The picaresque and saxophone dappled Carmelite Hotel was the venue for an extraordinary and convivial gathering of 13 poets active in "52" (the on-line poetry workshop initiated by Canal Laureate Jo Bell). They had journeyed from far and wide to share some of each other's responses to weekly writing prompts. It was a wonderful event – three hours of poems, music and goodwill, which reinforced the fact that poetry is in great good health in Scotland. The format, three rounds of a "session style" circle followed by individual performance spots, meant that each poet was able to present a representative sample of their work. Richly diverse in range, topic and style, the work was, as a regional poetry editor commented, "of extraordinarily high standard". The poets, many of them weel kent voices on the Scottish poetry scene, were Colin Will, Sally Evans, Ruth Aylett, Bernard Briggs, Kevin Reid, Lindsay Macgregor, Nikki Robson, Petra Vergunst, Knotbrook Taylor, Maggie Mackay and hosts Haworth Hodgkinson (on voice and recorder) and John Mackie. This was the first time many of them had met "in the flesh" outside the digital community of 52; bonhomie abounded. There were heartfelt musical contributions from singer Ian King and the life enhancing Lammas Brothers and a guest appearance by Aberdeen's doyen Gerard Rochford. All in all a splendid Sunday afternoon topped off by a lightly chilled Chablis and/or a cream tea.

Review by John Mackie

Photo by Kevin Reid

Promoted by	North East Writers
Supported by	Carmelite Hotel 52 Poetry

North East Writers and its partner organisations undertake to produce all events in the New Words festival as advertised, but we can accept no liability for details that are changed due to circumstances beyond our control.