I left Beeston last summer to move back to the south coast in Eastbourne, but I have kept in touch with some of the wonderful people I met at Middle Street Resource Centre. I went there originally because I had heard of the Poetry Group that meets on a Monday and was struggling because of ill health and depression. The sessions soon became a highlight of my week.
Bridget Dowling, who has been a longstanding member and lovely friend kept in contact with me after I left, and when lockdown came into effect, we both realised how so many of the Poetry Group might be struggling without the weekly contact point on a Monday. With the original idea suggested by poet April Reigns perhaps we could all contribute something by text or email? The idea was born and after two short lines from me kicking it off we have had weekly ‘get togethers’ with a growing number of participants, many regulars, some new poets and some like me past friends who wanted to contribute to the collective verse. There is now enough material perhaps for a book! But whatever the outcome it livens up the week for us all and Bridget sends round verses by email/text and does phone catchups with some of the poets, opening up another avenue of communication.
Middle Street Centre is a fully accessible, single storey community hub at the heart of Beeston next to the bus/tram stops. The Centre hosts the vital Mindset charity, providing huge support for those with varying issues affecting their mental health. It has a wonderful restful garden with volunteers producing plants and produce, walking group, music, arts and crafts and a thriving Café alongside rooms for hire for outside groups and links to help study and therapy and engaging in Wellbeing and recovery opportunities. Originally set up by the wonderful Steve Plowright it shows that the Middle Street Poetry Group goes from strength to strength despite everything the world might throw at it!
Phone lines remain open during the week for support – 0115 925 2516 and for more information or perhaps to give a donation to this charity please check out https://beestoncommunityresource.wordpress.com I look forward to hearing of the day when Middle Street’s doors physically open once more for everyone.
PHILIPA COUGHLAN
________________
SITTING IN MY GARDEN (Tom Machin)
Bee’s buzzing
Birds flitting by
Sitting in my garden
Underneath the blue sky
Nature does not stop
Even though there is
A virus spreading round
It will be summertime soon
It’s wonderful to be alive
You must count your blessings
For a better day
With all this sadness
Gone away.
______________
Seeds (Laura Slack)
Feeling frustrated
Worried and scared
I thought I was ready
Fully prepared
–
It took me by surprise
That I do know
What happens next?
What issues will follow?
–
It makes you think back
To what led you here
The path you once tread
Anticipating no fear.
–
That moment has arrived
The outcome is unknown
Uncertainty is my shell
My seeds have been sown.
___________________
The Lockdown Beard (Will Juckes)
This solitude enforced
Is sweet to the taste
Too bitter the company of man
They don’t do what they should
Speak what does no good
They mock you and deride you
They’ll f*** you if they can
With their economic growth.
–
This seclusion splendid
Is speaking to my soul
Yet only for a season
I seek for company above
Life is naught compared to love
Hearts, minds, heaven, earth
Changing now. New reason
New faith, new hope.
–
When the isolation’s ended
Will we be any more free?
A microcosm of the world, my home
Where private thoughts aren’t private
Silence isn’t quiet
And the toilet isn’t clean
And when will world peace come
When we agree we’ve got enough.
–
The lockdown beard is longer now
Things really had to change
Now the growth’s not economic it’s facial
In life, in death from end to source
God is God. Nature takes its course
Love endures, patient, kind
In full awareness spatial
The voyage has been rough
–
This ship of fools is saved
The beard has been shaved.