Book Launch at the Poetry Bookshop

While other people were thinking about Bonfire Night, I popped round the corner to the Poetry Bookshop for the launch of Land-Music/Black Mountains by Ruth Bidgood.
It's a double sided book that meets in the middle, and contains poems about the local area. The newer ones are under the title Land-Music, and the rest, Black Mountains, are chosen from a body of work that spans forty four years.
The Poetry Bookshop was full for the readings, with Ruth Bidgood enthroned in one corner. Introductions were made by the lady from Cinammon Press, who published the book, and then she read three poems, to a room in rapt silence, followed by more from two other readers. Along the way, she mentioned the Eppynt, Blanche Parry the nursemaid of Elizabeth I, Thomas Treherne the mystic priest - and her friend talked about a day out when they had a picnic in what they thought was a churchyard, gradually realising that it was, in fact, a private garden - but they were invited into the converted little church, and a lovely poem about the juxtaposition of old monuments with a modern kitchen was the result.
It was a very enjoyable evening, and I was very pleased to have such a pleasant introduction to a poet who was new to me.