February 6th

February's Free Choice
On a fine and much milder afternoon we met to discuss both our chosen poems and the 'way forward'. It has often been suggested that we should take on a single poem or poet as a group project. After some debate about who, and how, it was agreed that at our next meeting we would all look at T.S. Eliot's THE WASTE LAND, but we will not necessarily devote the whole meeting to it, so we have agreed to bring along SHORT poems of our own choice to counterbalance the intensity of Eliot's work.

We have been alerted to the liklihood of a change of venue in March, from the Library, to the ART HOUSE, a cafe opposite the Junction, owing to a large educational event taking over the Library. The Art House has an upstairs room that the library staff are negotiating for on our behalf. Confirmation of the move will be emailed or telephoned to all members of the group by Sandy later in the month.

Yesterday's meeting produced the usual stimulating selection of poems which included Sylvia Plath's 'Daddy',
Dylan Thomas's 'And Death Shall Have No Dominion', G.K. Chesterton's 'The Donkey', Charles Cotton (1630-87) 'Winter's Invasion'; Seamus Heaney's 'Docker', and Jenny Joseph's 'Dead of Night'. Oddly, in view of our opening discussion, I had brought along 'Death by Water', section IV of The Waste Land!