Readings in the rain

After a busy and at times rather difficult week following a family bereavement, I was really looking forward to the Ways to Peace Festival at Tintern Abbey at the weekend. And the event itself didn't disappoint - though the weather certainly did! If you know the Abbey ruins - where, as the custodian put it, "the sky is our roof" - you'll understand why Saturday's torrential rain made for a less than ideal setting for readings and meditations.

Friday evening, however, which started the Festival off with a "music for peace" event, saw a lovely sunset and a dramatic night sky. It was tremendously atmospheric sitting in the nave listening to the sublime music of Sir Karl Jenkins "The Armed Man" sung by Cor Caerdydd and the contributions of two quite magical women on harp and violin.

And at the Saturday event, despite the awful wind and downpours, it was very inspiring and very moving to hear the many ways in which local writers - their ages ranging from 13 to well into the 90s - had interpreted the "Ways to Peace" theme. Peace between nations, peace with the environment, inner peace - poems and prose reflections took us to many places and many times. A young woman reader, a Palestinian refugee who had grown up in camps in Syria, knew only too well the effects of strife. Her peace poems in particular moved me to tears; both she and they have stayed with me and will stay with me for a long while yet.