LOVE IS A JOURNEY

May 4, 2015
LOVE IS A JOURNEY


Their first meeting – the coach for Archant’s annual awards ceremony,
Mandy walked down the aisle refilling raised glasses. Hot Tottie!
cried Andrew. Squashed together colleagues in best attire fell silent.
Mandy turned, hair cascading, and she laughed.

Theirs was a long-distance romance. Distance brought planes
and trains keeping track, distance brought car journeys
on snow-cotton drifts, distance brought photo’s lighting walls
and shelves with family and friends.

If you were to ask them about the distance they might recall
their first date at Cartmel, or times spent with dear friends
at Fitzfest, or the long nights on farmland in the camper-van,
or recalling the craggy outcrops of Haystacks.

Andrew proposed in the heart of the plateau of ancient stones,
watched by Skiddaw, Blencathra, Cat Bells, Helvellyn –
and bleating sheep and Japanese with cameras. In the office
testing a land-line. Scraping the words on the car windscreen –

Will You, Marry. Me?

The ‘For Sale’ sign in sunshine brought garden tools
and new paths, strawberries, peppers, trees that grow
a robin’s all year song. The door opens with welcome light,
knitted things, glints of eyes, orange fur, a teddies bow tie.

Today, Mandy’s wedding dress is made from silk
of snowdrop petals woven by small creatures of the wood.
The seamstress sewed tiny stars in hidden seams, Mandy’s
Nanny smiles down at the stardust trail.

Life is a journey of wonder and faith,
love is a journey of discovery and trust,
may you both have a happy new journey
blessed today with God’s love.



2nd May 2015,  Church of St Peter, Easton


 

Poetry Unboound

March 14, 2015


This poem is currently on display at the Millennium Library in Norwich. Poets can drop a poem 'in the box' or via email, if selected the poem will be put on display in the library and when taken down will be stored for folk to browse on the web page. This poem was inspired by my observations of the flamingos in the pond I frequently pass (behind a fence!) when dog walking.

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Writer's CV Jan 14 - Dec 14

January 26, 2015
Published and exhibited poems in 2014

New collection:

NOTES FROM THE BALCONY  Indigo Dream Publishing, 2014, ISBN: 978-1-909357570.   68pp £8.99

Reviewed: Reach Poetry Issue 195, Dec, by B M Jackson

Individual poems published:

Notes From The Balcony, Reach Poetry Issue 195, Dec, (previously published in Hearts Shoots Anthology
Indigo Dreams Publishing with Macmillan Cancer Support, 2013 (first published in Envoi))

QQ Press, Poetry Workshop Book, Bumper Edition (2014) (3 poems)

TEN THINGS YOU NEED TO...

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NOTES FROM THE BALCONY In association with Poetry Unbound

November 18, 2014


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Readings, Poems and Exhibitions October 2014

October 10, 2014

 Colin and I traveled to London by train early one September morning. We arrived early and spent the day exploring The British Museum and surrounding area. In the evening I read with five other Norwich based poets and friends and six Tonbridge poets at The Poetry Society Café. What a brilliant lot of poets and poems.

 

 

 

 

During the evening Paul McGrane, Membership Manager of the Poetry Society told me I had been commended in The Poetry Society Stanza Competition, and could I keep it...


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Stanza Bonanza

September 15, 2014

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Stanza Bonanza: Tonbridge v Norwich

There may be blood, there WILL be poetry. Two of the Poetry Society's leading Stanzas join up for a cracking night of poetry. Free entry and everyone welcome! Wearing the shirt for NORWICH are Julia Webb, Peter Wallis, Richard Lambert, Ramona Herdman, Lynn Woollacott and Rosalynde Price. In the TONBRIDGE corner are Penny Lavender, Nick Pallot, Gill Hoare, Christine Harrington, Clare Marsh, and Val Pargeter (Eric Beston and Margaret Beston...


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Notes From The Balcony

June 28, 2014
My new poetry collection will be published by Indigo Dreams Publishing in August 2014 ...

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Poetry Reading in the Greenhouse Garden

May 16, 2014

Poetry, wine and cake: Poems in Flight on Sunday 1 June


Do come to this summer’s Saturday Writers reading at the Greenhouse, 42-46 Bethel Street, Norwich on Sunday 1 June, from 2.00 to 4.00. Free admission.

This reading is to accompany the Greenhouse Gallery’s Open Studios events, with poems by the Saturday Writers included in the exhibition:

 

Dot Cobley

Ramona Herdman

Anne Osbourn

Anna Reckin

Hilary Stanton

Nedra Westwater

Lynn Woollacott

Sophie Yeomans

The café will...


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A HORSE CALLED AMBITION by Rachel Gillian North

February 22, 2014
A HORSE CALLED AMBITION by RACHEL GILLIAN NORTH, 340pp, £8.99 + P & P,
Indigo Dreams Publishing: 
http://www.indigodreamsbookshop.com/#/rachel-gillian-north/4580720896


 


A Horse Called Ambition is mostly set in the beautiful landscape of Devon which creates an
atmospheric backdrop for three friends who share a passion for horses.

Looking in on stables with horses in the field from the outside seems an idyllic English scene,
but Rachel takes us right into a compelling story of three friends, a worl...
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Writer's CV January - December 2013

December 30, 2013
January - December 2013

Poem titles:

Sunday Syndicate, Reach Poetry, Issue183, Dec

Spiralling, Reach Poetry, Issue 178, July

The Lost Egg of Caretta Caretta, + profile, Orizont Literar Contemporan, April

Assembly Instructions for February Field Agent, Poems for the Pollen Path, Saturday Writers, Pamphlet for Friends of the Earth Bee Cause. May 2013.
 + Exhibition

The Wings of Little Things, Reach Poetry, May Issue 176

Notes From the Balcony, Hearts Shoots Anthology Indigo Dreams Publishing with Macm...
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