Last night’s Poetry with Friends was exceptional. Every aspect of the session worked. The group has well and truly bonded, aided by existing friendships outside of the fortnightly sessions. I’m delighted to see new friendships popping up like snowdrops as a result of Poetry with Friends.
This was our first session of 2015. The theme was Beginnings but we decided we won’t need to set themes for future evenings as the dialogue flows on its own.
Chat, laughs, poems, claps. Echoes of ideas and sentiments. Values aired and shared. Four attendees read out their own work. Natural links: Ruth Padel (Charles Darwin’s great-great grandchild) to Carol Ann Duffy’s poem about Mrs Darwin. Holocaust Memorial Day to Sylvia Plath, ee cummings’ in just spring to Sappho’s My Love it is spring. David mentioned the word “hipster” and Ken quoted Ginsberg’s Howl at length. This was verbal jamming..a world away from stitled conversation and “how are they wife and kids?”
Poetry matters. Friends matter. Our Poetry with Friends sessions mean something to us all. We ended the evening discussing bullies from playground horrors, workplace rotters via familial monsters to world stage dictators. As Tracey Thorn sings in Little Hitler: “Little Hitlers, Little Hitlers grow into Big Hitlers. Look what they do”. The song also half quotes Sylvia Plath and that takes me back to the natural links of last night’s session.
I thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated last night in The Mission. Join us next time on February 10th. No theme. No rules (apart from pre-booking with Gail gail@happyplanetcreativearts.org.uk ) and definitely no bullies.