Stanza News: Kent

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Kent & Sussex Poetry Society
North West Kent

Kent & Sussex Poetry Society
Contact: Clive Eastwood (creastwood AT tiscali.co.uk or 13 Ruscombe Close, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN4 0SG)

The next few events for the the Kent & Sussex Stanza are:

Tuesday 16 March - results of our Open Poetry competition plus a reading by the adjudicator, Alan Jenkins.

Tuesday 20 April - a reading by Peter Porter (short open-mic spot at the start of the evening).

Tuesday 18 May - announcement of the poems selected for our Poetry Folio follwed by a reading from Ros Barber.

All the above at the Camden Centre, Tunbridge Wells beginning at 8pm.
 

North West Kent  
Contact: Anne Stewart (editor AT poetrypf.co.uk) 

It was so good to be back together again on February 16th – ‘regulars’: Anne, Mark and Isabel; and to those new (or newish!) attendees: Barbara, Christine and Roger – Welcome to Kent North West Stanza.

 We chatted over Poetry in the News, mainly focussing on Carol Ann Duffy’s Laureate poems and taking a quick look at one of Christopher Reid’s poems from “A Scattering” and the poets among us read a poem of our own for feedback from the group.

Christopher Reid’s poem reminded us all of poems by others on the topic of those lost to us: Seamus Heaney’s “skunk” poem, Thomas Hardy, William Barnes’s poem “The Wife A-Lost”, Carolyn King’s poem “The Last Waltz”, and Ted Hughes’s “Birthday Letters” – and we’d like to read some more of “A Scattering”, so this is to be our topic for the next meeting. How do we do justice to those we love, by way of poetry, and in a way that speaks to others of more than just that one person? If you have a copy of “A Scattering” – or any of these others – or favourites of your own – please do bring it along next time to share poems with us.

The next meeting is on Tues 16th March, 8pm, at The Two Doves. We’d love to see you again – or for the first time! Bring a couple of poems on the topic of ‘those lost to us’ to read out – they can be your own or ones that you’ve found in journals, collections, etc. If you are writing poetry, please also bring a poem to read out to the group – either just to share or to have comment on, as you prefer. If you bring it for comment, 6 or so copies should be enough for us all to get a look at it.

We’re also interested in Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘gambling’ poems, discussing Simon Armitage’s poem for Madeleine McCann, and the Padel/Walcott fracas! And we’ll be taking suggestions for discussion topics (how about “The Competition Poem?”) for the remainder of the year and suggestions for a ‘field trip’ visit to an event or such outside of The Two Doves dates.

Over to you... and I look forward to seeing you on Tuesday if you can make it.