Chris brings a natural affinity with the world and its wonders

Chris Ralls - Guest poet

This month's Guest Poet, Chris Ralls delivered a set of poetry for all comers. From the poignancy of an older aunt whose mental capacity rendered her younger than the poet as a boy and tender lies shared with a dying friend: 'There'd be no more walks upon the hill'. The gentle understanding of such moments shone through the readings like a ray of light in darkness. Our audience was moved by 'After a visit to Krakow' where the question was posed about the churches there: 'do they possess a treasure that many of us have lost?' Chris also showcased a talent for describing the natural world with poetry about the shifting time of the clocks: 'Why can't we leave the clocks alone?' , the seasons and the Moon: 'treading the dark vacuum of space', the Earth - almost a sister poem to the Moon - and the Milky Way 'trails of shining steam'. Such awe was tempered with Chris' humour on reflection of how time flies when 'yesterday I was forty and today I'm ninety!' Reading to a full house, our audience was loudly appreciative of Chris' set.

The wonderful Nicki Watts compared the second half of our proceedings with her welcoming and affable style and we are very happy to make this a regular arrangement having the comparing shared between our fabulous committee.

Our open mic poets were their usual amazing selves with newcomers and regulars providing a level of poetry that is consistently impressive. Stacey started us off with Journey's historic path of Family and Time, 'paced out from our foreign bodies' and Marjorie told us of Dali and of Tulips 'aware of their mortality'; David channeled Micky Flannagan and Del Boy and Chris Goode called on Sisyphus to question the punishment of the Gods; Peter W made the audience chuckle with the idea of a 'Easter Bunny Hunt' where the hunters are in camouflage and toting guns! Pip gave us the War of the Roses.

Our Mr John's challenge this month was 'What Taxes You' and the omnipresence of Mr Trump made itself apparent to much hilarity - he always makes a reliable muse!

Our second half was treated to a little background about 'Fantastic Henry' who stole the stage - and the mic! Mr John himself treated us to his poetry on the flight of 4U9525 where the 'dark workings of his [the pilot's] mind' was explored amid the 'glints of sun and wafts of cloud' Andy B gave us a clever view of a cough that 'the wind could drag across a car park' and a coffin that was 30,000 tons of concrete! He also reminded us of how those precious 'Super 8 film feeds through the projector from reel to reel' so evocative of yesteryear and the way it's easy to lose those clips and snippets when '60 years slip away' Mark D gave us a 'goddess of the night' and Zara read of an 'Ancient Land' 'lush and green', with 'fertile valleys and river bank', 'creatures wild and free', 'gorges wide and deep' ; Newcomer Jazzy Poet read from memory - always an impressive feat - a powerful delivery: 'cut through stop, stop stop, go, go, go'!' . Dorian with a beautifully crafted poem told us in 'Little Wing' , 'they convinced me I was so beautifully purposed' and in his poem 'Claire de Lune', we were transported, to a 'solitary return to poetry' with 'melodious brush stroke' ; Mike gave us a 'Part Time Poet' 'like the sign of the times, the good poet tries not to tell lies' and Mike L finished our evening with a touching poem on depression; 'I'm taking the pills, I do as I'm told' and then ended with a rendition of a song from the musical 'Oliver' that scrutinised the Labour Cabinet! A wonderful satire to end!

Do Join us next month on the 13th May for Robin Houghton as Guest Poet and a fantastic evening of thoughtful poetical skills and word mastery.

A few of our April poetic stars