We had on of our occassional unusual evenings last night (30th April 2013). For only the second time we had a guest reader, André Mangeot. The room was crowded, and he deserved it. His reading was both entertaining and thoughtful.

He read mostly from his book Mixer, in which all the poems have some sort of relationship to cocktails. He also read new poems that are yet to be published, although the potential new book is ready to go.

The sonnet writing workshop with James Knox Whittet drew together twelve poets wishing to write a sonnet for the first time or improve their grasp of the form.

Our third birthday celebration with our Pick of the Poets event and Katie Bonna, the performance poet, entertaining seemed to go down very well. We had a very good attendance with some old friends returning. They will be back!

What a bumper month! Fifteen poets and a huge range of topics, from the eight times table to the upright ladies of Nepal (in the proper sense of upright!). Some interesting serendipitous links between poems as well.

Yet again we were regaled by poets we had not heard before. There were five new voices this month. Is everyone in the west of Suffolk a poet? It certainly feels like it. They are all welcome and I hope we hear them again.

The gathering at Benson Blakes in February was held under onerous conditions. The room we usually use had been double-booked so it was in use by a drama group. Thus we assembled in the bar area and had to contend with much noise.

You will notice this on the recordings.

But this did not prevent the evening being hugely enjoyable. There was a large gathering. Each month we seem to meet new poets. It is astonishing how many there are in Suffolk.

So look at the archive (bottom left) and enjoy the poems that have been submitted to us.

There has been some debate in the poetry circles about whether a poem on a website is 'published'. In legal terms, as always, things aren't quite that simple.

People often discuss copyright and how it applies to material on this site. I am not a lawyer, but in business and privately I have had to deal with copyright issues, so I thought it might be helpful to give my understanding of copyright.

Original posting Sunday, March 25, 2007 on MySpace

I was sitting in Prezzo in Sudbury today enjoying my pasta and tomato and red onion side salad deep in my deep thoughts when the most irritating thing happened. The waitress came over and asked "Is everything alright, sir?".

I got rid of her as quickly as I could by saying "yes", then immediately regretted it.

Original posting Sunday, May 20, 2007 on MySpace

Yesterday was a terrible day. I had the mother of all migraines. Although I get migraines often several times a week, these days they are normally controlled by zolmitriptan within a few minutes and life continues. A wonderful drug with no apparent side-effects that has restored my life to me.