What a fantastic poetry reading at Maryport’s ‘Settlement’ today. Poet and editor Kelly Davis put together an excellent session of superb readers. Sad not to have Nick there, but having the chance to read one of his poems, and listening to Kelly read ‘English Ghost Dance’ was a moving experience. It seems churlish to highlight … More Maryport

The sharp eyed among you will no doubt have spotted that this occasional series of Symposium moments has been long in appearing! So long, in fact, that the next Symposium is around the corner – on Saturday November 24th. We will publicise the poets who will be the ‘Featured Poets’ very soon. However, there is … More 7 Symposium Moments (No. 5)

This weekend sees the next in an excellent line up of poetry events in Cumbria. At the Settlement in Maryport on Saturday (28th September) from 11 to 12, there is a talk on Norman Nicholson’s poetry, with Brian Charnley (from the NN Society) and Mike Smith – whose recorded interview with Norman Nicholson is one … More When Percy Met Norman

The ‘Freiraum’ project that flowers with a special night in Foxes Café on November 7th will be full of music and poetry. One of the things I will be involved in is the project for which (if you see the other posts) I have taught myself to sample – as well as rediscovering how to … More “Freiraum”

Although it was been a brutal couple of weeks (to use John Chambers’ word from one of the eulogies on Friday), hearing Nick’s poems from so many different readers has been fitting. You can hear more of Nick’s work at the ‘When Percy Met Norman’ event in a fortnight. He was scheduled to read at … More Percy, Norman, Nick

One of the advantages of holidays is that you get the chance to learn things. In order to contribute to an upcoming musical event I have dug out a lot of equipment that hasn’t seen the light of day for twenty years. You can kid yourself for a long time that it’s easy to pick … More Pedals