On Friday night I had the pleasure of attending the launch
of my friend Deborah Harvey’s first
book of poetry, Communion.
Look, it was a long time ago! |
I went to the University of Lancaster with Debbie, much
longer ago than either of us would care to remember. It's probably fair to say that poetry was less a feature of our friendship then than, say, drinking beer out of plastic Viking axes. We kind of lost touch
after we left, as this was back in the day, before the advent of social
networking. However, thanks to Facebook, I found Debbie again about 18 months
ago, and it turned out she was living back in the place where she grew up, less than a mile
from where I was working!
Writing has always been a passion of mine, but I had allowed
myself to lapse into a void of creative inactivity, so it was wonderful when
Debbie invited me to join the local writers’ group that she attended, led by Kate Dunn. It was at these groups
that I discovered Debbie’s remarkable talent for poetry. At the group meetings,
we often read out our work for the others to critique. Although I don’t feel particularly
qualified to do so, I can usually find some minor suggestion for improvement or constructive
criticism when the others present their material. (They find a lot more room for improvement when I
read out mine!) But when Debbie reads, she is more often than not met with
awe-struck silence. Not just from me but from the whole group.
There is clearly
a lot of passion in her work. Her poetry comes from the heart, and whether you
hear it spoken or read it from the page, you can immediately relate to a
windswept Dartmoor, a character from Bristol’s turbulent past or an emotionally
charged episode from Debbie’s own life. But there is more than passion to her
poetry. Technically it is quite brilliant too. Structures, rhythms and rhymes
are all crafted to perfection. And Debbie is clearly a lover of words. Not a
word is wasted. Every word is carefully chosen for its meaning, sound and
shape, and many an arcane word that we believed to be long-forgotten, has been
resurrected on Debbie’s pages.
So it came as no surprise to anyone in the group when Debbie
announced she had got her (first, of many) book of poems published. And it was
a privilege to be there at the launch at Halo
on Gloucester Road on Friday night. In a room full of family, friends and
fellow writers, Debbie, and a number of guest readers, read poems from her book
Communion, and local singer-songwriter Reg
Meuross provided appropriately toned musical interludes. The warmth and intimacy
of the event were entirely fitting, and I’m sure Debbie enjoyed her well-deserved night in the spotlight as much as we did.
'Communion' is published by Indigo Dreams, and is available from the following sites:
2 comments:
Shucks ... :-)
You're right- it was a brilliant night
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