Stanza Mar Menor

STANZA MAR MENOR UPDATE

We have met regularly since December but the meeting on Friday will be our last one until the end of April as some individuals will be away in Ireland, Scotland and England. Fortunately we all have internet connections and scrutiny is always available by email which does mean, that we can all keep writing and get valuable feedback.

We have welcomed Tom to the group and he brings with him his own knowledge of life with a realistically earthy approach. We like what he does and we hope that he keeps on doing it.

Now that David is back from Russia he has had published his train poems, In Praise of Rails, (ISBN 9781495916519) and he is in the process of getting his Wombat children stories into print. He has also enraged the BBC with his view on breast feeding in full public view. He certainly has a way of forcing his point in all directions. If we all did the same wouldn't life be boring! He is also working on stories in conjunction with a proposed anthology with WORDPLAY. I hope that all this work comes to fruition.

Douglas, we are all pleased to know, is gathering together a lifetime of poems for a collection to be published. There are more than enough poems for his first book and there is some evidence that a second book could follow. We think that this is wonderful news as the world should be able to see his beautiful work. What else can this superb writer do after that! We all thank him for his keen eye to detail and I hope that he does not get tired of correcting our oversights! He also had one of his poems published in last year's Poetic Republic anthology.

Margaret is also putting together a collection of her poems and short stories. She has been concentrating on this and other work and I know that there is some wonderful things amongst it all. She is also working on 'poems on postcards' as a way of getting her poems 'out there'. The pictures on the post cards are intended to complement her words. I know that there is going to be some more fine writing on view. She will be spending April in Yorkshire, hoping to read at 'open mics', and no doubt finding inspiration at the same time. Who knows what will flow from her laptop. She is engaged with WORDPLAY as well, and on more than one topic.

John has been Journal Writing since last September and has found this to be a source of both information and inspiration. He has a small collection (but not enough yet) from his last visit to his county of birth in Herefordshire. He is a friend of Ledbury Poetry Festival and through them he has participated in what they have created with Paul Henry, the poet in residence for the county, The Apple Orchard. This has inspired five poems, each named after a local cider apple drawn from his past knowledge of the locality. He will be in Ledbury for the ten day event where he hopes to 'lap up' the atmosphere, rub shoulders and get inspiration from meeting other writers. Summer in a verdant county should be good.

We are also intending to have participation in Poetic Republic and we have discussed what poems could be suitable. There is also a small interest in other competitions including John's attempt for one inspired by Edward Thomas's, Adlestrop. However we all favour the Poetic Republic's way that all entrants are able to judge the work of others, in batches of 12, which avoids the view of a single judge or a panel of them. We think that that is way to do it!

Add to this the involvement that I have already mentioned with WORDPLAY, there is also regular meetings with TORREVEIJA WRITERS CIRCLE. You can see that we have a variety of people and groups in which we are in contact with.

Through David we have contacts with the Spanish community in San Javier where we will spend an evening with students there who have been studying The First World War and the poetry emanating from it. They will read a variety of war poems and if necessary we will also read. This will be on 29th April and our next meeting will be on Thursday 28th April in San Javier.