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.
ways with words in the city of Wells 