WORLD POETRY DAY

Celebrated with an evening of poetry readings on Friday 19 March 2021

Our President had wanted to hold a poetry evening in September 2020 for members and partners, but of course, this could not happen.

Would it work on Zoom? We weren't sure but thought we'd try anyway.

So glad we did, as it turned out to be a fabulous evening. It was good to hear the wide range of poems, some familiar and some new, and the reasons for choosing them. Many of us recalled poems we had learned at junior school.

Joe Trickey kindly orchestrated the evening, categorizing the poems into themes, giving structure to the evening. Half-way through we showed Graham Harker's choice of a video of Tom O'Bedlam reading The Night Mail by W H Auden.

Everyone agreed, that we must do this again. Hopefully together next time, sharing a glass of wine.

Here are the poems we enjoyed:

Theme	Poem	Author	Chosen and Read by
Spring/Optimism	Spring	Gerard Manley Hopkins	Sue Wragg
	Happy Spring	Pam Ayres	Julia Spinks
	The Darkling Thrust	Thomas Hardy	Joe Trickey

Hopes, Dreams, Projects	Kubla Khan	Coleridge	Richard Ford
	Cargoes	Masefield	(Valerie Best)
	The Night Mail	W H Auden	Graham Harker
	Three Postcards	Brian Bilston	Patricia Painting

Loss	Doomed Youth	Wilfred Owen	Richard Ford

Metaphysical	What is man	Waldo Williams Tr: Rowan Wlliams	Richard Wragg
	The rolling English road	GK Chesterton	Barbara Harke
	The world is complicated	Pam Ayres	Julia Spinks
	Mrs Plato	Brian Bilston	Patricia Painting

The passing of time	Cows	James Reeves	Barbara Harker
	From a railway carriage	Robert Louis Stevenson	Graham Harker
	Leisure	William Henry Davies	Joe Trickey