Poetry and community

I just had the privilege of taking part in a lovely collaboration with the Shelley Memorial Project in the beautiful surroundings of Warnham Nature Reserve, overlooking the lake on which Shelley is reputed to have floated his toy boats as a boy. Shelley by the Shore celebrated Shelly’s work and local associations with excerpts from Kathryn Attwood’s acclaimed play ‘Mad Shelley’, readings from his work, and an open mic session which featured lots of contemporary work by some of the poets present alongside readings from Shelley

This was the latest in a series of several poetry focussed events in the last couple of months and each one has been special in its own unique way, each one has been worth celebrating.

First, we had Picnics and Poems, a family event in the peaceful gardens of our local Friends Meeting House, followed by an open mic at Leith Hill Place where the views and the surroundings enhanced the experience. At both events a mix of voices, of styles, of readers who were familiar faces and readers who were new to me. Then something quite different – reading with fellow poets in the Literary tent at Guilfest to a full tent despite the competing claims of the main stage, and all the other attractions.

Different again was our Sofa Poet evening with the inspirational Clare Pollard reading from her work and challenging us in a couple of writing exercises. Judging a poetry competition for West Sussex Writers was next for me – a responsibility but also a chance to read and enjoy. Clare is an experienced judge, having the National Poetry competition on her cv. For that she had to read entries in their thousands, so I stopped angsting about my much smaller scale commitment.

Naturally, I’m largely reading from my books, Paths and Digressions and A Love Letter to the Planet and the people on it, at these events and to quote from the latter book, ‘Art has a range of positive effects on health and well-being - even on wealth if we count the collective purse. Visual arts, dance, music, theatre, and poetry can all have positive effects on physical health, mobility and mental health’. Besides the poetry events I’ve played a couple of band gigs in the last few weeks so I’m feeling the benefit!

Having expounded on the joys of reading to an audience it seems a good time to include a video of me doing just that, taken at the book launch. It’s also a poem about a piano, so we’re back to the health benefits of music…

And the book – available all over the place, not least here.