So who was the hare in all this? Was it the elder, Colin, whose last hash as hare had us run over 9 miles and finish through a slurry pit, including walkers, including Kathy for crying out loud? Or was it the lovely smiley, Elena, daughter of Colin of Chiseldon and grand-daughter of the driver…
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A dear friend handed me a poem for my birthday with a note to “read it when you get a chance.” It’s a poem with a catchy title, several stanzas with no rhyming, slightly opaque and very funny. I read it again and again and opened ever more layers. Brilliant! But who wrote it? I…
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I read at a Swindon Alzheimers Society event recently. I’ll admit to some concern about my choice of poems beforehand. I need not have worried. The audience was delightful and we had great fun. I’ll be a big 70 on my birthday in April. I suppose the conflation of the two events set me on…
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These past few years I’ve been at the launch of Ovarian Cancer Month, which is March. It’s harrowing listening to women affected by the disease talk about their journey and the chances of survival. Only 35% have a predicted survival rate as the disease is hard to detect early. Every year I listen to a…
Continue ReadingThis account of a hash in Wootton Rivers was written by my friend, Keith. This was a beautiful, but seriously cold morning and I was hare! Winter Morning by Ogden Nash “Winter is the king of showmen Turning tree stumps into snow men And houses into birthday cakes And spreading sugar over lakes Smooth and…
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It’s so easy being the scribe on a Hash Mag when David Burley is the hare. The first half writes itself. All I had to do was make notes while he briefed us before we set out. You might want to skip forward here as the “setting-out” bit will be far down the page. David…
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It’s St. Valentine’s Day on 14th February, the one day that poetry should have a place in our lives. Give a poem to your loved one. I’ve never known anyone to refuse a poem. It’s a keepsake for life. It’s also a good moment for the poet in all of us to connect with our…
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I’ve had lots of feedback from last month’s article about Carl Lewis and his poem “Builders in Winter.” Carl has been redrafting the poem and is ready to go public. We have a date. On Monday 28 January we have Open Mic at The Castle Inn in Old Town at 7:30pm. Carl will be dragged,…
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You’ll love this! Visualise our back-yard as a building site on a rainy morning before 8am. The builder, Carl Lewis, gave me the draft of a poem “The Builders in Wintertime” the previous day for feedback and now we workshop. We peel away the unnecessary, search for imagery, play with sound and words and there…
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This was a hell of a mixed-up Hash. First of all it rained, which it’s never supposed to do on a Hash. Albeit, it stopped soon after we started running and started again just as the fast runners were changing out of their wet clothes. That should have been enough to tick the box about…
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