ZOOMING IN JANUARY 2023 WITH THE 1000 MONKEYS – HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We enjoyed a great start to 2023 on the first Tuesday of the new year. Altogether, 17 poets read their work — we're posting videos of some of their poems here.

​ Audrey Audern-Jones reminded us what visits to the cinema were like back in the 1950s and 60s, celebrated migrating birds and read a 'Testament' to the famous Ukrainean poet Shevchenko; Peter Kennedy had a German story, a cormorant flying over the house, and had achieved top billing as a singer in his local. Gerald Killingworth explored the words for water, colours and gave voices to stones; Rod Whitworth read 'Country' and three poems for his father (including 'Demobbed' which won second prize in our competition in 2021).

Timothy Adès read his translation of Thèophile Gautier's 'Symphony in White Major' and Anthony Watts read three Christmas poems. Heather Moulson explained why she hated school trips and a friend who could shed tears at will, and Ray Pool took us to listen to Sibelius, travel to Wales on a train, and create a 'New Year Revolution'. Joan Michelson had a true story of the difficulty a refugee from Ukraine had getting her harp to England for a Christmas concert (it travelled all over Europe). Julia Duke addressed Augustus John on the subject of his portrait of Lady Ottaline Morrell, Richard Carpenter was furious with capitalists' lack of care for the Earth and the poorer people in it. Ranald Barnicot read his translation of a poem by Catullus. Dennis Tomlinson told us a story of 'The Old Rectory' — with a chilling ending. Finally, Peter Taylor remembered a 'Moonwatch'.

You can see some of their poems in the video clips below, along with Dónall's introductory poems.

So it was another 80 minutes of good poetry and we'll do it all again on 7th February — only different, of course. Subscribe to our newsletter and email us back if you'd like to be informed of the Zoom link each month — and let us know if you would like to read a poem or two on 7th February 2023.