Readings

Last Sunday I had two readings – one in the US in the morning, the other in the UK in the evening – oh the beauty of Zoom and time zones!

The Poetry Box is based in Portland, Oregon publishing books and literary journals, and hosting launches and poetry readings. Headed by Shawn Aveningo Sanders and her partner Robert, they also publish The Poeming Pigeon twice a year, an internal literary journal of poetry with and without themes. One of my poems was selected for the current issue, From Pandemic to Protest, launched online with over 30 poets reading their work on these topics and everything in between, including politics, the climate crisis and wildfires. My poem was a found one about the Australian bush fires sourced from an article that appeared in The Guardian last year, my first found poem to be published.

Cath Drake is an Australian poet based in London and hosts The Verandah focusing on poetry, mindfulness and creative projects, the current being Who are We Now? UK and Australian poets exploring courageous connections with land and people in the 2020s. Having just finished one of Cath’s six-monthly poetry feedback groups, the writing prompts encouraged us to explore these connections, so my piece was inspired by the succulents in our garden, which took me back to my nan’s. There were eleven readers all up, with Sarah Holland-Batt as the featured one, who has just published Fishing for Lightening: The Spark of Poetry and has another collection forthcoming.

Both readings were recorded, so I hope to share them when available. It was wonderful to connect with so many poets all over the world and hear their work. The voice of poetry is a powerful one.