Hay Festival!

The sun is out, the marquees are thronging, the bookshops are primed and there’s a real buzz about the town. Yes, the vibe is unmistakable, it’s Hay Festival time again!

Hay Writers’ Circle is extremely grateful to the Hay Festival for it’s continued, unwavering support of our writing group and the amazing opportunity it gives us to share some of our recent writings with the festival crowd.

We have a growing number of talented authors in our group and those performing at this year’s festival will be showcasing a variety of exciting new works including short stories, poetry and extracts from newly published books. We are positive you will want to be there to enjoy their stirring creations. Check out our programme of readings below.

Event number 230 – Wednesday 31st May 8.30pm.

CLICK HERE to book your ticket for our event from the Hay Festival box office.

To listen to a selection of our previous performances, why not subscribe to Hay Player and get access to a catalogue of audio and video recordings from Hay Festival.

Prize Winning Poems

Following on from our last article concerning the Hay Writers’ Circle Poetry Competition 2023 Winners, we are delighted to showcase the 2nd and 3rd placed poems.

The winning poem, “Spine” by Helen Smith can be read here – SPINE.

Second Prize went to “Brasserie Depuis Ma Fenêtre (From My Window)” by Jon Magidsohn

Our Judge, Alex Josephy wrote, “A clever idea, sustained throughout with inventive wit. This has made me smile every time I’ve read it. The poem nicely oversteps its own constraints here and there, in a way that enhances it – list poems can become too predictable, but his one does not.
The descriptive details are very well observed, and it’s laced with little verbal jokes.
I especially like  the ‘sun’s rays over a closed-loop carpet’, ‘rising moon pie’ and ‘crumbling parapet.’
Each stanza is rhythmic in a slightly different way, so it reads very well aloud (I tried!) and the phrasal and line-length variety are well-judged. There is plenty of subtle word music to enjoy too – ‘Bicycle commuter with a side of Lycra’ is an enviable line.
There’s a slight lack of consistency in the punctuation of each stanza heading – i couldn’t find a good reason for this.
Perhaps it does not go far beyond description and word joy, but the succession of small telling details adds up to a vibrant portrait of a place, and of an observer’s point of view. It reminds me of the way we watched the world from windows during the pandemic.”

Brasserie Depuis Ma Fenêtre (From My Window) by Jon Magidsohn

Starters

Robin’s breath, with chirps and fluttering
Young spring leaves sprouted overnight
Speeding Vauxhall running late
Chatty mums with school run offspring
Bicycle commuter with a side of Lycra
Snow flakes
Carl takes the bins out, toast in hand


Lunch

Postman’s parcel in parchment
Sun’s rays over a closed-loop carpet
New spots on double-glazing
Neighbour’s birch through the woodchipper
Roofers on a break
Electric scooter avoiding speed humps
Twenty minutes of silent stillness
Barking dog told off on pavement
Delivery van, double-parked with hazard lights


Dinner Entrées

Shepherd’s delight with red skies
Smoked chimney pots on skyline
Terraced Victorian home with kerb appeal
Cat on the sill
Hand-in-hand stroll, squeaky shoes and long shadows
Gloaming with cloud cover
Whispers in a darkened doorway
The usual with evening essence


Dessert

Rising moon pie
Ice cream wagon playing ‘Popeye the Sailor’
Crumbling parapet
Curtains drawn

Third Prize was attained by Ange Grunsell, with her entry, “Twilight“.

Alex Josephy wrote of this poem, “Very evocative of a time and place. I like the opening invitation to walk with the narrator, and the gentle feeding in of description. Heat and texture are conveyed particularly well – the ‘buckled blue metal’ contrasting with ‘warm mud walls’  and the ’furrowed’,  ‘gritty track’ (are there slightly too many descriptors here though?)
The move to light humour in stanza two lifts the poem’s tone, and the warm evening companionship in stanza three gives the walk a sense of destination.
There are a few anomalies in the punctuation.
I especially like the way this poem ends on an air of slight mystery. Who is it star-gazing? Not knowing who the ‘solitary figure’ is, the reader can identify with them. Watching the stars, we are subtly drawn back to the idea of space travel, but in a more personal way.”

Twilight by Ange Grunsell

Leave the yard of the house
on the corner where the town begins.
Open the tall gate of buckled blue metal,
step out into the evening between the warm mud walls
onto the gritty track furrowed by Bedford trucks.
July 1969.
They say someone has walked on the moon,
American lie.

The posse of donkey riders
bring their loads of dura and grass to market before sunset
then hammer out of town again:
the evening cowboys of the street
legs straight out on either side
flip flops swing perilously on the end of their toes.
The donkeys’ thin legs flick along in a mass.

The dust cloud settles
Groups of boys and men sit tightly packed in circles
on the warm sand beyond the Ahmedir
swapping gossip telling jokes

A solitary white figure stretches out flat on the sand road
Gazing at the stars.

Congratulations to our three prize winners pictured below, Helen Smith, Jon Magidsohn and Ange Grunsell.

As something to look forward to, the Highly Commended poem by Mark Bayliss will feature in our next article.

In the mean time we hope to see you at our Hay Festival performance on Wednesday 31st May 8.30pm at the Hwyl Stage. We may be vying with comedian Tom Allen, but who’s to say our readings won’t be as entertaining!