It has been quite hard to spot the sun this month but at least snowdrops and early daffodils have cheered up the scene. I have mainly been home-based but spent a week in Brussels with family and particularly enjoyed visiting Gare Maritime, an enormous space (previously warehousing for the port) which hosted a sculpture show.  One sculpture portraying refugees in a small boat was striking as was the glass sculpture of a fish with chicken legs in a separate EU exhibition in the same space! I might yet write a poem about some of the work. 

On the reading front I enjoyed Irish poet Fiona Perry’s reading at Oxford Stanza 2 at the very end of January and read at the open mic. Kathleen McPhilemy always welcomes new open mic readers. I attended two Red Doors Poets Zoom events which included Mary Mulholland’s fascinating interview of Rebecca Goss and Jean Atkin’s poems inspired by a trip to Iceland in High Nowhere just published by Indigo Dreams Publishing. Many congratulations to Mary Allen for being highly commended in The Poetry Business’ International Book and Pamphlet competition 2023. Their website will feature videos of all the winners and highly commended poets, also including Ramona Herdman who is based in East Anglia. Mary and I had a lovely chat recently in Aldeburgh about all sorts of poetry and the Suffolk scene. I also met up with my friend Antony Johae in Colchester who told me he has a pamphlet coming out with Mica Press later this year or early 2025: Foreign Forays: Poems of Travel in Europe and the Med. I am looking forward to that. Antony is a very internationally-minded poet with wide experience of the Middle East and Europe and several collections to his name. 

I ran the first of my two workshops ‘From Home to Home’ for Suffolk Archives at the Hold on 15th February. There was a great mix of poets who drew inspiration from Nigerian, Sri Lankan, Central European heritage, for example, or from their experience of moving from one place to another place. The feedback at the end was very good and I enjoyed the poets’ writing and stories. There is always something to learn from others in a workshop. A common theme that emerged was the importance of security as a feature of any home. An interesting observation from one participant was that while a home might be comfortable, it might not be comfortable to be in emotionally. The next workshop (a re-run of the same) will be on 15 March and apparently a couple of the poets are planning to return! Book here: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/suffolk-archives/e-gdedme  

I also ran my occasional Green Room café evening ‘Chez Nous’ later in the month. There was a good turn out and a lovely evening.  I had invited guests Jacques Groen and Phil Baker to read, both Suffolk poets, and featured readers from the floor. I myself read a set of ekphrastic poems about the artists in my family and other poems about grandmotherhood (the latter received a particularly warm welcome). I plan to run the next event in late May or early June. 

The end of February is being taken up by editing my poems for my mentor Rebecca Goss and preparing a new batch of poems to send her in early March. I only have two batches left to submit so am having to choose very carefully. I have also been reviewing how I have used form across the poems which I will discuss with her in my next Zoom.  I am also looking forward to taking part in two poetry groups I attend, one in mid Suffolk run by Tamar Yoseloff and one in north Suffolk. 

February saw Valentine’s Day and poetrywivenhoe’s next Zoom event on 29th February is on the theme of love and romance. I will be reading on this theme along with others. My poems take a slightly wry look at the whole engagement and marriage process in a previous century. Of course, 29th February is a leap day when tradition has it that the woman can propose marriage. 

Finally, I recently enjoyed seeing some paintings of harbours by Suffolk artist Colin Slee, who used to live in Cornwall. Gallery East in Woodbridge likes to feature work about Cornwall and the owner has a personal connection to the county. She mentioned that Cornish artist Michael Praed has a retrospective exhibition at Penwith Gallery mid April-mid May, which sounds interesting. 

If you would like to contact me to comment or follow up, please send me an email via the contact box on my website . You can also contact me to buy a signed copy my books 

Sleeping Under Clouds (Clayhanger Press) and A City Waking Up (Dempsey and Windle)