We had a second successful Fringe Binge in late October, welcoming four newcomers including Miranda Moore, winner of the Children’s Book category in the Wells Festival competition. Our guest poet, Alex Corrin-Tachibana, gave a delightfully warm and informal reading of some poems from her 2022 book Sing me Down from the Dark, and some newer ones including a Zuihitsu that was recently placed fourth in the Winchester competition. Her work is notable for its emotional honesty and for the sparks of humour that illuminate it. Graeme Ryan and I gave a short reading of some ‘Angrams’, including some by Annie Fisher who was sadly unable to be with us on the day. As always there was an interesting mix of writing in the open mic sessions.
Our next meeting will be on 4th December, upstairs in the King’s Head in Wells High Street at the usual time of 7pm, but please come early (6pm-ish) if you’d like to join us for supper. The menu is here. Our guest will be Dawn Gorman of the Poetry Place on West Wilts Radio. Her latest pamphlet, The Bird Room, is a very satisfying read. I thoroughly recommend it.
As well as presenting West Wilts Radio’s The Poetry Place, Dawn is poetry editor of Caduceus, is a creative writing mentor and workshop leader, and works with poetry in a variety of therapeutic contexts. She collaborates widely with artists, musicians, film-makers and other writers: her work has been turned into a symphony, film poems and sculptures, and she is currently co-producing the third in a series of collaborative pamphlets between writers and photographers. Her own poetry publications include This Meeting of Tracks (Toadlily Press, 2013) and Aloneness is a Many-Headed Bird (Hedgehog Poetry Press, 2020, with Rosie Jackson), which were both Pushcart Prize-nominated, and Instead Let Us Say (Dempsey & Windle, 2019), which won the Brian Dempsey Memorial Award. Her latest pamphlet, The Bird Room, was published by Hedgehog in July this year.
Martin Malone says of her work: ‘This a sensual, tender-hearted poetry, aglow with its own humanity. There is, throughout, an intensely felt oneness with the natural world, rendered by a true poet in possession of impressive technical gifts.’
The prestigious Troubador International Poetry Competition closes soon, on Sunday Dec 10th.
Fountain poet/storyteller Beth Webb will be doing Christmas music and storytelling in December: ‘Follow, Follow, Follow’ – A creative re-telling of the Christmas story with songs, stories, swords, and spiders!
Bubwith Chapel, Chamberlain Street, Wells, December 9th at 7.00 pm.
St John’s Church Glastonbury, December 10th 3.00pm
‘Follow, Follow, Follow’ is a tapestry of folk tale and song, telling the birth of Christ from Mary’s point of view with storyteller Beth Webb and singer-songwriter Fiona Simpson.
The performance weaves folk tales and songs from across the world to fill in some of the gaps in the Christmas story, how did Mary feel when she realised she was pregnant? Who was the baby’s midwife? How do spiders help the family escape from Herod’s soldiers?
Manchester-based singer-songwriter Fiona Simpson sings wonderful versions of old carols as well as some of her own new songs. The thrilling narratives are woven together and told by Somerset storyteller and author, Beth Webb.
Please note: NOT SUITABLE for children.
Tickets are free, but we’d like to suggest a donation of £10.00 at the door, some of which will go towards raising funds for the two venues.
Almshouses tickets are available here:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/follow-follow-follow-tickets-737886848427
St John’s Church Glastonbury, Dec 10th tickets here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1278161556176374/?ref=newsfeed
Poets watch their lines of thought fall apart and are as amazed as anyone to see a poem start to emerge from that wreckage. — Beau Beausoleil
Posted by Ama Bolton.
ways with words in the city of Wells 