I am unfathomably pleased to officially announce that I will continue to be the Otley Town Poet for one more year. The end of my first 12 months brought a flurry of literary activity: writing 'Poems for a Pound' to raise money for the Children's Heart Surgery Fund over the Valentine's period (which nearly did me in! but was immensely rewarding), delivering a poetry workshop on the theme of "Voice" with Otley Bellman Terry Ford on World Poetry Day, writing and performing a 'poetry play' with Half Moon Books poets entitled 'Town Below the Steps' and judging the inaugural Otley Poetry Prize.Ordinarily I wouldn't write to order, but the Children's Heart Surgery Fund is such an important cause, and during the 'Poems for a Pound' project I heard some remarkable stories from people whose lives had been changed for the better as a result of CHSF. In terms of the work involved, I wrote customised poems for those who donated to the charity. I have to say, I wasn't the biggest fan of Valentine's poetry to begin with and, after writing so many, I'm still not a fan - I don't know how the people at Hallmark do it!
Then came World Poetry Day and I took part in two events. In the morning, myself and Otley Town Bellman Terry Ford delivered two poetry workshops to Year 7 pupils at Prince Henry's Grammar School in Otley. As always, it was really inspiring to work with young people who are so enthusiastic about poetry, and Terry taught us all some very valuable tips on projection - we made quite a lot of noise...
On the same day the evening saw the first public performance of 'Town Below the Steps'; an affectionate capturing of a day in Otley, that tips its hat to Dylan Thomas's 'Under Milk Wood'. The core text of the 'poetry play' is made of poems that feature in OWF Word Feast Press/Half Moon Books anthologies and I, as narrator, fashioned a narrative thread running throughout to give the play a bit of structure. Our debut at Otley florist and cafe Casa Vitae went extremely well, and so did the official radio performance on Chapel FM's Writing on Air Festival. You can hear the full performance here. You can buy copies of the play from the Half Moon Books website, which makes for a lovely birthday present (shameless plug, ahem...)
Lastly, I was lucky to be picked as the judge for the first-ever Otley Poetry Prize, the second time I have judged a national competition. There were almost 400 entries, which is extremely good for an inaugural contest, and selecting the winners and commended poets was not an easy task. You can see the winning entries here.
What next?! Well, I'll be offering an interactive poetry activity at the Otley AGM on May 15th and I am currently working on a musical poetry project with Opera North's Sally Egan and Terrorvision's Tony Wright for which I will need the help of the residents of Otley. Watch this space!
