Yes Paul, it was only my second performance and I appreciate your encouragement. Gemma did good,the day was a success and I enjoyed our session. My thanks to all who took part. I was greatly inspired by the afternoon
and set pen to paper.

Words of wisdom,
words of power.
Words that may bore you
hour by hour.
Words that trip
fast of the tongue.
Words that haunt you
like a song.
Words that hurt
and open wounds.
Words without meaning
tuneless tunes.
Cutting, stinging,
without feeling.
Bitter words that
leave you reeling.
Words of guidance
give you strength
Help you swim
that extra length.

Shout it ,say it, sing it, feel it.
Write it down and then perform it.
Poetry spoken, lifts me from the crowd;
And all because of Write Out Loud.

Val Cook 2007

Val,
Me and Abi and Gaye are working on something for Black history month and are theme is going to slavery I wondered if you were interested in joining us, (It's for the writing website we help to run for socially excluded people www.ourvoices.org.uk
you might want to check this out before committing, if you are interested go to my profile and email me.
Magi
Like your poem by the way - we should put together a booklet of all the WOL poems for publicity purposes.

Well done Gemma and to all of you I'm gutted I missed Moxy performing. boo hoo. xx

Paul if the pens are nice - you could do a marketing ploy with them - give people a pen when you give them a leaflet - as a way of getting them into writing:

The pen is mightier than the sword
come and join us, see how powerful you are
have a bash at being a bard
you may even become a Write Out Loud STAR!

Litabury Festival
A mixed day for all ages and styles with many poets new to me, and some making their outright debut. The day being a constructive stepping stone for performance poetry in general. I cannot remember every name but I loved the line about the acoustic belly button, quite unusual poetry, Gemma was impressive as usual with a good all round performance.
Write out Loud gave their usual polished performance with Paul Blackburn as both compere and poet, Scott Devon danced words to delight and Bill Brierley became increasingly mobile. A good day all round for cementing relations between poets, both old and new. Well done Gemma and all concerned.
Don Parry 29th July 2007

What a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon this was - immensely good natured and positive, all thanks to Gemma's hard work and warm heart. Everyone shone. My dad, who normally hates poetry, came home very impressed having enjoyed the story telling, the poetry, and the music. However, he thought I came over as 'raving bonkers.'

Dads who'd have em - wasn't that the plan Moxy?

A MASSIVE thanks to all who came/ volunteered/ performed etc!

It was pretty daunting and I was worried that no one would turn up but it all seemed to come together in the end with about 200-300 visitors throughout the day and loads of great feedback.

Superb performances as usual from everyone. Scott has two new HUGE fans who were waxing lyrical about Dancing Boy once he'd gone and it was such a treat to watch Moxy, her poetry is hilarious and an absolutely lovely woman to boot. I'm glad her dad won a prize too! It was also great to finally see Tabitha perform after knowing her so long. Bill and Don were fab as usual as were the newcomers, (hopefully we will see/ hear them again soon at other WOL events). My Dad especially liked 'Steak Boy' as he is now known!

Thanks Paul for comparing the poetry and giving the first bit over to my Dad for his storytelling which was really funny and the kids and adults both really seemed to enjoy it.

I totally agree with Paul about the signage, my main problem with that was a total lack of funding. All the prizes, food etc. were donations and sadly I couldn't find anyone to donate a big banner to put on the front of the church. For next year I'm gonna apply for funding so fingers crossed for that.

Thanks again everyone and I will leave you with a poem that is made up from lines that various different visitors on the day wrote:

It was too hard to write about
Nothing at the time
Not even myself
I almost wished it was me
A shadow of someone else
A sombre day in old Bury town
Where I happened upon a poem
The sweet sound of fear itself
Sing softly to me
Under our umbrellas
The spitting stops
Hearts and moods and skies
Happy to unhappy
Trance to dance to trance again
My heart beats faster
Give me a mirror
I see and will see
Just a human recognising faces
They stop and turn
They always seemed happy every time
Brown hair
Brown eyes
White teeth
And insides that don’t agree
I grew up to play football
Now I’m 36
I’m still playing football
I wanna be the wannabe
David Beckham that never was

p.s. there's a write-up in the Bury Times on Thursday. Can't guarantee it will be factual or that I won't be quoted as saying stuff I never said but should be good anyhoo!

Well done Gemma,
Sounds like your day was a massive success!
xxx

thanks maggie, hopefully see you and your girls next year!

Yeah definitely love, my girls are away - buggered off to have fun without me, they come back today - hooray!
I was gonna come but was scared of getting lost - our Courtney is the Sat Nav I can't find my way out of a door marked EXIT.Lol
Hope the Bury times are good to you and the event. You should be very proud of yourself from what I hear.
Magi
xxx

http://s64.photobucket.com/albums/h189/peedlenud/?action=view&current=paperarticle.jpg

That's the article from the Bury Times. As usual, wrote what they wanted and went for a really random photo!

Gemma,
It's a lovely photo and I thought quite a good write up.

Im sorry I could not support the event, congratulations on your work with this project.

I hope its alright if I quote some of the stuff you've all written here on my funding application for next time, if its not please let me know. Thanks.

Here's loads of pictures of the poetry open floor and the rest of the day, taken by my mum :) - go to my myspace (address below), click on 'view my pics' and then the 'LitaBury' album.
www.myspace.com/freebie_junkie