Dates for the Diary

2022 is already looking like an exciting year, with six poetry events already booked – more will follow when I have a publication date for my next collection.

First up is at Honley Library, at 7pm on Wednesday 9 March – a joint event with my good friend Anne Steward.

I’ll post more information on the other events later in the year, but in the meantime, the dates are:

21 April 7pm: Stag Café, Canterbury

25 April 7.30pm: Attic Stories (hosted by Rose Condo), Laurence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield

7 September 7pm: Grayston Unity, Halifax

8 September 7pm: Small Seeds, Huddersfield

16 September 7.30pm: Quite Compere (hosted by Sarah Dixon), Marsden Mechanics

Finally, in other news, I was very pleased that my poem Intersection won a small competition on Poetry Nook. You can read it here: https://www.poetrynook.com/content/intersection

Happy New Year

A very Happy New Year to everyone! Let’s hope it’s better than the last one – I seem to remember saying that a year ago, but I am quite hopeful this time that it will turn out to be. It certainly looks like being an eventful one – in the literal sense of being full of events! I’ve got at least six poetry events lined up so far, with more in prospect, and with the upcoming launch of my second collection, there’s a lot to look forward to. I’ll publish more details shortly.

For now, though, I’ll just leave you with my best wishes for 2022. And a poem. New Year’s Day is also my birthday, which made me think of this one:

Birthdays

I used to welcome them,
not just for presents
or that heady thrill
of being special for a day
but as monuments
to my maturing; milestones
on a track through time.  
Each year completed
seemed a step towards
becoming what I was to be.

Now, as each one looms
I look the other way.
It’s not that I’m done travelling
but I don’t like to be reminded
how finite is my journey,
how circumscribed the path I tread.
What would I give to vault the fence
and leave the road behind, 
to wander free through open meadows
of unmeasured time?