I wrote in a recent article that my friend, Paul Waites, composed a poem for my birthday. I said it was so good I entered it into a competition. Many of you have asked what happened next. Well, he didn’t win but poetry judging is obtuse – and I’m a bad loser! But back to…
Continue Reading
Every year Poetry Swindon runs a weekend with local and visiting poets. This year it’s branded “The Big Poetry Weekend” and there are some good names. What to recommend to my regular readers? Poetry has many channels and sometimes it’s difficult to navigate. Some poets wallow in complexity with no consideration of an audience, some…
Continue Reading
I’m sure some of you know Milton Campbell from Stratton St. Margaret. You’ll understand the link here with his first name, Milton. When his parents named him after the great poet, John Milton, it could’ve been a millstone around his considerable neck, or a lifetime with a great conversation opener. He opted for the latter….
Continue Reading
This is an uplifting story a year on. It’s about a Swindon man who, had he lived, would be 70. What set Dafydd Rouse apart was that he was gay and a poet, a dangerous combination during his lifetime. The end wasn’t great either. He was paralysed after a motorbike accident and died ten years…
Continue Reading
The thing is, she didn’t know how gifted a poet she was until she came to Swindon! Altea Narici is from Italy and here to improve her English. She plays the cello professionally and has composed pieces for it so, in terms of creativity, she is well on her way. We had a lovely evening…
Continue Reading
I’m running a Marathon in Bhutan and, believe it or not, a postage stamp was the catalyst. When I was young I came across stamps from Bhutan, which were colourful and all shapes. My favourite was a circular stamp that looked like an old penny. In the centre was a hole so you could put…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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 Reading