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poetrywivenhoe Reviews
May
to
July
2007
by
Peter Kennedy
At only its third event — at the Greyhound on 17 May — poetrywivenhoe was already looking like a success story. Philip Wilson opened the evening's readings with two translations; mythological and literary origins were to the fore; later came his eerie and effective Judging the Scarecrow Competition. Derek Adams pitched straight in with an exposition of
the Sabattier effect in photography. He read with both gravitas and humour
from his Postcards to Olympus, a
collection of poems derived from images of Greek mythology.
"Hector was really put upon by his bastard brother" said Both Wilson and Adams were hugely appreciated by the audience; a superb evening's poetry. Schneider
and May The evening of June 21 was a warm one, and rich in poetry. Adrian May says he is known less for his poems than
for his song writing, yet he transported us from the warmth of June to the
cool Snow on St Leonard's Hythe Hill
2000; then to the world of creative writing with Writing
Group 8 Submissions. A
poem about the murdered women of Myra Schneider has by now published nine books of poetry, and several children's books; her poetry is wide ranging and accessible. "There is something very satisfying in writing about food" she said, and treated us to a wonderful word portrait of an aubergine; then a memory of wartime rationing, of cinnamon, and of her father. When Myra left the audience with their heads full of imagery; but she was not allowed to go without an encore. "I'm not used to being asked to read another poem" she protested. "This is Wivenhoe!" someone called out from the audience. Parkin
and Tackling 19 July at the Greyhound, and Dean Parkin was introduced as "a poet on the borderline" for no better reason than that he lives in Norfolk with a Suffolk postcode — or perhaps the other way about. He currently works for the Poetry Trust. We think he's great. He won the audience over from the start, with some poems from his collection Irresistible to Women. A narrative poem Third Wish told us that "it's a sorry day when a man doesn't feel safe in his own pyjamas". Tony Tackling, support poet, started quite strongly
with his descriptive poems The open-mic session, which is now well established, produced some half a dozen entertaining poems read from the floor. Then Dean Parkin, with warm good humour, produced a poem about jogging, and The Waiting Room ... and "I'm going to finish with some audience participation" which he did, to everyone's great delight. Peter Kennedy |
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