Fizz 6

An invite from the Polesworth Poets  to the Lichfield Poets, of whom I am one, to perform at the Polesworth Abbey Refectory provided the ideal opportunity for me to visit a group, and a venue, which I had been meaning to check out for some time. I was not disappointed.

From the Lichfield Poets perspective it was an opportunity to perform what has become quite a well rehearsed and performed set, based on the anthology “Battle Lines”, and member’s “greatest hits”. As a visiting poet ,it also gave me the opportunity to check out the Polesworth Poets too.

The venue is a good one, it’s crowning glory a fireplace before which John Donne and Michael Drayton are reputed to have met and read, Shakespeare even? Whether a group assimilates the ambience of its surroundings or vice versa is a moot point. But the august, refined feel of the Abbey certainly is found in the work of the “home” poets, and the demeanour of its leader, Mal.

Reading your own work, that of other poets and listening to the work of others, is always an experience which excites the senses. Familiarity, surprise at what goes better than expected , and what goes worse, delight at the unexpected, and the test of how good your own work really is as it spills off the tongue, all combine in a heady cocktail.

Fizz 7- 17/5 The New Polesworth Poets

Fizz 8 – 19/7 Matt Merritt

Fizz 9 20/9 Tony Owen

Fizz 10 22/11 Polesworth International Poetry Film Festival