Secretary’s Report, 2002 – 2003
As I write this, a new baby is about to be born. Her
name will be www.kentandsussexpoetrysociety.org and she will weigh about
15 pages before she starts to grow. Yes, our society is finally entering the 21st
century with its own web space. It will be interesting to see if this modern
medium brings new people to our doors on the third Tuesday of each month. Or if
more writers hear about our open poetry competition, increasing the number of
entries we receive, perhaps even from across the pond.
So here’s a request.
Go online and check us out. Give us your input by clicking on the
‘contact us’ links. And send us your reviews, features and poems for us to put
up on our site. Despite its name, it’s not really the website of the ‘Society’,
but of its members. Get involved to make the space come alive, even if it’s
only a small, occasional contribution for our ‘members’ section.
For there is a lot to talk about and it would be
worthwhile if more people knew more about what our society has on offer. OK
here’s the ‘could-be-a-bit-more subtle’ link where I start to talk about what
we did last year, in this, the ‘official’ secretary’s report.
Let’s start with our most recent event - the Saturday workshop at The Beacon on
September 27th. Master poet Moniza Ali worked us hard and fast and
inspired us to stretch our creative imaginations. Lots of exciting beginnings
emerged and also some fully formed poems. Earlier in the year, another Saturday workshop was given by poet,
novelist and academic Jem Poster from Oxford. Each of these events seem to take
on a different atmosphere and pace to suit different styles of writer. But they
remain a real treat in our calendar.
Our monthly readings are also full of inspiration and
surprises. Let’s start with the men.
Before his reading last month, Neil Rollinson asked if he dare read the raunchiest
of his poems to this Tunbridge Wells audience, who for decades have carried
such a ‘disgusted’ reputation. Without having heard any of his poetry before, I
blindly assured him over a glass of red that we are all pretty cool adults and
that he shouldn’t hold back – to read what he wants to. ‘Sock it to us’ I told
him confidently. Well that he did. And
the buzzes and blushes are still filtering their way out of the Camden Centre
one month on.
In June, we were gripped by yet another dishy poet,
Robert Seatter, His experience as an actor was evident as he captivated us with
lines from his collections, including Army Sewing
Kit that brought us from London to Italy and back
again. Yum.
Peter Forbes took his turn in March, at one of our
most popular annual events - the
adjudication of our open poetry competition. Peter, the previous editor of
Poetry Review for so many years, made his selections and awarded the prizes,
with winners found dotted all around Britain. Congratulations to Caroline Cook
who bagged the First Prize and £500 with her self-referential poem Dippity. “It has a lot of charm and it
certainly disarmed my defences,” said Peter. “You want to read it over and
over, and that’s not true of so many poems,” he said.
Women poets dominated our programme over the last 12
months, and what a cast of characters it has been. In January, our very own
‘three Graces’, held the floor, when Susan Wicks, Angela Hall and Mary Gurr
read their distinctive poetry to an appreciative crowd.
Then in February, it was the turn of Catherine Smith,
a multiple award-winning poet from Lewes whose reading from her
celebrated collections, The New Bride and The Butchers Hands,
held us in awe. The biggest treat at so many of our readings always has to be
when the poet ‘tries out’ their yet unpublished work on a new audience, as
Catherine did. These are the moments that can often lift a reading to a more
intimate plane, especially when taking in the words of someone with Catherine
Smith’s talent.
In April, we were treated to the Carribbean rhythms of
the wonderful poet Maggie Harris, whose unique melodic style won her many new
fans.
In May, we were all on the edge of our seats once
again for the annual Folio selection, this year judged by the highly regarded
poet Jackie Wills. On choosing Steve Walter’s poem, A Lampshade Painted With Naked Women, as the grand prize winner, and the others for our latest Folio
collection, she said, “Too much
contemporary poetry has no emotional life, it’s tricksy, clever, displays it
verbosity and reads more like a crossword puzzle. So the poems I’ve selected
had an impact on me, emotionally too. They were the poems which came back to me
as I did the washing up and went to pick up my kids from school.” Yes, exactly.
Isn’t that why we’re all here?
Our summer open-air meeting was held in Teston Country
Park this year, near Maidstone, on the bank of the River Medway. Although I
wasn’t able to be there this time, John Arnold reports that a select group
shared poems on the theme of bridges before ‘repairing to the pub’. What better way to spend a warm summer
evening in July?
The other main social event of the year was our annual
Christmas party, once again enthusiastically hosted by Mary Barry. Lively
chaotic dialogue games and exercises joined the impressive food and drink to
successfully carry off yet another giggle-filled merry event in the grand
tradition.
Exactly one year ago, at last year’s AGM, we had the pleasure of welcoming Jane Hardy,
who edits Connections Magazine and
gave a fascinating talk on what it’s like to be the editor behind the postbag.
One week later, was our annual writing retreat - attended by those lucky writers who could
carve out a space to do nothing but write, eat and take in the atmosphere. Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of them this
time – but I have it on good authority that some of the extra-curricular
activities included semi-dressed women frolicking in a steamy Jacuzzi and the
use of a big fire extinguisher. (I guess you had to be there). The atmosphere
at Brimpt’s farm on the edge of Dartmoor was said to contain a poetic backdrop
of mist, fog and the acute fear of running sheep over. Directions to the venue,
which was apparently very close to Dartmoor Prison, kicked off the tempo for
the week, with the instructions, “If you get to Pixieland you’ve gone too far.’
So another year goes by in the Kent and Sussex Poetry
Society. Thanks to everyone (and you
know who you are) who helped to make this another exciting, edgy year full of
inspiration. And if you missed taking in any part of this report tonight at
first reading, no problem – you’ll be able to look it up on the web. Now that’s
something I bet no one would have ever imagined we’d be saying 58 years ago,
when this society first started. What a history – and what a future!
JOYCE MANDEL WALTER, Secretary
(as presented to the AGM on 21st
October, 2003)