Summer Programme 2015

Meetings are usually held at Ripley Arts Centre, 24 Sundridge Avenue, Bromley on Tuesdays
at 2.30 pm. If unable to attend please notify the Membership Secetary.

President Tel. no: 020 8650 8946                         Membership Secretary Tel. no: 020 8464 9810

For further information and confirmation of venue please contact the Membership Secretary.

 

Date                             Subject                                                                  Host/Hostess
——————————————————————————————————————————–
Apr  28                OPEN CHOICE + short talk by a member                      Christine Pope

May  12          SATIRE & INVEECTIVE  (eg. Pope, Swift, Ogden Nash,         Anne Stewart
Dorothy Parker)

May  19         COMMITTEE MEETING                                                               Anne Stooke

May  26               HOPE AND DESPAIR                                                                Keith Massey

Jun  9             MICHAEL DONAGHY & MATTHEW SWEENEY                           Ann Barlow

Jun  23        SUMMER MEETING                                                                      Everyone helps

Jul  14             HANDS AND FEET                                                                        Sezgin Kemal

If you cannot find a poem for the topic/poet listed, please read another poem but not one written by you. N.B. We each read one long and one short poem (of about sonnet length).

 

WRITERS’ GROUP (dates to be agreed by Writers)

May            OPEN CHOICE
JUN             SECRET
JUL             COMING TO A CINEMA NEAR YOU

Diary dates for the Autumn Term 2015

Readers       Sept. 8 & 22, Oct. 13 & 27, Nov. 10 & 24, Dec. 8
Commitee Members         Sept 15
Writers        Dates to be agreed by Writers.

 

 

 

 

 

Penge Festival Poetry Competition

Penge Festival Poetry Competition

Closing date: Friday May 15, 2015

Three Prizes

First: £100 plus a book of Walter de la Mare’s poetry.
Second: £50 plus a book of Walter de la Mare’s poetry.
Third: £25 plus a book of Walter de la Mare’s poetry.

Entry rules and submission procedure

1. No poem may be more than twenty lines in length. Any subject or style may be chosen.

2. The author’s name must NOT appear on the manuscript of the poems.

3. The author’s name, home address, phone number and/or email address must be
written clearly on a sheet of paper and placed inside a sealed envelope bearing the
titles of the poem(s). There is no age restriction.

4. This envelope must be stapled or clipped to the manuscripts of the three poems.

5. The entry fee for the competition is £3.00. Up to three poems may be entered for this fee. A cheque or postal order should be made payable to ‘Penge Festival’ and
enclosed with the submissions. To ensure complete anonymity, the entry fee will be
intercepted by someone other than the judges.

6. Poems must not have been previously published and be the original work of the
entrant. We are not looking for poems in the style of Walter de la Mare.

7. Entrants must be resident in the London Borough of Bromley.

8. Three judges will compile a short-list of fifteen poems and then select three winners.

9. The judges are Vanessa Williamson, Manager of Beckenham Library; Monica Utting, BA (Lit), M.A., former Head of English; Chris O’Shaughnessy, M.A., former Head of English and published author of verse drama.

10.The winners will be presented with their prizes by Giles de la Mare after the talk/recital ‘Walter de la Mare: Penge’s Best-Kept Secret?’ on Friday June 19 at the Bridge House Theatre. Each winner may be accompanied by one guest.

11.Penge Partners reserves the right to publish the short-list and the winning poems online or in hard copy without further payment of a fee. Copyright remains with the author.

12.Entries should be sent to Penge Festival Poetry Competition, c/o Apartment 19,
Burmarsh Court, Manston Close, Penge SE20 7SQ by Friday May 15. Failure to
obey the rules will result in disqualification. Good luck and inspired writing!

Sponsors: the Walter de la Mare Society and Penge Masala.
Penge Partners for the Penge Festival

Member profile Patsy Paine

Patsy Paine’s Profile.

I have been married for sixty years this May and my army life with John took us to sixteen homes all over the world, including three and a half years in Berlin with the wall being built and an exotic year in Malaya.

Our three daughters were born in Yorkshire, Dorset and Hanover and this brought hours of Nursery Rhymes, often during long journeys. I always found poetry in libraries everywhere and I have probably read a poem almost every day since seven years old when a great aunt gave me ‘A Child’a Garland of Verses’, which I still have.

I luckily taught English to sixth forms and one of my happiest teaching memories is of exploring Shakespeare’s sonnets under the willow tree.

I joined the circle in 1993, twenty-two years ago and found it a lovely experience, listening to fellow enthusiasts reading so well and enjoying the research for my choices. I am so glad to have found it, thanks to Jenny who introduced me to it.

March 2015 Poetry Events

March Poetry Events 

Monday 23rd March

“Taking The Temperature” @JW3
Sean O’Brien will read & chat with Yvonne Green
JW3,341-351 Finchley Road, London NW3 6ET         7.00 pm

Please ‎reserve your place through promotingpoetry@gmail.com £10 includes mevushal wine, very good canapés . PROCEEDS to Emunah Children’s Homes.

25th March 2015

Poetry at Lauderdale House
​International Women’s Reading with ​
Shanta Acharya, Sasha Dugdale, Jane Duran, Mimi Khalvati, Jean Sprackland

Lauderdale House, Waterlow Park, Highgate Hill, London N6 5HG
Time: 8pm; Tickets £5.00 (Concessions: £3.00) Ph: 020-8348 8716

Thursday 26th March
poetrywivenhoe

Martin Malone and Caroline Gill
Royal British Legion, The Quay, Wivenhoe, Essex
Doors open 7.30 for 8.00pm.  Interval bar.  £5 entry (students £3), pay at the door.
Contact Peter Kennedy 01206 827852 for further information or see http://www.poetrywivenhoe.org

Saturday 28th March

Jill Abram presents the MAD MARCH SHUFFLE
with Sophie Herxheimer, Hilda Sheehan, Susie Campbell, Michael Scott, Stuart McKenzie and Mischa Foster Poole

The Poetry Café, 22 Betterton Street, Covent Garden, WC2H 9BX
7.30 – 9.30 pm  Entry £6/4    Refreshments from ba

A Successful Reading

On Wednesday March 11th. Christine Pope and Mavis Robinson read poems to an appreciative audience from the Kent Association For the Blind, which includes partially-sighted people. This was so successful that Mavis and Christine have been asked to read again at one of the Wednesday lunches at St. Mark’s Church, Westmoreland Road, Bromley.

Summer Meeting 23 June 2015 Ripley Arts Centre

A date for your diary!

**Summer Meeting 23 June Ripley Arts Centre, 23 Sundridge Park Avenue BR1**

Guest Poets: Kate Foley and Katherine Gallagher

Tickets £7.50 to include a full buffet tea.

The 104th. Annual General Meeting

The 104th Annual General Meeting of the Circle ran smoothly last Tuesday and the current officers and Committee were approved for 2015-16. We will need a Treasurer as from the autumn and a Minute Secretary in the foreseeable future, so volunteers are sought.

Members read one poem each of their own choice, and as ever we managed to find some interesting pieces. Novelist John Updike was also a poet, it seems, and had studied Fine Art at the Ruskin School of Art, Cambridge. Ted Hughes wrote well for children and Sean O’Brien knows a thing or two about librarians. Diane read “The Year of the Tree” by Katherine Gallagher who is included in the recently published anthology of women poets “Her wings of glass” and who will be reading from her published works at our Summer Celebration (see below).

“Her wings of glass: ambitious poems by contemporary women poets” eds Myra Schneider, Penelope Shuttle, Dilys Wood. Published by Second Light Publications. ISBN978-0-9927088-0-1. 207 pages of work by some of the best women poets around. For details and purchases email info@secondlightlive.co.uk

Next Meeting April 28th. at 2.30pm

A short talk, topic to be decided followed by readings. Members will be reading one long(ish) poem and one short poem