Bring a couple of poems to read – or just come and listen and be entertained by the variety of poetry that always makes these evenings popular.

Virginia Astley has chosen the River Thames for her latest collection of poetry.  A much admired songwriter and musician since the 1980s, Virginia is known for her engaging lyrics as well as for her melodious style.   Now her other two passions take centre stage in this book: poetry and the River Thames. She grew up by the river’s upper reaches and in recent years has returned to the Thames, working for a summer as an assistant lock-keeper, and walking its length to record and respond to its landscapes, river life and river folk as a poet and photographer.

She will be reading from this collection with harp accompaniment.

This meeting will take the form of a ‘sit-down’ meal; the poetry and music intertwined between the courses.  Booking will be required as we are limited in numbers and the cost will be £16-00 a head.  Details of the menu and how to book will be given in the next Newsletter or email via this website contact page.

Leonard Cohen was a poet and novelist before he became a singer. 

This evening tries to encapsulate this and present some of his beautiful poems and lyrics.

The evening will be lead by Heather Murphy.

Bring a couple of poems to read.  Read your own or any poem you feel will interest the group.

Or just come and listen.  These open evenings are always popular.

Sounding the Silence with R S Thomas.  A talk by John Summers

R S Thomas was a Welsh Poet and Priest.   John Summers will be exploring how he interpreted silence in his poetry, focusing particularly on the silence of place, the silence of self and the silence of God.

He will explore how R S Thomas found redemption in the menace and danger of quietness and absence.

A poet for difficult times like ours.                 

Two Bristol poets, Elizabeth Parker and Luke Palmer, are coming to East Coker to read.  Both poets are recently published;  Luke Palmer was the winner of this year’s Prole Pamphlet Competition for Spring in the Hospital, and Elizabeth Parker has had her debut collection In her Shambles published in 2018.

Christmas Open Evening

Ho! Ho! Ho!  This is the time to bring some really highbrow poetry (like limericks) to add to the festive season. 

Come and read your own poetry or something by any poet that you think will entertain the group – or just come and eat mince pies………

2018 marks the 100-year anniversary of the Representation of the People Act which first gave women the right to vote.

Chris Salberg and Margaret Hamilton have put together this evening on their personal view of women’s poetry.

The theme this year was ‘Colours’.   Every poet taking part was allocated a colour  – how this was to be interpreted was left entirely to the poet.

The competition evening brought surprising and varied poetry and was great fun.  All the poems entered in our competition were read on the night.   Our three equal winners were :-

Chris Salberg with On the Madonna and Child by Bernardo Daddi, 1348

Diane Summer with The Art of Man

Ama Bolton with Yellow Ochre

Our judge this year was Dorset artist Jenny Cuthbert – our thanks to her for taking on this difficult task

November sees the centenary of the Armistice which brought an end to the First World War.

Jem Langworthy presented – with the aid of volunteer and conscript readers – an evening of poetry written by and about those who lived through the years 1914 to 1918, from the jingoists to the pacifists and the soldiers who found themselves ‘here because we’re here because we’re here…’.

We saw how the war affected the poetry of some well-known writers and heard some too-often overlooked poetry written by women – nurses, wives, girlfriends, mothers. In addition to some refreshingly humorous verse written at the time we looked at poetry written long after the war which attempted to put it in some perspective.