In February this blog promoted the Pulsar Poetry Evening at The White Hart in Wroughton so we are really pleased that David Pike of Pulsar Poetry has provided the following Review of the evening and we would encourage anyone who enjoys writing and listening to poetry to join Pulsar at one of their events coming up in the near future…

The following is an abridged snapshot of the Pulsar Poetry Evening held at The White Hart, Wroughton, near Swindon on 4^th March 2010. Note: a selection of poems read during the evening were videoed and posted to You Tube, with poets’ consent.  To view on-line visit the You Tube site and type the word PulsarPoet into the search box or simply visit the Photo Gallery of Pulsar Poetry Webzine and click on the links.  As usual I give the up-front apologies for notation errors and omissions. I started the evening rolling by playing a self-penned acoustic guitar instrumental, ‘Clear Water,’ then read a few of my poems. David Pike.

Teresa Davey read her prose poem, ‘The Titanic,’ which was inspired by Ciaran Carson’s book of memoirs, ‘Star Factory.’  The poem included, “. . . a Belfast built ship, sunk as midnight loomed on her maiden voyage on Sunday 14^th April 1912, heading for America with its triple cache of humanity, her beauty and size blinded men who should know better, to the possibility of calamity . . .  in memory of 1513 souls . . . Belfast has created the Titanic Quarter. . .”

Martin Malone’s poem focussed on a local landmark.  The poem was titled ‘Barbury Castle,’ and verse included, “Meet me at the earthworks in the small hours on the hill, up there . . . here beyond Swindon’s dirty ochre, power up the hearts deep electric and bring me your darkness, let me move towards its live wire . . .”

I hadn’t seen Hilda Sheehan for a while; I didn’t recognise her and called her someone else’s name, oops!  Apologies Hilda.   Hilda’s poem ‘Worst Weather,’ included, “her husband was the weather, made mountains with his frozen front, his cold condition.  If she sang for summer he’d holler out hail, bring black betrayed clouds to cry relentless rain for days and days.  “That’s this country Connie,” he’d scream . . .”

It was good to see Katherine T. Owen again and hear her poems.  Her poem ‘It Takes a Receiver,’ included, “. . . if you live in the modern world then all around you and going through you are radio waves, TV waves, microwaves.  How do you know this?  Can you see them, taste them, hear them?  It is out of faith in some scientist somewhere who said it is so . . .” Also check out the Book Publication Information page of this web to view details of Katherine’s recently published books.

Peter Farr read an abridged version of his epic poem, ‘The Bismarck,’ which he’d been inspired to write after watching a Ludovic Kennedy documentary on the TV.   The poem relayed the brief encounter between HMS Hood and the Bismarck and the tragic eventual results for both ships and their crews; “battle stations . . . spray whipped . . . guns went out to the night and waited . . . we come to maximum range in seven minutes . . . your captain speaking . . . sighted . . . one battleship and one cruiser . . . range finders call out your markers . . . 40,000, 35,000, 25,000 shoot!  The sea shuddered . . .”

Chantelle Smith read her poem, ‘My Painted Mask,’ with great passion.  Chantelle said it was a personal poem and explained that experimenting with makeup was a way of exploring and expressing herself.  Verse included, “. . . in time gone past I painted my face to hide my soul, to bind it fast.  The mask meant truth gave, gave life to lies, tethered, imprisoned my fragile youth . . .”

Television, I tend to watch too much television.  Neil Brook’s poem, ‘TV Poem,’ just about sums it up, “. . . in the dreary routine the heavy diet of television screens where pictures, sounds and imagery weave their way into our thought space.  In this cold short stimuli we feed our eyes as the hours drift by . . . our brains pummelled into passivity . . .” It was good to see Neil’s partner Katie as well, we had a good chat.

Talis Kimberley brought new songs and poems to the fore. The song, ‘When I Was A Mermaid,’ was inspired by comments made by her daughter, lyrics included, “when I was a mermaid, my daughter my dear and a long time before I had you, I lived in the ocean a long way from here and sometimes my stories are true . . .” The song ‘Lowlands Pacific,’  tells of the perils of global warming and rising sea levels, “I need not walk to greet the shore, no place, no place for beast or man, the sea comes to greet me at my door, oh my poor drowned land . . .”

Cristina Newton’s poem, ‘Snow,’ painted a bleak winter picture, “. . . the weather that has followed us, the window facing north west and has found us still awake on this island of dank passages and cold mouths of mould . . . our souls stunned by the dark idle stains of snow . . .”

This was the second time that we’ve held a Pulsar Poetry Evening at this venue.  We were warmly received and the evening had a pleasingly informal atmosphere.  All-in-all a good evening with new, (new to Pulsar), and familiar poets in attendance. Note: As mentioned earlier, I later posted videos of poets performing to You Tube.  Visit the photo gallery page of the Pulsar Poetry web site and click on the links shown, to view videos. David Pike.

Here are the relevant contact details if you want to view those performances on YouTube or register to join Pulsar in the future.

Tel: 01793 875941
Email: puls...@btopenworld.com
Web: www.pulsarpoetry.com