Our Next Meeting…….

English: Uploaded from flickr.com Creative Commons section under an Attribution License. By Russell J. Smith. http://www.flickr.com/photos/russelljsmith/146216894/ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pimento Poets next meet on Monday 9th February 2015, commencing at 10.30 am. A warm welcome awaits you at the Pimento Tearooms near Bailgate, Lincoln.

Pimento Poets: Meet the Poets: Susan Flower.

Susan Flower: member of Pimento Poets.

Pimento Poets: Meet the Poets: Sue Flower

Homecoming

I take the Romany’s sprigged heather,
tuck its pink tight buds curled like
baby fists tight as a talisman,
blue with longing, into my bag

I am pierced mid-flight
by a hint of traveller she sees
within – an Irish woman 
On the grandmother side

Ellen Glancy unschooled, catholic
in tastes and religion, 
Pawned her soul for potatoes
that lay rotting,bleeding
into darkened sod

Her pilgrimage to England
and Alfred, then retracing steps
to Enniskillen for the wedding,
returning   to peg washing
not in a whipped north-easterly
which cut the souls

Back cross grey waters
fretful and choppy, till her own
broke a tidal wave, her firstborn.
Homesick for emerald patches,
 a mercurial sky tilting meniscus
struggling for freedom

Iron rain lashes my face,
her slashed smile a rent petticoat.
Merging the troubles one with another,
I take her hand in mine,
it lies still but warm, without
need for words

C. Susan Flower 2012

Pimento Poets: Meet the Poets: John Malvert.

C.  Country-side Walk by John Malvert.

Pimento Poets: Winchester - A new poem by Paul Mein.

            Winchester

Betrayed by a glint of errant sun,
the gun that won the West,
its stock century-bleached
with the tree it leant against,
the tree that gathered it into itself
in an unexpected marriage,
divorced after a hundred hidden years.
Close by in forgotten earth,
mouldered scraps of cloth,
potsherds of bone,
a blink of yellow metal ­ fragments of a life
lost in the winning of the land.            


A Model 73 Winchester was found leaning against a juniper            
tree in Nevada’s Snake Mountains. It had been there for 130            
years.


c.           Paul Mein.  17/1/15

Related articles

• 1882 rifle sparks archaeological quest in Nev.
• Undisturbed for 130 years, the Wild West rifle left against a tree

Pimento Poets: Maurren Sutton - Girls on the Bus.

Girls on the Bus

They’re both wearing the same kind of coat  
identical cut and colour of hair
odd socks that match each other
one blue, one grey, one grey one blue.
One pulls away an earpiece
while she boards, the other follows.
Ear pieces are back in, right ear for
the window girl left for her twin.
They’re mute, dead-pan faces.
The bus stops, one unplugs, both alight.
I watch as they walk away co-joined
by an ear cord as if
they’re back in the womb.



 Maureen Sutton
                                     01 11 20                    

Pimento Poets: A new poem by Philip Dunn.

 Abandoned Lines




1  Outward  - 30th September 1939


The platform had emptied like a
scuttle its coal, leaving only
Miss Geddes, (a tear in her eye?)
and the guard with his flag raised,
half- turning away;
a volley from the carriage doors
dividing them utterly from
those now dispatched,
parcelled in promises,
labelled like luggage.

Dressed, in haste, in Sunday best,
cardboard cases quite abandoned,
fingers clamp the lowered windows,
faces press the filmy glass, to
see the last familiar landmarks
vanish in the smoke.

Then, as at some hidden sign,
the watching crowd dissolves away.
Seats are sought and places settled,
squatters’ rights secured by threats,
or captured by treaties
cemented with sandwiches.

The carriage expands with the hollowness
of questions that can’t be answered.
Bare thighs fidget
on the threadbare moquette.

c. Philip Dunn. 

Pimento Poets: A poem by Shirley Bell: The Scarecrow Christ.

The Scarecrow Christ

The fields are flat and brown, it's hard to think
they'll ever stand high with corn, flare with rape
again this summer. For now the scarecrows lurch
at crazy angles. They trail old coats and rags.
Polythene bags flap around the suggestions of
their shoulders. And yet the wind lifts
their shoddy clothes and they are touched with
magic; they always seem about to fly.

It's Sunday and I've taken you to Chapel.
Everything is grey and earnest. There's no
incense here, though  a sense of well-meaning
sifts gently through the air. I don't think I belong.
It's Lent and the sermon is all about temptation.
I feel I would not pass those tests. Now I see
distraction in the corner of my eyes; a painting.
When I can, I take a picture on my phone.

It shows me strips of cloth, snarled around
an empty cross, a tenuous fabric
lifting in air currents, tangled with light.
Something. Nothing. Faith, elusive as a sigh.
A scarecrow pinned to a stick.
Leaning forwards, with the wind stirring its tatters.
And always on the point of alteration,
by some sudden unexpected angle of the sun.

c. by Shirley Bell.

Pimento Poets: Shirley Bell, a new member this year……..

We have a new member: Shirley Bell.

Shirley joined us at the last couple of meetings and read some of her works.

Her biographical details reveal an interesting and diverse background:

Married for 42 years (!) with 3 adult children and 3 grandchildren. With her husband, Shirley Bell has run a cactus nursery for many years, written and illustrated gardening books for GMC publications, and worked as a wedding and social photographer.
In the past substantial selections of her poetry were published by Faber and Faber in Poetry Introduction 6, in Six the Versewagon Poetry manual, Anvil New Poets and Outside The Chain of Hands and she was published in magazines including Ambit, Poetry Review, The London Magazine, The Spectator and many others.

Her poetry has been broadcast on Radio 3 and she also had a small pamphlet published by the Wide Skirt. She has read her work widely throughout the country including at the South Bank and the Arvon Centres in Yorkshire and Devon.

Recently she completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Lincoln, and in 2013 she published a pamphlet ‘behind the glass’ as part of her course and compiled and edited an anthology of the work of the students on the course, The Black Path 1, which was published in June of that year.

Her poems have recently appeared in The Rialto and The North and in a new anthology 'fathers and what must be said', published by Rebel Poetry.

We will be posting some of Shirley's work in the next few days……...

School of Poetry

I thought I should let everyone know that we haven't been successful in our bid for grant aid from The School of Poetry. Below is their confirmation……...

Hello and thank you very much for your application to the Poetry School’s micro-commission fund.

I’m sorry to inform you that we won’t be taking your application further. There were so many great ideas out there, and we would have loved to been able to support more of them, but sadly we only had the budget for five.

Please do stay in touch with the Poetry School. We’re going through a period of expansion at the moment, and will be developing our programme to include more poetry-promoting projects alongside our regular course programme. We hope to be able to offer more opportunities of the ‘Lo and Behold’ nature in the future, and to increase the number of poets we collaborate with. While we regret we couldn’t fund many more than the five projects we picked this time, it has been very interesting for us to be introduced to so many new names and ideas through the application process, so please keep us up to date with your projects and promotions and we’ll do our best to profile them on CAMPUS.

All best wishes - Julia

Julia Bird
Head of Programmes

I work for the Poetry School part time, and am usually in the office Wednesdays to Fridays.

The Poetry School
81 Lambeth Walk
London
SE11 6DX

Pimento Poets: New poetry by Vernon Goddard

Walking the walk......

I saw a man walking today.

We were in the Chrysler 300c, heading to Aldi’s

Via

The deviation

Because of roadworks on  Canwick Hill.

I was coming to a low level bridge

In Washingborough

And saw him

In and out  of the corner

Of an eye.

Why he registered,

I don’t know for sure.

Went on our way.

Shopped at Aldi’s for £64.08p

And got our diesel at Tesco’s.

With the voucher, we saved over £8.00.

Travelled back towards Nocton

Without a hitch at Canwick Hill.

On the outskirts of Branston,

There he was,

Again.

The man at the bridge.

How could he have walked so far?

Where was he going?

He was tall, grey haired, long haired

Curley haired,

Dressed mostly in black.

Looked like an ex-rocker.

Slim.

Head held high aimed at the Horizon.

Was my flitting feeling of jealousy

Something to do with his purpose and gait?

What gracious thoughts had he magiced

Whilst I had been raiding some shelves.

Did I see a pencil sticking out of his top pocket?

 c.    DVG  9th January 2015....

New event in 2015…...by local author, Paul Mein.

'Voices in a mystery' - an Easter cycle, is a collection of poems by  local poet, Paul Mein.


The poems form an exciting dramatic cycle, looking at the events of Easter through the eyes of ordinary people such as the carpenter who made the cross, the doctor who signed Jesus' death certificate.

They also present unique perspectives on other, better known characters - Barabbas, Judas, Mary Magdalene.

Performed by a group of enthusiastic, experienced readers and performers called 'The Nine', the work is being premiered in the newly refurbished Southwell Library on Wednesday, 25th. March at 7.30 p.m.

There are further performances at The Lace Market Theatre, Nottingham, Sunday 29th. March at 7.0 p.m.and St. Wifrid's Church, Calverton, Tuesday 31st. March, 7.30 p.m.

Also at St. Peter's Church, Nottingham, (next to Marks and Spencer) Friday, 3rd. April.  The cycle will form the centrepiece of the church's Good Friday afternoon service. Don't miss the opportunity to see this unique presentation.

Further details from Paul Mein pjmein42@gmail.com

Pimento Poets: New poetry by Paul Mein

Solstice II

We talked arm-in-arm

as we used to,

leaning in to one another,

caught up in family legends,

winter warmed on the sun side

of a bustling Fulham street -

a rare morning of ordinary comforts.

c.    Paul Mein.  21/12/14

Pimento Poets: New poetry by Paul Mein

 Solstice I

Hollow days before Christmas -          

I watch for angels          

listen for the swan-swoop of their wings          

across city rooftops          

wait for coldcrack night skies          

believe in a star.          

I look for childhood certainties          

to recapture bedtime story, Santa Claus faith          

second time around.

c     Paul Mein.  21/12/14

Next Meeting of Pimento Poets…….

Hi Everyone……..

Our next meeting will be on Monday 12th January, 2015 at the Pimento Tearooms in Lincoln. Please bring some poetry with you……We'll start at 10.30 am as long as we can get through the roadworks on time…….

Happy New Year ……….Vernon