For the Silent - an anthology of poems in aid of the League Against Cruel Sports

Yes, foxes can be a pest on farms, and sometimes their numbers need to be controlled, but I've never been able to imagine my way into the mindset of someone who would hunt animals to the point of exhaustion, and then kill them and call it 'sport'.

Nor can my publishers, Ronnie Goodyer and Dawn Bauling of Indigo Dreams, and to spread the word (literally), they have produced this beautiful anthology of poems, For the Silent, proceeds from the sale of which go to the League Against Cruel Sports.

I'm delighted to have a poem in it, rubbing its humble shoulders with poems by Mary Oliver, Simon Armitage, Thomas Hardy, Margaret Atwood, Pascale Petit, Liz Berry, Seamus Heaney, Alison Brackenbury, Siegfried Sassoon, John Clare, Ted Hughes and many more.

If you have a heart and a soul, this book is for you. It costs £10 + p&p and is available from the Indigo Dreams website. (Buying directly from Ronnie and Dawn will maximise funds for the League.)

The Ballad of the Angel-Maker and the Live Canon Anthology 2018

I've been a bit remiss in not mentioning this newly published and most beautiful anthology of poems, the Live Canon Anthology 2018.

It comprises poems that were short- and long-listed in this year's Live Canon poetry competition judged by Liz Berry.










Live Canon are an ensemble performing poetry from memory at theatres, festivals and various other events, as well as recording poems for radio and CDs, creating poetry installations and digital projects, publishing poetry and working with young people to promote the enjoyment and creation of poetry and the spoken word.  This makes their annual competition particularly interesting to enter, as every poem is read aloud as part of the judging process. Poems have to work both on and off the page, which means that a poet might enter something a bit different from the more usual 'competition-style' poem. They can also be any length, rather than the more standard 40 lines beloved of most competition organisers.

I decided to enter a 56-line poem written in the decidedly unfashionable style of a traditional ballad, on the grounds that if you've got the metre right, and the repetition right, a ballad can sound fabulous read aloud. My punt paid off because the poem was long-listed and is published in the anthology. 

This scary-looking women is Amelia Dyer, the subject of my ballad. Dyer was born at Pile Marsh in my home city of Bristol in 1837. She was by trade a foster mother, and by her actions, quite possibly the most prolific serial killer in British history.

A quick bit about baby-farming: The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 contained a bastardy clause, which absolved fathers of any responsibility for their illegitimate offspring. This was an attempt to restore female morality, the thinking being that if unmarried women who became pregnant faced losing their jobs and ending up on the streets, they’d keep their legs together and the cost of supporting single-parent families would cease to exist. (I'm surprised the current government hasn't yet introduced similar legislation.) 

Anyway, all this did was create thousands of unregulated 'baby farmers', who’d charge considerable sums of money, and sometimes blackmail, desperate single mothers who had no means of support for themselves or their babies.  Amelia Dyer was one such custodian, but instead of caring for the infants she took on, she drugged and strangled them. She was ‘the angel-maker’, as she once explained to her own daughter, Polly, who was curious about the babies that kept appearing in the household and then disappearing. 

When arrested by the police on a charge of murder, Dyer admitted her guilt, saying ‘You’ll know all mine by the tapes around their necks.’ She was tried and hanged in 1896.

If you are into poetry and the spoken word, do visit the Live Canon website and find out more about them.

Model not included

Highlights of Bristol Poetry Festival 2015 (so far ... )

A review for the local paper: 

Kei Miller/Liz Berry/Fiona Benson

Hailing Foxes/ Waterwoven/Rachael Clyne                       Bristol Poetry Festival

As I write, Bristol Poetry Festival is drawing to a close following a glorious fortnight of readings at venues in and around Bristol.

From the hugely popular Bristol Poetry Slam, where the cream of the West Country’s performance poets battle it out on stage, to smaller, low-key gatherings in cafés and the back rooms of pubs, poets and lovers of poetry have been coming together to celebrate our national art-form.

The flagship event of this year’s Festival was the reading at Arnolfini by three of our best contemporary poets, Fiona Benson, Kei Miller and Liz Berry. Colin Brown, the Director of Poetry Can, the Bristol-based organisation responsible for organising the Poetry Festival said: ‘there were three essential poetry books published in 2014 and we are lucky enough to have the authors of those books here in Bristol tonight.’ Each poet was very different but equally distinct. Anglo-Scot Fiona Benson read poems that showed how hearts can be broken by language; Kei Miller made language sound like music; Liz Berry took us gently by the hand and led us to the place where poems come from, and it was both thrilling and beautiful – but you can’t describe poetry, you can only experience it. ‘That was wonderful,’ said one audience member as we emerged into the September night. ‘As soon as it started, it was like we were all together inside a miracle.’

Photo © Dru Marland

A special mention too for the event at Bristol Central Library, where local artist Dru Marland launched her latest illustrated anthology of poems, Hailing Foxes, a celebration of Bristol and its wildlife during the city’s tenure as European Green Capital 2015.  This delightful evening, which also included performances from Wells Fountain Poets and Rachael Clyne, saw many of the featured poets coming together to read their work. Hailing Foxes is available from Gert Macky Books and good independent bookshops, price £5.

 John Terry 

                                                            Pat Simmons

Dru Marland

                                                          Dominic Fisher

Wells Fountain Poets and Colin Brown