Gloucester Poetry Festival – the epilogue

Last night I went down to the Fountain Inn in Gloucester, this is a great little pub near the city centre. Normally, I would not write about going to a pub but on this occasion, I was attending the final event of the month-long Gloucester Poetry Festival. 

I have attended a few of the events that have been held as part of the festival. Most of them have been held on dark, wet evenings, or so it would seem, consequently I have come to associate poetry with a dark, dreary atmosphere. Which is totally unfair. The festival has been a great event and has helped, I hope, raise the awareness of poetry within the city. I whole-heartedly feel that the organisers, the poets who contributed and all who attended the various events, should be praised and congratulated for the success of the festival.

Last night’s event was the last event scheduled on the Festival calendar and there were several familiar faces present. It was sad, in a way, to feel that a conclusion was being reached (though I daresay the organisers may also have felt some ‘relief’ at this point). I was only able to stay for, I guess, half the event (as I say, it was a dark wet night and I had a fair walk home). What I did hear in this event, though, was some different styles of poetry and a few new (to me) local poets. Amazing, isn’t it, that after a month full of events, the last event can still show something new; I would say that this shows how much creative talent there is locally. 

I really enjoyed the evening and listening to the poets on stage. I had wondered whether the final event might be a bit of an anti-climax but, no, not one bit; it was a great way to conclude the festival.

I don’t know if there will be a festival next year (or if the events will again be held on dark wet evenings) but I certainly hope so.

My next steps? Well, let’s just see what regular poetry events there are, which I can attend and maintain my interest in poetry, get writing more poetry and see if I can locate my old schoolboy poems somewhere in the attic.