Scots Leid

A beautiful poem in Scots from Sheila Templeton can be found at the Scots Language Centre. The list of flowers - the lupins, roses, fennel, lilies and sedums - and the suggestion of spells and fires reminds p&g of St John's night in Vigo...

On Midsimmer Eve (Extract)

I winna seek tae meet my luve

lik ither lasses. Nae for me

the midnicht runes, the folded

fresh plucked rose, garlands

o lang fennel, orpine, green birks

decked wi lilies, the giddy loupin

ower the boon fires.

(Lots of other resources if you want to find out more about Scots too including latest news and blogs.)

Read the full poem and find out more here http://www.scotslanguage.com/poem/Jul-2013

PNG bilum

How grandfather’s bilum, which
Across my father’s bare chest,
In a loving embrace slung.
Like the Leleki baskets’ blest
How while so pregnant swung.

 Extract from My grandfather's bilum by Jeffrey Febi 

p&g has a bilum in the house and come to think of it - we probably all do. Like the one described in this poem.

Read the full text here http://www.poetrysoup.com/poems_poets/poem_detail.aspx?ID=456695.

A bilum is a type of woven bag in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Australia (known as a dillybag).

Riverbank listening – a world listening day project

An epically poetandgeek kind of way to spend Thursday week by listening to a river and writing about it.

Do you want to join international artists and environmentalists in a global listening project? People from all over the world are invited to spend some time during the day listening to their environment, be it urban, rural or wilderness.

Are you interested in contributing to a creative celebration of the River Tweed and its tributaries or of your own nearest river system?

Celebrate world listening day on the 18th July in this case by lying down by a river junction pool and writing down what you hear...

You can find out more here http://workingthetweed.wordpress.com/2013/06/30/riverbank-listening-a-world-listening-day-project/

Snippet

distant yet never so close
we walk a sinking earth
lying down on her or simply standing
we feel the bucking of time...

Read the full poem here http://www.poetrytranslation.org/poems/7/Distant_Yet_Never_So_Close

Poetry house 03

Over to New York for the delicious Poets House...don't overlook Bill Murray reading Wallace Stevens among many other delights...free and open to the public might be another factor worth mentioning.

Full details here http://poetshouse.org/

Poetry house 02

The rather wonderful world of Jenny Lewis can be found in Oxford. Classes and the river and well, Oxford...

More information here http://jennylewis.org.uk/the-poets-house-oxford/

Poetry house 01

The Lower Gallery of LH in London is where it is at - regular poetry readings and you can set up a reading yourself -  Katherine Ives is the woman to speak to and she welcomes enquiries from any poets interested in reading their work.

Find out more about the schedule here http://www.lauderdalehouse.co.uk/page.asp?ID=13