I have had the most amazing weekend - it has been Armed Forces Week here and at the Gala Dinner on Friday I spoke with many veterans and would like to say a special "Hello" to our new-found friends from the East Coast of England and from Wales - some of whom you will see on the photos here with the reigning Miss Blackpool 2012 - the lovely Kim Brathwaite. How I came to be a fan of the Miss Blackpool Beauty Pageant is another story! Incidentally, the Final of Miss Blackpool 2013 is on 16th August 2013 - to find out more check out their website www.missblackpool2013.co.uk (with thanks to photographer Howard Barton for the website.)
Both photos at the Gala Dinner by Paul Breeze - in the second photo along with a gentleman from Wales and Kim is Miss Blackpool organiser Karen Cookson from Angels Elite Modelling Agency.
I am always on the lookout for poets I have missed so far, so if any of you know of any please let me know so that I may add them to my list and hopefully include them in an exhibition. I think it would be lovely to include some Welsh language poems too. I'm also looking for poems in Gaelic and Scottish and indeed any in dialects.
I also spent time this weekend chatting via Facebook with Sara Wong Tze Yain from America, John Seriot from Norway and Sally McBride from New Zealand who are teachers/university lecturers involved in teaching First World War Poetry. They have been extremely inspirational and it has opened my eyes to realise that, for instance, if you are a student in Brunei (Hello to all of you working hard on your assignments in Brunei, especially those at the Aberystwyth University there) you will interpret the war poets in a different manner than someone who lives in Birkenhead on the Wirral where Wilfred Owen was brought up and educated. I am looking forward very much to moving a cross-continent exchange on this subject forward and thank you all for replying to my messages.
Lucy
30th June 2013
