Happy National Poetry Day.

Today is National Poetry Day here in the UK. The event takes place every year on the first Thursday of October and encourages people to make, experience and share poetry with family and friends. Each year has a specific theme and this year’s theme is the environment. The event was founded in 1994 by the charity, Forwards Arts Foundation.

Poetry has always played an important part in my life. In 1972 I was given my first poetry book, The Golden Treasury of Poetry. As I celebrate my 60^th year this year, the book has reached a half-century milestone.

As a child I would be often found under the bed sheets, with a torch, Golden Treasury open, disappearing into classics like Shakespeare’s, All the World’s a Stage and Alfred Noye’s, The Highwayman.

Poetry has remained a constant companion. I continue to read the classics, and now enjoy the wide range of poetry available from different cultures and communities. Over the years I have written my own poetry but, like many poets, hid my work away from prying eyes. In 2021 I published my first collection of poetry, All Mine.  Here is one of the environmental themed poems from the book.

Omnipotent Opera.

Hushed eucalyptus leaves float like embers. 
A million miles away from Eritrean waves 
Two pigeons kiss on the lips of a sycamore, 
Buds defining a blue February sky. 
Eager, a writer searches for remnants 
For his ekphrastic gatherings 
To a symphony of recycling bins
Rolling across tarmac driveways, 
Dawn’s chorus disappearing
In revs of car and bike engines. 
Eccentric the mildness of this Winter.
Australian bushfires, melting icecaps, 
Tornadoes in Windsor High Street.
Ecstatic crescendos where no one listens

Please take some time out today, to share, read, recite, and get excited about poetry.