Poetry and Harps

 It looks like 22nd October will be busy with good things.

Yesterday, I popped into the Tourist Information Bureau to buy a ticket for Harpland, a concert at St Mary's Church.  It starts at 7pm and features harpist Ruth Wall and composer Graham Fitkin - the tickets are £12.50 each, and £6.25 for the under 25s.  The music is based on old Gaelic tunes found in bagpipe and fiddle books, and will be played on Ruth Walls three harps, the Renaissance bray harp, Scottish Clarsach and Scottish lever harp.  I adore harp music, and the clarsach in particular, so I'm really looking forward to this.  Graham Fitkin will also be talking about the stories of migration related to the music, especially the Highland Clearances.

And in the afternoon of the same day, at 3pm, the Poetry Bookshop is hosting an afternoon with Brian Bilston, who is on tour promoting his new book Days Like These, with a poem for every day of the year.  I've seen some of Brian Bilston's poems come up on Twitter (or possibly Facebook), and enjoyed the humour of them.  Here's a taste from The Cost of Loving:

I love you more than life itself

but I swear I'll love you better

if you let me turn the heating off

and you wear another sweater.....

I won't be able to go, though, because it seems that tickets have already sold out, at £5 each or £20 with a copy of the book.  The Poetry Bookshop has partnered with the Globe for the event, and it seems they will need the extra space!