National Poetry Day

Yesterday was National Poetry Day, celebrated nationwide on radio and television, in newspapers and magazines and very much in style at Smokey Joes in Cheltenham. Angela France and Roger Turner headlined our event, preceded by a lively open mic session. Our theme was "Gloucestershire" and poems celebrated the wonderful countryside and the interesting towns with which we are blessed. Naturally my contribution had to be an appreciation of our great river ...

Severn Sunset

We walk with the living and the dead

who strode this slow stretch

at low tide to Evensong's toll

in the sunset shimmering light

of a thousand summers,

and sharp-eyed, long-shanked waders

emerge from sighing reeds

to gorge on the bare expanses

of the river's sandy entrails

as dusk softens the Forest shore

where the hills beyond the hills

fade into the mind of yesterday.

(Copyright Gill Garrett 2014)

Frankie March at the open mic