The Listening Walk

I am an associate editor of this anthology  recently published by Create Space and available in USA from Amazon and in UK from Amazon.

It includes the work of several members of the Wells Fountain Poets.

The lovely landscape on the cover was generously contributed by local artist Malcolm Ashman. You can see more of his work on his website here.

The Listening Walk is an anthology of poems by 40 members of The Bath Poetry Cafe who shared events and readings in the city of Bath during 2012, the year of the Cultural Olympiad. Edited by Poetry Cafe Organiser Sue Boyle and a team of seven Associate Editors from the Cafe , the anthology contains work by poets from across the West Country. Some are already very well published. Others are less well known. For a few, The Listening Walk contains their first published work. Here are some recent comments about the Bath Poetry Cafe.

“The Bath Poetry Cafe is one of those essential organisations that spring directly from a love of poetry and work brilliantly to enable others to write, read and above all hear poetry. Long may it flourish!” –  Michael Mackmin, Editor, The Rialto.

“The Bath Poetry Cafe is one of those ventures which grace the city. Showcasing the best of poets, workshop leaders and editors, it encourages the writing and reading of poetry. Events are open to all poets, from the beginner to the more experienced scribbler. That they are successful can be seen from the poems in this volume. Would that every town had its own Poetry Cafe.” –  Patricia Oxley, Editor, Acumen.

“Bath Poetry Cafe poets are a creative and driven group who write, promote and encourage the best poetry. They make poetry an event. ” Allison McVety, Author, Miming Happiness, The Night Trotsky Came to Stay.

“Bath’s Poetry Cafe events are so varied and stimulating that it’s splendid to discover that something of their refreshing flavour has been preserved in an anthology like this. The Listening Walk is a delightful distillation from a year of these poetic and professionally creative activities; it offers an irresistible invitation to all who haven’t yet discovered what poetic pleasures are to be found in this lovely city.” –  R V Bailey, Author,  Course Work, Marking Time, From Me to You The Losing Game, Credentials.

I have four poems in the anthology, three of them being about places in Orkney. This is one.

Chambered Cairn

Quoyness 2008

 

The passage is three feet high:
on your knees in the seething dark you enter.
In the corbelled chamber’s space
you uncoil and stand earth-fast at the centre.

The silence sings in your ears.

On an inch of paper you write the three runes

of your name, bind it with hair

and hide it in a crevice between the stones.