On January 11th 2014, local poet Bill Cooper led the final walk of the Unregistered project - a poetry walk around Wardsend cemetery and the surrounding area. For once the weather was on our side and we had a glorious sunny day, and as a result the walk had a great turnout of participants. The walk and its subsequent poetry workshop were very well received and produced some brilliant work; you can read the reflections of one of the walkers, Anne Grange, in a blog post she has written about the event:
http://therandomnotebook.wordpress.com/2014/01/16/hidden-histories/
You can also watch a video summary of the day below:
Get-Together
a collective noun of poets
gathered here today to witness
a gain of faith in human
nature, a tree that grew
from the fertile soil of an
unlikely shared bed
among a congregation of bare
stones
we were a sporting
crowd,
here to hone the ancient art
of support wall building
in small conversations and
quiet rapport,
in hints and passing snippets,
and snicker-snack a stolen way
to where an oddball retinue
might just
connect in a tap room of
embracing alms
and drink freely in the
others’ understanding
Brian Holmshaw
Underneath the
Landfill
where earth is
thought
supporting weight
the pylon’s roots
are deeply set
through nail and thumb
your arms out straight
wrists loose
painted black
flowers of barbs
concentric skies
where webs of birch
hang twisted oaks
on ganister beds
contain the city -
broken fences
beside freight tracks
Mark Doyle
