Said to be ‘America’s most popular poet’ in 2007, the poetry of Rumi may not be familiar to many of us.  A 13^th Century Persian poet, theologian and Sufi mystic, Rumi’s poetry has been translated into many languages and his worldwide influence has been considerable. 

Despite the recent flooding on roads into East Coker a good number of members came to enter the mystical world of the skittle alley at the Helyar Arms.  The evening was lead by Gaie Vickers with readings by Tilly Tremain and insights into beliefs of the Sufi sect by Simon Heathcote. 

The ever popular annual poetry competition always produces a fascinating poetic mix of styles and forms. Doggerel and limericks sit side by side with haiku and sonnets.

The theme this year was ‘Postcards’ and all the competition entries were read at this meeting.

We had two judges this year, author Malcolm Welshman and artist / illustrator Lyn Milner, who talked about some of the entries that ‘caught their eye’.

First Prize  –  Annie Fisher for a trio of excellent poems – Multiple-Choice holiday postcard, Postcard from a long ago island and Slug on a postcard.

Second Prize  – Gaie Vickers for The Postcard

Third Prize  –  Jane Williams for Postcard

To celebrate the bicentenary of Robert Browning’s birth, Anne Bingley, Charles Hatton and Sonia & Crispian Cartwright presented an excellent mix of Browning’s poetry – a most enjoyable evening.

East Coker is not the only place to be linked to a famous poem and this evening was a poetic and visual trip to those places immortalised in poetry. 

No passports, no airports queues, no traffic jams – only an interest in poetry was needed!

By ‘popular request’ Bernard Holiday came back to East Coker to present an excellent evening of poetry on themes of travel, night and the art of writing different forms poetry.

Bernard was a Judge for our 2010 poetry competition and has also taken part in the West Coker Poets evening here the previous year. 

These open evenings are always popular and this May meeting was no exception.  

A wide variety of poetry was read and although there was no theme, a natural theme of poetry from abroad, or about other countries, seemed to develop.

The Brympton Festival is a new venture for Brympton House.  An extensive week of literary events was planned by the organisers.   East Coker Poetry Group members Catherine Simmonds, David Cloke and Iona Lambe performed poetry at Brympton House on Monday 23^rd April in the evening.  The setting is magnificent and despite the weather there was a good attendance at this poetry reading.

It is thirty years since the Falklands War took place.  David Morgan was a harrier pilot from this area who not only published a vivid account of the conflict from his own personal experience but also wrote some very moving poetry at the time.  These poems were not for ‘general reading’ but were written to record his own feelings at a time of great stress.  David very kindly allowed the East Coker Poetry Group to put together an evening of poetry and prose based on these very personal poems.   Tony Ellerbeck, a helicopter pilot who took part in the Falklands conflict, gave an excellent short talk to set the scene for the evening.

Getting poetry published is often an aspiration for many poets.  What are the realities and difficulties?  Local author James Crowden and poet Rachael Clyne talked about the difficulties and delights of publishing poetry in the quickly changing world of the printed word.  The evening ended with – poetry of course!  James and rachael read from their own publised work.

An evening of reflection on the theme of water.  Based around the inland waterways of Oxfordshire and the changing role of the lock keepers and their interaction with the wildlife on the water.

Poetry, prose and music from Virginia and Florence Astley and Catherine Simmonds.