Something for everyone ...

It's hard to believe that it's twelve months since I wrote about last year's Ledbury Festival - how the time whips past. But Saturday saw me back in the small Herefordshire town that is now synonymous with poetry and it proved a great day. I had gone primarily to hear the actress Juliet Stevenson reading Emily Dickinson's poetry, interspersed with Mark Fisher's narration of the poet's life story, and for Simon Armitage's session on "Walking Away", the prose and poetry account of his walk along the South West Coastal Path. But so much else was going on, much of it free to attend, and all of it thoroughly enjoyable.

The doctor will see you now ...

On the corner of High Street and Church Lane sat a retired ambulance from which the "Emergency Poet" Derborah Alma dispensed poems and wisdom. Her display was stocked with "medication" for most "ailments" you could think of and everyone was invited to try a therapy. The agony of decision - should I take an antidote to the strenuous life? A pill for unrequited love? Should I try "poetry viagra"? In the end I concluded that I needed something for reassurance and, in the large blue capsule I had to "take" I found inscribed the following message:

"You're alive. That means you have infinite potential.

You can do anything, make anything, dream anything.

If you change the world, the world will change"
Neil Gaiman

Now, who lives in this one?

Over a picnic lunch in the Walled Garden next to the church I noticed a lot of small children excitedly running around looking under plants, behind trees and benches - all part of the Fairy Door Trail. I hadn't known that a troupe of poetry fairies had set up home in enchanted dwellings with lines of poetry on their doors! The race was on the piece their poem together - or to write a magical poem for uploading on the Festival website. Great excitement all round.

It had been a very busy week and the day was just what I needed to relax. Unfortunately I shalln't be able to make any more of the events on the Festival - but do check out their programme (www.poetry-festival.co.uk) if you can be in the area over the next week. Workshops on "How to Get Your Poetry Published", presentation of the National Poetry Competition prize, sessions on Yeates, poetry and belief, Philip Larkin, Desert Island Poems, local groups giving readings - there really is something to suit all tastes. And the surroundings are delightful - especially if this lovely weather holds, and, if not, there's no shortage of pubs, tea shops and cafes!