Last Sunday, a group of poets, including me, met in Grantchester to celebrate CB1 poetry. This reading series was created by Jenni Tucker, who died at the beginning of the year. Those gathering included people who’d not been near the event since the millennium.
It was a convivial meet up of poets who originally collected together for readings in Cambridge 30 years ago.
I bought some of my books, and some corrupt press books, along with me for swaps, and I came back with a nice handful of books new to me. I have a lot of new poetry to read. I had intended to read some on the journey to and from Luxembourg, but, well, events conspired….
Because it was Cambridge, there had to be some bizarre serendipity. I got chatting to someone in the cake queue, who turned out to have translated old Ethiopian and Eritrean poetry, important religious works from their middle ages (presuming I understood his description correctly). I persuaded him to introduce himself to our group.
Not by coincidence, I suspect, there was a meeting of CB1 that evening, which included a rather good reading by Ellen Renton. I went along and read my own and Kit Fryatt’s poems for Jenni. The translated poems were read, and proved rather interesting. Otherwise, it was a typical CB1 meeting, with typical CB1 content. I enjoyed myself, although I had to rush back to London after the first half. I miss events like this.
It was great to see some faces I’d not seen for decades, again.