Remembering - a little early

Next Thursday (October 2nd) is National Poetry Day and the theme this year is "Remember". Perhaps I got a bit ahead of myself  on Wednesday evening at the Cheltenham Poetry Cafe, as my guest readings there were based on a series of poems I've written entitled "Bones Of An Older Landscape" - the inspiration for which came from people, events and places recalled from my past. But if you're interested in being part of National Poetry Day, do go to the website - lots of information on events and (brilliant if you're a teacher!) downloadable material you can use for a class.

At Smokey Joes on Wednesday

Back in action

A long gap since the last post - largely as life (and the minutiae accompanying it!) got the better of me for a couple of weeks. But I have just returned, refreshed, from a fantasic week on home territory again, South Wales this time, in the Vale of Glamorgan.

The week was a mixture of coastal path walking, in beautiful sunshine, and pursuing family history - very successfully - "up the Valleys". But I couldn't miss out on the obligatory pilgrimage to Laugharne in this centenary year of Dylan Thomas - to the Boathouse, his writing shed, his usual watering hole, his graveside.... Not my first visit to the town by any means but a fascinating day. On October 29th I shall be reading at a Dylan Thomas tribute evening at the Playhouse here in Cheltenham and it was good to get my shot in the arm in readiness!

         

"Do not go gentle into that good night ..."

       

The Boathouse and the bay

As always, there's no end to catch up on after getting back from time away but the first thing on the agenda is the Poetry Cafe at Smokey Joes in Bennington Street in Cheltenham tomorrow, 5 -7pm, at which I'll be the guest poet. The Cafe takes place once a month and is a pleasant, relaxed setting in which to hear other's poetry and to read your own - if you're free, do come and join us.

Warwick Festival of Writing

Unleashing our writing power with Judi Goodwin!

A big thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make last weekend's Festival of Writing such an enjoyable experience. The facilities at Warwick University are excellent and it made a good, central venue for the National Association of Writers' Groups annual conference. Even the weather perked up and I'm sure a good time was had by all.

Highlights for me were the talk given by Steve Bowkett, the workshops run by the poet Maggie Harris and "Tales from the Wireless" by the wonderful Paul Dodgson - he's been my favourite tutor on three Ty Newydd courses in the past and it was great to see him again. Steve - a hypnotherapist, teacher and writer - entitled his presentation "Boosting Self-Confidence For Writers" and it certainly boosted mine. Maggie's second session, "Love, Sex and Other Serious Stuff in Poetry" attracted a very appreciative audience and some of the poems generated by the workshop were amazing. A thoroughly worthwhile couple of days.

Paul Dodgson

 

Maggie Harris

Steve Bowkett

A Welsh Poetic Hero

A lovely few days last week visiting North Wales with my daughter; it's a part of the world where I feel completely at home (although a South Walean by birth) and tremendously inspired by the fantastic scenery and the welcome that is always accorded. This visit was special in that it included a morning at the cottage of the Welsh poet Hedd Wynn (Ellis Humphrey Evans), where we were enertained by his nephew Gerald, a delightful 85 year old who lived there alone - without the benefit of electricity or any other modern convenience - until a couple of years ago.

The parlour of the cottage contains the six bardic chairs won by Hedd Wynn at eisteddfodau at the beginning of the last century. The story of the most prestigious, that from the 1917 National Eisteddfod, is a sad one. At the chairing of the bard ceremony the winning poem was announced as Yr Arwr ("The Hero"), written under the nom-de-plume Fleur-de-Lis, and the winner was asked to come forward; no one came to claim the prize. For it had been written by Hedd Wyn, who had been killed at Passchendaele six weeks beforehand. The chair was draped in black and the Archdruid spoke of "the festival in tears and the poet in his grave". He had been thirty years old and at the peak of his creative genius.

"The harps to which we sang are hung / on willow boughs, and their refrain is / drowned by the anguish of the young / whose blood is mingled with the rain" War by Hedd Wynn

Update on the Unknown Soldier project

Further to my blog entry below - over twenty one and and half thousand letters were sent to the Unknown Soldier before the closing date of August 4th (the centenary of World War One's outbreak). So many different, thought-provoking messages - stories (true and imaginary), poems, memories of those who fought at the front and those who served on the home front, many written in the form of letters from wives, sweethearts, children. They make hugely affecting reading - do look at the website, they'll be displayed there until the centenary of the war's end in 1918, after which they will be preserved in the British Library.

Brave New World

... the theme of this year's Cheltenham Literature Festival, the complete programme for which is revealed today. I shall be scanning the pages and no doubt signing up for a lot when the booking opens later this month. A definite though will be the Gloucestershire Writers Network event on the evening of Sunday October 5th. The results of this year's competition (based on the Festival's theme) were announced this week. Iris Lewis, an ex-colleague from Somewhere Else, has won in the short story category with her superb story "No Small Thing" and my colleague Derek Healey from Catchword was a runner up in the poetry section. I was also a runner-up with my short story "The Drop", so will be reading at the Festival event. Last year's GWN evening proved a great, really exciting experience so I'm delighted to be taking part again.

Can't guarantee such super weather but can guarantee a terrific Festival!

Dear Alfred ........

... or Frank, Jack, Wilfred .... I have belatedly come across the national project to write a letter to the Unknown Soldier whose statue graces platform one at Paddington Station. The letters, of which there will probably be many thousands, are to form a written war memorial which will appear online. Submissions already received and posted make thought-provoking reading at :

www.1418now.org.uk/letter/

Reading the letter

I have passed by the statue on many occasions but have only occasionally given it any thought. A good opportunity now to reflect for a while in a more concerted fashion and put pen to paper - as that soldier's wife or sweetheart, mother or sister perhaps? Or as myself now, in the 21st century, looking back at what we have made of the world he fought and may have died for? Not much time I'm afraid - submissions close on August 4th - but do take a look at the website and maybe add to the soldier's postbag with a letter of your own.