The IsamBards at the Bath and Bristol Festivals of Nature

There was a time, presumably, when reading nature poems in public would have involved invocations of beauty, mellow fruitfulness and golden daffodils (hosts of). These days poets are rightly more exercised by climate catastrophe, pollution and the alarming decline worldwide in pollinators, all of which featured in poems read by me and my fellow IsamBards at the Festivals of Nature in Bath and Bristol over the last two weekends.  (As did radioactive dogs, a rotting corpse, and a father-in-law falling through a greenhouse roof. For the purposes of light relief.) 

Here are a few photos, starting with Bath.

Viper's bugloss on the banks of the River Avon in Bath 

Pameli Benham reading in Green Park

Dominic Fisher's fans rushing the stage

I brought an interpretive dancer with me.

Bristol's festival was rather more urban in its setting, down by the floating harbour. 

We had the good fortune to be on stage next to Severn Cider's stand, so there was something of a captive audience. 

I couldn't resist a pint either.  

The Satchel of Poetry, at home with the nature of the festival

Of course, if you are waiting to read yourself, any photos you take show your fellow-readers side-on ... 

... so it was lovely that my friend Merowe was in the audience and shared her photos.

It always feels good to read at home.