Maggie Cobbett

Poetic Licence!

Fiction is my first love, ‘fillers’ and features joint second and poetry, I’m afraid, brings up the rear. That’s partly because, although I’ve had some success in that field, I don’t really consider myself a ‘proper poet’ by modern standards. As a lover of rhyme and metre, I’m aware that most of my poems are out of step with contemporary fashion.

HOWEVER, Ripon Writers’ Group was invited to contribute to the 3rd Ripon Poetry Festival, so I threw my hat into the ring and saw two of my poems, Care in the Community and Payback Time included in this year’s anthology. How soulful do I look here! Seven other members were also successful, including Lindsay Trenholme who won first prize.

As if that were not enough, a few of us also took part in the opening event of this year’s Festival, which piggybacked onto a wine and cheese evening at a local supermarket. I dug into my back catalogue for that one and read To My Writing Partner, the sonnet that won first prize in the 2006 poetry competition for a free place at ‘Swanwick’ and started my annual pilgrimage to the wonderful Writers’ Summer School. It seemed to go down well with the audience, even those who’d only really come for the more tangible tastings on offer. At any rate, they listened patiently and gave me a generous round of applause.

There was also a tribute session one afternoon for the late Elizabeth Spearman and David McAndrew, both of whom had been instrumental in setting up the Festival in 2017, and both Carol Burdett Mayer and Kate Swann launched their new poetry collections at the Curzon during the final afternoon.

All in all, this year’s Festival has been a great showcase for Ripon Writers’ Group, which has been in existence for almost 40 years!

16 October, 2019 - Make the first comment on this story