The writing is on the wall, and it smells

photo from poweromics.blogspot.co.uk

Twenty-three of us met on June 2nd with Paul as chairman to share some poems of protest, in honour of the late Pete Seeger. It proved an opportunity to let our hair down …

Gill got us off to a fine start by singing her Layabout Song, written 35 years ago at the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp. The link above takes you to a Guardian article in which a version of it is printed as “Down at Greenham”. The oldest poem must have been Ama’s “Talking LBJ Blues”, written way back in 1966!

Poems dealing with current causes for concern were Mark’s “How dare he?”, Rachael’s “Farage Rant”, Wendy’s “Peace for Homs”, Caroline’s “Irish Anger”, Morag’s “Free Woman Dub”, Rosalie’s “Burning Questions” and Paul’s “The Festival Without”, from which this post’s title is taken. Ewan’s “Are we at War?” addressed mankind’s attitude to animals, Diana’s untitled poem referred to the recent badger-cull and Rachael’s “Labels” drew attention to the cruelty of name-calling.

On a more personal level, Annette shared her profoundly moving poem “That Day”, Sara read “Protest”, a lovely sparse poem, and Richard read “When I feel Anger”; honesty was in the air. We were getting stuff off our chests. And it felt good.

We welcomed Andrew, an occasional visitor from Spain, who read a couple of fine poems including “The Cabiri”, a favourite of mine. Another welcome visitor was Stacey, who read her short poem “Sit Little Dog”.

David C’s “Not in my back uncontrolled sky” and Pamela’s “Australia” were, as Paul remarked, two of the most original poems we’ve heard anywhere. Altogether it was a memorable evening. Thank you, Paul.

We shall be taking a two-month break, but will be back on September 8th at a new venue, the King’s Head in Wells High Street. I (Ama) will be the chairperson, and the optional topic will be “Friends and other strangers”.

One day work is hard, and another day it is easy; but if I had waited for inspiration I am afraid I should have done nothing. The miner does not sit at the top of the shaft waiting for the coal to come bubbling up to the surface. One must go deep down, and work out every vein carefully. – Arthur Sullivan

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Words that split the universe in half

We met on Monday 19 May with Wendy Nicholson in the chair, to read and hear poems on the theme “A Sense of Place”. Chris read two poems written recently on the island of Flatholm, and Rachael shared some new poems from Iona. Ewa wrote about the lack of a sense of place, and Ama (with help from Morag) described a journey from one place to another by bus and train and on foot.

Caroline gave us “Australian Extremes” and “The Garden of Harmonious Pleasures, Beijing”. Pamela took us, in two short atmospheric poems, to her garden and to a bird sanctuary. Wendy gave us a glimpse of a changed landscape, and Ewan’s poem “The Ants”, from which my title is taken, was set in Greece.

One of Paul’s poems was set in Bedminster and his second, “Countryside versus Greed”, was a foretaste of next month’s theme, protest poetry. The title of Mark’s first poem, also a protest poem of sorts, was “His Parents Live in a Rather Unfortunate Part of London”. Andy and Morag read “Soul Birds” and “The Splash”. Altogether it was a successful theme.

Next month’s meeting will be on Monday 2 June, with Paul Rogers in the chair. Our theme (optional, as usual) will be Protest Poetry.

We decided to cancel the July meeting as it clashes with a reading at the Merlin Theatre, Frome, by Sir Andrew Motion (7th July, 7.45pm.) Meetings will resume in September after the summer break.

Andrew Goldsworthy, an occasional Fountain Poet, reports from Spain:

On the National news the other day the newsreader said; “La Poesia es la expresión de lo que hay dentro” – (Poetry is the expression of what there is within) it must have been in relation to something I missed or perhaps just a gratuitous plug for poetry.