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*** SPRING FESTIVAL & HOLLAND HOUSE***
PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THESE EVENTS ARE UNDER REVIEW

2020 Poetry Competition NOW OPEN

*** Celebrating International Women’s Day, 8th March 2020:
Listen to Soho Radio’s Poetry Parlour presented by Anna Robinson
featuring Anne Stewart, representing Second Light, and Katherine Gallagher ***

Need help with travel to Second Light events? See Second Light Mary MacRae ‘Access to Poetry’ Fund

Poets of the Month (& see sample poem below, by Marilyn Longstaff)

Featured Poets, April 2020 straight to poems
 

Dorothy Baird, It Never Stops
Maureen G Coppack, Wading Through Green
Penny Dedman, Crossing the Daintree
Pat Francis, Steel-Tipped Boots
Helena Hinn, Pins
Stevie Krayer, Agnus Dei
Marilyn Longstaff, Alioth Al-Jawn
Jenny Morris, Accident of Birth
Carolyn Oulton, Before I am old
Mary Robinson, You asked for a poem about listening
 

Sample poem (selected at random)

Alioth Al-Jawn (The black horse John)

Always beware the quiet ones my mother said
muttering something about hidden depths,
still waters and dark horses.
 
Unlike an Arab stallion, according to my dad,
John had no rump; needed a belt
to hold his trousers up.
 
I couldn’t say he raced into my life in 1968,
 
maybe trotted quietly, tossing his faintly curling mane –
long, with auburn lights; blinkered, myopic,
Mona Lisa smile.
 
My parents should have listened to their own advice.
While they were fantasising Christian weddings
with fiery Geoff or beaming Dave or sober Stuart,
 
the black horse, John, remained invisible,
galloped below their radar, nuzzled his dark way
into my affections.
 

Marilyn Longstaff

     note: Alioth Al-Jawn – Arabic, ‘black horse’; can also be translated as a star name.

Poem published in Articles of War, 2017, Smokestack Books, ISBN 978-0-9934547-6-9

• Poet, Teacher, Inspiration – Dilys Wood and the latter-day Sapphos
• Dilys Wood Guest Blog – Ambitious Women Poets – at Brittle Star
• For a different look and feel, visit us on poetry p f
   
• Myra Schneider is a Consultant to Second Light Network.
   

Second Light Network – a network for women poets.

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