I'm taking part in The Poetry Society’s second Poem-A-Thon, which aims to raise funds to help the Society continue their fantastic work promoting poetry and supporting poets across the country. The event is on Saturday 18th May from 12noon to 10pm at The Poetry Café, and features SIXTY poets, reading for 8 minutes each. Having …
Continue reading on your marks… for The Poetry Society’s Poem-A-Thon
It's a week now since I got back from a month away in Australia, visiting family in Melbourne. I'm finally over the jet lag, and getting back into the swing of London life. I was very glad that Nick could come with me on this trip, my first "home" in nearly 3 years. It makes …
I won first prize in the City Harvest Holiday Poetry Competition! My first first prize, and City Harvest's first poetry competition. And it all came about thanks to the local surplus food project, Waste Not Want Not, that Nick and I have benefited from over the last couple of years. WNWN circulated details to all their contacts a …
Continue reading how my breakfast inspired a prize winning poem
There was a long stretch when I didn't seem to be dreaming. Certainly, I couldn't remember any dreams when I woke in the morning. I can't pinpoint when this began, but it bothered me. There'd been a period, many years ago, when I'd kept a dream diary of sorts, but I'd fallen out of the …
The Balham housewife who transcribed compositions dictated to her by dead composers including Liszt, Chopin and Brahms. Mock mayoral elections held on Garratt Lane in the 18th century, accompanied by much debauchery. Donkey racing and pigeon shooting on the banks of the Thames, where Battersea Park now stands. These are some of the weird and wonderful …
Three months to the day since my last blog post! What on earth have I been doing? My biggest news, in case you missed it, is that fellow poet Joolz Sparkes and I have been awarded Arts Council research & development funding for our London Undercurrents project. This has been my main focus since September, …
I have quite a bunch of garden-themed poems now, thanks to my recent residencies with Thrive in Battersea Park, as well as my ongoing involvement with my local community garden. And it's rewarding to see some of these poems emerging into the world, like seedlings planted months ago starting to bear fruit. During Thrive's week …
On Friday, Chelsea Flower Shower was in full swing, and over the river in the much less frenetic environs of Battersea Park, I gave a poetry reading under the gum tree in Thrive’s main garden. This was part of Thrive's week of Chelsea Fringe events, and an opportunity for me to share some of the …
This hut, in Thrive’s main garden in Battersea Park, was my home for five days last week. Well, between around 10 in the morning to 4:30 in the afternoon. No sleeping over! In the run up to Thrive's Chelsea Fringe week of events at the end of May, invited local artists have had the opportunity …
I tell myself I can't draw, that I've got no visual sense. So what was I doing in an art workshop called Tell the Canvas on Saturday morning? Testing myself a little, and enjoying myself quite a lot. This was a one hour drawing and collage session facilitated by Mel Barry, and held in Thrive …
Hilaire 