A big thank you to all who supported our Hailsham Festival event, earlier this month. It was very encouraging to have so many poets sharing their poems and also reading the poetry of those who could not attend. We had a very receptive audience and lots of participation in the open mic session.
This year, the EBJ competition was adjudicated by Kevin Scully who was the Poet in Residence to the Cuckmere Pilgrim Path 2022 to 2023. A big thank you to Kevin for judging our entries and also to his wife, Adey, for reading some of our poems. We all know that it is the taking part that is important but the winning is pretty significant too. Congratulations to all of our winners.
Commended:
Acrostic, Three Women by Hilary.
This Room is Full by John.
Nineteen by Hilary.
Highly Commended: Luxembourg Nights by Peter.
3rd Prize: And Once Like Pirates by Peter.
2nd Prize: In the Footsteps of St James by Peter.
1st Prize: Imagination by Chris Rawls.
As well as presenting the winners with their certificates and cups, Kevin spoke about his views on poetry sharing what works well and thoughts on how to improve our poems. How doe we know when it is finished? Endings are tricky, what do we want them to achieve.
Kevin shared some sources of support and guidance:
Online resources The Poetry Bath and Poetry Unbound.
The Verve Poetry Press.
BBC Radio 4 Poetry Please and Poetry Extra.
Maybe you have a poetry resource that inspires you that you would like to share with other members of the group? Bring details along to our next meeting.
Kevin was keen to encourage us to explore poetry workshopping which is focused on getting feedback on our poems in a safe, non-judgemental manner. Sue has done a bit of research on this and has a few ideas to share at our next meeting, if members are interested in giving this a go at a later date. She also has a great idea as a warm-up activity to get us in the mood and laughing, which is always good for us.
Best wishes to all.
