A finale, a winning poem and some forthcoming readings
A few hot days of summer are here, yay! We had a dip in the sea this morning at a secret location, keeping well clear of the little seal colony that was basking on the rocks, bellowing to each other now and then, probably annoyed to see humans on their beach!
Then I was just trying to stay cool indoors at my desk, clearing up emails and so on, when I realised I hadn’t blogged here for a while. So what’s been happening? Let me see.
There’s a week or so to go until the DYCP deadline, and Peter and I are going to try for some funding to help us with the Planet Poetry podcast. We’re not hopeful, but I put together an application six months ago only to miss the deadline by a couple of hours. So I’ve nothing to lose in trying now, I suppose (except for a day or two of my life going over it and changing it all of course.) We have a handful of kind supporters who donate, and we’re very grateful to them, but it’s a drop in the ocean. Without funding, I can’t see us being able to produce Planet Poetry indefinitely, alas, but we’re committed to one more series at least and then let’s see. We finished Season Four a couple of weeks ago with an unusual episode in which we interviewed each other for a change, about our own forthcoming publications. It kind of broke our own rule of not talking about our own work. But hey, after four years I think we deserve to be a bit self-indulgent. Here we were when we recorded Episode 13 of Season 4, over by the sunny Seaford beachhuts.
Although Planet Poetry is now on its holidays, we’ve already got some exciting poets lined up for October onwards when we start Season Five. One interview in the bag and a couple more on the way.
Meanwhile, a wee sonnet of mine which was published in June by Ink Sweat & Tears was voted its ‘poem of the month’ – possibly down to the fact that I petitioned my entire mailing list of poets to place their votes – although I did not ask them to vote for my poem of course! Anyway, if you’d like to read it and hear me reading it, the poem and a recording is here on the I S & T website. I was very touched indeed by the comments the poem received.
Other poetry-related stuff I’ve been up to: writing a review of a collection by Simon Alderwick for the Frogmore Papers, re-reading Ovid’s Heroides for a project I’m working on, and contacting poetry groups and Stanzas to ask if anyone will have me give a reading in early 2025, when I’m hoping my book will be out with Pindrop Press. So far I’m reading at Seaford next month and at the Poets’ Cafe Reading in March, with dates at Chichester and Eastbourne yet to be fixed. Hopefully more to come, if I’m to sell some books!
Now back to some lovely box-filling and wordcount checking. Wish me luck!
PS I took the ‘bench art’ photo in Turin, on the roof of the old Fiat factory that’s now part- shopping mall part-art gallery and part-rooftop garden where the old test track still circles.
