Dawn Gorman believes poetry should be everywhere - puts it on beermats, uses it to
work with people with memory loss, facilitates writing workshops, organises poetry
events and runs international poetry competitions. She is widely published, and has
performed in New York, Paris, London - and lots of smaller places in between.

“Poetry isn't a profession, it's a way of life. It's an empty basket;
you put your life into it and make something out of that.” Mary Oliver

Stephen Daniels

Guest Poet: Stephen Daniels

Stephen Daniels is the editor of Amaryllis Poetry and Strange Poetry websites. His poetry has been published in numerous magazines and websites. His debut pamphlet Tell Mistakes I Love Them was published in 2017 by V. Press. Find out more at www.stephenkirkdaniels.com

Hazel Hammond

Guest Poet: Hazel Hammond

Hazel Hammond has written and performed her poetry extensively since moving to Bristol about 13 years ago. She has published Needlepoint, a collection on tattoos and their stories, toured a performance, knitting herself into a cocoon, shared a stage and promoted an open mic night with Andi Langford Woods in the North, Dublin, and in Italy. She is now working on a new project, based on memory, grief and loss, called Marietta's Wardrobe. This will culminate in an exhibition in Bristol in 2018.

Dru Marland

Guest Poet: Dru Marland

Dru Marland is a poet and illustrator who lives on a narrowboat on the Kennet and Avon canal, which is a good place to be if you like wildlife. Drawn Chorus, an alphabet of birds in poems and pictures, is her first collection.

28th December 2017, The Swan Hotel, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire BA15 1LN

"If I didn't have family, I wouldn't have any poems" said guest poet Stephen Daniels at Words & Ears last night - I think many of us can identify with that (I most certainly can!). He treated us not only to poems from Tell Mistakes I Love Them, but also intriguing 'macro social commentary' ones from his next-to-be pamphlet - looking forward to that a lot. Also guest poeting were Hazel Hammond and Dru Marland. I hadn't seen Hazel's Marietta's Wardrobe collection before - what a fab way to present poems, in notelet-esque form, in a little folder - wardrobe-like, indeed, but also intriguing enough, I think, to encourage non-poets to buy a copy! Loved hearing the poems come to life - and can't wait for the related exhibition in Bristol in the spring. Long-standing Words & Ears poet Dru, meanwhile, was inspiring and funny in her unravelling of her bird alphabet from Drawn Chorus. Lots of positive feedback coming in about that today - and again, another collection with definite potential to win over fans from the non-poetry-reading folk out there.
Thanks to everyone who came along - in spite of the weather, time of year and seasonal sniffles, there was good crowd, including lots of new faces. Thanks to all the 'ears', open mic poems from Chaucer Cameron, Anna-May Laugher, Deborah Harvey, Martin Davis, Olivia Tuck, Iris Anne Lewis, John Powell, B Anne Adriaens, Sam Loveless and Mark Sayers, and the unexpected songs from Anne Gregson.