It's September 2023, the world has lived through a pandemic and come out the other side, and it feels like Swindon could do with a little poetry.
Poetry Swindon used to organise monthly open mic poetry nights, an annual poetry festival and more. While it lost a lot of momentum when some key players moved away and others got busy, it had been struggling before then with dwindling numbers at events.
The temptation is to try and revive what we previously had but that doesn't feel like the right thing to do. At the same time, it feels important to acknowledge the history of Poetry Swindon and all of the great people that have been involved with it over the years.
In my mind, it would be amazing to gather Swindon poetry lovers again, whether they're interested in reading poetry, listening to poetry, writing poetry or all of these things. From there, I dream of having regular meetings, an active online poetry presence, and maybe a publication or two.
That all feels a lot further down the line though. In the first instance, it is my hope to find a friendly venue where like minded people can come together, and see what shape things take from there.
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