Bath Poetry Cafe convenor Sue Boyle at the Harp and Unicorn evening.
Sue Boyle writes:
Wednesday 17th March: Forty one people gathered in the Duncan Room to share The Harp and the Unicorn, an evening of English and Irish poetry organised jointly by Sue Boyle from Bath, Martin Malone from West Overton and Peter Wyton from Stroud. With readers from Bath, Bristol, Corsham, Frome and special appearances by two Dartmoor poets, Susan Taylor and Simon Williams, who had travelled up from Devon specially to join the Cafe poets, this was the best attended of our Poetry Cafes at the BRLSI, beating even the hugely successful Remembrance Cafe in November last year.
Seventeen poets contributed to the theme of Celebrating Love, these two sets each culminating in Simon Williams’ moving unaccompanied renderings of the traditional Irish songs, The Constant Lovers and She Moves Through the Fair. The Irish set, designed by Martin Malone and presented by five Cafe poets reading in uninterrupted concert, gave us a powerful introduction to the rich complexity of Irish poetry today.
The Poetry Cafe’s next themed evening will be on Wednesday 16th June when poets from the many groups now involved in the Bath Cafe will present their own work on ‘The Enchantment of Place’. John Terry from the Bristol workshop PoetryWorks is co-organiser of this Cafe. Contact Sue Boyle by e-mail on jimboyle@gotadsl.co.uk if you would like to read.