Morecambe Poetry Festival

Lovely little write up in Write Out Loud.

Question: 'What do you think of it so far?' Answer: 'Absolutely amazing!' | Write Out Loud Question: 'What do you think of it so far?' Answer: 'Absolutely amazing!'

Tomorrow, recorded at Morecambe Winter Gardens last week as part of our festival.
With Mike Harding, Henry Normal, Donna Ashworth and The Lovely Eggs.

BBC Radio 4 - Loose Ends, 28/09/2024 Nihal Arthanayake and guests at the Morecambe Poetry Festival.

Big shout out to our newest top fans! 💎 Lee Nelson, Chris Nortley, Charlie Hart, Arthur Peter Chappell, Trystan Lewis, Sarah L Dixon, Kevin Brown, Aaron Wright, Darron Baxter, Jane Sharp, Kate Hook, Ann Grant, Geraldine Snape, Jeremy Fish, Peter Devonald

Love the poetry, fans

Really wonderful venue and people. Our sister organisation, end players are a partner. We look forward to many more amazing collaborations ❤️

“We may only get one life but we get to live it as different versions of ourselves.”

(This may be a long read but I think it is for you.))

The Morecambe poetry festival was just wonderful And so many of you wished me well, that I thought I’d share my journal thoughts with you…

Firstly, to be invited was a real welcome into a community I didn’t feel a part of. Turns out, they are warm, inclusive, funny and real. An absolute mile away from the highbrow literary gatekeepers I have encountered along the way. The poetry ‘community’ that exists on our streets and in our entertainment venues consists of real people releasing their creativity in the way that feels right. No bar set. All welcome. What a thing. As aware (as we are here), that each creative piece is incomparable, as with all things of natural beauty.

I met Pam Ayres! A moment! She was warm and welcoming as you would very well imagine and her advice to me was to not let them know you are nervous…oops, I said. I do that every time 😂. But actually, she is right of course, in this setting… a theatre stage, bright lights - you can’t see audience faces or connect, so the only thing to do is to channel your source and perform from the heart. Which I did. It felt very special, as though energy was rushing from the crowd, through my whole body and back out again. It is an exchange, this thing.

It was a personal triumph for me because until the evening before I had mistakenly thought my event was an ‘in conversation with’ Alastair McGowan! I had no clue I was doing an hour’s performance on my own. Don’t ask me how I missed this but I did. Looking back I think it was meant. Knowing I had that waiting at the end of my busy week’s book tour may have had me overwhelmed and stressed out.
In fact, the previous me would have panicked to discover this information so close to the event but the new version of me has faith. She trusts in this process and herself and she has learned to GO WITH THE FLOW much more.

I woke up on the day and calmly learned my lines watching the busy beach full of weekend worshippers and remembered every word. My word for the year, faith, and my word for last year, brave… helped me endlessly there.

I met Alastair McGowan whose poetry is as funny as he is and yet deep, enquiring, sentimental and profound. He put on an electric performance I must say. Henry Normal is my new favourite human. He took me under his wing, understanding my rookie status, and made me feel that I ‘could’. His shows are a clever and feel-good funny rollercoaster - of what it is to be human, I could watch him all night.

I also met and watched perform the winners of the poetry competition I judged. I had no idea who it was and was given no info on who wrote what, so it was lovely to see the owners and hear it performed live. They were amazing.

Lastly, I spent three nights on my balcony overlooking the sea which did me the world of good (I was full of a cold) and allowed me to people-watch and ‘life-watch’, till the cows came home (the only thing I didn’t see on that beach was cows actually 😂).

All in all my book tour has been wonderful. I have met so many of you and received so much feedback. I have felt your joy and your pain and I now have many faces put to names. Some of you brought energies with you that came from somewhere else and each of these encounters brings much my way. It takes me time to process but the result is always something we can all use.

I now consider myself to be a performer… what a thing! I can do this. And I hope you can read my words here, think of my journey with you all and see how you have done the same - or are about to.

I would not have believed a word of it three years ago…

We may only get one life but we get to live it as different versions of ourselves and that, to me, is exciting.

And fear, she is only there to keep you safe. She never really wanted to stop you.

Maria Shriver included me in her Sunday newspaper article yesterday. She wrote that her friend Steven Petrow had recommended Growing brave to her because it reminds him of her favourite poet, Mary Oliver (mine too) - and she finished her paragraph with Mary’s famous quote:

“Tell me what it is you plan do with this one wild and precious life?”

So shall leave you here with this thought…

Tell me what it is you plan to do with this CHAPTER of your one wild and precious life… because to me, that is the key. We are constantly rising, ever-growing and relentlessly regenerating.

What a Thing.

Donna

Xx

Thank you to Richard Davis for this photo

(Also, Growing Brave mad the Sunday Times list again - thank you all!)

The lovely Donna Ashworth and me at Morecambe photographed by Richard Davis from the top of the Midland Hotel. Donna true to her poetry showed great bravery in playing the Morecambe Winter Gardens to a full house doing a longer show than she’d ever performed before. She stormed it and although she’s already the best selling poet in the country she sold a ton of books after the show.

A poem by the wonderful Attila the Stockbroker

MORECAMBE BAY

I stand and watch the tide come in:
The tide come in at Morecambe Bay.
The fastest one I’ve ever seen.
I think back to the fateful day
When Chinese cocklers in a gang
Lost in an unfamiliar town
Were stranded on these shifting sands
By profiteers who let them drown.

At Southwick, tides are calm and sure.
Familiar rock pools slowly fill.
A lugworm cast sandcastle falls.
I find it fascinating still.
But every coast has different ways.
They didn’t know, and so they died.
So mighty in its mystery.
Respect the sea. Respect the tide.

Pam Ayres, Alistair McGowan and me backstage at Morecambe Winter Gardens tonight. What a great festival this is. Also watched and met Donna Ashworth, Robin Ince, Tony Walsh, Ian McMillan, Atilla the Stockbroker and Raymond Antrobus. Recorded a set as part of the BBc Radio show The Verb. Lemn Sissay is on at Winter Gardens tomorrow!

It was brilliant gigging with Mike Harding last night at the Morecambe Poetry Festival. Thank you to everyone who came along and thanks to Richard Davis for this great photo.