups covered by Ledbury's poetry outreach programme - older people in residential care, members of "Rose Tinted Rags" (a social enterprise group), Hereford MIND, Segments (a group who work with historical artefacts) and my own Women For Women group. Then it was off to nearby Trumpet (great name for a village, isn't it?!) for an afternoon with The Malvern Writers Circle. It wasn't a group I'd met before but everyone was extremely welcoming and there was a very interesting open mic - to say nothing of the cakes provided by the Trumpet Tearooms! I don't know what it is about food and poetry but there's a definite connection ...