Callander Poetry Weekend 2006
The Year of the Banquet

Dear Sally & Ian,

The weekend in Callander this year was one of the best celebrations of poetry I've ever had the pleasure of attending.

What a talented crowd of poets assembled in one place for one purpose - to share in the joy of words and what they can do. What good readers they made, what attentive and supportive audiences they were, what efforts they made to project their ideas to their listeners. Hugely impressive, but all on a very natural scale, thanks to the atmosphere that you've created.

Good company, renewing friendships, seemingly limitless hospitality, stimulating discussions in your garden, shop and home - this is a unique festival which we all cherish. Thank you.

Thank you too for providing nourishment for the body as well as the mind throughout the weekend. Carla's banquet was super (and thanks also to Jane for the sushi), but you kept us going all the time with all the other goodies you laid on.

On a personal note, thank you for the two launches of Sushi & Chips in the Lowlands and Highlands. You know how much I love the book, and that's down to you and Ian. You've given it a great send-off. Finally, thank you for a present which means so much to me - the inspirational Hiroshige print is going to be put up in our hallway - away from direct sunlight as Ian advised.

Colin

Dear Colin. It was a lovely weekend. I didn't think it could be better than last year but it was despite the rain. I appreciate Sally and Ian's hard work and hospitality and Carla's food too. It was lovely to meet all the interesting people again and some new friends too. My stay with Elizabeth was lovely, she and her husband made me very welcome .The poetry was great and it would be dificult to pick out my favorites but I did enjoy Pauline's
amusing and quirky poems about life as she saw it. The discussion on Greek and Latin was enlightening on Sunday morning too and the Haiku walk was very thought provoking. I will send my examples (see below). Thanks again to everyone involved. Best wishes Sally J

A very good weekend. Best yet. Please can I have Carla's address...
Richard Livermore

Thanks again for your efforts to make the Callander poetry festival such a success.
Colin Dewar


Congratulations
A very successful weekend, it seemed to cohere particularly well. The Classics session seemed to be particularly good value as everyone had something to say. It occurs to me that some other time there might be an equally good response to a discussion about the contemporary use of the sonnet  (ie the fourteen line poem not just the classical Shakespearean/Miltonian)  I think I remarked to you before, there have been a good number of 14 liners in Poetry Scotland.

Spent night at Gullane and back here Monday evening to welcoming puss-cattery.
Have a good rest.
Ian Blake


Dear Sally,
                 It was a splendid festival, and your hospitality was wonderful. Many thanks... The joint seminar on Classics... I thought worked remarkably well, and threw up all sorts of things I was not expecting.
regards to Ian,
Fred Beake

Thanks again for inviting me to take part in what was a very good and varied poetry reading. It's events such as yours
that keep the heartbeat of reading live poetry very much beating.

Douglas W Gray
Aberdeen


Dear Sally and Ian,
Thank you again for a marvellous week-end. The banquet, the poetry, the people, and your wonderful hospitality all made it an unforgettable occasion. I particularly enjoyed the discussion on Greek and Latin. It could be interesting to maybe do some more of that, with selected topics led by someone on a certain theme? I felt that exploring the 'roots' of our literature was particularly relevant, but other topics could also be interesting. I'd be happy to talk on eg French literature or Albanian literature, sometime.
Anyway, thanks again, so much,
with love,
Morelle

I am still fizzing after the weekend. I remembered stuff I didn't know I had forgotten (and apparently forgot a lot of stuff I used
to know, like how to spell!). Everyone will talk about Carla's
banquet, I should think, and about the Latin and Greek and Arabic. I have a poem in my head which begins with Colin's humming bowl and says 'resounding' for about twenty lines.
Thank you for everything, for the hospitality, for the work of organising and inviting everyone, for keeping it all clean and
friendly - everyone says there is nothing like this anywhere else. Rowena and Eileen would like us all do start similar stuff in our own areas, and Morelle says why can't we do a sort of summer school on the lines of the classics discussion?
This is not meant to incite you to more work, but to show how inspiring Poetry in the Garden is.
Seriously, I would seriously consider hiring our village hall for a day in the summer (lots of local accommodation in the uni
halls of residence, not to mention good trains etc) to hold a summer school, finishing with a garden party, if anyone really wanted to follow this up, and there were people who would lead discussions. I would think more of the sort of pooling ideas thing we did, rather than anything strictly educational, and poets, not just academics. Or would that be overkill? Our hall is cheap to hire, so it would still be viable if it were rather small.

Thanks again, to you and Ian
love Elizabeth (Rimmer)


Hi Sally just wanted to say a great big thanks to you and Ian for all that you did to make the festival special, I thoroughly enjoyed taking part once again...Eileen Carney Hulme.



Dear Sally

Just a quick note to thank you and Ian for all the trouble you took, once again, to make the Callander weekend such a success, as I judge it must have been by how Saturday went. Despite the weather, it was a really good day. You both make people feel so welcome and it was a great opportunity to meet old friends and make new ones. Robert Ritchie's was star performance in the afternoon, but all of the readings were of a high standard and of such variety that my attention was held throughout the day.
Roll on the next one (though at the moment I should think you just want to put your feet up)! 

Anne Clarke (A.C. Clarke)

Poems, haiku etc from the weekend

Haiku walk with Colin

grey clouds
pierced by steeple
rainfall.


sun dial
no shadows
dark times.


still waters
like black mirrors
reflect trees.

Sally James

 

Fish kiss meets ripples –
scientific diagrams
sketching the river.

Teith ripples converge
with lime tree, wrinkling bark
at the right angle.

Rowena M Love

 

Sixteen writers
discuss Classics -
Highland rain

Colin Will

 

Robin hopped about
Looked for a few crumbs to spare
But he gave me hope. 

Silver birch ripples
watery reflections shake
Bedroom under the sea.

Placed boulders in gravel
Grey slate slants serpentinesque
No solar sundial.

Three albino ducks
straight trunks skim the water
Everything moving.

Lucinda Carey
(note: two other poems by Lucinda are on the Open Mouse page)