I'm returning tonight to the poetry event where I first dared to read my poems.

Lewes Arms, Lewes

I've been asked to read at a poetry event tonight just round the corner from my house here in Lewes, UK. The splendidly anarchic Lewes Poetry is having its 7th Anniversary celebration upstairs at my local pub, the Lewes Arms where I first dared to read my poetry at my first Lewes Poetry event in 2009 when I was still recovering from a major illness. I'd been told that it would have an open mic element so I went along, after much persuasion, with my little file of poems only to find that the open mic part had been cancelled because the evening was so full of invited poets including the much admired Lewes poet, John Agard, later to win the Queen's Medal for poetry.

John Agard receiving his medal from an unusually amused Queen

I thought I'd run away when I heard this, after-all, I'd only been writing poetry for less than a year even though I'd been lucky to get some published in various journals,  but the organisers saw that I'd brought my poems so decided to fit me in. Several expletives passed through my head when I heard I was to follow John Agard, who incidentally, was quite brilliant. Actually, hearing this man's wonderful delivery, forced me to drop my inhibitions and to 'go for it.'  Well, I survived and have been back to the events several times since.

Poet John Agard reading at Lewes Poetry at the Lewes Arms with a very nervous Wolfie in the corner.

I've been rewriting a lot of those early poems recently so it seems appropriate to re-read some of them tonight as a gesture of appreciation to Lewes Poetry and all those nice folk who were so encouraging then to an unknown, brain-damaged and stammering poet wannabe. It would have been so easy to have put me off for life.

I'm not sure who else is reading tonight but it is always fun so come along if you can.

Why the 19th of January is the beginning of 2015 for this particular writer.

I know it isn't January the First today - let me look, ah yes, it's the 19th, well that'll do.  It feels like the beginning of the new year so give me some slack here, OK. It's 2015 which, for me, is worth celebrating mainly because it's not 2014. If I'm to remain optimistic about 2015, I've decided it should begin today rather than on the more mathematically correct date.

On New Year's Eve 2014, I was perfectly prepared to celebrate until a fever over-took me and sent me to bed shivering, my teeth chattering, in a relapse from an unpleasant condition that had begun in November and that has only really left me, I hope, in the last couple of days. I don't see why we can't invent our own diaries, calendars and schedules and, even if I can't persuade you all to see today as the beginning of the new year, then I intend to go ahead anyway.

It's not just a health thing. Last Monday I finished and sent off to Ward Wood Publishing, the fifth draft of my second novel, Still Notes, Still Frames, which will be published later this year. I'm sure there will be more tweaks and adjustments but it is, in reality, finished until the ever vigilant Adele Ward of Ward Wood comes up with her usual insightful comments. As far as my brain is concerned though, the bulk of the work is done and it can relax into other duties like mostly concentrating on my new novel that is now a quarter through its first draft. Thinking two novels at the same time has been a hazardous occupation so my brain and I are celebrating 2015 in the spirit of ring out the old and ring in the new.

Feeling less cluttered mentally, and much better physically,  has encouraged me to establish new working practices and a new rhythm to my daily life here in Lewes, UK.  I know you've all done your New Year stuff - made and already broken your resolutions, got over your hangovers, decided to give up that diet or that frail attempt at spending January on the wagon but, yes, give me some slack here everyone.

My resolutions centre around finding more space in my life, seeing a bit more blue sky, settling into a fitness regime that suits my schedule, getting this daily blog back up and running now that it is entering its 7th year and, a difficult one this, staying healthy.

Wish me luck because I'll need it. It might be registering very cold here today on the poncey South-East England thermometer but the sun is shining and I can't detect any physical ailment so far this morning, so optimism reigns, Happy New 2015.

My Haiku poem becomes a film - a little one - and I'm delighted.

I was very happy to see a fine new animated film, Haiku, by my friend, the talented American composer and film-maker, Tim Risher (aka Joseph Nussbaum).  It was exciting that it was based on one of my poems, Haiku. It's terrific when poetry, music and film come together like this. This is the second of my poems to be made into a film but, in the nature of Haiku, this one's only short so give me a moment of your time and take a look - it's wonderful:




See the other poem film, Sortie, also with music by Tim Risher, directed by Boris Twist - there's a link in the left column on this page.