Singing as the Darkness Lifts

Humanness   PodBean Listening Link      This morning the ground has been dampened by rain for the first time in ages and the air is all roses and rosemary.   Alt text says this week’s image is a colourful background with words. I say it is a page from a carousel created by Maxine Bell for The Association of Business Poets . I also say I love it.   Since becoming a founding member of The Association of Business Poets I have thoroughly enjoyed the thinking that has been involved. As a group we have been able to meet online and spend time working on our values. This is an area that is of huge interest to me. When I started my coaching qualification in 2023, I loved the sessions centred around thinking about personal values for life and work. I had not focused in on this with such intensity as an individual before and it taught me so much about me as a person, and about how I find balance and joy. For The Association of Business ...

POEMS TO MATCH A TEATOWEL        PodBean Listening Link This morning I have to wait for the cool breeze to blow towards me. When it does it brings rosemary and grass. Before that the first scent hanging in the air is curry powder and spices, and I remember clearing the out-of-date jars and stacking them in the recycling box by the front door.   At text says this week’s photo is a stuffed animal in the air. This is true, but I also say it is Ronnie jumping for joy and somersaulting on the promenade at Prestatyn. It is also a celebration of a moment in time and the sea in all its churned up grey-brown glory.   A coastal walk to blow the cobwebs off is always on my list of self-care things to do, and this week’s trip to the seaside did the trick. I like walking in my local town, and I like walking in the forest nearby, but there is a particular joy to walking at the coast that delights me. The fresh air, the sound of the waves...

CRUSHED LOVE HEARTS     This morning a cool breeze feels like a refreshing contrast after a super-hot weekend. It brings with it only the smell of smoke.   Alt text says this week’s photo is a person taking a selfie. It is indeed and it is me taking a selfie in front of part of Kath’s stand at Wolverhampton Racecourse. I was looking to see if I could find a good angle for our pre-show photo while she was having a wander round, and I rather like this picture so I kept it!   This show gave us the hottest temperatures for a show set up that we have ever seen, and I could definitely feel the importance of staying hydrated! Lunch at shows is always peanut butter in rolls – easy to prepare wherever we are staying and a nice simple protein hit. Often there are chocolate bar snacks in the lunch bag too. I always used to have one of these in the late afternoon when things were getting quieter on the sales front, but this was not a sensible option this time giv...

  A BANDSTAND HAT TRICK FOR A SKYLARKER    PodBean Listening Link This morning the air smells of summer. It is warm and brings fuchsia and clover. It is the kind of air that hugs you as you step outside.   Alt text says this week’s photo is of a person standing in front of a microphone. And it is. My gratitude to Neil Henderson for capturing this moment in time where I am reading my poems from the bandstand at Oswestry Pride. I often look rather (for rather read incredibly) serious in photos so it’s good to have this one!   This was my third reading from that bandstand, and I love having been part of the event since it started in 2024. I also love the fact that when I reflected on reading there the first time it was my wish to be invited back. And now I can celebrate a hat trick. It was also nice that people took time to compliment me on my poems. I like a compliment along the way.   And I’ve done some learning over...

FINDING THE BREEZE   PodBean Listening Link This morning the birds are offering a range of gentle sounds and the air brings the scent of clover and warmed beach stones.   Alt text says this week’s photo is two women taking a selfie, and indeed it is. It is Kath and I settling into our seats aboard The Waverley Paddle Steamer .   I think Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn might have ignited my interest in paddle steamers many years ago. And when I found out that a paddle steamer visits Llandudno for a few days each year I was eager to take a ride. Having missed the opportunity to book tickets in the past I made sure I was more organised this time, I bought the tickets earlier in the year and pinned them to the noticeboard in readiness. It’s always a nice feeling to see tickets pinned to the noticeboard and the gap that was left behind when these ones were unpinned has now been filled with a pair of tickets for a Ruby Wax show. ...

A SLIGHTLY BLURRED MIDSUMMER RONNIE   PodBean Listening Link  This morning the air is already warm. It carries strong floral notes and the scent of someone’s freshly brewed coffee.   Alt text says this week’s photo is a small animal in the sky. I say it is Ronnie jumping for joy with a pompom crown. Midsummer seemed to creep up on me this year and a late evening photo seemed one way to acknowledge and celebrate it so off I went to lie on the patio under a waxing crescent moon to capture this photograph.   All in all the week was gentle and quiet. Joys included delivering copies of the group poem to the residents at the housing association, feeling physically better after a recent hysteroscopy, drafting poems about said procedure so that it is set down out of my head, finding out during a conversation with a friend that there might be an audience for said poems even though I thought they were possibly a bit niche, getting back out int...

DONNING THE T-SHIRT      PodBean Listening Link         This morning the sun is hazy behind clouds and the wind stirs the air to bring rich, strong notes of rosemary.   Alt text says this week’s photo is a person standing in front of a brick wall. It is indeed and the person is me. And I am wearing my 'Association of Business Poets' t-shirt.   Donning the t-shirt this week was a real pleasure because it meant that I was signifying my readiness to deliver a poetry workshop. The extra pleasure came because I was being invited back for a second visit. My destination... a housing association wherein I have found a wonderful group of poetry appreciators and poets.   My first visit on National Poetry Day last October featured me reading a set of my poems dedicated to that year’s chosen theme of ‘Play’. And during the visit I discovered that the group included people who wrote regularly, people who loved to lis...