Issue 2 of The Fig Tree should now have landed in your email inbox, assuming you are a subscriber. And if you aren’t, why not?
I was delighted with the feedback from Issue 1, and I hope you all enjoy Issue 2, which I believe is also very strong - and with a Featured Poet of the calibre of Rory Waterman and second contributions from Ian Harker, Paul Brookes and Bob Beagrie I think I am justified.
Speaking of Mr. Brookes, I am currently taking part in his April Ekphrastic Challenge to coincide with National Poetry Writing Month. Paul provides three pieces of artwork per day to act as prompts.
Here’s one of my efforts from April 9th - they are obviously drafts at this stage but it makes your brain work. My ekphrastic poems tend to be triggered by the image rather than describing the artwork itself.
Morning Coffee
Taking a morning coffee,
watching the liquid swirl in the cup
the TV is on
the Breakfast program
news where you are
(it isn't, I'm in Spain)
weather
(it's better here)
and sport.
There's something different; no studio,
it's a village hall with rows of people
who had never meant to meet
had never meant to do anything wrong
had never done anything wrong
had never foreseen their loss
of pride, of money, of health and liberty.
One by one their stories poured out;
the years of worry, of pain, of anguish.
The sorrow and anger wells up
and my coffee is cold.
Note: for anyone outside the UK this relates to the scandal where the Post Office prosecuted some sub postmasters for fraud. It was actually due to a fault in the computer system that it now appears they knew about all along.
I am also preparing my submission to the National Coal Mining Museum’s anthology about the Miners’ Strike of 1984-1985. There’s plenty of time to submit if you want to give it a go. Just go over to the website for details.
Our first Fig Tree Featured Poet, Ian Parks, is running a workshop at the museum in June - details here
Tim