9th Festival of Suffolk Poetry Evening

The evening of the 9th festival started by showcasing two SPS poets, Sue Mobbs and Roger West.

Sue is always a delight to listen to, and we were not disappointed. Roger asked us to ‘Consider the Cicada’ in an original presentation, taking the topic from many different aspects, and using many props to represent the sound of cicada, for example. Kate Rex assisted with audio-visuals and even some puppetry!

The two poets were followed by an appreciation of Ronald Blythe’s writing by Colin Whyles. Anne Boileau provided a break in the talk with her ‘Ronald Blythe’s Window Songs’ presentation, which she framed using the letter ‘C’ to capture many aspects of Ronnie. Richard Whiting also read a poem explaining what happened when Ronnie found he had been asked to read a shortened version of John Clare’s poem ‘The Nightingale’s Nest’ at Ronnie’s Desert Island Poems in 2013.

The evening and day came to a high point with Martin Figura and Helen Ivory providing readings from their wide range of collections.

The President of SPS, George Szirtes, closed the day with comments on the society and the festival.