An Audio-visual presentation by Gini Astley.

During lockdown Gini and her twin sister Alison, a conservation architect, visited many local churches and although not able to enter, found inspiration in their porches.   Gini’s poems and Alison’s drawings have been put together to make a unique record of these visits.

At the Village Café,   7.30pm

Our own Competition this year is the Uncompetition in October.

No prize, except the expert critique from other entrants which is, of course, priceless.

Anyone who enters will be   a winner on this evening.

The subject is Flags – any style length or interpretation.

The deadline for entries is 1^st October.

At the Village Café, 7.30pm.

Our visual presentation at the May meeting was very well received.

Once again our screen and projector will be illuminating the poetry, letting us travel to far flung places for the evening.

We are delighted to welcome back Poet Annie Fisher who will be giving an audio/visual presentation on the same theme in the second half of the evening.

Not to be missed!

The Roman writer Pliny the Younger wrote an eye-witness account of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79AD and it is possibly the most well known and certainly the most important account of that time as he was there and recorded the events as seen from the other side of the Bay of Naples.

I am sure most of us would wish to forget the lockdowns of 2020.   However, any poems written at the time are now a valuable historic record of a unique event.

In March 2020 I suggested in a newsletter that we should record in poetry the unprecedented events we were witnessing during the Covid lockdowns and the first half of the meeting will be a chance to now read any poem written at that time or listen to poems written by others.

In the second half of the meeting read any poem that celebrates freedom and good cheer!

This is a daytime meeting of local poetry groups.   The aim is to encourage poetry writing on the day and will be a relaxed and largely informal event.

The meeting will be held in Langport, Somerset.   For more information please contact via our email    www.eastcokerpoetry.org.uk   or the contact page on this site

Writer and poet James Crowden explores the literary highways and byways of Somerset, including the watering holes of Bath and Bristol. He has produced an intellectual roadmap of Somerset from Roman times through Anglo-Saxon Wessex up to the present day including many writers. early chroniclers and opium addicted Romantic poets. Somerset has also produced philosophers, pirates and playwrights, eccentric clergymen, diarists and herbalists, novelists and historians, travellers chefs and scientists – From St Gildas and John Locke to John Cleese, Fay Weldon and Terry Pratchett.

An illustrated talk by author James Crowden, who is always informative and entertaining.   And of course East Coker’s strong literary links will no doubt feature.

The venue is The Village Cafe,  East Coker.   BA22 9HY         (almost opposite the School)

Local poets Steve Beer and Maya Pieris will give readings followed after the break by an open session where anyone can come and read a poem they have written or read.

There is no theme, just any poem that you feel will interest the group. Or just come and listen and have a drink or cake and enjoy the poetry.

An evening devoted to the life and work of poet Christina Rossetti who became an influential poet in the Victorian era.   A presentation by Trevor Pearce.

(This meeting was to have been a presentation by poet Rosie Jackson but she has had to cancel due to another commitment).

Liz Pike present an evening about the Yeovil Literary Prize poetry category.

Guest readers include Jenny Hunt, and Roger Iredale reading their own winning entries, with our own poets reading some of the other outstanding winning entries from the last few years.

Entries of all standards are welcome in this competition, but is winning the prize what drives the poet?

To start the evening we have short readings by local poets Anna Webb and Cath Kansara. This will be followed after the break by an open session where anyone can come and read a poem they have written or read.

There is no theme, just any poem that you feel will interest the group.