Poetry Group (Online)

Group Leader:  Maggie Roebuck, contact office on 01292 260086
Location:      From the comfort of your own home via Zoom
Day and Time:  Monthly, every second Wednesday of the month at 7pm


This is not an academic group but a chance to share your favourite poems and discover new ones. It is sharing a love of words that move you. As a Humanist Celebrant for the past 10 years I have been asked to read many poems at funerals, weddings and namings. There is so much out there and its online so no need to buy any books. I would also include song lyrics which can be moving and evocative.

We could have a different theme every meeting and everyone could read a poem and say why they chose it. e.g.

  • Poems that inspire you
  • Poems that make you laugh
  • Poems that remind you of people and places
  • Song lyrics you love and why
  • Poems about a topic e.g.  poems about war or nature or love or friendship or food or animals
  • We might choose a poet and look at when, where he/she lived with some background and discuss their poems.
  • We might even write our own. We could try a haiku poem, a form of Japanese poetry which only consists of 3 lines. It can be described as a tiny window into a scene much larger than itself.

I think a limit of 12 people is a good place to start. The first meeting will take place on Wednesday 12th May at 7pm, then monthly, every second Wednesday of the month thereafter. So, please contact the office to secure your place and receive logon details for the Zoom meeting.

On Wednesday we had the first meeting of the Poetry group. It was a very interesting and informative evening. We agreed that poems can be a great comfort and companion. They capture emotions and moments of our lives and carry us forward. We can dip in at any time and feel such pleasure and joy.

We had a wide selection of poems chosen by people to read. We had two poems by W B Yeats “Song of wandering Aengus” and “When you are old”. “An ordinary day” by Norman MacCaig and “The shooting of Dan McGrew”. “The lesser celandine” by William Wordsworth. We were introduced to Polish poetry  – Pan Tadeusz, an epic poem by the Polish poet and  writer, Adam Mickiewicz published in1834. Mickiewicz is Poland’s Shakespeare. We heard some of it recited in Polish and English. Here are some links if you want to read them.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43283/when-you-are-old
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55687/the-song-of-wandering-aengus
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45082/the-shooting-of-dan-mcgrew
https://fullnessemptiness.wordpress.com/2014/04/28/an-ordinary-day-by-norman-maccaig-commentary/
https://www.thereader.org.uk/featured-poem-the-lesser-celandine-by-william-wordsworth/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pan-Tadeusz-Adam-Mickiewicz/dp/0781800331

We discussed topics for future meetings as follows:

  • Poems that make you laugh
  • Poems about nature
  • First World War poems
  • Song Lyrics
  • Poems from our school days
  • Poems that inspire you
  • Scottish Poems

We finished with a lovely poem by Diana Hendry and Hamish Whyte the very amusing Bidie-in Application and Appointment.

BIDIE-IN – APPLICATION

O let me be your bidie-in
And keep you close within
As dearest kith and kin
I promise I’d be tidy in
Whatever bed or bunk you’re in
I’d never ever drink your gin
I’d be your multi-vitamin
I’d wear my sexy tiger-skin
And play my love-sick mandolin
It cannot be a mortal sin
To be in such a dizzy spin
I’d like to get inside your skin
I’d even be your concubine
I hope you know I’m genuine
O let me be your bidie-in.

APPOINTMENT

Of course, you may be my bidie-in
You didn’t need to apply within.
A braw new world’s about to begin
We’ll gang thegether through thick and thin
We’ll walk unscathed through burr and whin.
If you’re to be my porcupine
I’ll just have to bear it and grin.
I’ll be your sheik, your djinn
I’ll be yang to your yin.
You’ll be my kitten, my mitten, my terrapin.
All night long we’ll make love’s sweet din
And never mind the wheelie bin.
In our romantic cinema there’ll be no FIN.
And so I’ll say again – You’re in – You’ve got the job of bidie-in.

So please come along and join us.