Posts Tagged ‘poets’

I joined Poet in the City as a volunteer I think last September because I liked what they were about, and wanted to get more involved in the poetry scene. Then in December I agreed to manage an event for them – Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, which is finally taking place next Monday 7th March (and for which I am trying not to be nervous about). And also help with social media side by tweeting regularly.

This week has been pretty crazy in preparation for it, mostly dissecting the many emails I’m getting from various people and responding to them in the best way possible. Along which I had to also write a blog post for the event, which I’ve done and was published earlier today as Does Spenser’s Faerie Queene speak to today? at Poet in the City’s blog. (more…)

Fernando Pessoa was a Portuguese poet who I found fascinating, not least because I think he had some sort of multiple identity disorder, but also due to his profound and sometimes humorous writing. Pessoa wrote under many identities, each very different characters to others, only one of them being a woman. I was introduced to him at my first attendance of an event organised by Poet in the City and City of London Festival, a formal affair very unlike the intimate dynamic atmosphere I am used to at Poets’ Corner (more on that in another post).

It was a privilege to hear the first speaker, Richard Zenith, as he had translated most of Pessoa’s work for Penguin Publishers. Zenith spoke with a passion conveying his intimate knowledge of Pessoa’s life, in a way that made me feel I knew the poet personally. However, if I took my eyes off Zenith to (more…)