East Coker Poetry

East Coker Poetry Group

About the group

East Coker is a picturesque South Somerset village of around 1800 inhabitants, a few miles south west of Yeovil. It is famous for being the birthplace of the navigator, pirate and botanist, William Dampier, who explored the west coast of Australia, and as the burial place of the great 20th century poet, Thomas Stearns Eliot.

The village was immortalised in TS Eliot's Four Quartets, published in 1943.

TS Eliot portrait "In my beginning is my end. Now the light falls
Across the open field, leaving the deep lane
Shuttered with branches, dark in the afternoon
Where you lean against a bank while a van passes,
And the deep lane insists on the direction
Into the village, in the electric heat
Hypnotised. In a warm haze the sultry light
Is absorbed, not refracted, by grey stone.
The dahlias sleep in the empty silence.
Wait for the early owl."

Although the poet was born in St Louis, Missouri, in 1888, he moved to England as a young man and remained here until his death in 1965. His ashes are buried in the churchyard of St Michael's Church, East Coker, and there is a commemorative plaque in the church.

With this heritage, there is an understandable enthusiasm for poetry in the village and we decided to form the East Coker Poetry Group.

Meetings are entertaining, informal and sociable. They are held in the Skittles Alley, at the Helyar Arms, our 15th century village inn, a short stroll across the paddock from St Michael's Church.

Membership is free and everyone is welcome, including visitors to the village and guests staying at the Helyar Arms. Our meetings regularly attract 20 - 30 poetry lovers.

For more information, call David Cloke on 01935 862623 or Joyce Best on 862317 or e-mail info@eastcokerpoetry.org.uk

News

East Coker Poetry Competition 2008

The subject this year is :- ' Time '

Everyone is welcome to enter the competition. You don’t have to be a resident of East Coker.

Your poem can be short or long.
It can be in any form – sonnet, limerick, haiku.
It must be mainly in English.
It can be typed or handwritten.
It must be on the subject of “Time”.

Please include your name, address, age (if under 18) and telephone number.

Competition rules

Only one entry per person.
Poems must be original works.
The deadline for entries is 1st October.
The judge’s decision is final.
The winners will be notified on or before Tuesday 28th October.
There is no cash alternative to the prizes on offer.
The organisers reserve the right to make public all or any part of the entries submitted, with no copyright fee due to the author.

Our judge for 2008 is last year’s winner – Brian Patman

1st Prize this year is 'An unusual timepiece' and a bottle of wine for the two runners-up.

Our October meeting is based on the competition entries so your support for this competition is very much appreciated – do put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard!) if you can.

Entries should be sent to the East Coker Poetry Group:- c/o Church Cottage, Burton Cross, East Coker, Yeovil, Somerset BA22 9LY or email to info@eastcokerpoetry.org.uk

You can read all the poems from 2007 here, poems from 2006 here, 2005 here and 2004 here.

Newsletters (in PDF format, view with free Adobe reader)

May 2007
February 2007
August 2006
May 2006
February 2006
August 2005
May 2005

February 2005: For a copy of the first poetry group quarterly newsletter, e-mail your address and we will forward a hard copy.

Future Events

All events are held in the Skittles Alley of the Helyar Arms, East Coker, starting at 7.30pm

Tuesday 29^th July
Joyce Smith & Betty Davis

Joyce Smith from Evershot is a well known member of our group – her ability to recite entertaining poetry, often from memory, is remarkable.

Betty Davis knows the Helyar Arms well; or rather “The New Inn” as it was called when Betty was running the pub in the late 1940’s. Her interest in poetry lead her to listen to our radio programme last year and she will be coming from Cheltenham to read her selection of poetry and to recall life in East Coker at that time.

Tuesday 30^th September
‘Travel’

Caroline Mornement hosts an evening of travel poetry with a display of textiles from around the world to accompany the verse. Readers include Joyce Best and James Nash.

Previous meetings

24th June, 2008 Jane Williams
Prize winning poet Jane Williams from Wells presents an evening of her poetry. Jane is well known to our group having been our competition judge last year. Her poetry is always fresh and original.

27th May, 2008 Italian Evening
Poetry, Paintings and Pizza! Sue Hedges presents poetry with an Italian theme and Art by John Carter.

29th April, 2008 'We Have Heard Ravens'
Catherine Simmonds and Gini Astley presented Poetic readings and original music inspired by the journals Dorothy Wordsworth kept at Alfoxden and Dove Cottage. How did their time in Dorset help shape both William and Dorothy as writers?

25th March, 2008 Open Evening
Attendees were asked to bring a poem – either their own or from a favourite poet. No subject – just whatever they felt might interest the group.

26th February, 2008 Wartime poetry
James Crowden has lived in North Dorset and South Somerset for the last 20 years. Now a full time writer, he has had a varied career as a sheep farmer, forester and cider maker. In the 1970’s he served in the army in Cyprus and travelled widely in India, Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan. His recent books include ‘Dorset Man’ and ‘Dorset Woman’. Both books document the lives of those working in traditional industries in the area. James has had many radio and TV appearances over the years. This was a very interesting evening.

22nd January, 2008 Ama Bolton
Thought provoking and often witty, Ama Bolton's poetry often has a different slant on life. A local poet and a frequent reader at the 'Poetry Fountain' in Wells.

18^th December, 2007 A Christmas Trio
Poetry and mince pies! Flavia Leng, Clare & Michael Phillips and Amelia Bennett read poetry for the season

27th November, 2007 Wartime Poetry
James Crowden was unfortunately unwell, so an "open mike" evening was held instead.

23rd October, 2007 Poetry Competition
Poetry on the subject of “Weather” . The judge was last year’s winner Jane Williams, from Wells.

25th September, 2007 Give me a home among the gum trees
Sue McKerracher presented Poetry with an Australian theme + Australian Poets Live

21st August, 2007 Tennyson Evening
Our second outside event, opportunity for a group photo. Photographic theme centred on the work of Victorian photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.

3rd July, 2007 American poetry
"A bunch of boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon ..." There is more to American poetry than Dangerous Dan McGrew. On the eve of American Independence Day, John Darling hosts this evening of American poetry.

29th May, 2007 Flora poetica
Jean Caunter presented her selection of poetry spanning the floral world. This was a varied and lively collection ranging from John Clare to Sylvia Plath.

24th April, 2007 Open Evening
People brought their own poems to read, or read their favourite poems, or just came and listened. There was no theme, so this was a poetry ‘Happening’.

27th March, 2007 Fire River Poets
The Fire River Poets from Taunton came to East Coker for this meeting. John Stuart and Anthony Watts from this group were already well known to the East Coker Poetry Group having read poetry at our Poetry Summer Evening. Anthony Watts’ poem ‘Blackberries’ won second prize in our poetry competition this year.

24th March, 2007 T.S. Eliot Public Lecture
A public lecture by The Rev. Dr. Peter Mullen. Peter Mullen is Rector of St Michael’s Cornhill, London and is a regular columnist for the Times, The Sunday Telegraph and Spectator Magazine as well a contributor to radio 4. He has also published several books on theology, philosophy and politics and also a number of novels. He is a lifelong Eliot devotee and enthusiast.

20th February, 2007 Maiden Newton Ecliptic
Virginia Astley and her daughter Florence presented a poem set with a harp accompaniment, based on a twenty-four hour walk around the village of Maiden Newton near Dorchester.

23rd January, 2007 Night of Winter Warmth.
An evening of poetry, supper and conviviality in the Apple Loft Restaurant.

12th December, 2006 The Christmas Meeting for which Clive and Anne Bingley prepared a festive quiz.

21st November, 2006 A Knight at Arms. Sir Richard Vickers explored poems with a military theme.

24^th October, 2006 East Coker Poetry Group annual competition
- the winning poems.

26th September, 2006 Trains and boats and planes and poems
David Cloke provided an evening of poetry with a transport theme.

26th August, 2006
Many thanks to John and Hilary Darling for hosting a wonderful summer poetry evening in the garden of their house.

21st June, 2006
Marjorie Sampson from the Thomas Hardy Society.

25th May, 2006
Poet Rachel Clyne from Glastonbury hosted the evening.

26th April, 2006 ‘Japanese Poetry’
The mysteries of poetic forms such as Haiku, explored by Catherine Simmonds.

21st March, 2006 ‘A Quartet’
Dawn Lawrence, Diana Turton, Roger Burt and Joyce Best presented their personal selection of poetry.

21st February, 2006
John Darling and John Burgess presented "Humour is a funny thing"

24th January, 2006
Gaie Vickers presented "Pictures at an Exhibition"

21st December, 2005
Seasonal and winter poems presented by Catherine Simmonds and Amelia Bennett. Mulled wine and mince pies and a chance to hear an original recording of Dylan Thomas reading his "A Child's Christmas in Wales".

14th November, 2005
Eve Simmonds from Sherborne presented an evening of poetry on the theme of relationships.

6th October, 2005
Reception to announce the winners of the East Coker poetry writing competition.

18^th July, 2005
Anne Bingley’s clever and entertaining collection of Poetry, Parodies and Puzzles

12^th June, 2005
Shaftesbury poets Sebastian Hayes and Keith Walton

10^th May, 2005
Journeys with Sally Jackson

3^rd April, 2005
Youth and Age with Christina Walkley

27^th February, 2005
Catherine Simmonds, who won the poetry writing competition in 2004 with her poem Passion Fruit for Mrs McGrath, hosted “Moving On” an event around an audio piece about the working life of Karl Edwards, horse logger and farrier.

26^th January 2005
Burns supper and an evening of Scottish poetry with Mike Mould and Patricia Stewart.

7th December 2004
Local poet Mark Greenstock and Judith Anthony read poems from her book An Anthony Anthology.

7th November 2004
Clive Bingley recruited talented actors Trevor Peacock and Tilly Tremayne as readers for his poetry evening entitled Going Going Going Gone!

7th October 2004
Reception to announce the winners of the East Coker poetry writing competition.

5th October 2004
Knights of Passion with John Burgess and John Darling - an evening of verse chosen by two of the most debonair gentlemen in East Coker, designed to charm, woo and conquer.

28th July 2004
Joyce Best and Jean Caunter treated us to some "Animal Magic".

18th May 2004 For our first meeting, Doreen Bates was the subject of "Desert Island Poems". She picked 10 favourite poems to take with her to the deserted beach. The poems were read by Helen Backhouse.