Family, Animals and Other Things – Zoom reading on June 24

For former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins, a poem is ‘a flashlight, an instrument of discovery’. I don’t think this can be surpassed as the most perfect concise definition of poetry.

Sarah Westcott, Gordon Meade, Gillie Robic and Neetha Kunaratnam confirmed this definition last night with verses that shone a light on and helped us discover many different ‘elsewheres’ – some painfully real, like the moment a cancer diagnosis is received; or when a parent is desperately worried about a child’s health; or when one witnesses a parent’s sickness or when caged animals are given a voice. Others almost mythical, where one flies again with an injured bird, watches hawks, listens to ‘the old man by the sea’ or floats out to the ocean without flipflops through a flooded London… And others again, where you’re taken for a literal ride with family members to times and a society so different that it feels like watching a Hollywood movie.

Beautiful voices and not only in the poetic sense. Sarah, Gordon, Gillie and Neetha have beautiful reading voices and I could have listened to them for a lot longer. Comments from the audience expressed the same. If you enjoyed the evening, or if you didn’t make it and would like to read their work, here are some links:

You can order Sarah’s books from the publisher https://liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/books/

Gordon’s Zoospeak is published by Enthusiastic Press.

Gillie’s books are published by Live Canon https.//www.livecanon.co.uk/store

Neetha’s collection Just Because is published by Smokestack Books.

Events

It’s been an exciting and stimulating run of poetry events these last nine months – with such varied voices making us smile, laugh and feel moved, and always spellbound.

Thank-you to all of you who’ve attended, and of course to the staff at the splendid West Greenwich Library.

But now a break for the summer, and before we know it, the next ‘season’ will start. Hope to see you then. In the meantime, have a good summer!

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 2 at West Greenwich Library – ‘Wildings, Edgelands and Elsewheres’. Poetry with Jude Rosen, Derrick Porter and Jemma Borg

TUESDAY OCTOBER 7 at West Greenwich Library – Fiona Moore, Gale Burns and Lisa Kelly

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 11 at West Greenwich Library – tbc