Poetry Society meeting, 5th February 2013 The Sun
Theme [from January] “New Beginnings” – convenor: Pauline
Poems read:
Stephen
‘A New Start’ and ‘A Woman without her Man is Nothing’
Jenny H.
“New Beginnings”
Margaret
“Making a Fresh Start”
Stuart “Have Done”
[Jenny P.]
“Clean Sheet”
Maureen
“A Fresh Start”
Patti apologised for not having finished her poem
Anne
“A Knitting Yarn”
Pauline
“Fresh Start”
Members circulated a list of telephone numbers to be used in case of last minute bad
weather.
Poetry Society meeting, 7th March 2013 The Raven
Theme “Driving” – convenor: Maureen
Stuart distributed copies of ‘The Poetry Paper’ from the Poetry Trust which had been
made available.
Maureen read ‘Rengo’ – a poem contributed by five people
Poems read:
Stephen
“Driving”
Jenny H.
“The Last Drive”
Margaret
“Driving Snow”
Stuart “Driving 1”, “Driving 2”
[Jenny P.]
“Clean Sheet”
Maureen
“Driving”
Patti
“Who Drives Her”
Jenny P.
“The Carapace”
Duncan
“Driving”
Anne (read by Jenny H.) “Driving”
Pauline
“Friendly Ken”
Jenny P. also read two poems from ‘Staying Alive’, including a ‘Specular’ poem “The
Back Seat of My Mother’s Car” by Julia Copus.
Stuart also read “Poetry for Supper” by R.S. Thomas.
Poetry Society meeting 2nd April 2013
The Sun
Poems on a “Specular” theme:
Jenny P
“Human Scale” and “Kettering Park Hotel”, also
“Your colour”
Anne “The night the snow fell” and “Hold my Hand”
Pauline
“Night and Day”
Duncan
“It sounds awful …”, also “Lessons from a Dry Stone Waller”
Patti
“Snow” and “My friend Jenny” and
“It’s a cold April in Llanarmon”
Bob
“notes on a scrap of paper …”
Stephen
“Reflections on Seven Ages”, also “Behaving like Animals”
Jenny H
“Questions” and “Specular”
Stuart “Urbis”, also “Take a little time …
Poetry Society meeting 2nd May The Raven.
Duncan read “The Bongaloo” [Spike Milligan] and “The Internet”;
Jenny H. read “Introduction to Poetry” [Billy Collins] and “Reply to the Poet”;
Pauline read “Warning” [Jenny Joseph] and “Put Out to Grass”;
Anne read “Leisure” [William Henry Davies] and “Necessity”;
Margaret read “Sheep” [Alan Brownjohn];
Jenny P. read “Afternoons” and “Evenings”;
Bob read “Word Revolution”;
Stephen read “Song of the Artist” influenced by Don Maclean, Blake and Van Gogh;
Maureen read “Loveliest of Trees” [A.E Housman];
Stuart read “Snow” [Edward Thomas] and “Snow”
Poetry Society meeting 4th June 2013 The Sun
Pauline : “Garden Interviews” - led to a discussion on to what extent the poet's
interpretation is crucial
Jenny H.: ”Invaders” - discussion of alternative title
Stuart: “Garden” - alternative first word 'twilight'; alternative title 'Nocturne'
Bob: “Wormfood”
Jenny P.: “Seed” - two versions
Jenny read Duncan's “Compost”- which could also be sung
Patti: untitled poem about her nan's widow box
Maureen: “Garden of Remembrance”
Anne: “Excuse of a Gardener” - and an invitation to sparkling tea!
Stephen: “Earthly Delights” and “Spellcheck 1 and 2”
Margaret; “Aberfan Garden of Remembrance” - in specular form.
Poetry Society meeting 4th July 2013 The Raven
Bob spoke about alternative sins from the Book of Proverbs
Anne: “Seven Deadly Sins” 1 and 2
Stephen: 14L = 1Px7S 6B+3V
Jenny P.: eating Sin” and “Sloth”
Margaret: “The Seven Deadly Sins”
Pauline: “Not Quite Perfect” and “Seven Deadly Sins”- led to a discussion of
Pauline's poetical style, her bathing habits, the nature of sin, different types of sin
and what we can do about it
Patti: “The Seven Deadly Kill Joys”
Jenny H.: “Seven deadly Sins”
Stuart: “Jezebel”
Bob: “Uninspiration” - a poem about not writing a poem
Jenny P. read “Vice” by Gerard Woodward from the PBS Winter 2012 Bulletin and
“With Mercy for the Greedy” by Ann Sexton from the Poetry Foundation website.
Bob suggested that we create a collection of aphorisms to be added to at each
meeting.
Poetry Society meeting 3rd September 2013 The Sun
Theme: Crossed Wires
Jenny P. read “Sunlight” [dedicated to Mary Heaney] and Stuart read “Had I not been
Awake” from “Human Chain” in memory of
Seamus Heaney
Bob distributed copies of “Northwards Now”, a free literary magazine he'd brought
back from Scotland
Jenny P. read “No going back” - a moving poem about emigration
Pauline read “Shock Tactics” - about wiring a 'phone without knowing how
Patti [and others] thought that Pauline had no need to apologise for her poem[s]
Jenny H. read “The Skylark and the Spitfire” - agreed that a skylark is unlikely to
'nod'!
Bob read “Centennial” - about the futility of WW1
Stuart read “Crossed Wires” - also about the inhumanity of WW1
Stephen read “Crossing the Wire” - which wonders whether there will be equivalent
post-cards in the future
Anne read “Crossed Wires” - written quickly in the car, about misunderstandings
Margaret read “Crossed Wires” - a powerful poem about a real fire at her daughter's
house
Elene read “Crawlies” - about insects, from a previous collection
Jenny P. was the only member who had brought some aphorisms e.g. “a stone in the shoe makes a hole in the soul”
Poetry Society meeting 10th
house
October 2013 The Raven – moved to Patti's
Theme: Dialect poem
Anne read “Jemima” - in a braw Scottish accent
Patti read “Friday Night Out” - in a braw broad Cockney rhyming slang
discussion of cultural variations Jenny H. read – “Inadequate Dialect” - with a pretence of angst
Jenny P. read Elene's poem “The Miner's Lament”
Jenny P. read “Ower Lass Says” - a fishwives' tale – and “Wasp Trap” and
“Preserving” - life and death in a Kilner jar
Steven read “Yo' Hillbilly Love Pome” - in a dramatic American accent
Stuart read “Ilkley Moor”
Pauline read “The Daffodils; Eh Up love; At Ice La” in a variety of accents.
Agreed to leave anthology until next spring.
Jenny P. would investigate the question of putting poems on the website.
Poetry Society meeting 7th November 2013 Jenny P's house
Theme: poem in someone else's style
Anne read “March of Time” - randomly written in no particular style
Pauline read “A Date with Mr. Cox” - [i.e. Brian Cox] in a different style, but with the
same tone
Margaret read “Whose Style?” - using Pauline's style, a clever tour of the
idiosyncrasies of each member of the group
Jenny H. read – “Fox” - a tightly-structured polemic with good rhyming
Stuart read “Aching” - with supposed reference to John Betjeman, but with two rogue
lines which insinuated themselves
Stephen read “A Puzzle for Someone Else” - wordplay whose initial
letters
revealed themselves as spelling 'Jenny Hatch Poet'
Jenny P. read “Geology” - in impressively formal Wordsworthian iambic pentameters
which were hard work to write
Patti read “style driven by guilt” - written in 10 minutes about not having spent
enough time on a poem
Elene read “Blue Lagoon” - about Camina, published in 'The Lady'and “The Spider's
Web” - comparing predatory and human webs
Stuart also read “Cariad”, a love poem
Jenny P. also read a Simon Armitage dialect fragment “On an Owd Piktcha” and
“lochan” by Kathleen Jamie