National Poetry Day

Carol Anne Duffy - Poet Laureate

                                                        
Yesterday - October 7th - was National Poetry Day, in fact the whole week is National Poetry Week.  Radio 2 has been reading peoples favourite poems all the week from 1pm - 2 pm.  Well done BBC radio 2 it's been excellent.

Last night I went up the valley to Blackwood to hear amateur poetry being read by the authors.  A classmate of mine from college had entered this competition, and been selected for the top ten, so I went along to support.  He read his poem and it was beautiful, about the anniversary of the death of his wife.  However, he didn't win, not even the public vote, but it's participating in these events that gives you the pride, not the winning.  There can be no winner or losers in poetry in my opinion, as they are all beautiful in their way, and all written from a personal perspective. I think it takes courage to write something and then get up on stage and read it to an audience when you are an amateur, unsure of yourself and the genre. Well done to all who participated and well done to the organisers.  I saw nothing advertising an event like this in Newport city!