‘Islands of the mind’

October 8, 2025
Fiona Moore, me, Alexis Bennett, Lisa Kelly and Gale Burns

All poems are islands, Fiona said, and we can inhabit them alone, or invite people to join us. And the many people who did join the poets last night enjoyed every word beautifully read out, the interesting back stories and the gorgeous music performed by Alexis Bennett on fiddle and Anna Bregen on nyckelharpa (an ancient Swedish string instrument capable of sounding like an organ!). Anna is not in the photo because she had to leave promptly to return to Cambridge.

The islands were real, such as Harris in the Outer Hebrides in Fiona’s case, or self contained snapshots of earlier life and nature (Gale and Lisa).

Fiona’s book-length poem, Okapi, came to life after a long gestation following her stay (vastly extended, not deliberately but happily, because of lockdown) on Harris. The Okapi is an animal that lives in the Congo, so what’s the connection? You’ll have to buy the book…. It’s published by Blue Diode Publishing, and Fiona donates her profit from sales to two charities close to her heart. Amazon has two fantastic reviews of the book and Fiona’s poetry, so I shan’t attempt one myself. All I can say is that Fiona can take us to outer and inner landscapes that speak to us with simplicity and immediacy.

Gale’s poetry is witty, ironic and full of surprises. Accessible surprises, aha moments, wry smiles – whether he remembers forays in a forest with his brother as kids, experiencing being ‘quiet with fear and no fear’ (such a perfect way to describe our current attitude to environmental catastrophe), seeing beached whales, odd facts about his brother, a mostly unknown fact about a not-famous Soviet official, and so on. We all loved island-hopping with Gale, a great tour in a short time. He said he does write more serious poems, including as a member of Poets for the Planet. We could all see rigorous poetic seriousness while enjoying the irony and wit.

Lisa’s poetic voice is strong and individual. She has no hearing in her left ear, and a lot of her focus on the evening was on the particular images, words and experiences connected with her deafness. She is learning signing, and it was fascinating to see how the signing for certain words and expression found their way into her poetry – for example deconstructing the concept of photosynthesis into hand movements (signing such a word letter by letter would be impossibly long) and then putting them into words… Like Fiona and Gale, Lisa is passionate about the environment, and her anti-fracking poem was as relentless as digging machinery. Lisa also donates part of her profit from sales to charity.

And the music… Alexis and Anna played a few sets starting very appropriately with Scottish tunes from the Hebrides, moving from slow old music to jigs that made me want to dance, and back to slow. The violin and the nyckelharpa chasing each other in a fugue, or complementing each other creating a sound that felt as if it came from more than simply two instruments. Both are accomplished musicians who can play a variety of instruments but I feel this combination has something magical about it. We were all absolutely enthralled.

Below are the short biographies of the poets and the musicians. Feel free to contact me if you can’t find details of how to buy their work.

With thanks as always to Kim and Emma at the Library and to Mari for helping ‘at the bar’.

Gale Burns has lived in Forest Hill for several decades and used to work for local government across the road in what is now the language school.  He has won two international awards for poetry and his publications include three pamphlets and a collection called Mute House, published by Eyewear.  Gale’s work has been translated into several European languages as well as Arabic, and he has been poet in residence at Lewisham Hospital, Sydenham Arts Festival, and Kingston University.   He is one of the founders of the Shuffle Poetry reading series and a member of Poets for the Planet.  His website is www.galeburns.co.uk

Lisa Kelly‘s second collection, The House of the Interpreter (Carcanet), was a Poetry Book Society Summer 2023 Recommendation.  Her first collection, A Map Towards Fluency (Carcanet), was shortlisted for the Michael Murphy Memorial Poetry Prize 2021.  Her poetry roots are in the Torriano Meeting House, a grassroots venue in north London run by volunteers, where she sometimes hosts poetry events. She co-edited the anthology, What Meets the Eye?: The Deaf Perspective (Arachne Press).  Lisa is a board member of Magma Poetry and is the co-editor of four issues, including most recently the Grassroots issue (Magma 90). Her poem, I wanted to show you a donkey in the field or I want to show you the donkey in a field, was shortlisted for the Forward Prizes Best Single Poem – Written 2024.  She is a judge of the Forward Prizes 2025.

Fiona Moore‘s first collection, The Distal Point, was shortlisted for the T S Eliot and Seamus Heaney prizes.  Her second book, Okapi, is one long poem, set (mostly) on the island of Harris in the Outer Hebrides, where she lived for nearly two years before and during the pandemic.  The island becomes subject and symbol of reflection, memory, loss (represented by the rare okapi, a favourite animal in her childhood zoo), destruction, beauty and resilience, a meeting point of substance and dream.  Fiona is on the editing board of Magma poetry magazine, editing issues themed for climate change and islands, and on the organising committee of Poetry in Aldeburgh.  She lives in Greenwich and campaigns on climate and environmental issues.  

Alexis Bennett studied music and literature at the University of Edinburgh before postgraduate training at the Royal College of Music, Guildhall School, and Goldsmiths, University of London, where he now lectures. He has composed music for over forty short films and five feature films, in addition to commercials, idents, and games. His performing curriculum, on viola and other instruments, is too extensive to be mentioned here. His collaboration with the Northumbria-based poet Katrina Porteous debuted at Dartington International Summer School & Festival in 2018, and he also works regularly with the London-based poets Mick Delap and Gloria Sanders. In 2021, his collaboration with Gloria Sanders, Epistles from Gaia, was longlisted for the Pallette Poetry Prize.

Originally from Austria, Anna Breger is a nyckelharpa and (baroque) violin player with a passion for traditional music going back to the 17th and 18th century. She collaborates with many Folk musicians on both sides of the Atlantic and performs regularly at international music festivals, recently at the Boston Celtic Music Festival, Northern Roots and New England Folk Festival. With the international Folk group Triga (Nyckelharpa, Fiddle, Bouzouki) she has released an EP last year, and her Austrian Folk Duo Wiener Miniorchester (Accordion, Nyckelharpa/Violin) released their first album in 2022.

Events

TUESDAY NOVEMBER 11 at West Greenwich Library – 7 for 7.30

‘Poems of Peace (and War)‘ – with Mick Delap, Malene Engelund, Graham High, Lorraine Mariner, Jocelyn Page, Kelley Swain and Sarah Westcott. With Lucia Foti on harp.

It cannot be at 11am, but 7.30 will do… An evening of poetry to celebrate peace (but it’s almost impossible to do so without poems on war). The poets, all belonging to the Nevada Street Poets group based in Greenwich (and thriving despite various departures for other places – Tasmania being the farthest), have designed a programme that includes their own work and that of poets from the canon.

And I’m delighted to welcome back Lucia Foti, who will play a small selection of music on harp. You may remember her wonderful playing in February this year, to accompany readings by Jacqueline Saphra and Sue Rose.

As always, the event is free and everyone is welcome. Books and pamphlets will be on sale, and there will be plenty of refreshments.

Mick Delap Mick Delap is a long time Greenwich resident.  He took up writing poetry along the way, publishing his first collection, River Turning Tidal in 2003, and his second, Opening Time in 2016.  Mick has never stopped supporting the reading and the writing of poetry in South East London. He gathered the group of poets still at the heart of the Nevada Street Writers in 2009.  They still meet regularly.

Malene Engelund is a poet and translator based in Copenhagen. Her pamphlet The Wild Gods was published in 2016 and her translation of the Danish author Christel Wiinblad’s poetry collection My Little Brother was the PBS Spring 2020 translation choice. Her collection Gather is forthcoming with Corsair.Her work will be read by “members of the cast!”

Lucia Foti is a London-based Italian harpist. Supported by Trinity College London and a Trinity Laban Scholarship, she has recently completed her master’s degree with distinction at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. She is the recipient of prizes in France (2012), Italy (2015) and Britain (2023 and 2024). Lucia freelances with various orchestras and ensembles, performing widely abroad as well as at leading London venues including Kings Place, Cadogan Hall, St John’s Smith Square, St James’s Piccadilly and the Painted Hall in Greenwich.

Graham High has been writing poetry since school days, although his primary career has been as a sculptor and Animatronic Model Designer in the film industry. He has published five poetry collections to date, as well as several chapbooks of poetry and other work. Graham’s other literary involvements have been in editorial and translation work, and as a writer of short stories and movie screenplays (two of which have won awards but, sadly, have not been produced). Through his keen interest in Japanese literature, he became editor of the British Haiku Society Journal, Blithe Spirit, (2005-2008), and to serve as the Society’s president (2011-2014).

Lorraine Mariner lives in Greenwich and works as a librarian at the National Poetry Library, Southbank Centre. She has published two collections with Picador, Furniture (2009) and There Will Be No More Nonsense (2014) and has been shortlisted for the Forward Prize twice, for Best Single Poem and Best First Collection, and for the Seamus Heaney Centre Poetry Prize. Her third collection Little Anchors is due from Picador in Autumn 2026. She has edited several titles for Candlestick Press, including Ten Poems About Friendship (2016) and Ten Poems about Libraries (2024).

Jocelyn Page is a poet from Connecticut, USA, living in London. She teaches English and Creative Writing at Goldsmiths College and the University of London, and is Resident Creative Consultant on the ‘Just Poetry’ project at Greenpeace, CJL. Jocelyn’s publications include You’ve Got to Wait Till the Man You Trust Says Go (argent press, 2016) – winner of the Goldsmiths’ Writer Centre’s inaugural Poetry Pamphlet award, and smithereens (tall-lighthouse press, 2010). She is co-chair of the National Association of Writers in Education. 

Kelley Swain is a PhD candidate in Creative Writing (poetry) at the University of Tasmania, with an MSc in Medical Humanities from King’s College London. She is the author of poetry collections Darwin’s Microscope, Atlantic, and Opera di Cera, and a contributor to Guests of Time, an anthology written for the first poetry residency at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Poems from the 10th anniversary edition of Darwin’s Microscope were adapted to the song cycle, Endless Forms Most Beautiful. Kelley is also a novelist and contributor to art & health essays and criticism in The Lancet, where she has over 100 publications. Her work will be read by “members of the cast!”

Sarah Westcott is a poet, originally from Devon. She has published three pamphlets and two full collections – Slant Light and Bloom (Pavilion Poetry, Liverpool University Press). Her latest pamphlet is Almanac – hand-stitched and published by Coast to Coast to Coast. Sarah is currently researching and writing inter-species poetry as part of a PhD at the University of Birmingham. She has been working with tadpoles, bats and nightingales to co-create poems that explore the interesting spaces where human and more than human intersect.

‘Chaos, Dragon and the Light’ – January 27 at West Greenwich Library, 7 for 7.30

A poignant documentary film by local Director Sal Anderson. It tells the story of Marika, a Hungarian girl who was forced into hiding from the Nazis during WW2, and forced to flee from the Soviets in 1956 during the Hungarian uprising. Settled in London, she was transformed by her creativity.

A free event to remember and honour all the victims of the Holocaust and of persecution, hatred and discrimination everywhere.