Today is National Poetry Day so it’s the right day to report on Tuesday evening’s Poetry with Friends at The Mission in North Shields.
The theme was “Autumn” and naturally we kicked off with Keats’ Ode to that season then shared work by Larkin, Coleridge, Ted Hughes, Tennyson, T.S. Eliot, Roger McGough, David Essex, Patrick Kavanagh, Pablo Neruda and more.
Assembled friends chose to share some of their own work too. Thank you to Alan, Ken, Jackie, Rowland and John for letting us hear their response to the season of mists and mellow…oh you know which one I’m talking about!
As well as autumn we discussed tinnitis, shirts, Canada, bad sound engineers, weddings, school days, Shotley Bridge and getting drunk.
Quotes of the evening include: “You’ll either be a soldier or a gigolo”, “Let grief be a falling leaf at the dawning of the day” and “It’s dirty but it’s comprehensive.”
One of those quotes is a line from a poem/song, the other is the so-called advice from a teacher. And the third? The third is a description of an anthology of bawdy limericks I appear to have inherited from my poetic partner in crime, the Cagney to my Lacey if you will, the artist still known as Gail Curry.
Our next meeting is on Tuesday 20th October when the theme will be “Emotions.” I second that!
