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Friday
July 17th 7.30 pm
Our
poetry and prose evening on the theme of The Call
of the Wild on Friday 17th July 2009 will touch
on Darwin and on others that have answered the call
to study wild nature, both at home and in distant
parts of the world. The evening is about their
experiences, but it is also about the poets that
have taken wild nature as their inspiration. Included
will be Ann Cluysenaar’s poetry about Alfred Russel
Wallace, the Welshman who corresponded with Darwin
and came up with the idea of natural selection independently.
Other
writers whose work will be read include Kathleen
Jamie, Alice Oswald, Edward Thomas, Shelley, Dafydd
ap Gwilym (in translation), Christine Evans, Ted
Hughes and R. S. Thomas. As usual Carol Ann
Duffy and Wendy Cope will help us to keep a sense
of perspective.
Huw
Jenkins will read from his new book Not Just a Pretty
Place: Survival in Snowdonia. Huw is an explorer
and story-teller who has thrown himself into Snowdonia
life. In addition to his writing he broadcasts for
BBC Radio Wales and has appeared on TV programmes
including My Secret Wales. As it happens Huw
went to Darwin’s old school in Shrewsbury. We
look forward to this addition to our panel of readers
and hope that he will feel encouraged to return
in the future.
Organized by: William
Welstead
Review
Bill Welstead directed The Call of the Wild, a very
wide ranging collection of pieces all of which related to the natural
world in one way or another.
Opening
on a local note, Bill read Ruth Padel’s poem Barmouth and between
them Bill and Moira Welstead, Ruth Nicholls, and John Bond read
works by no less than seventeen poets, with John reading Mij the
Otter from Gavin Maxwell’s Ring of Bright Water.
The
programme also included readings by Huw Jenkins of his own works:
Following in the Footsteps of Darwin; Seeking the Snowdon Lily;
On the Trail of the Lonesome Pine; and Confused Bat.
This
year being the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin
added further poignancy to the theme of the evening.
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