Cafe Poets Pop-in and poetry notebooks

We went off at a bit of tangent at Cafe Poets this week and tried our hands at making poetry notebooks.  We got very creative with bindings, card and even some handmade papers.  Naturally we then had to write some new poems that would live up to these innovative creations.

               

I set up the Cafe poets pop-in over four years ago at the Open Art Cafe in Rottingdean. I can barely believe it was so long ago myself. I was once told if you join groups that don’t really suit you, start one yourself.  It’s really for apprentice poets and beginners.

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One lady comes twice a year when she is here on holiday, but we have some regulars, one from Hove, another from Lewes and of course people who live in Saltdean or Rottingdean come too. Paul lives locally and he comes to get inspiration for his song writing. He wasn’t into bookmaking so  wrote a little ditty about book making until we got on with the writing.

   

Colin publishes his books and they are works of art in their own right.  Others like Maggie and Ruth make books for family and friends and some read their poems at events. But most of the time we just enjoy our attempts at writing poetry.

That said it did not stop me from going on a course called ‘Preparing a Pamphlet for Publication.’   An established poet was leading it and although very friendly, it was more a question of fellow poets in small groups giving an opinion on which poems to include. I am ‘a bear of little brain’ and bears like logical outcomes, like a pot of honey!

I tend to suffer from attacks of ‘are any my poems good enough?’ so, instead of more expensive courses, I found not one, but two poets willing to mentor me locally which has proved to be much more useful. Currently I have a pamphlet out in a comp. but I am still reviewing the contents,  so that when it’s rejected I  can have another go.

I’m also in the process of throwing caution to the wind and setting up a podcast with my son Paul. It will include old and new poems and hopefully someone somewhere will enjoy listening to them.

I had no reason to think this blog would be successful but nevertheless I’ve had 40.000 hits in just over 4  years.  Writing for me is creative as well as therapeutic which is why I am still doing it.

Now it’s back to planning a family meal and what to give loved ones for Christmas!

An award winning blog      for ‘a blog that brightens our day’.