I hope all readers have had a happy Easter, so early this year and with the daffodils now finishing. 

March started with a flourish of inspiration (see my March Musings on the StAnza poetry festival in St Andrews, Scotland). I drafted a few poems there which I now need to write up. I have been very focused on editing (or rewriting in some cases) poems this month after the latest feedback from my mentor Rebecca Goss. As I am now two thirds of the way through our sessions, I am being challenged to look back over what I have written so far to see if I am repeating themes and to look at how to make each poem distinct though linked. 

I have also been busy with Suffolk Poetry Society’s AGM which went well and then I was the joint organiser of a meeting of Ely Stanza and Suffolk Poetry Society (also a Stanza under the Poetry Society’s umbrella). We had an inspiring afternoon by the river in Ely in the Babylon Gallery; book sales went very well too. I was slightly disappointed with my last poetry workshop for Suffolk Archives at The Hold as I was expecting a full house and not everyone turned up (it was a free event so that may, I think, mean people are less committed). The group which attended, however, was wonderful and we had a very good morning thinking about ‘Home’ and what it means to leave a home. 

On World Poetry Day I went down to the Steamboat Tavern in Ipswich to hear some local poets who have a book out ‘Ten Poets’ (Earth Island Books). The event was well attended and the readers clearly popular. Amy Wragg, the organiser, is well known in East Anglia, entrepreneur, poet and magic-maker who creates amazing installations from recycled materials for festivals. Look up her range of activities on her website. Later in the month, I enjoyed readings on Zoom by past and current students of the Creative Writing Programme and hope to have a reading slot in future. CWP run excellent poetry courses, I followed an advanced course on Zoom in autumn 2022 run by the inimitable John McCullough. 

I was delighted to have a further review of ‘Sleeping Under Clouds’ in issue 207 of the excellent literary journal Orbis.  It is worth sending in poems to the journal. Thank you to the reviewer, Philip Dunkerley, for his words: ‘Sleeping Under Clouds is certainly a moving contribution to the conversations we must have about the mess we are making of the world, and the people who are impacted by expulsion from the places they once called ‘home’.’ 

I also received good news that I have one poem coming out in Artemis (Second Light) in May, was shortlisted for Butchers Dog (but got no further) and have had a poem accepted for another journal (but cannot share the name of the journal as yet). I had a collection manuscript also recently longlisted in a collection competition. So, I feel I am making progress! I am also reading a couple of poems for Toast (a Norwich based poetry organisation) alongside other local poets and the brilliant headliners Martin Figura and Laurie Bolger in the East Pavilion, Lowestoft on 4th April. 

Tickets for the 10th Festival of Suffolk poetry 10th May (online) and 11 May (in person in Stowmarket) are being snapped up (workshops always go first). This year the workshops are by Sue Burge (online), Annie Freud and MW Bewick. I would also like to let readers know that I have organised a reading by six poets with Cornish connections on 9th May at the Miners and Mechanics Institute, St Agnes, in North Cornwall (with limited open mic). Do spread the word and come if you are nearby. 

My mentor recently recommended that I obtain an out-of-print book by Fiona Larkin, A Dovetail of Breath (Rack Press). I managed to get this from Penzance-based Tim Kendall-Carpenter who stocks poetry and also Cornish books in his book lists: https://timkcbooks.com/ . Katrina Naomi has curated Newlyn Society of Artists’ show ‘Where the Line / Breaks’ which looks very interesting and runs until 21st April 2024; she reads a commissioned poem on 14th April, see her website for details. 

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)