April 23rd, 2008
Poetry performed
On 17 April, about twenty people, including me, gathered at Mid-Cheshire College in Hartford, Cheshire for an evening with Jo Bell, the Poet Laureate for Cheshire 2007.
Jo performed a number of her poems from her new book, “Navigation” which has recently been published by Cheshire County Council.
During her year as Poet Laureate, she had to complete five commissions for Cheshire. One of these was to write about town and parish councils to celebrate how they are the backbone of the community. Jo explained that the word backbone gave her the inspiration for the poem. She looked up its meaning and realized that she could relate the parts of the backbone to the functions of councils. (The spine’s functions are protection, articulation, support, maintenance and flexible axis – see Gray’s Anatomy for greater detail.) This insight into her thought processes to write a poem is fascinating as it shows one method of how poets often write about one thing, while relating it to another.
The theme for Jo’s book is one of boats, but the actual poems cover a wide range of topics from lovers, a poem originally written for a God child, to the Holocaust, and of course boats. Jo’s poetry is certainly worth reading, but when she performed the poems, they came to life and she held the audience spellbound. It was a wonderful evening and certainly reinforced the idea that poetry should be shared and performed.
The new Poet Laureate for Cheshire is Terry Fox.
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:39 am
Sounds like a lovely evening.
I must admit I often find it difficult to read poetry so I would so love to hear it. I think I would get a much better feel, understanding and appreciation for it if I heard it.
April 24th, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Hey Penny,
It sounds like it was a wonderful experience. Thanks for sharing it with us. I agree, some poetry is just written to be performed, it adds an extra dimension.