Poets and poems

And it certainly was better late than never! A thoroughly enjoyable evening, made special by sharing it with Susannah White, our guest poets Rona Laycock and Derek Healy and such an appreciative audience. Many thanks too to Somewhere Else for hosting us - a really good venue with helpful staff and a great atmosphere.

And talking of accomplished poets - I was delighted to get my copy of Belinda Rimmer's new pamphlet today, Holding On (New Walk Editions). It's been such a pleasure to work with Belinda over the last few years in our Women Aloud group. I look forward every month to her contribution to our meetings. The poems in Holding On are about the experience of being female; they encompass not only Belinda's own experiences but those of other women in other times and of "the damaged and the defiant" too as one reviewer puts it. They certainly make for compelling reading. 

Better late than never!

When my collection "Waymarks" came out last December I wrote that there would be a proper launch as soon as restrictions were lifted and life was a little more back to normal. Well, eleven months later it's actually happening! My colleague Susannah White is joining me, launching her collection "Suncatcher", at Somewhere Else in Castle Street in Cirencester at 19.30 next Wednesday, November 10th. The event will be hosted by Derek Healey of Graffiti Books and he and Rona Laycock will also be reading as our guests. Do join us if you're free that evening - it would be lovely to see you there.

National Poetry Day

                               

Where else to spend National Poetry Day? You couldn't beat a walk in Cwmdonkin Park, the childhood playground of Dylan Thomas, the inspiration for some of his most famous words, where "the memories of childhood have no order and no end". I spent most of today in Swansea on the Dylan Thomas Trail, visiting the Dylan Thomas Centre, the park and the house in which he was born. From a very early age I've read and reread his poetry and his prose, listened to his recordings, visited the places with which he was associated. I can never tire of his work - I find more in it at every visit. And on my desk I have a postcard with his photo and words that cheer me immeasurably as I'm struggling with draft after draft of a poem : "I write a poem on innumerable sheets of scrap paper, write on both sides of the paper, often upside down and criss cross ..."

I do hope you've had the chance to take part one way or another in National Poetry Day too - there have been so many nationwide events, in person this year (thank goodness) as well as on line, or perhaps you've been reading some favourite old or some recently found new poems. Which ever - happy National Poetry Day!

Pilgrims and poets

Looking back over the past month the first thing that comes to mind is the old Fleetwood Mac song, "Who knows where the time goes?" Hopefully, as we now settle into autumn, life might slow down a little and some sort of normality return.

At the end of August we spent a lovely week in North Wales that allowed me to achieve a long held ambition - a trip to Ynys Enlli, Bardsey Island, the island of 20,000 saints. I'd recently read Fflur Dafydd's great book of the same name and that had redoubled my determination to visit the tiny island just off the tip of the Llyn Peninsula, the reputed burial place of Merlin, perhaps even the Arthurian Avalon. It's certainly magical, but a brief four hour visit can't possibly do it justice - I'll be back there as soon as I can be. 

"Far beyond the rushing tide ..."

Since getting back there seem to have been wall to wall poetry events - about which I'm certainly not complaining, having missed out on so many over the past eighteen months. One event in particular - although still on Zoom for obvious reasons - was really affirmative. Mike Bernhardt, the editor of Voices of the Grieving Heart, was running a workshop for the American National Association of Poetry Therapy. To hear how valuable therapists have found the book, in which I have some work, was so heartening - to know that poems from one heart can so meaningfully engage with the hearts of others at some very traumatic times.

Another great afternoon was that spent in Ledbury at the Elizabeth Barrett Browning Institute, now home to the Ledbury Poetry Festival. I'd been invited to take part in a project run in conjunction with West Midlands Railways called Poetry on Platforms, a celebration of the lines used by the Dymock Poets a century ago. Along with fellow poets Lesley Ingram from Ledbury, Moya Oatley from East Anglia, Ann Morgan from Ross on Wye and Karen Antoni from Brighton I was filmed reading extracts of Edward Thomas, John Drinkwater and Lascelles Abercrombie's poems. I'm not sure when the film will go live but watch this space.

Poets reading poets

And on Saturday afternoon, after a very long hiatus, Rik Hool's "Poetry Upstairs" resumed in Abergavenny. A new venue - the Trading Post Cafe - welcomed four quite different writers, two performance poets and two "page" poets. I was very taken with the work of Alicia Stubbersfield; she focuses on such mundane, everyday experiences and illuminates them with such insight, especially those based on her extensive teaching experience. I'm very much enjoying her collection "The Yellow Table" at the moment. And of course looking forward to more Saturday afternoons in the coming months - Poetry Upstairs has had a thirty year run so far and certainly isn't running out of steam!

Talking and walking Wales

 It was with some trepidation that I drove up to mid Wales a week ago - after depending on the internet for so long, how would an in-person workshop be once more? Well - it was wonderful. Zoom sessions simply can't replicate the experience of sharing a space with like-minded others, chatting over coffee and lunch, working in concert with one another. And the venue - Farmer's Lavender in the hills above Builth Wells - added to the pleasure of the day, though I admit I didn't take advantage of the natural pool in the grounds for a swim, as did some of the braver souls! But Helena Attlee and Emma Beynon facilitated a very interesting and thought-provoking day and it was fascinating to talk to the other participants about their current life writing projects - such a variety of biographies, travelogues, memoirs.

I was back in mid Wales again at the weekend, to at last complete our Wye Valley Walk. It had been a somewhat protracted one - we started it in 2009 and it's only 136 miles long! For a variety of reasons we had had long gaps in between stints. But finish it we have, covering the last seven and a half miles in intermittent downpours - which might explain why we met no more than a handful of other walkers all day! It's the sort of walking I love though - in spectacular wild country, with history beneath your feet (home to Celts, Plynlimon saw the Romans mining lead, Owain Glyndwr routing the English). No wonder artists and writers down the centuries have taken inspiration there.

Summer reading

It's only the first week of August but already it feels as if autumn is upon us - chilly mornings and the evenings drawing in. I'm often surprised and disappointed by August weather although I know I shouldn't be. The Welsh for July is Mis Gorffennaf - from gorffen, to finish, and haf, summer. So I suppose the dubious weather of August has long been recognised as autumn knocking on the door! But one thing that never disappoints over the summer is having a bit more time - getting back to some (non-research!) reading, seeing friends (which, at last, we can now do), taking stock before getting back into the usual September routine.

I've very much appreciated the opportunity to search out some new authors in the last few weeks and to catch up on my poetry reading. Angela France's new collection Terminarchy came out a few weeks ago with Nine Arches Press and that I have thoroughly enjoyed. She approaches the big questions, the serious issues, with a light touch that so effectively draws the reader into the natural world that is hers and ours; she shows us the urgent need to value and protect that world, she reminds us through her friend Sparrow that "no-one can mend / fractured land, no-one can replant ancient". Reading or hearing her work read always reinforces for me how fortunate we are to have her as mentor to our Women Aloud group; her support, suggestions and always constructive criticism are invaluable. 

 

Talks and walks

So, the Ledbury Poetry Festival has come and gone for another year - but very successful it was too. Next year perhaps normality will resume with more in person events, but a few of those at least took place this time and the on line ones enabled a very wide audience to enjoy some brilliant poetry. I particularly enjoyed the John Challis workshop I was able to participate in on Appearances and Excavations and the Gillian Clarke and Matthew Francis event in which they read from their recent publications. I have always loved the great Welsh Mabinogion stories and Matthew Francis has retold four of these in tremendous poetry; in Gododdin, Gillian Clarke has transformed the ancient accounts of the battle between the Welsh and Picts and the Angles in AD 600  with a hundred laments for named characters who fought. Word music indeed.

It's been back to the drawing board with the biography I'm working on. Following a couple of meetings in the last week or so, even more has come to light that demands space in the story. Two long treks last weekend - at the beginning of the Three Castles Walk - provided useful opportunities for a bit of reflection on things. To say nothing of prompting ideas for some poems too ...