Before we moved back to the UK, friends would ask us what our plans were on our return. Paul's were straightforward: to get back into agency. Mine were rather more vague: I wanted to spend time reading up on a variety of topics - the history of religion; psychology and the development of consciousness in evolution; cognitive neuroscience - in order to try and make some sense of the world we're living in. In fact, as matters have worked out I find myself more or less back where I was when we left the UK in 2005: writing poetry.
Poetry is big in the UK. "Poetry News", which comes out four times a year, receives 3000 submissions a year, of which it publishes 150. The annual National Poetry Competition, run by the Poetry Society, received 8000 entries last year. The Poetry Society runs the Poetry Café in London; the Poetry Library on the South Bank is well-frequented; and throughout the country there are groups and individuals poring over verse.
Some months ago I joined two groups: one in Hastings and another in Brighton. Both meet monthly. The Hastings group brings together people who read what they have written on a theme given out the month before. The Brighton group - one of the Stanza groups run as local presences of the Poetry Society - operates as a workshop: each person brings along something they have written and the others present give their comments. You need to be able to make constructive comments and take criticism yourself. I find it incredibly useful.
It's curious to find that I took up, almost seamlessly, from where I left off in the spring of 2005. I'd done little writing in France: the demands of the agency absorbed most of my energy. Now I'm back, everything seems to have fallen quietly into place. The other day I discovered that my study window looks onto the house of a neighbour who runs a small poetry press. It all seems part of the curious serendipity of this surprising town.
Antony Mair
