'Rave Reviews'

Goodness, me, it has been a jolly month! In the end Amina couldn't make it to Radikal Words at the Tyneside Cinema, so I stepped in so as not to let that nice Jeffrey Price down.
The audience were quite appreciative which was nice as I had written some new poems specially for the occasion - a trionelle and a villanette. The latter was rather difficult, so I patterned it somewhat on a poem by Dylan Thomas. I am sticking to what I know - writing mainly about Jimmy the goldfish and Herbert, my cat, but at the same time I am exploring life's eternal verities.

The women's night at the Cumberland Arms was also most enjoyable, although the audience there was really rather rowdy - quite a different class of people. It is quite hard to get them to settle down and listen - they behave a little like school children. Nonetheless I had splendid reviews, one of which I am putting here.

Howls of laughter and tumultuous applause greeted the poetry reading of
Marjorie Pickering at the Cumberland Arms last night.
The variety of poetic forms she uses and the deep simplicity of her
subjects - life, death, love and goldfish are impressive.
Her audience were heard to remark 'I bloody wet meself' and 'Eeeeeeeee I was
fair crying' and 'Marjorie, you HAVE to write more Haiku'.
Marjorie herself said later, 'The audience were very unruly. They will
keep giggling when I'm trying to read. But they do seem to like my work'.

Rumours that she has been invited to have a one-woman show at the Edinburgh Festival are unconfirmed.

Time is Marching on

How droll.... Marching on - it's March. Yes, of course you understood that. Well it's a busy month because last week there were all kinds of celebrations for International Women's Day. I suppose I could think of myself as an International woman since I have lived abroad for nearly half my life.

But this month there are all kinds of poetry events - Amina has been invited to take part in Radikal Words at the Tyneside Cinema tomorrow. I hope she makes it - she has been a little sad just recently. But I suppose it will blow over.

I am taking part in the Women's special Take Ten at the Cumberland Arms on March 24, which is really jolly exciting. Originally they had invited Amina, but - and I'm a little hestiant to say this, after hearing me at a workshop Poetry Jack insisted that I come myself.

Of course Amina was a bit hurt, but what can I do if my genius begins to shine through? Golly, I hope I don't sound conceited - I certainly don't mean to be. After all, I am but a beginner on life's poetic path and have so much to learn.

I was happy to hear some nice people from Scotland praising my hero William McGonagall on Facebook last week. They said he was one of the original stand-up poets, which I suppose he was, if you don't count people who wrote in Latin or Greek - or Sanskrit... or Chinese...