Storytime

Another year rolls on and another year of poetry in the Dandenongs. Last Sunday we had the first Poetry in the Hills for 2017. Held in the Belgrave Library, it is a great place to share your work. Sing a song...recite your poem....read a piece of memoir...play the ukelele.  Yes we have it all. As usual it was a great mix of work. Some memoir, the majority poetry, even a performance as a poet had memorised her poem. Always a winner in my book. The poetry was wide ranging. From political to observations of every day. One poet wrote a piece for his wife to celebrate 30 years together...she heard it first at the gig. There were pieces on mental illness, on trying to find peace in the chaos of the world. There were pieces on personal development, on the struggle with relationships, on finding relationships and on keeping relationships. Not only is the work so varied but the readers as well. Some were nervous, others full of confidence, some bristling with indecision....

 On Sunday we had the final Poetry in the Hills for 2016. It has been a huge year and we've had some wonderful writers share their work. I'm not going to say poets because we have more than that...we've had singers and musicians, prose writers and essayists, memoir writers and novelists, bush poets and people-who-just-want-to-get-up-there-and-rant. Not only did we have the final gig for the year, we also had a feature poet and the launch (well one of her launches) of her poetry collection. We had the one of a kind Yvette Stubbs launching her collection Barbed Wire Kisses.  She is having a launch at the Dan O'connell on Saturday 3rd December for those wanting to get a hold of this fantastic work. Yvette is a born entertainer and has the great ability of holding the audience in the palm of her hand. She made us laugh out loud, then made us cringe....she made us smile... then squirm as we were witness to pain and loss. The last even for the year is also ...

For years, almost ten I believe, Alex ran Poetry in the Hut. The Hut Gallery in Ferntree Gully was a good venue...close to public transport...easy parking. There was no feature reader but an open stage, five minutes with the proviso of not using the F or C word. (If you are a good writer you don't need them). Then of course there was the afternoon tea provided by the ladies from the gallery. Times move on and so do venues. The venue changed and now we have... Poetry in the Hills is held in the Belgrave Library. $5 entry...2 pm start...usually with some musical entertainment and refreshments afterwards. It is a very warm and welcoming environment. Some old and familiar faces, some new faces. What I love the most is the variety of performances. Yes it is called Poetry in the Hills, but we always get so much more. Songs, musicians, memoir, short story. On Sunday we had some great musical treats- one young girl (a newcomer) stunned us all with her amazing voice and...