at the end of the week I was a bit surprised and then terrified to find myself on BBC Radio 3s The verb – ‘cabaret of the word’ hosted by Ian McMillan talking about The Poetry Exchange. As you know – the project invites people to come and talk about a poem that’s been a friend to them and then we create a reading/recording of their chosen poem inspired by the conversation. We’re adding a new layer to this, writing poems in response to the conversation and the poem that the visitor brings with them – stupidly I mentioned this to the producer and so ended up reading my own poem as part of the programme. I wanted them to concentrate more on the voices of the visitors as this is the heart of the project for me but once the cat was out of the bag I had to go through with it! Anyway, you can hear me talking about the project, a snippet of one of the exchanges and the reading and then me reading the poem I created in response. The episode is available on their podcast – all the guests were great and there is some lovely music too but if you did just want to hear the poetry exchange ‘bit’ it comes about 31 minutes into the programme.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06xyqr9
meanwhile, its really our podcast that gives a fuller picture of the work, you can hear it here:
Fiona, I listened to the Radio 3 show on iplayer and thought your bit was fab. I loved the person talking about the Moth poem and your response poem was wonderful, very moving. I thought you ‘responded’ sensitively and very wisely. Well done. What a worthwhile project, you should be proud. How talented you are. Well done!
Yes, well done, Fiona. A really impressive project – and a really impressive performance by you on The Verb!
sarah and Jonathan – thank you so much for listening and for these generous words.
ooooooh – how slick is that!
yes – space – distance – sometimes we are looking for a friend like that – like when you have something serious to tell but you don’t want to tell your mum so you tell the person in the bus queue first
lovely way to express how relevant poetry is – and not just amongst poets
Fab! As Sarah D says, it’s lovely to hear people talking about poems as something special in their lives. I’ve been enjoying listening to the reasons people give on the podcasts. A superb project!
I’ve just listened to the programme Fiona. Fantastic, I loved it. The whole programme was really interesting and it was good to hear poetry being discussed in such a eloquent, thoughtful and intelligent manner. What a wonderful project to be involved in.
hello all – thank you so much for taking the time to listen to the prog and for your warm words of encouragement about how it came across. if you’ve only listened to the Verb and want to give the podcast a go, you can get to them via The Poetry Exchange website (see previous post). Monday evening was such a great meeting – loved all the poems and the laughter too. Wonderful.