Enfield has long nurtured poets starting with Henry VIII. On October 1st this year 53 poets came together to voice their poems in 8 minutes slots between 10am and 7pm. It was the brainchild of Enfield poet Maggie Butt
and organised by her and fellow poet Cheryl Moskowitz
Not only was it an exciting and vigorous day it finished on time! An impressive feat of organisation; formidable. It was held in the Dugdale Art Centre and a large part of the success of the project was due to the help and support given by both management and staff. The readings took place in the toy and games museum and in one of the photos you can see “scrabble” which was, for a long time,made in Enfield. The Centre is a good venue for poetry and Enfield Poets , who are poets in residence at the Dugdale, meet in one of the rooms on the first floor.
Getting ready to start.
The aim was to raise money for Enfield Refugee Welcome to enable a refugee family settle in Enfield. The original target of £4,500 – enough to settle one family – was quickly reached and the second target of £9,000 was then over taken and I am sure more than £15,000 will be raised. The money was channelled through the Just Giving web site which will be open until December 2017.
Here is the list of poets in the running order:
and a few of the poets: Valerie Darville, Danielle Hope, Mario Petrucci and George Szirtes.
The whole event was filmed by Ken Sabbarton, a marathon in itself. Nine hours of video would be too much so here is the video clip of my session. I fluffed the last verse of When There Were Gods. If you want to read the poem please click here.
