For the first session of our Spring sessions of Afternoon Author events we were delighted to welcome local poet and friend of The Bookery Michael Hartland, who opened his talk inviting the audience to recall a memorable experience from the natural world and to think of a word or phrase to describe this experience. Before proceeding to read extracts from acclaimed poets that have inspired his own poetry Michael explained that he would be building in some moments of silence to allow time for thought and reflection. For his first reading Michael selected a poem about sunrise from the American poet Emily Dickinson and then read his own sunrise poem from his collection of poems in Devon A Light. The afternoon proceeded with Michael reading poems from other poets including Thomas Hardy’s The Darkling Thrush illustrating that even within the desolate world of winter that a thrush can burst onto the scene to bring hope and the sense there are things that the bird knows that he doesn’t. Michael went on to read extracts from the beautiful William Wordsworth poem Lives Written in Early Spring and Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich.

Michael explained how after moving to Dartmoor having previously lived in London that he was so struck by the silence of Dartmoor at night. He explained how long walks across Dartmoor had inspired some of the poems in The Joy of Creation poems that he also read from selecting poems from different parts of the day or seasons that contrasted with the poems from the poets he featured during his talk. In responding to questions from the audience he explained his process for writing and how and when he feels the need to compile a set of poems into a collection. Michael concluded the afternoon with a further period of reflection before signing copies of his poetry collections.

We thank all our customers who joined us on the afternoon and to Michael for sharing his poems and providing us with such a calm and reflective afternoon of poetry.

Michael’s online poetry blogs  https://lif4gd.home.blog/ and https://floweringpoverello.wordpress.com/ have had over 75,000 views from over 130 different countries.  ‘Devon A Light’ is a celebration of nature in both classic English poetry and his own work, in particular The Joy of Creation, and Devon A Light.  The latter, which has been inspired by nature in our beautiful county was published especially for this event.

Michael studied English Literature at Cambridge and is now a volunteer at The Bookery, helping to spread the love of reading through our local secondary schools. He lives in Morchard Bishop.