Black Night Dylan

   

It seems that the whole world has been celebrating the centenary of Dylan Thomas' birth this week - and this evening sees our own celebration here in Cheltenham, at the Black Night Dylan event at the Playhouse Theatre, beginning at 19.45. Arranged by Anna Saunders, the Director of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival, we have a great line up of poets, some local (such as Angela France and David Clarke), others from further afield (such as Fay Roberts and Charlie Baxter); all will be reading some of Dylan's poetry, some of their own.

No doubt we shall hear many of the most famous lines ("Do not go gentle...", "It was my thirtieth year to heaven ...") but I shall be reading one of my favourite, though undoubtedly less known, children's poems by the great man - "Song of the Mischievous Dog". Do look it up if you don't know it; I always imagine Dylan walking his dog Mably along the beach at Laugharne reciting it to the amusement of his children - it always amuses me! 

Do join us if you're free and in the area - it promises to be a great night.

"Let Us Remember"

There's still time to get your tickets! If you're free on Thursday or Friday evening this week, do join us for the Charlton Kings Community Players production "Let Us Remember", at St. Edwards Performance Hall in Cheltenham - it's a revue featuring poetry and prose, songs and images from the Great War. I'm delighted to be part of the tremendously enthusiastic team engaged in the venture, reading a dramatised account of the part my uncle played in the decoy ships campaign against U boats on the Western Approaches, leading to his death in action in 1917, aged just 21.

This evening sees our dress rehearsal, but here's a sneak preview - some photos taken yesterday evening at the technical. I'm sure you'll find it an interesting- and a moving - evening if you can make it; we'd love to see you there.

 

Keeping the home fires burning ...

Burlington Bertie, aka Vesta Tilley

"We don't want to lose you but we think you ought to go .."

The army dog handler and a VAD

Waiting for the "Wipers Times"

A Joint Effort

I always enjoy taking part in a group project, everyone working towards a common aim but bringing to the venture their individual interests and skills, their different perspectives. Earlier this year the members of Picaresque, my poetry group, visited Cheltenham Museum and Art Gallery; we each selected two items on display as inspiration to write poems. Yesterday morning we met to share the results of the exercise - and what an interesting morning it proved to be.

Several people had chosen paintings or photographs from a visiting exhibition, others had chosen objects - in my case, medieval floor tiles from Hailes Abbey, a Cisterian foundation a few miles outside the town, now in the care of English Heritage. All of the poems were extremely powerful and I found it a revelation to see works of art growing out of other works of art; all in all a fascinating exercise.

 

Ora pro nobis

The coldest hour of the night;

guttering candlelight sidles

Selection of decorated floor tiles

in beneath the yawning arches

as sightless saints gaze down

upon our cowled file,

sentinels to the litany of intercession

prayed with our sandalled feet.

Richard, Earl of Cornwall

Beatrice of Falkenberg

Sanchia of Provence.

Immortalised in fired clay

in footworn shields and coats of arms,

compass to our shuffling steps

(our eyes cast down, obedient to the Rule),

they guide from cell to sanctuary and shrine

to sing the office in their name.

de Warenne

de Peveril

de Ferrers

Polished by pilgrim's knees

in urgent supplication,

smoothed by prostrate penitents

craving absolution -

these symbols with which

the rich bought back their souls

perpetuate their claim

upon our cloistered lives.

Miserere mei, Deus,

secundum magnam misericordiam tuam.*

*“Have mercy upon me, O God, after thy great goodness” - the opening verse from the night office of Matins.

(Copyright Gill Garrett 2014)

Cheltenham Literature Festival

A great evening on Sunday at the Gloucestershire Writers Network event at the Cheltenham Literature Festival. The town is always alive with activity over the ten days of the Festival and the venues - largely in the Town Hall or in marquees in the Montpelier and Imperial Gardens - have a terrific atmosphere.

The Gloucestershire Writers Network event was held in the Drawing Room of the Town Hall and was sold out almost as soon as the public booking opened. The winners of the annual poetry and prose competitions and the runners up are entertained in the Writers Room before the event - where it's all too easy to get delusions of grandeur when you find yourself in the company of nationally, if not internationally, acclaimed authors! But it's the event itself which is really special - having the opportunity to read your work at such a prestigious Festival.

As last year's poetry winner it was my privilege to present the "Poet's Hare" to Sheila Spence, this year's winner (though I must say I was sorry to part company with him - he's been sitting on my desk, a real inspiration, for the last twelve months!). My ex-colleague in Somewhere Else, Iris Lewis, was unable to be there for the evening so I read her winning prose piece, "No Small Thing", on her behalf, before reading my own short story, "The Drop". It was fascinating to hear the variety of pieces that had been inspired by the theme of this year's Festival - "Brave New World". David Clarke, a local poet who was himself a winner at the event two years ago and who had judged this year's poetry section, then rounded off the evening with readings of some of his own work.

Many thanks indeed to Rona Laycock who once again organised both the competition and such a successful, enjoyable event as its culmination!

 

 

 

 

Presenting Sheila with the Poets's Hare