WORLD POETRY DAY CELEBRATION 19 MARCH 2024

This was our fourth annual celebration of World Poetry Day, an entertaining and very enjoyable evening, with good company, food, and wine. Below is the list of poems submitted, and our thanks got to Richard Ford for organising the programme. 

It was a great shame that Barbara, Graham and Mary were all unwell and unable to join us. 

The evening raised £100 for the Club’s charity, The Croydon Health Charity. 

What is Poetry?

For the sake of a single poem – Rainer Maria Rilke – Kevin Painting
The Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay – William McGonagall – Richard Ford 

Humour in Verse

Hot and cold – Roald Dahl – Graham Harker – not read
Please Mrs Butler – Allan Ahlberg – Barbara Harker – read by Anne Ford (the Harker’s being ill)
Rebecca, who slammed doors – Hilaire Belloc – Barbara Harker – read by Anne Ford
Poetic Whimsey – Bob Campen – Mary Bishop – not read (Mary unable to come) 

War and Peace

Strange Meeting – Wilfred Owen – Sue Wragg
Letter from Kharkiv – Kathryn Sim – Mary Bishop – read by Richard Ford
Hunger - Robert Laurence Binyon – Joe Trickey
The Peacemaker – Waldo Williams – Richard Wragg 

Love

Through your beautiful eyes I see a sun – Michelangelo – Kevin Painting
Was this the face that launched a thousand ships? – Christopher Marlowe – Richard Ford
A Subaltern’s Love Song – John Betjeman  –  Graham Harker  – not read                                               
Remember me when I am gone away – Christina Rossetti – Joe Trickey 

The Dead Hand of Time?

Burnt Norton – T S Eliot – Sue Wragg
Leisure – W H Davis – Graham Harker – not read
When I am an old woman – Jenny Joseph – Barbara Harker – read by Anne Ford
Fern Hill - Dylan Thomas – Sue Wragg
Do not go gentle into that good night – Dylan Thomas – Joe Trickey 

Childhood Memories

The Railings – Roger McGough – Patricia Painting
A Constable Calls – Seamus Heaney – Patricia Painting 

Homegrown (poems written by members)

Wales – Richard Wragg
On watching “I, Daniel Blake.” – Richard Ford 

The Finale

Tengo un caballo a la Puerta… (I have a horse at the door) recited by Pili Wesson. She was taught this poem at the age of nine and remembers it in full. 

A dramatic rendition by Ian Wesson of – Abdul Abulbul Amir by Percy French.