Poetry in Motion ...

... all over the place!  

The weekend before last it was off to Bath for a Poetry Café writing day on the Saturday, which was run by the indefatigable Sue Boyle with assistance from Lesley Saunders, and in the evening I helped to run the bookstall at the Acumen Poetry evening at which the winners of the competition I'd helped to judge were announced.  On the Sunday, the judges were invited to lunch at Sue's lovely home in the company of Patricia Oxley, the general editor of Acumen Magazine, and her husband, poet and philosopher William Oxley, and an interesting time was had. 

 That would have been enough adornment for any week, but this was just the start. Monday night I read at Acoustic Night Bristol at Halo Cafe Bar, which is just about the best, friendliest and most varied open mic you can imagine. 

Thursday it was off to Bradford-on-Avon to celebrate the summer solstice at Words and Ears in the cellar bar of the Swan Hotel, an open mic at which I was the guest reader. Despite the monsoon I had a wonderful evening, sold a few books and had some very kind feedback from organiser, Dawn Gorman.

Better still, while we were puddling disconsolately around town in the afternoon, we encountered a handfasting taking place on the grass outside Bradford-on-Avon Tithe Barn. It was just wonderful to watch, and I felt no need to rattle my chains, as is normally the case at weddings. I loved the invoking of Aphrodite and Ganesh, the priest summoning the Old Ones ... at which point we duly arrived. Pameli Benham and I had a sip of Buck's Fizz from the Loving Cup and gave the clearly ecstatic couple a copy of our respective poetry collections, at which they looked slightly alarmed.  Maybe they thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses. 

  Then on Friday I read in Chipping Sodbury town hall, having come second in the Chipping Sodbury Festival poetry competition this year with 'The Poet and the Boatman'. I've been asked to judge it next year, so took the opportunity to tell those present that I shall be open to bribery.

Saturday saw me reading in Halo again, at a Ladyfest Fundraiser which also featured Rose Flint, whose work I like very much. There were some other great contributors also, including the wonderful Lou Bell, whose voice and songs I adore. And the equally wonderful Rebecca Cant, whose song Fisherwoman Blues from her Songs in the Shed session can be heard here. 

This might seem like enough but I'm off to Bath again tomorrow to attend the launch of the new art exhibition, faces [Bath], with which I and lots of other local poets are collaborating. 

Can't begin to say how much better my new life is than my old one. What price freedom and poetry?