01/10/2026
I had a thoroughly enjoyable time last evening at St. James Hotel (Grimsby) with the
New Chapter Writers
A group of dedicated and passionate writers all finding their voice and obviously open to new ways of exploring them.
My main topic for the workshop was on Poetry. Obviously, there are many ways to explore this huge subject and mine is merely one approach. But as I lean towards the academic (I do a lot of leaning), I started with a short history, a discussion on what it could be said to be, its forms, specific poets (for illustrative purposes) and then the main element - audience participation!
What was again obvious to me is that although writing the ‘perfect’ poem is unobtainable; there is poetry in everyone.
One of our group stated that she had only written 4 or 5 poems in her life. Others that they had never really tried to write one at all. Yet no one was resistant and everyone was willing to give it a go.
During the 20 minutes time reserved for writing, the gathering created some touching, revealing and wonderful insights into themselves as writers and people.
Every person present created, for me at least, something with quality, with humanity, with emotion of many types and expressed in various ways.
To hear them read their poem in a supportive and safe environment, yet producing elegant and insightful pieces - some based on the prompts provided some not - that revealed more than a memory or perspective.
Each put something of themselves into their work in a way that perhaps does not happen in short fiction? This was poetry of the person, of reaching out and connecting with those around them.
It was truly lovely and such a wonderful shared experience.
We then had a short session on aspects of self-publishing. Like poetry, this is more than one session on its own, but I wanted to provide a ‘flavour’ of how to embark upon such a journey if anyone - or the group as a whole - wish to create something longer lasting for the world to enjoy.
It was a very brief whistle-stop tour but it was kindly received and from the furious note taking, some of what I was saying appeared to make sense to them, which is very pleasing.
Thank you Tina Hall for inviting me, thank you to the group for your patience, listening and engaging with this strange wreck of a chap in a Genesis T-Shirt.
I had a blast and from the comments in the ‘Happy Sheets’, you weren’t all bored all the time!
Good luck all, keep writing and thank you for buying a few books of mine too. I’ll have more room in the Studio now!
Finally, thank you for the kind gift card. It was a touch of class, unexpected but most welcome.
