End of term

The Poetry Cafe from LondonTown.com

It feels like there is a school’s out atmosphere this week with children being let loose for the summer. Yesterday evening I went to the last session of advanced poetry workshops with Katy Evans-Bush. These are held in a room above the poetry café in Covent Garden once a fortnight and provide for me a chance to escape to London for an evening of poetry. More important it is the chance to share work (and poetry gossip) with a group of other poets who are all writing excellent poems. I have learned so much over the last couple of years about what works and what doesn’t work in a poem.

The evening begins with a catch up of what is happening in our poetry worlds, which books we’re reading (I shall revisit Jean Sprackland’s earlier collections after last night) and then it is on to the critiques. It is a small group so we know each other’s styles of writing well now. There is such a level of trust within the group that people are willing to bring along first-ish drafts that are still a little rough around the edges or one of those poems that is at the stage of development where you can no longer see the wood for the trees and need an external eye. I’ve come to enjoy hearing and discussing the others’ poems as much as receiving feedback on mine.

I can’t wait until September when the workshop will start again. If anyone reading this would like to join you’re welcome to contact Katy Evans-Bush via her website. And one of our group, Sue Johns  is reading with Louder than Liberty on Wednesday 5^th August at the Colour House Theatre,  Watermill Way, Merton SW19 2RD

 

August Poetry Postcard Fest

There is less than a day to go before registration opens for this August's Poetry postcard fest. This involves poets from around the world sending a poetry postcard a day to other poets. It's been happening since 2007 and I discovered it last year and took part for the first time.

I wrote about my experiences last summer. This year I will be better organised and will have bought more than enough cards in advance. Last year although I had more than thirty cards, I found it difficult to get inspired by some of them. I am also going to go with the flow more and not ever write out a poem in advance in my notebook to check it will fit on the back of the card. The point of the exercise is a spontaneous creation of a poem on the spot each day and not writing carefully crafted poems! I will learn to quell the inner editor as mentioned by David Sherwin on his blog.

And I may see if I can find some postcards of seaside donkeys to add to my stash.