Next meeting 5 June

At our next meeting, on Monday, 5th June, we have the great pleasure of welcoming Rosie Jackson once again. King’s Head, Wells High Street, 7pm in the upper room. Rosie will be reading from her recently published collection Love Leans Over the Table. ‘She is a rare poet of transcendence who expresses the inexplicable with grace.’  – Bel Mooney.

‘The Boisterous Sobbings of Margery Kempe’ (included in this collection) has been commended in the 2022 National Poetry Competition. An amazing accolade given that there were 17,000 entries.

From the judges: “A striking evocation of the mind of a medieval mystic, a kind of apologia full of passion and compassion, culminating in the revelation that ‘God is not a noun, but a verb…’”

Moniza Alvi says of her work: ‘These are rare, nourishing poems, open and vulnerable, spiritually aware and with an acute sense of beauty and struggle.’  

Kim Moore writes: ‘There is a restless energy and a searching intelligence at work here – creating startling, moving poems that explore the porous, shifting boundary between the historical and the contemporary.’

ROSIE JACKSON is a poet and creative writing tutor recently moved to Devon after many years in Somerset. She is on the team of Poetry Teignmouth and runs many workshops in UK and in Cortijo Romero, Spain. A passionate believer in the power of the creative arts to heal and transform, Rosie has worked in many community and health contexts.  She enjoys collaborating with other writers, artists, film-makers and photographers. Michelle and I recently had the privilege of collaborating with her in a memorable performance at Teignmouth Poetry Festival.

At our last meeting on May 1st every chair was occupied; we had a record number in the audience for Rachael Clyne’s well-presented reading from her new collection. There were some strong contributions too in the open mic sessions. Ian McMillan was unfortunately not among the audience, but he tweeted, “I like this title poem by Rachael Clyne from her powerful new ⁦@SerenBooks⁩ collection. The whole book is well worth reading. Here is the unique self, examined and celebrated.”

A new Stanza group is forming in Midsomer Norton. If you are interested, please ask me for Nick’s contact details.

STORYTELLING AT THE BISHOP’S PALACE, WELLS
May Half-Term – Family Storytelling: 30th May 2023, 11am & 12.30pm .
Join master storyteller (and Fountain Poet) Beth Webb this May half-term, as she captivates your imagination with her enchanting tales that the whole family will love!
Be inspired by Beth’s unique illustrations and try your hand at creating your own captivating stories. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to embark on a magical journey of storytelling and creativity with your family.
Family Storytelling is included with any standard admission ticket.  

CLEVEDON LITERARY FESTIVAL
Clevedon Literary Festival takes place between 31^st May and 11^th June, in venues all over the town. Amongst over 50 events, this year’s headliners include fantasy/sci-fi author Ben Aaronovitch, Radio 4’s Anita Sethi and Noreen Masud, BBC journalist Stephen Moss, scriptwriter Ray Brooking, cartoonist Kev Sutherland, Mel Simpson’s ever popular Write Dance and Draw, both live and online, children’s author Tracey Corderoy, the launch of our inaugural short story and poetry competitions, walks and talks, music and visual arts, theatre, ‘Celebration of the Book’ – a market place for book arts and small presses. 39% of our artists and writers are from global majority backgrounds, including disability champions, climate activists, the Radical History group.

Poetry highlights include headliners Matt Harvey and Jo Bell, supported by local talent. There’s also workshops, open mics, ‘Life’s a Beach’ – our eco themed poetry slam, in association with Rhyme Against the Tide, Weston, The whole programme is on the website. Many events are free and all the rest affordable.

WELLS FESTIVAL OF LITERATURE’S INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS

www.wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk email: competitions@wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk

Open 1^st April – 30^th June 2023

Open Poetry: Entry fee, £6. Prizes:  1^st £1,000, 2^nd £500, 3^rd £250, Local £100. Any subject, no more than 35 lines.
Judge, William Sieghart, founder of National Poetry Day.

Short Story: Entry fee, £6. Prizes:  1^st £750, 2^nd £300, 3^rd £200, Local £100. Any subject, 1,000 to 2,000 words. Judge, Claire Fuller.

A Book for Children: Entry fee, £6. Prizes:  1^st £750, 2^nd £300, 3^rd £200, Local £100. Any subject. First two chapters or first twenty pages, whichever is the shortest, plus the synopsis. Judge, Rachel Hamilton. The competition is writing for children, age 7 and up. This includes writing for young adults.

Young Poets: Entry fee, £3. Prizes: £150, £75, £50 plus a year’s membership of The Poetry Society. Any subject, no more than 35 lines. Age range 16 to 22.
Judge, Deanna Rodger.

The McLellan Poetry Prize is awarded as part of the annual McLellan Arts Festival on the Isle of Arran. With eight prizes including a first prize of £1,000; second prize of £300; third prize of £100 and 5 commended poem prizes of £25 each, the McLellan Poetry Competition provides a major opportunity for aspiring poets to gain recognition.

This year’s judge, Joelle Taylor (TS Eliot Prize winner)  will present the prizes in person at a special festival event on Saturday 26th August 2023 on the Isle of Arran, to which all prize winners will be invited to read. Full details and entry forms can be found here.

Entries close at midnight on Monday 10th July 2023.

Ted Hughes said that all great poems come from a wound. I don’t know what he meant by great, but I think a worthwhile piece of art has to move us and what moves us most is the brokenness of things. There’s so much that’s broken, so little time for reparation. This is built into the system. It’s why so many artists find it hard to survive, because survival is a constant act of reparation.  – James Roberts 

Posted by Ama Bolton on 23rd May 2023

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May Meeting

On 3rd April we enjoyed a brilliant reading by Deborah Harvey. Her first set was drawn from Learning Finity, with many poems shedding unexpected light on Bristol, her home city. Her second set was from her new collection-in-progress, with profoundly moving poems tackling, with empathy and humour, the thorny topic of estrangement. I found the sequence Conversations with Silence particularly affecting.
We also had the great pleasure of meeting young Arthur, Donna’s baby son and Ewan’s grandson. He didn’t meet us, though; he slept peacefully throughout!
The open mic spots included some remarkable poems, ranging from confessional to surreal. No-one could accuse us of having a house style!

Our featured poet on May 1st will be Rachael Clyne, a Fountain poet living in Glastonbury, whose new collection You’ll Never be Anyone Else is published by Seren in a few days’ time.
You’ll Never Be Anyone Else is a confident exploration of identity, self-acceptance and experiences of ageing. Using playful wit and colourful imagery the poet explores Jewish and lesbian identity through various stages of life and considers what it takes to reconcile being different.

You’ll Never Be Anyone Else is a unique story of survival and empowerment. Treating even dark subjects with warmth and humour, Rachael Clyne is a distinctive voice with a powerful message about self-acceptance.

STORYTELLING AT THE BISHOP’S PALACE, WELLS

May Half-Term – Family Storytelling: 30th May 2023, 11am & 12.30pm .
Join master storyteller (and Fountain Poet) Beth Webb this May half-term, as she captivates your imagination with her enchanting tales that the whole family will love!
Be inspired by Beth’s unique illustrations and try your hand at creating your own captivating stories. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to embark on a magical journey of storytelling and creativity with your family.
Family Storytelling is included with any standard admission ticket.  

CLEVEDON LITERARY FESTIVAL

The Arts Council have confirmed funding once again for Clevedon Literary Festival, taking place between 31^st May and 11^th June, in venues all over the town. Amongst over 50 events, this year’s headliners include fantasy/sci-fi author Ben Aaronovitch, Radio 4’s Anita Sethi and Noreen Masud, BBC journalist Stephen Moss, scriptwriter Ray Brooking, cartoonist Kev Sutherland, Mel Simpson’s ever popular Write Dance and Draw, both live and online, children’s author Tracey Corderoy, the launch of our inaugural short story and poetry competitions, walks and talks, music and visual arts, theatre, ‘Celebration of the Book’ – a market place for book arts and small presses. 39% of our artists and writers are from global majority backgrounds, including disability champions, climate activists, the Radical History group.

Poetry highlights include headliners Matt Harvey and Jo Bell, supported by local talent. There’s also workshops, open mics, ‘Life’s a Beach’ – our eco themed poetry slam, in association with Rhyme Against the Tide, Weston, I know some of you will want to sign up for that. A few events are already listed – one of them already sold out! The whole programme will be going live on the website shortly, coinciding with the launch of ticket sales. Many events are free and all the rest affordable.

WELLS FESTIVAL OF LITERATURE’S INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS

www.wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk email: competitions@wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk

Open 1^st April – 30^th June 2023

Open Poetry: Entry fee, £6. Prizes:  1^st £1,000, 2^nd £500, 3^rd £250, Local £100. Any subject, no more than 35 lines.
Judge, William Sieghart, founder of National Poetry Day.

Short Story: Entry fee, £6. Prizes:  1^st £750, 2^nd £300, 3^rd £200, Local £100. Any subject, 1,000 to 2,000 words. Judge, Claire Fuller.

A Book for Children: Entry fee, £6. Prizes:  1^st £750, 2^nd £300, 3^rd £200, Local £100. Any subject. First two chapters or first twenty pages, whichever is the shortest, plus the synopsis. Judge, Rachel Hamilton. The competition is writing for children, age 7 and up. This includes writing for young adults.

Young Poets: Entry fee, £3. Prizes: £150, £75, £50 plus a year’s membership of The Poetry Society. Any subject, no more than 35 lines. Age range 16 to 22.
Judge, Deanna Rodger.

CONTEXTUAL: 17

Ama will be one of the readers at Contextual-17 on Zoom on Thursday, April 27^th at 7.30pm. One hour, five poets. For an invitation fill in the online form here https://coverstorybooks.com/2023/04/13/contextual-17-two-weeks-today/ 

A poem is alive; it uses you to get itself written … – Jorie Graham

Next Meeting April 3rd.

Our next meeting will be on Monday April 3^rd at 7pm upstairs in the Kings Head in Wells High Street, with a second visit from a very popular guest poet Deborah Harvey from Bristol. Deborah is the author of a novel (Dart) and several volumes of poetry, the latest being Learning Finity, published in March last year by Indigo Dreams, There will also be open-mic spots for all who want to read (under 5 minutes, please).

We had an interesting and enjoyable evening with Hannah Linden on March 6th. There were 20 of us, including some very welcome newcomers.

Langport Moot 2023: if there is sufficient interest, another day of creative writing will be held in Langport on Friday 7^th July. Details to be confirmed.
The first one, back in 2018, was truly wonderful. If you are interested please contact David Cloke: g4bmo (at) tiscali (dot) co (dot) uk (East Coker Poetry Group)

Moira Andrew is much better now, and I have pencilled her in for July 3rd. 
If anyone is interested in joining Moira’s workshop, she has a few spaces.  It is always 2nd Wednesday, 10.30 – 12.30 in Nunney (near Frome).  There is nominal charge of £5 but this includes Tea/Coffee, biscuits/ bun / mice pie and an anthology of poems on the month’s topic. Next month the topic is ‘Promises’ . If you are interested, get in touch with Norman: 01373 836588  or 07979 935067.

Michelle Diaz, our beloved bard, had the honour of performing with the Poet Laureate in Glastonbury Library recently. It was a sell-out, of course! Michelle and Rachael and Ama will be among those performing at Teignmouth Poetry Festival next weekend.
Ama will also be reading with the wonderful Veronica Aaronson at the next zoom meeting of Fire River Poets on April 6th. You can register here for an invitation. There will be much about Scottish islands, and birds.
Zanna will be one of the readers at Contextual 16 on zooom on Thursday March 30th. Apply here for an invitation.

FREE Creative Writing and poetry group. I have been informed that this group meets every Wednesday afternoon 3.30pm-5.30pm in the Lawrence Centre, Wells BA5 2PQ
Contact Somerset Recovery College or just turn up… Refreshments provided.

Against barbarity, poetry can resist only by cultivating an attachment to human fragility, like a blade of grass growing on a wall as armies march by.
– Mahmoud Darwish

Next Meeting March 6th

Our February meeting was well-attended despite the absence of our guest poet Moira Andrew, who, I’m happy to report, has made a good recovery.
We welcomed three new-to-us poets, Lee, Jim Scott and Agata Palmer, all of whom shared excellent work, and we welcomed back Chris Scully after a long absence.

Our next meeting will be on Monday 6th March at 7pm, upstairs in the King’s Head in Wells High Street. The guest poet will be Hannah Linden. I heard her reading on Zoom a little while ago. She was terrific. Please remember to bring some cash! You will want to buy Hannah’s book!
Hannah is from a Northern working class background but has been based for many years in Devon, where she lives with her two (adult and adult-cusp) children. She is published widely eg in Acumen, Lighthouse, Magma, New Welsh Review, Shearsman, Stand, Tears in the Fence, Under the Radar etc. With Gram Joel Davies, she won the Cheltenham Festival Compound Poetry Competition in 2015 and she was Highly Commended in the Prole Poet Laureate Prize in the same year. Her most recent awards are 1^st prize in the Cafe Writers Open Poetry Competition 2021 and Highly Commended in the Wales Poetry Award 2021. Her debut pamphlet, The Beautiful Open Sky was published by V. Press in September 2022 and sold out its first print run within 4 days. She is working towards her first full collection. Twitter: @hannahl1n

In other news, the Cinnamon Press pamphlet competition closes at the end of March, Teignmouth Poetry Festival runs from 31st March to 2nd April, and here’s an online workshop with Mary Jean Chan on 24th April, “Writing a Poetry Collection“.

Our own dear Bard, Michelle Diaz, is the latest addition to The Bard Window.

If you want to have any chance of occasionally writing something with genuine radiance, you have to leave your ego at the door. Which is still exactly as hard as it sounds. – Dave Bonta

Teignmouth Poetry Festival Competition

TEIGNMOUTH POETRY FESTIVAL
 POETRY COMPETITION 2023

Closes midnight 31st January 2023.

For rules click here
For postal entry click here
For online entry click here

The 2023 Competition is open to all poets, UK and international.
Entries from writers with Devon postcodes will automatically and additionally be entered for the Graham Burchell Award for Devon Poets.Open Poetry Competition
Prizes: 1st – £600 2nd – £300 3rd – £200
Judge: Fiona Benson

Graham Burchell Award – Devon residents only
Prizes: 1st – £200 2nd – £100 3rd – £50
Judge: Sue Proffitt

OPEN COMPETITION 
​JUDGE  – FIONA BENSON

Fiona Benson’s third collection, Ephemeron, has recently been published by Jonathan Cape. This follows Vertigo & Ghost (Cape, 2019), which won both the Roehampton Poetry Prize and the Forward Poetry Prize, while her first collection, Bright Travellers (Cape, 2014) won the Seamus Heaney Prize and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. Fiona was the first author selected for the Faber New Poets pamphlet series, and in 2021 was one of the three judges for the National Poetry Competition and lives in Cornwall. 

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GRAHAM BURCHELL AWARD FOR DEVON POETS
​JUDGE – SUE PROFFITT

Sue Proffitt lives by the coast in South Devon. Having won this award in 2022 and previously been placed 1st and 2nd in the Teignmouth Poetry Festival Open Competition, she is ideally qualified to be our judge in 2023. Her poetry has been published in many magazines and journals, as well as two collections. Her first, Open After Dark (Oversteps, 2017) was followed by The Lock-Picker (Palewell Press), written during her month on a Hawthornden Fellowship. 
She has an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Bath Spa and is currently working on her third collection. www.owlmagic.com

Teignmouth Poetry Festival takes place over the weekend 31 March to 2 April.

Everything is going to be all right

What a lovely, informal and intimate meeting of seven minds at the King’s Head last night!

It was an evening of many birds: sanderlings from Martin, buzzards and crows from David G, starlings and a rooster from Ama. David N read his lovely poem about slow-worms. We walked the South West Coast Path (39,000 steps) and encountered a sinister house in Prague with David G. We crossed borders and listened to an evening raga with Ama. We heard a playful New Year’s resolution, as well as many cheering or consoling poems from The Poetry Pharmacy, from Judy, and a gloriously grim account of a fictional Christmas Day from David N. We heard true stories and fables from Beth, both the Davids, and Martin. Donna read several of her late father Ewan MacPherson’s poems. Beth delighted us with a dramatic reading of Jabberwocky. Judy and David N provided thoughtful and astonishingly relevant readings from Rumi and Hafez. We talked of birthdays and foxes and slugs and honeymoons and elves and Haiku and much else besides. This post’s title is the title of a poem by Derek Mahon, read by Judy.

Recently added to the Bardwindow poetry podcast, here’s an interesting ekphrastic poem from Martin. Ama has a couple of poems in the latest Wildfire Words anthology, and a bilingual poem at One Sentence Poems.

Our next meeting will be at the King’s Head at 7pm on Monday February 6th. Unfortunately our guest poet Moira Andrew has just come out of hospital, so this will be an open-mic session. We hope to book Moira for later in the year.

In March we have Hannah Linden, in April, Deborah Harvey, in May Rachael Clyne, in June Rosie Jackson, and in September Alyson Hallett.

Good poetry is transcendent. Bad poetry is a bore. – Bill Amatneek

Three Wise Dimensions

We had a most enjoyable meeting on 5th December, with supper beforehand for those who came early.
Our guest was Isabel White, a remarkably good performer whose meticulous and playful use of words is illustrated in this post’s title, taken from her poem Making sense of Miss Babs (Barbara Hepworth). Her readings covered a wide spectrum of styles and subjects. How many of us knew that Robert Burns had intended to emigrate to Jamaica? Isabel made this the subject of a poem in a mixture of Scots and Jamaican patois. Dazzling!

Isabel is the latest subject of the Bard Window podcast. You can also read some of her poems there. Do have a look at this excellent resource for poets. Membership is free.

Contributions in the two open mic sessions were well-wrought, thought-provoking and in some cases rather dark – I’m thinking of Beth’s Confession, Fiona’s My Deathday, David G’s Mortal Memories and Pamela’s Separation, which I read in memory of her – see below. David N and I read ekphrastic poems written during a recent Poetry and Art workshop in Wells Library. Steve picked up the word-play theme with Jack (part 1), prompted by a jackfruit curry. I’m looking forward to Part 2!

I am sad to report that Pamela Coate, who used to come regularly to our meetings and entertain and enlighten us with her light-hearted/serious poems, died at the end of November. She would have been 91 on Christmas Eve. She was creative in so many ways, a poet, painter, ceramic artist, musician and prolific knitter of unique and colourful garments and animals. She was also a very dear friend who will be badly missed.

Our next meeting will be on Monday January 2nd at 7pm, upstairs in The King’s Head in Wells High Street, conveniently close to the Union Street car park. There will be no guest poet, so come prepared to read a couple of poems, your own or anyone else’s, seasonal or otherwise.

Separation        by Pamela Coate

He said it was here in the woods
that he let the squirrels out
didn’t she recall how
they used to raid the swallows’ nests
became real pests

She sat there in the car
remembering those times
saddened at the thought
of all the lost squirrels
searching for their families

And what must it be like
for people to be separated
after sixty years together
taken into different homes
confused and alone

Now she hears from her friends
it is illegal to transport
squirrels to new habitats
better to shoot them
no law against it

Writing is a never-ending apprenticeship … it’s an addiction – Ian Gouge 
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ouflxqae3yw)

Something Fishy

We enjoyed plenty of variety in an evening of open-mic poetry upstairs at the King’s Head in Wells High Street on November 7th. From laugh-out-loud to wipe-away-a-tear! Both Andrew and Beth read rather fishy poems …
And it was good to welcome back David Cloke from East Coker Poetry. Their next meeting will be on Tuesday November 29th, with Annie Fisher and Anthony Watts, both of them excellent performers from Fire River Poets.

Our next meeting will be on Monday December 5th in the same venue. We’ll start at 7pm, but do come early if you’d like to join us for supper at 6.30. The menu is here.
Our featured poet in December will be Isabel White, director of Alarms and Excursions. Isabel founded Alarms & Excursions in 2009, and has been director of the company ever since, involved with every project of the Collective, which is her real passion. Isabel is a prize winning, published poet, and leads on the artistic agenda of the company, spearheading the majority of projects. Performing across the UK, in Paris and Rotterdam, Isabel has worked with a host of performance poets, actors and musicians, including John Hegley, Michael Horowitz, Elvis McGonagall, Daljit Nagra, Benjamin Till… She hosted Wash House Poets in the City of London, and curated the poetry for the hugely successful Up The Line remembrance events between 2009 and 2013. Isabel was a finalist in the 2013 and 2017 BBC Radio 3 Proms competitions, Adlestrop and Guernsey International Competitions, Pendle War Poem competition (3rd place), was twice commended for the Elmbridge Literary Prize, shortlisted for the Bridport Prize (2016) and Vernal Equinox (2018) Competition. She has served six years on the Governing Council of the Poetry Society and founded and ran its Chichester Stanza for 3 years. Her work is much anthologised and she has three full collections and a pamphlet published to date. Her next collection is due about now.

Other news: Literally Shepton is a celebration of words on 18-19 November. There’s a Found Poetry workshop on the 19th. All events are free but do need to be booked. Check out the website here. And Mark reminded us that there is a poetry meeting in Glastonbury every Monday morning at 10.45 in St John’s Church.

Poetry is a sort of homecoming – Paul Celan.

Tone down the strangeness

Our very first, and long-postponed, Festival Fringe event was a huge success. Our featured poets Michelle Diaz and Graeme Ryan gave dazzling and moving performances.

Michelle is a long-standing member of the Fountain Poets. Earlier this year she was elected the Chaired Bard of Glastonbury, a role she has embraced with gusto. There is both suffering and joy in Michelle’s 2019 pamphlet from Against the Grain, The Dancing Boy, which ‘combines painful honesty with a sense of hopefulness’. Above all, these are poems of love, understanding and acceptance. They tell painful stories but never bear grudges. They reveal a generous spirit and a lively sense of humour. Michelle had come hot-foot from her role that afternoon as a short-list selector for the Wells Young Poets Competition.

Graeme’s full collection, Valley of the Kings, was published earlier this year by Coverstory Books. It is an excavation of family history and of contemporary life, revealing the voices and worlds always present under this one, more real. It is a blend of scholarship, close observation, devotion to the natural world and breathtaking imagination. It is an inexhaustible treasure-house. Every poem reveals more on a second, third or fourth reading.

The meeting was well-attended and there were some very strong readers during the open-mic session, with a handful of particularly hard-hitting social-comment poems. I read out Linda Saunders’s prizewinning poem Two Wood Pigeons (Highly Commended AND People’s Choice) from the aftenoon Wells Festival prizegiving. This poem would still be a joy if it were nothing more than a meticulous observation of the birds preening themselves. But it’s more than that; there’s gentle humour and the poem opens out into a reflection on the work of a poet. I think all of us went home feeling energised and inspired. This post’s title comes from a poem read by Tristram Fane Saunders, judge of the Wells Festival Open Poetry Competition. He has a new book coming out next summer and has expressed interest in coming to us as a guest reader.

We next meet at 7pm on Monday 7th November, upstairs at The King’s Head in Wells High Street, conveniently close to the Union Street Car Park. No guest poet; plenty of open-mic opportunities.

“How do you know if what you’re revising out of a piece isn’t the very thing that made the piece interesting to someone else? What is the difference between thinking about “the reader” and pandering to “the reader”? How do you know if you’re thinking too much about “the reader” or not enough? What if you never think about “the reader”? Do you risk writing poems that are just you mumbling to yourself? What if there is no “reader”? Ever? Is the thing you made still a poem?” This is from a recent blog-post by Marilyn McCabe. The whole is well worth reading here.

The Fringe Binge

Our next meeting is on 17^th October starting at 5.30  in the Kings Head, Wells High Street (after the Wells Litfest Poetry Competition prizegiving and readings 2-5pm in Cedars Hall) we’ll have Its the long-postponed Festival Fringe Binge, with open-mic followed by two guest readers, Fountain poet Michelle Diaz, the Chaired Bard of Glastonbury, and Fire River Poet Graeme Ryan, whose stunning collection ‘Valley of the Kings’ was published earlier this year by Coverstory Books.