A really delightful evening yesterday, giving a reading at the Stanza poetry group in the Leopard Hotel, Burslem – a lovely old pub, full of character, which I’m told features in Arnold Bennett’s fiction. (Burslem is near Stoke on Trent, in the ‘Potteries’ – one of Bennett’s ‘Five Towns’.)

The group was immensely welcoming, and provided an ideally attentive, involved, and questioning audience for the poems: one of those occasions when you rediscover your own poetry by sharing it with people who really respond and understand.

John Williams was a marvellously intelligent chairman, and after the reading he stimulated a fascinating discussion that made me think a lot about language, about the way different poets look at the world, and about what the real subjects of my poems are.

Is it true that most of my poems are about relationships? Is it true that I use a lot of metaphors but very few similes? Am I really contented with language, or am I one of those poets who find it insufficient and struggle against its limitations? Well!

The discussion made me ponder on my own work and the directions it might take, as well as where it’s been in the past. And it was followed by group members reading their own work, which we all joined in to discuss. A thoroughly rewarding and creative evening.

So huge thanks to the group; and do take a look at their excellent website, which is at www.leopardpoetry.wordpress.com