CLARE BEST'S POETRY LAUNCH

Back in December 2008 I listened to local poet Clare Best reading her work at the Needlewriters quarterly spoken word event in Lewes. I was moved, and w rote somewhat emotionally about her work, HERE on the blog. her bio back then mentioned a residency she had done, on an organic farm called Woodlands, in Lincolnshire.

Woodlands Farm is a 690 hectare mixed organic farm on the fertile Lincolnshire fens in an area known as South Holland. Situated five miles south-east of Boston the farm consists of level silt fields which were reclaimed from the sea by the monks of Crowland Abbey some nine hundred years ago. This is a landscape of wide-open skies and colossal skies – 'all sky and geometry' the poet John Clare once said.

How marvellous - a poem in your organic veg box each week!
Tonight was the launch of that collection of poems, published by Happenstance in a beautiful chapbook - Treasure Ground. A great evening - in the company of other poets - Judith Kazantzis, who I worked aith for a while. Catherine Smith, whose wonderful chapter on Myth and the Imagination in the short story graces Short Circuit. And Janet Sutherland, whose collection Hangman's Acre I am still marvelling over.
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And another publication for me today, three more strange and tiny flashes from the forthcoming collection - Fruit Fly, Cuttlefish and Lacewing - can now be found on a terrific placemat distributed to cafes bistros and coffee shops in a few states in the USA! Loquacious Placemat can be found HERE.