More Activities in March...!

On Monday 19th March I was a guest on the poetry slot on BBC Radio Coventry & Warwickshire, with Jo Roberts, the station’s very own poet laureate. I’ve met Jo a few times now and she’s a lovely lady and very generous with her ideas and advice.

It was Jo’s idea to have the weekly poetry slot and she worked hard to persuade the station to give that airtime to poetry. As a result, one local poet has the chance to read some of their work, live, on air each Monday evening. If you want to catch it, then tune into 94.8FM, 104FM, 103.7FM and DAB Digital Radio between 7.30pm and 8pm.

Maybe I'm just getting used to this radio lark (second time, after all!) but I felt much more relaxed than when I was on Liz Kershaw's breakfast show. I even managed to forget the listeners and it just became a chat between me, Jo and the presenter, Alan Miller. One of the aims of the poetry slot is to encourage the audience to send in their own poetry, so Jo and I were asked to give some tips to would-be writers. And here are our tips:

1. Read the poem aloud!
2. Put your writing away and when you come back to it after a few days (or weeks), you will see it more objectively
3. You can get ideas for poetry from anywhere. Carry a notebook around with you, so you never miss anything!

On 28th March I was back in Warwick for the Volunteers’ Evening for this year’s Warwick Words festival. There was a good turn-out and I’m sure they can’t have all just come for the free wine and nibbles! Warwick Words Writers, a group that was set up at last year’s festival, took to the stage and read some great poems. There are lots of ‘jobs’ for volunteers at this year’s festival in October – everything from stuffing envelopes to picking up writers from the train station, so if you’re interested in getting involved, speak to Helen Meeke, the co-ordinator. You can contact her through the Warwick Words website: www.warwickwords.co.uk or by phone: 01926 427056