A Stanza of Poets

I'm not sure what the collective noun is for a group of poets but I quite like "stanza"! And what a great stanza we had last week up in Cumbria. A diverse group, with very different writing styles but so interesting - and most encouraging to a fledgling like myself. Kim Moore and Jennifer Copley made excellent tutors, certainly working us hard (in fact, it felt like coming home for a rest on Friday!) but pushing forwards to get the most possible out of our five days together.

...and the sun shone on the righteous!

 We had the benefit too of a visit by two guest poets on the Wednesday evening. Carole Coates  (who was described by Peniless Press as "sharp and not to be messed with") read from "Swallowing Stones", her sequence of fictional monologues from the chilling world of Kor - quite an electrifying experience. Andrew Forster, the literature officer with the Wordsworth Trust, made good on his comment that "poetry should surprise" - I really enjoyed his work. I'm trying to resist the temptation to buy yet more poetry books but his pamphlet "Digging", so fantastically illustrated by Hugh Bryden (Roncadora Press), was a must.

Now, after a week of "Encounters" - with the landscape (see below), art, the past, the body and the dead - copious scribblings and the planting of many seeds, it's down to some work on it all here. Thank you so much, Kim and Jenny - I'm definitely signing up for next year!

Dawn over Morecambe Bay