Ted Hughes, Henry Lawson, Hilaire Belloc, Mary Oliver, PB Shelley, Ian McMillan, ee cummings…just some of the poets read aloud and appreciated this evening by a group of like-minded souls.
Yes. This really happened tonight. 2014. North Shields. No football. No other distractions. Nine of us around tables piled with poetry pamphlets, collections and anthologies.
We noticed threads linking the poems we shared as well as the more obvious links between us (bibliophilia & Tynemouth Market for starters).
Enlightening, lively conversation between wonderful poems with tea and coffee thrown in. Oh yes and writing this blog meant I had to find a photo of Henry Lawson. Didn’t he own a splendid moustache?
I’ve teamed up with Happy Planet Creative Arts CIC and run these poetry appreciation evenings in The Mission, North Shields. The next one is on Tuesday July 1st. For more information and to book a place please visit http://www.happyplanetcreativearts.org.uk/
Here’s a picture of one of tonight’s guests, David Franks. This photo was taken at Sunday’s Tynemouth Station Book Fair. We share the same taste in hats as well as a love of books.