Welcome back to old readers and welcome to new ones!

I am back at last after 3 very busy years, which is a reason not an excuse! My news is that two weeks ago I finally left the charity I helped to found and chaired for eight years. It is called RAIS Lancaster, which stands for Refugee Advocacy Information and Support. It was sad to say goodbye to our lovely clients from the flourishing local asylum seeker and refugee community. It has been a privilege to work with them but now it is time to move on. In recognition of how important the work has been for me, the poem of the month for October is is Along the Canal, one of several I wrote over the years of my work with refugees.

So, now I’m back to writing, and writing poetry in particular, and there is lot going on. I am using the same format for my blogs as before as it works well for me.

My Writing Life has not done too well recently but I have now started to write some poetry again and have few things on the go. I have been greatly helped by the my wonderful WhatsApp group based on a residential course at Ty Newydd, the centre for literature Wales which took place two years ago. We were tutored by Carol Ann Duffy and Gillian Clarke. We have kept in touch and recently started to have regular Monday night Zoom poetry sharing. Usually three or four of us share recent work and it is stimulating and helpful. In addition I am returning to my local Stanza group and as often as I can to Brewery Poets in Kendal.

My Reading Life has consisted, as ever, of a number of interesting non-fiction books including Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger and currently Mary Beard’s Emperor of Rome. I am still ploughing through the latter (it is a hefty read but very entertaining).

Recent poetry I have enjoyed includes Gillian Clarke’s The Silence and Kathleen Jamie’s Cairn which is not all poetry but a fascinating collection of various genres of creative writing. I am about to embark on the recent collection from Katrina Naomi: Battery Rocks, which won the Arthur Welton award this year. More of that next time no doubt.

Hare in the Headlights. Here I have two recent exciting developments to report. Mike Barlow whose Wayleave Press, who has published two of my pamphlets, has included two of my poems in the new Wayleave anthology, out few weeks ago, Press Rewind, Play Again.
Secondly, I have recently been asked by a member of the Stanza group to start a series of poetry workshops. I now have four potential members and we meet next week to plan how this will happen.

That’s it for now. Look out for my next blog in about a month.