'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...

Out and About

Well, what a jolly month we are having. Of course, you know February is LGBT History month - delightful that there is so much choice these days. It wasn't that way when I was a gel - I mean some people were that way, but we didn't actually talk about it.

I had a surprise appearance at the comedy night at Trent House at the beginning of the month. Well, it was quite a surprise to me as I thought I was supposed to be part of a string quartet playing at the Sage, but ended up all by myself at the Trent. Never mind, we had lots of fun and I think I even made some new fans.

Anyway, tomorrow I'm off to Scratch Club 2 where artists gather to rehearse new work and get feedback from their fellows rather than from the microphones. I didn't manage to go to the first one as my alter-ego decided she was going, but this time it's my turn.

Jimmy, my dear goldfish (photo on previous entry) is doing well after suffering a cold and a touch of fin-cramp. Thank goodness for homeopathic medicine!

Well I must dash off and pen another masterpiece in time for tomorrow. - Oh, I have been invited to take part in a local radio show called Celestial Navigation, which is frightfully exciting. No date set yet, but I'll let you know.

Cheery Bye!

Hello, I'm Marjorie

Hello everyone, I'm Marjorie Pickering. Last year I came back to England after living in Amsterdam for rather a long time. My husband Jack was working there. I'm not sure exactly what he does as it's sort of classified. I mean, that's the way he describes it.

Anyway, while we lived in Amsterdam I was on my own quite a lot, so I took a number of evening classses - Madrigal singing, Medieval History, Yoga, Pottery and Creative Writing. It was this last class that launched me on my career as a poet.

We were always told to write about what we know so I started out writing, mainly about my little cat Herbert and Jimmy the Goldfish.

this is Jimmy. Herbert was hiding somewhere. Maybe I will be able to show you a photo of him later.

Here are my first two ever poems:

My Little Cat Herbert

Oh Herbert, how furry you are

I wish you hadn't got squashed by a car

Dear Herbert, how furry you were

How sad you don't purr

any murr (more)

Jimmy the Goldfish

Splish, splash I see you swim

My lovely, shiny, fishy Jim.

What a pity I introduced you to Herbert.

Well, that is quite a long time ago now - I have written lots and lots more poems since then. Now that I live in England I have been able to sign up for writing courses at the William MacGonagall School of Poetry and even perform on stage sometimes! I like to experiment with different forms, from Haiku to Sonnet, Villanelle and many more.

I will share more of my poems in the next blog and I hope I will build up what they call a 'fan base' and get even more people coming to my poetry readings.

It's all frightfully jolly!