News
2025:
Words Underground
Our first event in March went very well. The 'Nuns' Passage' - a cellar below the 'King Alfred's Kitchen cafe in Shaftesbury - is not huge, but we were pleased to fill it with what turned out to be an appreciative audience. Excellent readings from Robin Walter & Catherine Simmonds, & some strong open-mike readings in between, made for a very enjoyable 2 hours. Our second event took place in June and also went well, with slightly fewer in the audience but enough to encourage continuation. Robin Walter MC'd & featured readers were myself & Virginia Astley. I read a selection of poems from the years I've been writing, and Virginia from her fairly recent collection (The English River published by Bloodaxe) and other works. Several of her poems were accompanied delightfully by her daughter Florence on harp. A memorable reading. A third session took place on September 5th (see flyer below) with excellent readings from both of our guests. We hope to be back with two more guest poets in January 2026.
Shaftesbury Fringe
At the Shaftesbury Fringe in July, the largest & busiest so far, I gave two performances. First at the Grosvenor Arms Hotel Assembly Room on Friday July 18th, and secondly in the aforementioned 'Nuns' Passage' venue on Saturday 19th. Both featured a surrealism themed set, under the title : Richard Foreman Gets Out of His Box. Strongly featured were examples from a series of short prose pieces I've been producing this year titled Urban Disturbances - each introducing a dreamlike element into mundane, urban settings - along with a Wilful Misunderstandings story (Encounters) & a bunch of extraordinary poems featuring different takes on the theme. Here's the flyer, which - due to the proverbial circumstances beyond control - I had to complete in a hurry. hence a little flawed.
What Else?
Not a lot just yet but click on the link to the 2024 archive page for some of the ongoing stuff. I got well wrapped up with the Tears in the Fence Poetry Festival which took place over the 19th to the 21st September. As usual, I was running the bookstall & threw in an open reading. The theme was 'Connections', the line-up formidable & the grub on Saturday was pretty good too. My reading consisted of a poem on the theme (Outburst), some pieces from a recent workshop on minimalism & one of the pieces I'm building up for what I hope will be a booklet collection, the aforementioned Urban Disturbances.
Not much progress, I'm afraid with finding publishers for my work, with two notable exceptions. I've had a poem (human scale) accepted by the prestigious Acumen magazine, which is now available in the September issue (https://acumen-poetry.co.uk/). This after two or three years of sending them material, with occasional encouraging words from editor Danielle Hope. The other notable exception is Southlight magazine, issue 38 which is about to appear at the time I'm updating this - early October. They've accepted 2 poems, The Shadow Wife & Confession, a pair of which I'm particularly proud.
